Hi there,

At Gen Con, I got the chance to play Seth Ben Ezra's game A Flower for Mara.  This game is played in the form of an improv play in four or five acts, greatly influenced by Jeep Form. The story takes place just after the death of a woman, Mara, in a family who was important to all the members, in good ways and difficult.  The players act out what happens in the family as everyone tries to come to terms with her loss, what she meant to them and what ways their life and they may now change. 

Who and how
In our game, Seth was the Director (the gm essentially) for seven players: myself, Marc, Dre, David, Dave, Tobias and Steve.  The characters were Mara's parents (played by Steve and Tobias), her brother, sister, husband and child (Dave, David, Steve and Dre).  I played Mara. Not a ghost, but the memories of her in the other characters' minds.  The relationships between the family members and mara broke down along generational lines: the players of the parents each chose a Competitive relationship, the siblings and husband, Devoted, and the child was Bitter.  Seth, they were chosen after they said the word, did you place them based on it, or had you decided already?

Playing Mara was challenging and amazingly fulfilling.  She can speak directly to each character one at a time, when a scene focuses on them. Each Mara is different--reflecting how the character experienced and remembers her. Mara's goal is to be remembered, no matter what. So you can use the characters fears and insecurities, weak spots and warm memories to tie them to her. I said some of the worst things I've ever said in that game. brr.... Hopefully the other players will forgive me some day. :)

Seasons of Grief
The play begins and ends with a speech at the graveside, opening and closing the curtain. Then the first scene took place at the meal following the cermony.  The players were just beginning to firm up the relationships between the family members...but, oh, I forgot something very important. We chose how Mara died as a group, and the group agreed to suicide. 

Yeah. Intense.

The acts are played out in seasons. We watched the father try to break through the mother's intense self-denial and guilt, though the relief he felt at having Mara gone was biting.  Brother and sister struggled with their own grieving, feeling like they were the only ones who loved her: the husband running as hard and as fast from the family and Mara's memory as his feet could take him.  The daughter's struggle to come to grips with the loss were heart-rending. I'll never forget the scene at the grave side where Dre had her travel across the country to say good bye ("my therapist told me I should come here"), which she did--but held on to the flower of her mother's memory even after the scene.

Letting Go
The memory is represented by a real flower that each player holds in their hand until they feel the character is ready to put it down and move on. At the start of the game, each person--director and player of Mara included--write down a real event or memory that they grieve. And when it comes time to put the flower down, they share that grief with the group. They can pass on this, by holding on to the flower, but apparently no one has so far. I started, since I played Mara, and shared a memory of a family member passing and having strife rip through the family afterwards. This reverberated through the game in different ways. 

This was an amazing game. I'd love to play again, as one of the family members. It was intense and stretching emotionally and narratively.  Thanks so much, Seth.

best,
Emily

Thanks for writing this up, Emily!

Emily wrote:
The relationships between the family members and mara broke down along generational lines: the players of the parents each chose a Competitive relationship, the siblings and husband, Devoted, and the child was Bitter.  Seth, they were chosen after they said the word, did you place them based on it, or had you decided already?

Playing Mara was challenging and amazingly fulfilling.  She can speak directly to each character one at a time, when a scene focuses on them. Each Mara is different--reflecting how the character experienced and remembers her. Mara's goal is to be remembered, no matter what. So you can use the characters fears and insecurities, weak spots and warm memories to tie them to her. I said some of the worst things I've ever said in that game. brr.... Hopefully the other players will forgive me some day. :)

Letting Go
The memory is represented by a real flower that each player holds in their hand until they feel the character is ready to put it down and move on. At the start of the game, each person--director and player of Mara included--write down a real event or memory that they grieve. And when it comes time to put the flower down, they share that grief with the group. They can pass on this, by holding on to the flower, but apparently no one has so far. I started, since I played Mara, and shared a memory of a family member passing and having strife rip through the family afterwards. This reverberated through the game in different ways. 

This was an amazing game. I'd love to play again, as one of the family members. It was intense and stretching emotionally and narratively.  Thanks so much, Seth.

I found that laughter was a bit of a defense mechanism- many of the situations were intense, and some of the things said demanded a release (maybe even a scream).  So sometimes I laughed because I was nervous, and sometimes because people were just cracking me up.

I hadn't read anything about Flowers for Mara before the con, so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into.  After we started I thought "damn, this is heavy- do I really want to do this?"  But then I remembered that that's how folks initially react to Grey Ranks as well, and I know from experience how much fun that game can be.  I stuck it out with, and I'm glad I did.

Seth, I think you said elsewhere that you felt a connection with the other players for the rest of the con.  I completely agree.  I only knew a few of the folks there when we started, but I feel like I know all of you much better now.  Special thanks to Emily for doing such a good job playing Mara!

Thanks for hanging in there, Steve. I loved what you brought. Your character was such a contrast with the rest, who kept wrangling with one another. And the parallel that you brought in with having been saved from suicidal thoughts by Mara when you got together made her death all the more ironic. 

