The Forge Archives

I obviously have LARP synergy on the brain, anyway, here's an idea for a
creation-then-play framework for LARPing...

the LARP players get together for a game of uni with the specific intent
that the product of play will be the setup for the LARP - eg, play will
create the characters and background and setting for the LARP (and actual
play resolutions such as the venue, cost, etc)

variations: they get together face to face, they collaborate via a wiki

examples: scenes as world/character background, an open scene as "where/when
the LARP happens"

at a designated point world/background creation stops and players bid to
play particular characters in the LARP - at the moment I'm fuzzy as to
how/if uni comes into the LARP itself - obviously LARP rules can be created
in the uni creation process

in the style of LARPing that I am familiar with everything is prewritten and
the LARP is GMed by the writers - my own attempts to get players to write
characters have failed but I think this method should inspire a sense of
ownership AND give everyone a good sense of what the LARP will be about
without 10 page character sheets

this is also a perfect way for the LARP writers who usually serve the
community to get to play!

note: hmmm... without "secrets" you'd also have design for author-stance
play

Well, you can have secrets, they're just stuff that comes out in play. The real trick, it seems to me, is to figure out how to employ the rules in the actual play. OTOH, I suddenly find this very intriguing. Basically, I think that there'd have to be certain limits depending on what sort of play you'd want to see.

For example, is the group into costumes and such? If so, the basic problem is that you can't introduce more characters during play. Perhaps if you had volunteers to work as blank slates, they could just wear black, with nametags that indicate what they're supposed to look like. But barring that, I think that play would have to be limited to one character per player to get the costumed effect. No Take Overs for player characters, of course.

Same with locale, really. That is, unless you want to be able to break from scene to scene, and have the locale be imagined, you'd have to nail down the locale preplay and say its unalterable. Essentially you have only one long scene. Which is fine in some ways, as this would limit Coins available.

Props are easier. You can just have some common ones handy, and when one comes up that's not appropriate, you can just have cards to represent the item as happens in many LARPs anyhow. In fact, each character should have a card with the player as well. The cards can have all pertinent Traits and Facts for the component in question.

So, what does that leave? Well, in play, basically any player can pay a Coin (I'd definitely find one of those plastic "Gold Coin" sets or something to use as tokens), and define anything about something present, or have props appear. Thus, of course secrets will happen - players will "discover" them in play and add them to their characters. A sorta neat thing about this is that you can invent as many secrets about your character as you like, and keep it to yourself. You only pay for them when you reveal them to others. At which point they can challenge.

Challenges I'd envision as the player shouting Challenge, and play in the room ceasing until it was hammered out. Pretty straightforward there. I can see lots of potential challenges if players try to insert things where another player might reasonably say, "Well, I wouldn't have done X had my character known that, which he should have." There might also have to be a "start up again" signal.

Adding to other characters would, of course, precipitate a Complication. This would mean coming up with a RPS version or something. Might be difficult with lots of Traits, but if you limit Coins overall Traits might be low in number anyhow. Any other ideas there?

The way I see it there would be no turn order, just use of the rules at will by anyone. Dialog would all be free. Which would be interesting. Basically if you say something in character, your character may be lying, until such point as you pay a Coin to ensure that the thing said is true. Lots of interesting metaphysical ramifications there.

The neat thing is that play could go anywhere. Players would be making up stuff about their characters as need be. If this is to be long term play, then what I'd do is to have refreshment happen between sessions, and allow play between sessions as well. This could include at this point changing characters, changing scenes, etc.

Hmm.

Mike

how do you see players tracking components and the like as they're moving around the venue? this was my stumbling block in approaching larping-uni rather than uni-as-a-larp-creation-tool - we're certainly moving away from the group consensus/involvement that's created sitting around a table or wiki

on the larp-creation side, any specific gimmicks you would see as must-haves or useful? I like the idea of bidding for characters at the end to emphasise group creation during the process itself (every character must be worth playing)

That, specifically seems to be a good idea. I'm not the most avid LARPer, however, so I think it needs playtesting to find the appropriate Gimmicks (or someone who knows both Uni and LARP very well like yourself).

Like I said, component tracking would be simply keeping a card with the component. Everyone would have to carry pencils as well, FWIW. But there is no object until there's a card representing it. You try to have a prop, but absent of that, the card serves as the prop (in NSDM, the nuclear release cards are encased in thick clear plastic :-)  ).

Again, creation of a Trait indicates that the Trait becomes known to all who can see the thing. The card is public knowledge. So you don't create any Traits that are "secret" or hidden or anything like that to the characters. You can, of course, spring Traits on players in the middle of Complications, however. So, if I'm carrying a gun, even if it's a card, it's pretty obvious what it does because it says Gun, and Big and Magnum on it or whatever. But what the other players might not realize is that it has Hollow Tip Bullets in it, something that you reveal as you're shooting somebody with it.

The other reason that you have to make Traits "visible" or known to the players as characters is so that as players they can challenge, and ensure that the player is paying correctly. I'm seeing players putting Coins into some communal receptical as they spend them and then retrieving them out when winning them in Complications.

I can definitely visualize it. Complications are still the sticking point for me, but I'm sure there's some solution somwhere.

Mike