by Dan W.
Another great post from Dan on the role of courtesy in LARPs-- sometimes courtesy, beyond simply making people feel better, can also improve the gameworld of the LARP in question.
Creating Atmosphere: The Game is What You Make It
One of the wonderful aspects of LARPing is that it is not only a shared experience, but that the creation of that experience is shared by all its participants as well as the creators. It's rather an amazing thing, but this can also at times work against a game when not everyone is on the same page. Most of us can probably recall at one time or another either in a LARP or tabletop game when a particularly powerful or compelling moment was spoiled by an ill timed out of game reference, joke, a cell phone ringing, or something similar. Emotionally engaging scenes, particularly those involving creepy or scary themes depend on everyone involved being invested in what is happening, and the shared imaginative space we collectively seek to maintain is easily broken. Creating a memorable and effective game experience depends not only on staff and NPCs, but equally on the player's contributions as well, and there are some things all of us can do to help things along. You've paid your game fee for the weekend, you may as well help get the most you can out of it.
First, it's not just about you. You may have decided you're playing Max Power The Undefeated Hero who isn't scared of anything, isn't phased by anything, and comes off as a cocky showboat, but keep in mind how your role-play is effecting the game space for those around.If you go in with a group of your fellow PCs into a dark module building with some heavily costumed creepy monster, some brash comments here and there may be appropriate for you, an unending string of them may spoil the mood for your fellow players. Some players
really enjoy drinking in the flavor of a scene, they want to be frightened, sad, or otherwise pushed to experience how their character will react to intense situations. This can only happen for them, however, if the mood in a scene is maintained. Going overboard on giving silly nicknames to enemy villains, excessive smack-talk, or even worse breaking game and making movie or video game references and the like can instantly undo everything plot is trying to accomplish (and remember what they're working for is to entertain you). So, be aware of the roleplaying atmosphere when you enter a situation, and help to strengthen it. It's fine to roleplay your hero how you see him or her, but you don't want to steamroll other people's roleplay while you do so.
Second, mistakes happen, and sometimes you just have to roll with the retcon. NPCs coming into a game have a lot of information to absorb, and not everything is going to stick, so you may find that an NPC hook coming to take you on a mod somewhere gives you information that contradicts things you know to be true, or that it turns out later was inconsistent with other things going on. Have mercy on the poor fellow. Sometimes when an NPC is sent out it's with only a sparse briefing from a frazzled staff person being pulled in twelve directions, and they may get something wrong, or they may have been given a very in depth seventeen page briefing which means they've probably forgotten 90% of it. So, when you run into a situation where the person running your encounter ends up having to clarify a confusing situation due to conflicting or inconsistent information, get the real story and just let the rest slide. Mistakes will happen, and harping on them accomplishes little save to further embarrass the poor NPC who is already feeling bad for having screwed up the information they gave out in the first place, and we don't want our NPCs to feel bad. It's understandable that you may feel a lot of frustration in the moment, but be aware that obsessing verbally over this sort of thing can end up adding to the frustration of other players.
Third, it's not contest. Plot is trying to tell a story and create memorable experiences, they're not trying to beat the players. NPCs are told quite frequently 'play to entertain, not to win.' PCs are expected to play to win, but at the same time it's important to keep in mind that it's not you vs. the GM. The game is supposed to be fun for everyone, and when staff throws you a particularly daunting challenge or hard fight, more often then not it's because they want you to have the chance to be heroic, and they're hoping you'll succeed. If you do get thrown a no-win scenario, keep in mind that the aim is still to engage you in a story that is fun. Think back to epic
science fiction and fantasy you've read or watched, and how much sweeter the hero's triumph is when they finally claim victory from seemingly insurmountable odds. Compare that with your average Saturday morning cartoon where the heroes win every single time, it gets pretty boring.
Helping to maintain the atmosphere that plot is trying to create isn't just about being courteous to NPCs and your fellow players, it's about creating a better experience for you. If you find you're breaking character repeatedly because you're not into a scene, consider if there are things you can be doing to help improve things. If one person starts breaking game, most likely other people will be too, so the quality of any encounter is entirely dependent on what the people involved make of it.
How have you moved to make games more courteous? Does courtesy create a better feel of immersion? What are ways to appropriate roleplay challenging situations?
Another great post from Dan on the role of courtesy in LARPs-- sometimes courtesy, beyond simply making people feel better, can also improve the gameworld of the LARP in question.