Seth, Gabrielle, Raquel and I should form a club (or support group? :). Really it was an intense and fulfilling experience playing her. There was so much material ready at hand, like the scene in the bath tub. I was so glad I could encourage Dave's character not to end it*, since he had chosen to have a "protective" relationship with Mara, that he protected her. I think it was that scene where I said "I"m your guardian angel." And he said, "No, you're not" and laid down the flower.  *chills* In a good way.  I still can't believe I actually nudged some characters towards suicide toward the start of the game. Those and some of the things that I said to Tobias as the Mom and Dre as the daughter still make me shudder. 

[blockquote]I had decided already. The idea is that the assignment of roles and the choice of relationship type are done blindly and simultaneously. That way, the characters are created by a combination of an objective relationship (e.g. father) assigned by the Director and a subjective relationship (e.g. competitive) chosen by the player.[/blockquote]
This is brilliant. The patterns they formed created a terrible and compelling picture of the family in this set up and it would be completely different each and every time. It makes me want to play again all the more.

> As it was, Tobias only relinquished his flower at the very last
> minute, and that almost by accident, it seems. I may be reading
> into his performance here, but I think that he was just playing
> out where the character went, as opposed to actively angling for
> an opportunity to put down his flower.

> Something in particular that came up during that discussion was
> the place of laughter in the game. For all that this was an
> intense game with serious subject material, I also found (once
> again) that the players could actually laugh and enjoy the
> experience without disrespecting the material.

> This is a significant difference from Swedish-style Jeep,
> according to Tobias, where such out-of-character interaction is
> generally frowned upon.

Tobias wrote:
What I didn't want was e.g., people talking about the
previous scenes ("man that was a lot of fun!"), talking crap ("is
there a game on tonight?"), etc. I think I should not have said
out-of-character, but "out-of-game-focus" or something like that.

In the end, this is a personal preference thing. The
out-of-character thing should really be tied to how I see most
forge games (or worse, like D&D and Vampire) is being played --
people discussing the game rather than playing their characters.

Ah, I see what you're saying. I think that this is one of the distinctives of Forge-style, which tends to be comfortable with (some of) these points of divergence.

That being said, I've found that the best model for interacting with the fiction actually comes from Polaris, which had more of an influence on A Flower for Mara than I may have originally realized. At the beginning and end of the game, there are opening and closing ritual acts that separate the gamespace from the rest of life. For Polaris, these are the opening and closing key phrases; in A Flower for Mara, these are the Raising and Lowering of the Curtain. In between these markers, the group is playing the game. As such, the expectation is that they will be focused on the game.

Sure, there can be some excited babble, but it needs to be
audience-oriented (e.g. "Wow, that was a great scene.") and not
"out-of-game" oriented (e.g. "Is there a game on tonight?") 

Sure, you can take care of physical concerns (bathroom breaks,
drink of water, and the like), but you need to move with some
alacrity.

This serves as a point of rest for the group in the middle of the
game, generally at seams in between scenes.

In Polaris, a scene is delineated by another ritual opening and
closing phrase ("And so it was...."); A Flower for Mara doesn't
actually have a formal marker to indicate the shift from one state
to the other.

And that's the rhythm that I see in most of these
games. Out-of-game-->seam-->scene-->seam-->scene--seam-->out-of-game.

So, if I'm understanding you, Tobias, the discussion we're having
is about how to handle those seams. Your preference would be to
keep those seams as short as possible in order to focus time and
energy on the scenes, whereas Forge-style play tends to allow for
a more relaxed approach to the seams. Is this a fair statement of
what we're saying?

I'm discussing all this, because I'm a strong believer in the
power of ritual to assist players in focusing and engaging with
fictional material.

However, a group will be at different levels of engagement
throughout the game, so a designer needs to consider the desired
experience and provide tools to the play group to manage both the
scenes and the seams.

Seth, and who else might be reading:

I can't find the edit button. When I re-read my post, I didn't just see
the spelling errors, but I felt it had a harsh tone at times. That was
not the intention. I like your deconstruction of what we are talking
about, and that made me think about even more things that I perhaps
didn't realise I was thinking of before.

So thanks!

I enjoyed the opening and closing speeches. I was actually going to ask you about that, Seth. I am pagan, so have thought about using a less denominational text when I run the game. Have you had other people talk about modifying that? The words used could well have a strong in-game effect. Hellfire and damnation (which are most decidely *not* in your text) could cause the family to react in a certain way, versus a more crunchy, new-agey version. But then, the primary function of them seems to be to demarcate the fictional (and emotional) space of the game.

It's very interesting, in my book, to see what comes of the hybrid of the Jeep Tradition, focussed-narrativist story-type-games and improv techniques that will likely come from these games being written in America. Diversity of technique is good.

I enjoyed the opening and closing speeches

It's very interesting, in my book, to see what comes of the hybrid of the Jeep Tradition, focussed-narrativist story-type-games and improv techniques that will likely come from these games being written in America. Diversity of technique is good.

