Agenda for the LARP Writers' Workshop 2011

Details

Date:

  • Saturday, 1 October, 11am to 6pm

Venue:

  • UCT, Kramer, 5C and 5G

Bring:

  • A small plate of snacks.
  • Items for the agenda.

Facebook event:

Agenda

  • Types of LARPs
    • Boffer LARPs
    • Murder mystery dinners
    • Theatre-style LARPs
  • Overview of a LARP-writing process
    • Planning and plotting
    • Writing character sheets
    • Polishing
    • Playtesting and running
  • Planning
    • Number of players
    • Selecting the setting
    • Selecting the situation
    • Containment
    • Tight plotting vs character acting
    • Layering large LARPs
  • Comparing LARPs to other forms of storytelling
    • Novels, movies, tabletop RPGs
    • Avoiding writing for a single ending
    • Ensemble cast
    • Every character must be interesting to play
  • LARP gimmicks
    • Cards
    • Items (with or without powers)
    • Telepathy
    • Magic
    • NPCs
    • Deliberate power imbalances
  • LARP combat
    • RPS, dice, ability cards, playing cards
    • Conveying combat ability
  • Common LARP tropes
    • Auction
    • Funeral or wedding
    • Seeking shelter
    • Political negotiation
    • Dinner
  • Anti-tropes (things that are trickier than they appear)
    • Hostage LARPs
    • Character changing mid-LARP
    • Major paradigm shifts (aka "Cthulhu arrives")
    • Other anti-tropes?
  • Controlling pacing
    • Locks (interactions that can't take place until other events have occurred)
    • Timed events
    • NPCs
  • Sanity-checking characters
    • Which plot lines are characters connected to?
    • Number of concurrent plots?
    • Likelihood of a character being drawn into plots?
    • How are characters connected?
    • Character motivations?
    • How many allies does a character have?
    • Does the character have too little to do?
    • Does the character have too much to do?
  • Writing character sheets
    • Structure of character sheets
      • Background sheets
    • Working background information into character sheets
      • Conveying which information is important in-LARP
    • Conveying achievability of goals
    • Using deliberate inconsistencies
    • All important information should be in at least two character sheets
    • Writing a blurb
  • Running a LARP
    • Venue
      • Physical venue
      • Imagined venue
      • Closed-off rooms
  • Write a four-person LARP in 30 minutes. :)
    • Aim to start at 16:00 at the latest
    • LARP idea: four people in a coffee shop
    • Split into groups of four
    • Plot and write character sheets
    • Switch LARPs and playtest
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Page last modified on October 04, 2011, at 08:42 AM