I must admit that if I want an experience using personal and painful experiences as in-game intensifiers, then I'd just get more serious about being an actor, cos that's almost directly out of the Stanislavsky/Meissner playbook. ;)
But is that what you would tell others? What about larp as therapy? I know for most people, extreme larp isn't for them. That's fine. Also, most people think larp is fantasy-boffer campaigns, and that's what they want. That's fine. But I want something else, and I can't get it here in SoCal unless I run it myself. That bothers me, so I rant. If I want to use a personal and painful experience as an in-game modifier, I don't want someone telling me to "be an actor."
In my mind, the difference between larp and theater is the audience. The purpose of an actor is to evoke an emotional response in the audience. It doesn't matter if the actor feels that emotion or not (method), it matters if they can get the audience to feel it. If the actor needs to feel that emotion to be able to project it to the audience, so be it, but it's not required. And if I remember my acting classes correctly, the original Stanislavsky method was NOT what became method acting and "channeling your inner pain" into your character.
In larp, I think, it's about the internal, the personal. It's about what YOU, the player are feeling and experiencing, not what you are evoking in others. And that gets back to the "fun" question: I had great fun playing a fire mage fresh out of magic school in a boffer larp. I got drunk celebrating and ended up fireballing all the PCs in the game. They almost killed me. I then spent the next hour bawling (fer reals) in the tavern that I made this huge mistake, that I'm no good, that I hurt innocents, etc. That was fun for me, but PvP isn't fun for others, and they don't like being attacked by another player.
But that shows what larp is all about: it's selfish. It's what *I* wanted to do and explore as a character, not making sure the other players had a good time. It's not the emotions I evoked in the other players, it's the emotions I invoked in myself. That, to me, is how I separate larp and traditional theater.
Another discussion I have had with K is NPC vs PC. Are NPCs just foils for the PCs? Is the purpose of an NPC to evoke in the PCs? (this is the kind of stuff I talk about almost nightly with my wife)
no subject
But is that what you would tell others? What about larp as therapy?
I know for most people, extreme larp isn't for them. That's fine. Also, most people think larp is fantasy-boffer campaigns, and that's what they want. That's fine. But I want something else, and I can't get it here in SoCal unless I run it myself. That bothers me, so I rant. If I want to use a personal and painful experience as an in-game modifier, I don't want someone telling me to "be an actor."
In my mind, the difference between larp and theater is the audience. The purpose of an actor is to evoke an emotional response in the audience. It doesn't matter if the actor feels that emotion or not (method), it matters if they can get the audience to feel it. If the actor needs to feel that emotion to be able to project it to the audience, so be it, but it's not required. And if I remember my acting classes correctly, the original Stanislavsky method was NOT what became method acting and "channeling your inner pain" into your character.
In larp, I think, it's about the internal, the personal. It's about what YOU, the player are feeling and experiencing, not what you are evoking in others. And that gets back to the "fun" question: I had great fun playing a fire mage fresh out of magic school in a boffer larp. I got drunk celebrating and ended up fireballing all the PCs in the game. They almost killed me. I then spent the next hour bawling (fer reals) in the tavern that I made this huge mistake, that I'm no good, that I hurt innocents, etc. That was fun for me, but PvP isn't fun for others, and they don't like being attacked by another player.
But that shows what larp is all about: it's selfish. It's what *I* wanted to do and explore as a character, not making sure the other players had a good time. It's not the emotions I evoked in the other players, it's the emotions I invoked in myself. That, to me, is how I separate larp and traditional theater.
Another discussion I have had with K is NPC vs PC. Are NPCs just foils for the PCs? Is the purpose of an NPC to evoke in the PCs? (this is the kind of stuff I talk about almost nightly with my wife)