Creating Atmosphere: The Game is What You Make It
One of the wonderful aspects of LARPing is that it is not only a shared experience, but that the creation of that experience is shared by all its participants as well as the creators. It's rather an amazing thing, but this can also at times work against a game when not everyone is on the same page. Most of us can probably recall at one time or another either in a LARP or tabletop game when a particularly powerful or compelling moment was spoiled by an ill timed out of game reference, joke, a cell phone ringing, or something similar. Emotionally engaging scenes, particularly those involving creepy or scary themes depend on everyone involved being invested in what is happening, and the shared imaginative space we collectively seek to maintain is easily broken. Creating a memorable and effective game experience depends not only on staff and NPCs, but equally on the player's contributions as well, and there are some things all of us can do to help things along. You've paid your game fee for the weekend, you may as well help get the most you can out of it.
First, it's not just about you. You may have decided you're playing Max Power The Undefeated Hero who isn't scared of anything, isn't phased by anything, and comes off as a cocky showboat, but keep in mind how your role-play is effecting the game space for those around.If you go in with a group of your fellow PCs into a dark module building with some heavily costumed creepy monster, some brash comments here and there may be appropriate for you, an unending string of them may spoil the mood for your fellow players. Some players
really enjoy drinking in the flavor of a scene, they want to be frightened, sad, or otherwise pushed to experience how their character will react to intense situations. This can only happen for them, however, if the mood in a scene is maintained. Going overboard on giving silly nicknames to enemy villains, excessive smack-talk, or even worse breaking game and making movie or video game references and the like can instantly undo everything plot is trying to accomplish (and remember what they're working for is to entertain you). So, be aware of the roleplaying atmosphere when you enter a situation, and help to strengthen it. It's fine to roleplay your hero how you see him or her, but you don't want to steamroll other people's roleplay while you do so.
Second, mistakes happen, and sometimes you just have to roll with the retcon. NPCs coming into a game have a lot of information to absorb, and not everything is going to stick, so you may find that an NPC hook coming to take you on a mod somewhere gives you information that contradicts things you know to be true, or that it turns out later was inconsistent with other things going on. Have mercy on the poor fellow. Sometimes when an NPC is sent out it's with only a sparse briefing from a frazzled staff person being pulled in twelve directions, and they may get something wrong, or they may have been given a very in depth seventeen page briefing which means they've probably forgotten 90% of it. So, when you run into a situation where the person running your encounter ends up having to clarify a confusing situation due to conflicting or inconsistent information, get the real story and just let the rest slide. Mistakes will happen, and harping on them accomplishes little save to further embarrass the poor NPC who is already feeling bad for having screwed up the information they gave out in the first place, and we don't want our NPCs to feel bad. It's understandable that you may feel a lot of frustration in the moment, but be aware that obsessing verbally over this sort of thing can end up adding to the frustration of other players.
Third, it's not contest. Plot is trying to tell a story and create memorable experiences, they're not trying to beat the players. NPCs are told quite frequently 'play to entertain, not to win.' PCs are expected to play to win, but at the same time it's important to keep in mind that it's not you vs. the GM. The game is supposed to be fun for everyone, and when staff throws you a particularly daunting challenge or hard fight, more often then not it's because they want you to have the chance to be heroic, and they're hoping you'll succeed. If you do get thrown a no-win scenario, keep in mind that the aim is still to engage you in a story that is fun. Think back to epic
science fiction and fantasy you've read or watched, and how much sweeter the hero's triumph is when they finally claim victory from seemingly insurmountable odds. Compare that with your average Saturday morning cartoon where the heroes win every single time, it gets pretty boring.
Helping to maintain the atmosphere that plot is trying to create isn't just about being courteous to NPCs and your fellow players, it's about creating a better experience for you. If you find you're breaking character repeatedly because you're not into a scene, consider if there are things you can be doing to help improve things. If one person starts breaking game, most likely other people will be too, so the quality of any encounter is entirely dependent on what the people involved make of it.
How have you moved to make games more courteous? Does courtesy create a better feel of immersion? What are ways to appropriate roleplay challenging situations?
Roleplaying a situation to simultaneously a) preserve your character, and b) keep it immersive for other players can be challenging. I run into this a lot with Tev: she has five settings-- apathy, polite bloodlust, amusement, earnestly making deals, and overly complicated problem solving. (Every once in awhile she is truly impressed by something.) I love this character, and 70% of the time, she's fairly amusing to people. However, there are definitely situations where correctly acting Tev would throw people off. When I get into those situations, I try to tone Tev back a little, and dial up the curious part of her personality. I'd never be able to turn it off completely, I wouldn't be playing that character correctly, but I can certainly make her quirks unobtrusive.
