LARP Writers' Workshop 2011 Point-Form Minutes | Main

Atttendees

Bee, Berndt, Andrea, Jo, Lara, Philip, Rudy, Rolf, Jeremy, Desilu, Simon, Adrianna, Camilla, Justin, Roxy

Boffer LARPs
Theatre-style LARPs
- Gamist (plot driven)
- Immersionist (understanding what it's like to be a particular character)
- Dramatist (player objectives different to character objectives)
Murder mystery dinners
Campaign LARPs

Idea phase (often long; variable in length)
- Lara:
  - Black Coffee Blues started with an idea for one character.
  - Consequences came from the idea for a setting.
  - Historical research can be a rich source of ideas.
- Simon:
  - Revenge of the Yak had a giant spider diagram.
- Jo:
  - Using Fiasco to generate characters.
- Co-writers are very useful for shooting down ideas.
  - If you're writing alone let ideas simmer for a week—if it still looks good it's probably a good idea.
Selecting number of characters.
- Gender flexible characters are very useful.
- Subtextual relationships.
- Allies are very powerful effects in LARPs.

Small LARPs become implausibly connected.
Small LARPs can be more emotionally intense.
Selecting setting:
- Historical settings.
- Established fantasy settings.
- Homebrew setting:
  - Money, travel.
Situation and containment:
- Storms.
- Official events.
- Exploding collars.
- Phones?

LARP writing can be beneficial for other writing forms because it emphasises character construction.
Writer has less control—tight plotting is more difficult.
Only medium where player embodies a single character.
Collaborative—you write characters and then give to other people to see what they will do with it.
Comparisons with Improv:
- Could possibly workshop characters.
- In LARPs the players are the audience.
- LARP has simulationist aspects

NPCs who die early.
NPCs who are pseudo DMs.
Cards:
- Silly LARPs can get great use out of cards.
- Power limit LARPs.
- A bit like designing a small card game.
Telepathy:
- Need to define what telepathy is.
- Lots of DM work.
Unconciousness or anything that take people out of the LARP is tricky.
Limited resources are good.
Envelopes:
- Can write numbers on people's name tags or on objects and let people open their correponding numbers when they see the numbers.
- Useful for conveying information that is trigger by events.
Items:
- Identical items.
When writing mechanics think about whether they require a DM.
Players shouldn't be asking you over to talk ask about their characters—that should already be in there character sheets. DMs should only be called over to handle unusual situations.
Insane characters:
- Different world view.
Insane asylum LARP:
- Red objects behave differently for players and for non-insane NPC DMs.
Food can be used as a gimmick:
- Race specific food.
- Characters bring food into the LARP with them.
- Setting specific food.
Poison.
- Tricky because food is both in and out of character.
Underlying world rules:
- Important to make these things clear.
- E.g. does a small mask constitute a disguise.
Being able to call in outside help.
Size of venue can make a big difference:
- Lighting.
- Sound.

Rock, paper, scissors works nicely.
Nice idea: rolls can't kill you—players have to explicitly decide to kill another player.
Having non-combatants be able to influence combat, or be emotionally invested.
Freezes:
- Keep them short.
- Enforce them properly.
- Use distance moved as time ticks rather than fixed amounts of time (in order to discourage running / sprinting).
???
Character sheets completely in-character.

Can be soft barriers to interaction, hard barriers are not good.
Character changing:
- Suddenly losing all your goals / progress for the last hour is not fun.
Romantic subplots.
No real guns or knives.
Characters who have amnesia.

Broad-opened goals:
- causes, kleptomania, dependents
Dramatist LARPs can be tricky for new characters.
Check each characters motivation in each of their plots.
Check difficulty of each goal.
Mentally cast the worst person in each role.
What would happen if you ran the LARP without each character.
Check allies and enemies:
- Evil == minority position + self interest.
- Allies being blackmailed won't help you when you're down.
- One real ally is a good idea.
- Minions are allies.

Memorable, pronouncable names.
- Titles are really helpful!
- Short forms of names are realistic and useful.
Some people like double-spacing others don't.
Some people like two-column.
Name, single line archetype plus age, life history, recent events, summary of people you know, equipment and special abilities.
Good production—images, nice format, booklets.
Which information is widely known, which is secret.
Get proof-readers.
- Preferrably not one of the writers.
- They can help DM the playtest.
Stick blurb at front of general background if you want people to read it.
- People's first encounter with your LARP.
- Have it spell-checked. Show of your LARP.
- Mention style of LARP, seriousness.
Writing style infuses character with personality.

Writing solo vs with co-writers. Many characters vs few characters. Naming characters. Costuming. Casting. Gender switching.