[Jeepform] DOUBT, a Jeepform Narrative LARP

[Moreno R.]

Hi, Frank!

I second what Claudia said about playing "Doubt": it's really much more difficult to explain than playing it.  We began to play after a short rules debriefing no more than 30 minurtes long, I think, and without having the time to read the manual (Lorenzo, the GM, was the only one who had read it). We made some errors, we forgot a stage play scene, and we didn't remember some of the techniques we could use, but the scenario is very robust and didn't suffer from this. Don't worry about playing it "perfectly".

The only two possible problems that I can foresee are about privacy and player's proactivity.  In order:

1) Privacy: the players should be free to play a love story without any embarassment. I think that to be able to play it without embarassment or "stage fright", it needs to be played in a friendly and relaxed athmosfere. If at a con or in a club, in a room without passer-by or too much noise (but this really depends on the players. I know people who could play it on a stage in front of an audience of hundreds, and other people who wouldn't be able to play it if watched by anyone other than the other players). Remember the players that they can "veil" the parts they don't want to act, and should do only the things they want to do without having to prove anything.

2) player's proactivity: This shouldn't be a problem if you play it with people already used to narrativistic games, or people used to create background on the fly for ther characters. Really, I think that the play procedure make improvisation really simple. But in other, different freeform games, I have seen some problem with people too used to "ask the gm" for everything they can do. I think players like these will avoid this game anyway so it shouldn't be a real problem.

About the GM's job, in "Doubt" he was both the director and the audience, and yes, he doesn't play characters, but it isn't so in every Jeepform: in "The Upgrade" Tobias and Frederick played the two co-host of the reality show, and they were very active in the game. And this, I think, made "The Upgrade" a much more difficult game for the GMs..

So, don't be intimidated. I hope to read your "Doubt" actual play really soon!