Dust to Dust: How not to do Dune

[erithromycin]

There's a discussion over in Sorceror about running Dune, and that brought back memories of an attempt to run a Dune LARP in my local gaming community. A bitter saga it is indeed.

The pitch was great. Taking the admirable implied backstory, and fifteen players most of whom had read more than the first volume, and many of whom had attempted all of it, an attempt was going to be made to bring a CHOAM group to Arrakis to decide what was to be done with the Spice Franchise, which was now to be taken from the Harkonnens. Basically, this was going to be the live-action setup to an alternate dune, where there were no Atreides but there was still going to be a Kwisatz Haderach. Sort of a reaction to the film, where the themes remained [a little] but elements of the story were changed.

So, those fifteen [and we'll gloss over the problems of getting anyone to do this sort of thing] would provide character backgrounds at a general level [1] and those would be slotted into the bible [2], then these players would recieve briefings based on their individual backstories and circumstances to create the plot.

Then it got complicated. The LARPers this was for are off the Boffer [3] predeliction, so there came a need to accurately reflect the way that Dune utterly destroys conventional fighting. Firearms are, thankfully useless [4], shields won't let you stab [5], and, well, you've got to do it a certain speed.
That last part never got figured out.

As a political game, with 'actual' fighting, there wasn't really much call for system, until medicine was raised. A rather neat fortune system turned up [6], and it was all set.

Then the plot started to get revealed, as, after expressing an interest in playing, I was made a referee and given an NPC [7] and then exposed to the events.

It was going to be a weekender, with five venues including a park, a scene where the GMs girlfriend would emerge from a lake as a Ben Tleilax assassin [8], the players would end up forced to come to a decision, and they would have to deal with a Hunter-Killer that would swoop down at them from the other end of a fishing rod.

Then came another referee, who, like the rest of us, got started LARPing in Vampire. Which is what he wanted to turn it into, and then, then the real fun started.

Suddenly, there was a magic system. Which was odd, because there were no magical characters, indeed, Dune isn't really a magical book, but that's another discussion. What was appropriate was etiquette and manuevering, and all these things that I wish vampire was about but all so often isn't.

Things came to a head when it emerged the second referee didn't want to work with me because I roleplayed 'wrong', I ignored it and he left, unfortunately taking most of the players with him to a Werewolf game, which lasted a session before infighting killed it. Which was a shame.

Any other LARP horror stories? Has anyone else had this much hassle? What works for stopping it?

drew

[1] I did this sort of thing, in these sort of circumstances. It lets you get themes in and put detail around it. I like it. Others might not.
[2] This reached 143 pages of A4.
[3] Sorry. It's a funny word.
[4] Anyone got LARP firearms rules that work?
[5] A godsend when you're using carbon-core wrapped in Latex as it explains it all away neatly.
[6] Coloured pebbles in a bag. It looked cool.
[7] To prevent me from becoming emperor. Honest. :smile:
[8] The GM is also a military completist, so she was going to be under the water in a customised drysuit with a rebreather.

drew

[Mike Holmes]

Personally, (and this might be my military experience showing) I find that a project, any project, often benefits from somebody being the leader. Somebody with final say. While a democratic method may produce more creative results, often the project will never reach completion, or an agreement on execution, unless there is a final arbiter.

It sounds like your LARP suffered from not having clear leadership and goals. You had one idea the other guy had other ideas, and so you each ended up going your own way which split the group. If there had been one person with the authority to say what was law (agreed to by everyone involved), this might have been avoided.

Interestingly, the original meaning of the word Dictator from the Roman republic meant "Speaker", just like we now have a speaker in the US House of Reps. The position was elected temporarily to most efficiently take care of emergencies. Once the Dictator was declared, he spoke for all the senate essentially, and carried all their authority in one voice.

Worked well until Julius Ceaser declared himself Dictator for life.

The point is sometimes a Dictator is less of an evil than not getting the project done at all.

Mike

[Le Joueur]

Mike Holmes wrote:

Personally, (and this might be my military experience showing) I find that a project, any project, often benefits from somebody being the leader. Somebody with final say. While a democratic method may produce more creative results, often the project will never reach completion, or an agreement on execution, unless there is a final arbiter.

It sounds like your LARP suffered from not having clear leadership and goals. You had one idea the other guy had other ideas, and so you each ended up going your own way which split the group. If there had been one person with the authority to say what was law (agreed to by everyone involved), this might have been avoided.

I had similar experiences with a few of the local Live-Action Role-Playing Games.  Based on what I saw in those that worked and in those that hadn't, I had a few radical ideas.

For Scattershot (did I mention it also has a set of Live-Action Role-Playing Game rules?), we separate the traditional role of gamemaster into five different parts for the sake of delegation.  First is the referee, this is the on-the-spot arbiter of player conflicts.  Second is the game's originator(s), this is where the set up comes from, background, mechanics choice, character slots, non-player characters, and the whole shebang.  Third is the 'gamemaster' (I know using this name can be somewhat confusing, but we wanted to stay away from pompous titles like Moderator or Storyteller), who is kept abreast of the major goings on and introduces 'agitation' in areas that are losing the players' interest or becoming overwhelming.  Fourth is site maintenance, basically the 'host' providing location, arrangements, scheduling of the events, 'room' sign-out and logging, prop sign-out (props also include in-game resources that do not necessarily have physical manifestation), check-in & out, and attendance.  Fifth is recruitment and customer service.

Refereeing is required of at least a fifth of the membership (during their 'off-screen time' only) and is a trained position lead by a team leader and overseen by an ethics process.  The most important thing about the game origination is that the process ends totally at the beginning of the game (it is suggested that one of the origination team continue on as gamemaster, but not required).

There is, was, and will be only one gamemaster ever; the intention of the design is to put every possible 'power' or background 'office' into the hands of the players (who are also required to play at least two non-player characters on a continuing basis as well as any 'bit parts' whenever they are not 'on-screen').  This way all conflicts become a matter between players (only a handful of non-player characters are allowed the gamemaster).  The gamemaster introduces new props and new or replacement non-player characters (assigning them as needed) and from this, the props log, and logbook, they can keep some idea how 'things are going' (not something I have seen any group of gamemasters, no matter how small, being capable of, except in well...exceptional circumstances).

Site maintenance is easily handled by a series of volunteers.  Recruitment is handled mostly between sessions and customer service only becomes needed during a session when a referee cannot handle a dispute.

So far, the only problem we have had is recruiting the team necessary to playtest this again. (The first fell apart when I could not find anyone to replace me as gamemaster when my son was born.  Succession planning is important!)  Few people seem to want to do the 'work' involved in orchestrating a game like this and dealing with problems (this is why we stress recruitment).  Part of my limitation has to do with the small amounts of time I have (people want me to be originator and gamemaster) raising two small offspring and creating the game system.

Fang Langford