Guest Contributor: Trust is Not Transferable

by Maggie

Trust is vital to any roleplaying experience. You might not need much of it, if the situation is light, and you might need a lot more, if the topic is heavy and dark. If I'm meeting an NPC, and they're leading my group on a module, I don't need much trust at all. I just need to know that yes, they're NPCing, and have the basic faith that whatever they're running has been okayed by staff. This is a trust pretty inherent when an NPC comes up to talk to you about going to do something.

However, if a situation is somewhat intimate, highly emotional, or involves some sort of risky physical challenge, it's important to have a lot more trust in that person. Sometimes, you can take a leap of faith and discover you really like roleplaying/gaming with that person, and sometimes your trust is mislaid, and it turns out to be something you didn't want to get involved with.

My primary example happened many years ago in a game I was PCing.*

Goals for LARPing

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?

New Larpcast post

Go Give Bill and Mickey a listen!

http://larpcast.podbean.com/

Enjoy the (hopefully) long weekend! I'm up in Maine, visiting farms and stuff, and will post when I return!