Obligatory First Post Describing the Blog

Hey Kids.

I'm not the best ST in the world. I tend to favor M. Night Shamalyain style plots twists you can see a mile away, I always start late, I barely tell my assistants anything unless it's to brag about the latest plot twist I am going to forget about later, and every NPC I play somehow ends up with a Jamaican accent if I try to make them Irish.

Also, there's very little that makes me genuinely angry in the LARP scene. Unless someone is running an Office Space LARP (I would so play that) then we're all pretending to be something weird. This is a very helpful distraction from the fact that almost all of us are weird already, and the ones of us who aren't are so dry...well, it's weird.

So I guess I have no right to judge anyone, and even less motivation to do so. I hope people go back and read this post to understand my perspective, that this isn't a judgment, this is my attempt to make this hobby better for everyone I'm in contact with. My opinions are starting to get repeated by LARPers much more experienced than I so this seems prudent.

So that being said:

The Schoolyard Douchebag Rule:

No matter how much you try and deny it, LARP is Cops and Robbers. We're enacting drama and playing together to do so. Lots of people still play those Murder Mystery box night things, but that is still just Cops and Robbers. When we played as children, some of us were robbers, we liked the idea of getting away with things and being free from our normal moral constraints in play. Some of us were cops, empowered for justice in a way we normally felt powerless in.

Then there was that kid.

We all knew him. The kid who made our moral escapism and justice fantasis into a debate club. "Bang bang, you're dead!" we would cry, finally cornering him in the tree fort after a long run through the woods. "NO I'M NOT, I HAVE ON A BULLETPROOF VEST!"

Sound familiar? Every time you try and prevent another characters action by whipping out your mighty character sheet, especially if that action makes you look "bad" or "uncool" or even removes you from the game for awhile, you become that kid.

He was a douchebag then, he is is a douchebag now.

The sooner people realize this, the sooner all of our games will get a lot better.

Narrate. Discuss. the best result with the other player. Think about the story potential of if your character fails just as much as you do if your character succeeds. I've seen games where a single player does nearly whatever they want, all their schemes work and they never have any challenges. Those players get bored very quickly. You will too.

I've also seen games where a powerful player is only challenged by NPCs and is untouchable by the rest of the cast. If you're not playing the game of give and take, of letting other people be just as cool as you, then you're going to find you have few people who want to interact with you. You can try and whip out your mighty character sheet to force them to, or start antagonizing people just to vindicate your characters existence, which is usually what many people do. And then they wonder why no one likes their characters, or worse, try and convince people this is what they like to play. If you truly, genuinely, come to a game with the express purpose of pissing characters off for your own amusement as a player, and with no regard to the plot or even entertainment value to anyone else, you need to take a long look at why you're playing at all.

A brand new player, when confronted about the concept of cheating in LARP, showed genuine confusion. "How can you cheat at a game you can't win?"

Refreshing.

So yeah, remember this rule. Play with other people who know this rule. Don't be afraid to point this rule out to people who are breaking this rule.

WHEN YOU WHIP OUT YOUR CHARACTER SHEET YOU BECOME A DOUCHEBAG WITH THE SAME MENTALITY AS A 7 YEAR OLD.

In fact, I would go so far as to mock them. Yes. That's what LARP needs. More insensitivity! I'm a genius!

Off to sleep, dreaming of erasing lots of little dots on sheets.....

Mitchell