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.player