The opening and closing speeches are taken directly from The Book of Common Prayer, which is essentially the "traditional" Christian liturgy. So, in a movie, if you hear a portion of a burial service being spoken or a formal marriage ceremony, you're likely hearing something from The Book of Common Prayer. You know, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together today in the sight of God..." That's the marriage service from The Book of Common Prayer.

Anyways, I chose the opening and closing texts for a few reasons.

1) At the beginning, conceptually the players are transforming from "just" being the players to also being the characters. As such, Raising the Curtain is also essentially the burial service, with the family standing at the graveside while Mara is being buried. That's why Mara stands by the grave when the Curtain is Raised: she is being buried.

2) At the end, conceptually the players are laying to rest the Griefs that they have placed at the graveside. If someone is still holding his flower at the end of the play, he gives it to Mara. So, she is standing there as a reminder of the Griefs that were not resolved. So, at the end, when the Director reads "Unto Almighty God we commend the soul of our sister Mara departed...", the referent is now all the things that Mara now stands for: all those griefs that were discussed, all those nasty things that Mara said, all the fictional griefs that the characters addressed (or didn't). When we Lower the Curtain, we leave all of those at the grave, and then we walk away.

3) The formality of the phrases is supposed to add a measure of gravitas to the proceedings. Again, this is like Polaris, where the opening phrase is "Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world." Even when you don't really know what that means, there's a certain emotional weight that is carried by those words. In other words, to quote Emily, "But then, the primary function of them seems to be to demarcate the fictional (and emotional) space of the game." Yes. This.

4) As a Christian, I cannot approach these issues apart from my faith. That includes how I go about the design of the game. I've had a couple of people (Tobias being one of them) discuss alternate options with me. Upon some reflection, I decided to stick with what's there, although I did shorten the reading. (It used to be longer, and you also listened to a piece of music, too!) Something I've learned as a game designer is that people will always hack the game. That doesn't bother me. I view it just like variants or house rules. So, I figure that there will be people out there who will decide to hack the text and change those readings. However, I need to remain true to my vision for the game. My vision for the game includes the players having to interact with those texts at some point, even if it is to discard them.

Seth, and who else might be reading:

I can't find the edit button. When I re-read my post, I didn't just see
the spelling errors, but I felt it had a harsh tone at times. That was
not the intention. I like your deconstruction of what we are talking
about, and that made me think about even more things that I perhaps
didn't realise I was thinking of before.

So thanks!

FYI, there's no edit feature on the Forge. This is a deliberate design decision by The Powerz That Be (essentially Ron) as part of the social structuring of this forum. That way, people can't "take back" what they wrote by deleting it; they can only add clarifying remarks, as you have. Thus, the historical record of the conversation is preserved. It's one of those unique features of the Forge.

edited to fix a mis-applied person's name

As a Christian, I cannot approach these issues apart from my faith.

Something I've learned as a game designer is that people will
always hack the game. That doesn't bother me. I view it just like
variants or house rules. So, I figure that there will be people
out there who will decide to hack the text and change those
readings. However, I need to remain true to my vision for the
game. My vision for the game includes the players having to
interact with those texts at some point, even if it is to discard
them.

I happen to think that the traditional post-game discussions that
appear to occur after a LARP or Jeep game help a great deal with
this. Still, I want to have the sense of sharing both authorship
and audience during the event, not just afterwards. 

This discussion and the UMS one are very interesting so thanks to all the posters.

I just wouls like to contribute one AP example in which the “breaks” added something to the game.

This Sunday I directed a game of Doubt. It was the third one I directed and it gave life to the saddest version of the story (probably my favourite up to now).

Towards the end, the scenes played were really grim and tense and all of us not on stage watched intently helding our breath.
But as soon as each scene ended it was a chorus of laughter and exclamations totally contrasting the sadness of the story. A short, very focused discussion about the next scene to come would immediately follow before getting back to the game.

I think we needed those laughter to catch our breath before delving again into the painful situations portrayed in the game. The talking also kept all of us on the same page and bettered our game.

It may sound funny but I felt those pauses and laughter made our game more intense and tragic.

I beg your pardon, I posted from Michele's cpu forgetting to log in as myself.
The above message should be signed Claudia Cangini.
Sorry for the mess.

Tobias wrote:

edited to fix a mis-applied person's name

This was in a post from Ron. I guess the powerz that be have enabled
the edit-butten for themselves :-)

Just testing that with this post.

Doesn't seem like it, but maybe I just don't know how to operate the forum software.

Tobias wrote:
I was so sure there was one, since i saw this comment in the UMS thread:

edited to fix a mis-applied person's name

This was in a post from Ron. I guess the powerz that be have enabled
the edit-butten for themselves :-)

For some reason, I have a hard time reading my own posts with
someone elses eyes until they are actually submitted and visible
to the world…

I like it how these two threads (this and the UMS one) keep
crossing over into each other. It seems to me like Crystal would
really have been helped by monologues! Again, expose the inner
play.