[Everway Larp] at Dreamation

[Andrew Morris]

I'm looking forward to a live-action version of Breaking the Ice, anyway.

It's already been done, Graham. I found another player, went on a series of three dates (actually, it's been such fun, we've decided to make it into a campaign), and we gained Attraction and Compatibilities right away. Of course, we didn't use any character sheets or anything, and never rolled dice so....wait a minute, I guess we were just dating, then.

Sorry, I really tried to resist, but I couldn't help myself.

[Emily Care]

: ) Andrew's my first testimonial. Someone else described it as the best way to get another gamer into bed and I guess it works for non-gamers too. I can't make any promises, but I guess it's not out of the realm of reason...

How did the secrets thing work out? I find secrets can be really difficult in LARPs: they either come out too early or they don't come out at all.

The secrets were integral. The ones I had impelled me to take action and connected me to others (e.g. "you believe the king has changed", "you love Piper").  They also weren't "secret" for long.  Info was on other people's sheets about the secrets, so we were encouraged to bring them up. Joshua came to me early on about one of mine (can't recall which), which surprised me, but which strikes me as a very good thing in restrospect.  Secrets should be important things that come up, rather than things to hide, in order for them to have impact on the game.

Although, the player of the king's doppelganger was certainly hiding his secrets in play, which was appropriate. I'm sure it informed his actions, too, though.

best,
Emily

[mneme]

The secrets were integral. The ones I had impelled me to take action and connected me to others (e.g. "you believe the king has changed", "you love Piper").

I knew the latter (that Jade loved Piper) and brought it up early.

I also had some King issues, so Jade and Truefriend had a lot of compatabilty.

They also weren't "secret" for long.  Info was on other people's sheets about the secrets, so we were encouraged to bring them up. Joshua came to me early on about one of mine (can't recall which), which surprised me, but which strikes me as a very good thing in restrospect.  Secrets should be important things that come up, rather than things to hide, in order for them to have impact on the game.

Oh, very much so (and I certainly, um, played mine that way).  The -character- wants to hide their secrets, at least to a greater or lesser degree.  But if they are too successful, the player has less fun, and there isn't OOC knowledge or an everpresent GM to help provide a counterbalance.  So the players have to do a lot of the work themselves.

In Stance sense, the players spend most of their time in Actor stance, but are responsible for retaining enough Director stance to make the game fun for themselves and the others.  However, Writer stance can be actively dangerous, since the flow of information in a LARP is sufficiently slow that you end up with dream-destroying contraditions -- including with other player's creations, not just with the GMs.  (doesn't mean you -shouldn't- make stuff up in LARPs occasionally...but you need to be much more careful).

[Lisa Padol]

Oh, very much so (and I certainly, um, played mine that way).  The -character- wants to hide their secrets, at least to a greater or lesser degree.  But if they are too successful, the player has less fun, and there isn't OOC knowledge or an everpresent GM to help provide a counterbalance.  So the players have to do a lot of the work themselves.

In Stance sense, the players spend most of their time in Actor stance, but are responsible for retaining enough Director stance to make the game fun for themselves and the others.

Yes, exactly. In the Appalachian Wedding larp -- which I do recommend -- there's a whole lot of that. I played one particular character, and when Josh and I helped Ben Llewellyn run it at Columbia, Q played the same character. Both of us knew that the character's big secret absolutely had to come out in blaze of, um, glory. And we both knew without having to be told that it should come out in the last third to quarter of the game, and paced appropriately.

There's another set of characters who share a secret. One terrorizes the other so that the secret won't be revealed. The person playing the victim asked up to please tell the bully to do the terrorizing every 20 minutes, as per the sheet ("You must terrorize this person every 20 minutes or the secret will come out"), not every 3. We explained this to the bully player, explaining that said player was making the game really suck badly for the victim player. The bully player said something to the effect of, "But I've got to! Otherwise, the secret will come out!" We explained that that was indeed the point.

Similarly, in Mike Young's Miskatonic Class Reunion, I made the mistake of trying to avoid someone my character wanted to avoid. It was in character and all that. But, it made the game less fun for me. There should have been a confrontation.

-Lisa