ReplyDeleteAn example that I was pleased with: We needed to appease a certain spirit who had never known of another's unrequited love for him. Tev sang him a song about unrequited love-- very haunting and sad. He then clasped Tev in a hug. Tev does not understand nor does she wish to understand love-- so she didn't "get it," and is often kind of perplexed-to-disgusted with the whole love thing. However, the NPC was doing a fantastic job acting, and people watching the scene were visibly moved-- rejecting his poignant hug would have been jarring for the scene, and would have lessened its impact for other players. However, Tev isn't the kind of fae to just... hug somebody. So when the NPC embraced me in a thank you, Tev just kind of stood there, completely still, and a little flabbergasted. It managed to be in-character, but also respectful of the scene.
Ok, that was long, but really good topic.
[NOTE: after writing this out I realized that I may have tangented a bit from the main point of the post.]
ReplyDeleteCourtesy among the player base can also be the difference between drawing in new players and driving them away. I would never have stuck with LARPing if my first experience hadn't been full of courteous players who knew how to maintain the balance between immersive roleplaying (which, in a high fantasy game, often means zealously sniffing out potential "bad guys" because "that's what my character would do") and making the newbie feel welcome.
A newbie to LARPing simply does not have the means to understand the context of the fictional world they are in, and often need some friendly coaching even it seems weird to be explaining fundamental details about the game world that "everyone" should know.
I've also been to a game where the general attitude among players was simply not very pleasant. There was a lot of passive-aggressiveness and a tendency to be quite snippy with each other. I couldn't quite put my finger on what made the culture feel so different (and not in a good way) from what I was accustomed to until I had this odd little experience: Another player, whom I did not know at all, advised me to watch my back because there was a potential threat that I had foolishly turned my back towards. I instinctively thanked him for the tip, but at the same time he apologetically said, "I'm just sayin'..." as if he expected me to snap at him for trying to help me.
Mickey and Bill touched on something similar in a Larpcast about metagaming. There's such a thing as "good metagaming," which usually involves understanding the human limits of the people (both NPC and PC) you're playing with and being courteous about it. If you, the player, understand OOG that a certain behavior which is normally totally appropriate for your character would really spoil the moment for the people around you, it's typically good practice to reign it in (like Zoe described above).
Such a good point-- I know more than a few NPCs who have abandoned games because the players were, well, mean. They didn't know how to successfully manage the OoG/IG dynamics of relationships with NPCs. I love Mickey and Bill's conversation about "good metagaming"-- without metagaming, I feel, you can't be respectful at a LARP.
DeleteFor those who haven't heard it, an awesome LARPcast episode: http://larpcast.podbean.com/2011/05/04/larpcast-7-metagaming/
"Second, mistakes happen, and sometimes you just have to roll with the retcon. "
ReplyDeleteAmen.
This is a problem in Madrigal as we speak. I'm not talking about the controversial ret-con that happened last event, but of the alternate timeline plotline. A plotline hastily written years ago to explain a missing prop for one event is now a gamewide thing. But with the benefit of time and contemplation to make it fully fleshed out rather than a last minute kludge.
Well, some players are insisting on pointing on the ways in which the newer presentation does not match with the first weekend it ran 6-7 years ago. I assume they're doing it to look and feel superior. But really, it's just obnoxious and seems really disrespectful to the staff's efforts. Sure, keeping an eye out for inconsistencies is a mainstay of Madrigal, but in this case it's pretty clear there have been some retcons to make a one events off the cuff weekend into a multi-year plotline and so harping on it constantly just makes you an ass.
Drives me nuts.
I can tell you even now having been on staff at Madrigal for a few years now (and NPCing longer then that), avoiding inconsistencies in a game that has been running as long as Madrigal has is no small challenge. Even the smallest and most seemingly insignificant flavor details you may inject to flesh out a plotline or NPC history may inadvertently end up flying in the face of other information from some plotline that ran seven years back you never even heard about. I can't tell you the number of times I've made up a name or referenced some item and folks immediately assume I'm talking about something back from Mad 1 I didn't even know existed, spawning all kinds of questions about things I have no answers for. :P
DeleteI generally haven't had too much trouble defusing issues like that when they've spawned, thankfully. It can actually be harder in my experience when you're a PC and your fellow PCs are doing a full verbal assault on some hapless mod hook who can't quite seem to figure out how to disengage...you just want to get on with the game already, but other people Just Will Not Drop It...
Whenever people complain at length about inconsistencies, I always think of this scene from "Misery":
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO20qU-VwgA