No matter how thrilling the LARP, how invested your character, nor how seemingly non-stop the action, every single character, in every single LARP, will eventually come across the Great Beast of Boredom.
Boredom, at a LARP, happens. It happens for a variety of reasons: you're not interested in the weekend's main plot; it's just not "your event," and, while all of your friends are getting personal plot, you're sitting in a tavern, vainly hoping the weird-looking-creature-from-another-realm is looking for you and not the other weird-looking-creature-from-another-realm; you, through ill-fated odds, have missed every single NPC who has waltzed into town, looking for unoccupied adventurers of any sort. This stuff happens to everyone, though hopefully not routinely. And it causes boredom, which can easily shift to negativity, hurt feelings, and out-of-game dissatisfaction with an event.
I think that dealing with boredom is an important skill, and one that I am slowly learning. Especially during a busy or transitional event, it's important to be able, I feel, to entertain yourself using the structure around you-- even at the most "you-centric" event, chances are you will have a couple hours or more of downtime. For newer players, it can be difficult to get involved with larger swaths of plot. For example, recently, due to some stretches of inactivity at a previous event, my friend and I started designing an in-game, self-sufficient group to make us feel more involved. The beauty of this group is that it is completely player driven, and operates within the existing structure of the game world: when plot is busy making the event run smoothly, we'll have something to do that requires no outside "help." (I'll let you know how it goes once it's in the works officially.)
How do you deal with boredom? More interestingly, has your game improved because of steps to involve yourself?
Boredom, at a LARP, happens. It happens for a variety of reasons: you're not interested in the weekend's main plot; it's just not "your event," and, while all of your friends are getting personal plot, you're sitting in a tavern, vainly hoping the weird-looking-creature-from-another-realm is looking for you and not the other weird-looking-creature-from-another-realm; you, through ill-fated odds, have missed every single NPC who has waltzed into town, looking for unoccupied adventurers of any sort. This stuff happens to everyone, though hopefully not routinely. And it causes boredom, which can easily shift to negativity, hurt feelings, and out-of-game dissatisfaction with an event.
I think that dealing with boredom is an important skill, and one that I am slowly learning. Especially during a busy or transitional event, it's important to be able, I feel, to entertain yourself using the structure around you-- even at the most "you-centric" event, chances are you will have a couple hours or more of downtime. For newer players, it can be difficult to get involved with larger swaths of plot. For example, recently, due to some stretches of inactivity at a previous event, my friend and I started designing an in-game, self-sufficient group to make us feel more involved. The beauty of this group is that it is completely player driven, and operates within the existing structure of the game world: when plot is busy making the event run smoothly, we'll have something to do that requires no outside "help." (I'll let you know how it goes once it's in the works officially.)
How do you deal with boredom? More interestingly, has your game improved because of steps to involve yourself?
Honestly it depends on the character I'm playing.
ReplyDeleteFor Madrigal, I make my own fun. I can always do something foppy like make a big lunch, carry it out onto the field on a large golden platter, pull out my lawn chair, and eat in the shade while others shake their head.
Or go RP with another player.
Depending on how late it is, it could be a good time to shower, or a good time for a quick nap (Wake me when the demons show up!).
But really, in any game, you have to be proactive about making your own fun - be it finding plot you want to get in on, joining your friends and allies on plot they are involved with, or entertaining yourself when nothing that you know is running interests you OR stuff you know about ran out of space. If you have a complex character, ways to entertain yourself or entertain others by being yourself can be found in your character paradigm.
The obvious answer is to say that I spend time socializing with other players. And to a certain extent I do that, but quite often that is not my response. Part of the reason for this is that when I am bored it is very likely that the people I will be socializing with are also bored. I find bored players to often be the absolute worst company. It is not uncommon for them to gripe and complain and kvetch which tends to drag me down. Another common response to boredom is to act frivolous and silly and borderline break game. I have some fondness for silliness, but silliness for silliness sake or as a boredom coping mechanism tends to turn me off.
ReplyDeleteThe coping mechanism I always turn to first is both the best and the worst. I wander and I explore. Sometimes I just wonder around turn to see what is going on or who I bump into. If that doesn't turn anything up and often find myself exploring further afield. At many game sites like Madrigal and some of the NERO chapters I attend there is a lot of woods and forest to walk through and explore.
Leaving the “town” area to explore is always chancy for me. On a personal level I love it and time spent in the wild is a huge part of the appeal that LARPs hold for me. I have had untold numbers of truly sublime moments in complete solitude off in the woods at event. But there are two huge disadvantages to this strategy that keeps me from suggesting it to others. The first is the obvious one. It takes me out of the gameplay area which means if something does come up I am going to miss it. It makes me impossible to hook. In effect I am taking a timeout from the game.
The other disadvantage is a bit less obvious, but it can be a big atmosphere killer. Depending on the practices of staff and the arrangement of the site I find myself from time to time bumping into other mods during my wanderings. This can be incredibly exciting if things are set up so that my character can actually wander onto the mod. But more often than not the mod is closed. It is through a gate, or on another plane or some other way fictionally inaccessible to me. Nothing can yank me out of game faster than being told “Ummm, please ignore us, we aren't really here, and you can take part in this.”
Another boredom coping measure I use is a bit easier to do if there is a bunch of stuff going on that just doesn't involve me. A little mini game I love to play at Madrigal is to loiter in the middle of town looking for NPC's to wander into play who have the super obvious “I am a plot hook and I am looking for someone, and by the way it isn't you” look to them. I love to run over to those people and ask them who they are looking for so that I can help them find that person or group.
