by Zoe
So a few friends of mine recently wrote a list of LARP goals. I think this is a really good idea, as it generates ways to make a hobby more successful. After a season of rest, a revel or two, and scheming for the spring, many of us may find ourselves reflecting on how to better our games, so to speak. Those who don't LARP may wonder why people would post about ways to improve the LARP experience; however, I think it's a really helpful tool. LARP is a type of performance art, as I've argued before: it requires skill, improvement, and practice-- during your first year or two, you may feel comfortable being the always awkward with big NPCs fellow, or the dame with the less-than-stellar costume. After you have some experience under your adventuring belt, however, you may want to shift things around. Writing a list of LARP goals is an excellent way to this. Here are some topics to start you off-- remember, your goals can be IG, OoG, large, small, personal, or community-oriented.
1. What IG goals do you have? Are they worthwhile? Are they fun? Have you made progress on them? Do you feel like pursuing them for another season?
2. OoG, are you having a good time? Do you feel like your money is well-spent? If you're not enjoying yourself, what could you do to improve the game experience?
3. Have you developed a team/allies? Do you know these people OoG? What sort of things could you do to make your IG allies your OoG community?
4. How is your costume? How could you make it better, more interesting, and/or more authentic?
5. Have you experienced any weather/climate problems for which you weren't prepared? (Snow, cold, humidity, wind etc.) How could you better prepare for the next event?
6. How's your organization prior to an event? What systems could you employ to make it better?
7. How do you write PELs? What could be better/worse? If you've changed your PEL writing style recently, has it affected your experience from game-to-game?
8. What is your IG experience like? Are you enjoying yourself the entire time, or do you need breaks? What works the best for you from game-to-game?
9. How is your combat? How could it be improved?
10. What are some things you could do to make a better LARP community? This could include welcoming new players, expanding your team base, recruiting new NPCs, apprenticing new staff people, and/or hosting OoG get-togethers.
11. Even if you've bee playing for awhile, have you tried something new?
So a few friends of mine recently wrote a list of LARP goals. I think this is a really good idea, as it generates ways to make a hobby more successful. After a season of rest, a revel or two, and scheming for the spring, many of us may find ourselves reflecting on how to better our games, so to speak. Those who don't LARP may wonder why people would post about ways to improve the LARP experience; however, I think it's a really helpful tool. LARP is a type of performance art, as I've argued before: it requires skill, improvement, and practice-- during your first year or two, you may feel comfortable being the always awkward with big NPCs fellow, or the dame with the less-than-stellar costume. After you have some experience under your adventuring belt, however, you may want to shift things around. Writing a list of LARP goals is an excellent way to this. Here are some topics to start you off-- remember, your goals can be IG, OoG, large, small, personal, or community-oriented.
1. What IG goals do you have? Are they worthwhile? Are they fun? Have you made progress on them? Do you feel like pursuing them for another season?
2. OoG, are you having a good time? Do you feel like your money is well-spent? If you're not enjoying yourself, what could you do to improve the game experience?
3. Have you developed a team/allies? Do you know these people OoG? What sort of things could you do to make your IG allies your OoG community?
4. How is your costume? How could you make it better, more interesting, and/or more authentic?
5. Have you experienced any weather/climate problems for which you weren't prepared? (Snow, cold, humidity, wind etc.) How could you better prepare for the next event?
6. How's your organization prior to an event? What systems could you employ to make it better?
7. How do you write PELs? What could be better/worse? If you've changed your PEL writing style recently, has it affected your experience from game-to-game?
8. What is your IG experience like? Are you enjoying yourself the entire time, or do you need breaks? What works the best for you from game-to-game?
9. How is your combat? How could it be improved?
10. What are some things you could do to make a better LARP community? This could include welcoming new players, expanding your team base, recruiting new NPCs, apprenticing new staff people, and/or hosting OoG get-togethers.
11. Even if you've bee playing for awhile, have you tried something new?
Goals are funny things. I can't recommend them highly enough. Every character I play has at least 7 or 8 goals, though I have one with 12 at the moment (prior to writing this weekend's PEL and re-examining them).
ReplyDeleteEvery time I write a PEL, I revisit them to see what I've made for progress on them. Some events I get no progress on some of them. That's ok. I always get some progress on at least a couple of them.
And because I have so many goals I tend to be very, very busy at events, sometimes maybe too busy, as was made painfully obvious to me recently when I sought IG input from a group of characters about the pursuit of one of those goals.
One character said that I had too many personal goals to be able to handle this other goal well. Hmmmm... time to trim back or time to continue being overly ambitious and incredibly busy? That is the question.
Well, anyway, the point is that clearly defined character goals give plot a good idea on how to drive plot your way. This in turn keeps you from being bored, especially if you're careful to make goals that will allow others to share in them with you because plot people really like being able to entertain a lot of players at the same time.
And having multiple goals crossing many different plot areas means that if some of them don't get plot attention on a given event, you're not frustrated by "being ignored".
That's a really good point. When I first started LARPing, I figured, as a newer character, it would be better to have one overarching goal. That way plot wouldn't have to spend as much time thinking about me/my character, and I'd be more likely to accomplish things. As in the real world, this was a poor plan. So, I went a different route, and made up several dozen different goals. Immediately, I was getting events worth of plot. I realized that putting all my eggs in one basket was an awful idea-- multiple goals, connected to one another by motifs and themes pertinent to my character, allowed for plot to work my goals into the larger goal of the weekend.
DeleteThat being said, my MM character has no goals whatsoever (being bound in servitude and whatnot), and she has a good time. I think that may be the general atmosphere of the game, however.
If you're the kind of person who can just take whatever comes your way and have a good time with whatever or nothing at all, then having no goals is perfectly acceptable. I could be that person if I wanted to be. In fact, sometimes I find myself wishing I had less to do. I want more down time for roleplay and music. On the other hand, I also like interacting with a lot of plot.
ReplyDelete