FOC here,
LARP is one of my major pastimes and I think when it’s good it is some of the most intense and satisfying roleplaying you can get. That said I am beginning to feel a sense of dissatisfaction with the LARP environment and I am beginning to realise that what I want to play simply does not exist.
An explanation, I only play fantasy LARP. Modern day and Sci Fi LARP’s don’t get my interest and besides they would cost a lot of moolah in new kit. So everything I say here pertains to fantasy LARP.
There are a lot of different LARP systems out there. Now I dislike the big systems. I find that the big systems are an excuse to wander into a field, set up a tent and then sit there for 90% of the event doing nothing. It’s majorly dull. Plus I loathe being anonymous at an event and in a group of hundreds you just get lost. You don’t feel special at a big event, you just feel like a drone.
So a game of about 20-50 players and a decent amount of crew is what I’m looking for. I want a game world that’s fully developed with distinctive regions and countries. I want to be able to develop plans and goals through downtime submissions. I want a coherent and established ongoing plot which ties into every event run and can be influenced and even changed by the actions of the players. That said I don’t want the plot to be exclusively player driven, if I am paying for an event I want a plot goddamn it!
All of that that I think is not difficult to achieve. But there is one thing I want my game to have which I think no LARP organisation can or will do.
I want it to end.
My serious issue with LARP games is that they just run and run with no clear goal in mind. Each event tends to be self contained with little or no reference to an ongoing plot. LARP events feel like comics in that they just meander along with no ultimate goal in mind. People turn up, play a game, enjoy themselves and then leave again. Characters just go on and on without purpose, plots are quickly forgotten and there is no sense of overarching world events.
A self contained campaign that lasted a finite amount of time would change that. Each game would advance the plot. Enemies would be familiar, people’s goals would be consistent and we would lose the meandering nature of LARP. I feel that this campaign style would enliven LARP and give people a more memorable experience. A good ending can be a great roleplaying experience and that is sorely lacking in LARP.
Of course that will never happen because it's in the vested interest of a LARP organisation to keep running events. Thus every LARP system potters along without any real sense of unity or urgency until someone runs off with all the money or something similar.
A proper LARP campaign with a beginning, middle and end would be great. I doubt this will ever happen but I would love to see it done.
Your thoughts as always are welcome
Your resident plot monkey
Fall of Camelot
Hmm, an interesting one.
ReplyDeleteHaving played & reffed in a few larps that did have a finite lifespan, I can't say I think an ending is a good thing.
There's various reasons for this. The first big one is that it's pretty much impossible to give everybody endings that they'll like for their characters, so you'll always get a good proportion of the group disliking how things turned out.
The second, slightly related, is a serious drop in interest as things progress. People dying within a year of the end tend not to create a new character because they don't see the point for a relatively small number of remaining games, and even people who don't die quite often lose interest as they realise that their own plans will be cut off soon.
I think the best ending I've seen was probably Omega, which was entirely due to the fact it was unexpected - someone pressed the big red button, the world went bang the same event, people either escaped or not.
LARP seems in that way to be the opposite to tabletop - the less build up to an obvious ending in LARP the more likely it is you'll still have a big enough playerbase at the end to make it a decent finish.
Having never played in a game like this I bow to your superior experience.
ReplyDeleteMaybe something in between then? Maybe I want a more obvious world plot in the games I play? Maybe in fact I want an end for a character. One last glorious hurrah? Rather than the current situation which seems to be "play it til you are bored..."
That's something to be said for that. I will investigate possibilities.
(damn 503 error ate my post)
ReplyDeleteGames like that do exist but by their nature, they're more difficult to find because they tend to be more exclusive. Company Of Crimson and Britannia Rex come to mind.
I have two solutions to this. Firstly, try to play or crew a more diverse range of larps. Many people use other larps to cherry pick for their games, looking for suitable players. As crew, you get a lot of opportunity to talk to people behind the scenes about larp in general.
Secondly, as the old saying goes, you always end up running the games you want to play in 8)
Given your background in Creative Management, you've already got what is probably the most important skill to run a larp, that being organisation.
I bet that if you ran a game that met your ideal format, it would attract like minded players who in all likelihood, will know of similar games.
This touches on creative vs consumer culture in larp, though that's probably a topic for another day 8 )
Whilst I'd love to put my own spin on a LARP system I just can't do it. I barely have enough time for my own commitments as it is. The same can be said for checking out other LARP's.
ReplyDeleteLove to don't have the time.