Finding things is always fun for me, so this is a way to turn something that would normally be annoying (plot going out for other people and not me) into something fun (I bet I can find that person faster than you!) It feels like a good deed, because I know the aggravation on both the giving and receiving end of a plot hook that simply can't find the person they are hooking. It also allows me to interact with NPC's I normally wouldn't meet, and also gives me a better idea of what is going on in the game around me.
When things get really quiet and I don't have anything obvious to role-play about with the other players, I tend to start patrolling around looking for completely random trouble and/or points of interest to around the site.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the majority of my favorite encounters as a player or NPC to date have been 'unscripted' fights and encounters of one sort or another, or ones where we players have planned or stumbled into a situation that badly disrupts the expected script.
The spontaneity of unplanned encounters adds something much more dramatic and dangerous feeling than any scripted encounter, because I instinctively recognize that this wasn't gauged for me and I'll have to deal with it as it comes.
Of course I can run pretty fast, so this is the sort of luxury that isn't necessarily afforded to all players.
Boredom? What is this thing you speak of?
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, if it ever should happen, here are my coping mechanisms.
Roleplay with my fellow PCs. I *never* get enough of this. If I wear out my RP welcome with one there are a hundred others. I do not design characters that can't spend loads of time just talking. In fact, there has never been an event for me that I haven't lamented not having enough time to talk to people.
If I'm truly bored, I will head to my cabin to take a nap. This is guaranteed to make something happen. And undoubtedly something I want to do will happen while I'm napping. That's ok. If I'm tired enough to nap, that's as important to me as anything else anyway.
I'm also weird in that if I have nothing better to do, I will take out my flute and just play. I know this doesn't work for everybody. Not only does it entertain me, but it draws other players who will then interact with me and with each other.
This is a tough one for me, and those games I've been at where I've been stuck most of a Saturday afternoon with basically nothing to do can be really tough. I do try and socialize with other characters, but I'm sort of hobbled by the fact that I'm naturally shy and don't have a very outgoing personality. I'm terrible at small talk, I just don't have things to much of the time which makes it very hard to keep myself entertained during long stretches of downtime. In real life I tend not to attend many parties for similar reasons, I am poor at making casual conversation and frequently wind up sitting board in a corner unsure of how to talk to anyone, and yes this can happen in game and pretty much trash most of a weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe only solution I've been able to come up with so far that sort of helps is trying to enter games with a pre-established team of friends to cut down on the feelings of social exclusion that can otherwise sometimes result, people who I know I can always at least hang out with. This has helped somewhat at Mirror Mirror during slow periods, and I think a lack of this sort of thing contributed to my leaving Endgame. I'm honestly not sure I'd try to enter a LARP at this point without a pre-established group. Even so though, it's tough to carry on conversations for several hours straight if nothing has shown up from plot, and sparing with folks and such only entertains for so long. Sadly, most of the solutions that other more socially adept folks tend to suggest don't really work for me.
As most people have said, the first and most obvious thing is to talk to other PCs. If I'm newer to the game, I try to get them to talk about things that happened before. It's a great way to get more background info on X thing that's happening, or just the world in general.
ReplyDeleteI also try to give my characters some IG skill/hobby that they can do when nothing much is happening. My NERO PC both plays the flute at random intervals, and also does crocheting when chatting with other people (crocheting is one of the better sewing-type things I've found at a larp, because it requires only two things - yarn and a needle, doesn't really involve anything sharp that I could stab myself with if it's in a pouch, and I can literally drop it if something appears that I need to fight/run from/whatever without ruining the piece. Don't ask how I know this). My mercenary in Aralis occasionally futzes around with chainmail. And so on.
I find having a random IG skill/hobby goes a long way towards giving you something to do during slow times.
One of the things I like about Endgame is I can pull out a book and just read for a bit. It will sometimes cause people to come up to me and ask about what I am reading and other times gives me downtime while still being available if something comes up. I have tried doing needlepoint at larps but that doesn't work well for reasons JJ mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI try to design my PCs such they're able of making their own fun - or have reasons to go talk to other PCs. The times when things are not fun (boredom is more likely) is when 90% of the PCs are off doing thing X and you are not for some reason (whatever it is).
ReplyDeleteHowever even given that, sometimes downtime still happens...and picking up a portable hobby as others suggested is a good idea.
Kim raises a good point. For me, the only times boredom becomes an issue is when I don't have a way to connect with other PCs, usually either because I don't have a meaningful topic to talk to them about (often a symptom of being really new to a game), or because I've fallen into a gap in the Venn diagram of mod-hooking, and there are only a handful of people left in town.
ReplyDeleteTrying to connect with whoever's left can be great if you're feeling social, but if you're dealing with the one-two punch of boredom + envy (another side of larping that We Just Don't Speak Of But Probably Should), you may not be in the right mindset to be making new friends.
So usually I take those times to just kinda go down the list and make sure I'm doing everything to take care of myself. Have I had enough food/water/sleep? Have I stretched? Do I want a shower? Usually by the time I've taken some time out to care for me, things have picked back up, and I can return to the game in a better mood. This is also why I love having IG spaces like Rosie's at Madrigal. . . it's a place where people who aren't doing anything else can relax, recharge, and socialize in an easygoing way.
What everyone said about having a hobby is worthwhile too. Stuff I've done at larps to kill time (and that usually ends up catching other people's interest and starting conversations) includes: cross-stitch, drawing, singing, knitting, writing (keeping a short-form IG journal makes PELing waaaaay easier), exploring, and having picnics (no, really!). Playing atmosphere appropriate games (I think Mirror Mirror has a games parlor with board and card games, right?) or sparring with whoever is around are also great ways to pass the time for those who aren't as adept at striking up conversations with strangers.