Creating Religion

Given my own research interests, and related pursuits these past months, I've had some questions, percolating slowly, about IG religion. My questions are mostly from a narrative, storyteller perspective, but I'd be interested to hear from players as well.

I'm interested in religion for a variety of reasons. Firstly, a well-crafted, IG religion can make a world feel richer. Moreover, it's a good way to get players invested in a game in a purposeful way. However, it certainly has its problems. There are all sorts of taboos surrounding religions, IG or otherwise, that can make fictitious faith hard to implement, even in a fantasy setting. