Maxicon XII

[essentialsaltes]

Once again I announce: "All hail popepat!" And Mrs. Pope and Minipope. They once again opened up their house for (can it be?) the 12th Maxicon (which is still ongoing, but I moderated my participation to Saturday only... stretching into Sunday).

First up for me was Garrett's Dead Space RPG. I had played the demo, which made me the most knowledgeable about the source material I think. Which is not a problem, since the whole point is to scare the pants off you with the unexpected. It went well: fast-paced, high tension, limited resources, stressful timing deadlines. If there was any problem, it was that the gods of luck smiled on us too much in the final showdown. Good scary fun.

Next up, aaronjv ran The Tribunal, an award-winning LARP created by jiituomas. The 12 players play soldiers in a totalitarian state, faced with a difficult decision: whether to value honesty over expediency. I'm torn about how much I should or shouldn't reveal. One part of me says it doesn't matter since whatever happens is almost entirely the product of the players; the other part says that hearing the rationalizations or bullshit produced by one set of players might affect future players who read about it, and thus color whatever they would ultimately produce. I'll err on the side of caution and step back a bit.
I enjoyed the experience. This is perhaps controversial. Some people (named Aaron) have denigrated the idea that LARP is merely (?) an enjoyable pastime. It is Art with a capital A. I don't have a problem with that, except that in its extreme form Art becomes Pollock and Rothko. You're a rube if you expect to enjoy it, it's Art fer crissakes. Art!
I had my doubts about whether I would enjoy being an ant in a totalitarian army. But I came in to the game with not only an open mind, but a willingness and readiness to do it right. And the other participants probably saw me red-faced and shouting more in those couple hours than in the rest of their experience of me. Anyway, my awesome role-playing (relatively speaking) is beside the point; the point is that I enjoyed the experience. But am I supposed to enjoy my Brussels Sprouts?
My answer is that I don't care. LARP for me is an enjoyable pastime, and as long as I enjoy it I will continue to participate. It may also be Art; it may also be therapy; it may also be escapism; I don't care: Philistine that I am, I'm only interested in doing it if I enjoy it.
Anyway, stepping back in. I liked the way that character names instantly invoked associations that helped to establish character, and aided others in remembering same. I liked the way that the game was essentially entirely created by the players rather than directed from outside. The game relies on the players being willing to play, and I'm glad we had a group up to the challenge.

Following that was an impromptu meeting of the Live Game Labs & other interested parties, wherein we plotted the future of American LARP while simultaneously solving the problem of monetizing LARP and trading juicy gossip.

Comments

[ian-tiberius.livejournal.com]

With the caveat that I have neither played any of these games nor read much more than the article you linked above, it sounds as though some of these LARPs are what a different crowd would simply call acting exercises or dramatic long-form improvisation, rather than some totally new and never-before-seen art form.

I played in my first sitdown session of "Final Girl" yesterday, and had a related thought about that. It's experimental, and different, and I definitely had fun. But it's billed as an RPG, and while it may be Role-Playing it's not really a Game. It's more of a storytelling exercise. (Super-condensed description: you portray characters in a slasher movie, but there is no GM and the players all collaboratively decide who/what the killer is and which characters die. I enjoyed it, but there's no "game" per se; the players' only goal is to have fun and tell a good story. As such, I'm not sure it really belongs in the same phylum with traditional RPGs.)

Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, of course, and there's no reason that the word LARP must encompass certain things and not others. But I wonder if it's at all useful to continue using a word so broad that it encompasses both boffer-fests and "Fat Man Down".

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

it sounds as though some of these LARPs are what a different crowd would simply call acting exercises or dramatic long-form improvisation, rather than some totally new and never-before-seen art form.

Indeed. I've been returning to some of my sadly dusty acting textbooks and it is apparent to me that the closer LARP moves to this "extreme" model, the closer it is to dramatic improv. This isn't a bad thing - I'm constantly proselytizing various improv techniques to LARPers - but, yeah, it's not new overall... Then again, what is? ;)

[ian-tiberius.livejournal.com]

I'm constantly proselytizing various improv techniques to LARPers

Same here. I periodically run sit-down games based entirely on long-form improv techniques, actually, and it's amazing what can happen when you ask gamers (even people with zero theatrical/improv training) to apply simple rules like "yes, and".

britgeekgrrl, you seem familiar - did you run a Cthulhu game set in a Nazi research facility back at the first WyrdCon?

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yep, that was me. And I'd like to apologize for the train wreck that was that instance of "Black Sun, White Light" - I had something like 2/3 of the bare minimum playership, but Ira gave me big puppy eyes and begged that I try to pull the thing off otherwise. *sigh*

[ian-tiberius.livejournal.com]

No apology necessary! I'll acknowledge that it probably could have benefitted from a full cast, but I had a fine time, even if I spent a significant portion of the game cowering behind pieces of furniture.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

PS have you checked out Dan Diggles' Improv for Actors? I've stolen whole chapters out of there to share w/players. And since it's only $3.47 for the e-book, it's also something I can recommend to curious players without wincing at the price.

[ian-tiberius.livejournal.com]

I think so. I moved a few months ago and my books are in total disarray, but I believe that was given to me in one of the classes I took. (Hard to be sure, I have several books on the subject and they all blend together.) Is it one you particularly recommend over similar texts?

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I admit, I've only read a couple of improv-specific texts. Diggle's mostly won me over because of a) price (for the e-book) and b) brevity of prose.

I'll have more of an opinion when I've read more. Is there a tome (or two?) that you swear by?

[ian-tiberius.livejournal.com]

No, no, I was never that serious about it. (When I was in improv classes and I admitted that I was just there for fun, not to advance an acting or comedy career, the other students would look at me like I was an alien. To be fair, I think most people who just want to fuck around take improv classes at a community college, not at the ACME Comedy Theater and the iO West.)

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Heh. I hear ya. I only took acting classes in college because I figured a better understanding of acting would help me as a film maker. As it turned out, I discovered LARPing at just about the same time and the two fed on each other (plus a sociology course and a writing class I was taking at the same time) in a wonderful gooey mess. It was a lovely few months, I must say!

PS - and I agree, most students in an improv class at a junior college are probably just there to fuck around. I must admit, my acting teachers at DVC made a point of doing their best to scare the dilettantes out of the theater as quickly as possible...

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

And another post-script!

I don't suppose you'd be willing to cast your eyeballs over the notes I've put together for a couple of "Acting for Gamers" panels I'm presenting this weekend.

Admittedly, the presentation itself has been labeled a beta-test, it being their first time out of the gate, but I'll take any advance help I can get. Drop me a line via johanna(dot)mead(at)gmail(dot)com if you're willing and I'll share the Google Doc with you...

[ian-tiberius.livejournal.com]

Sure! E-mail forthcoming.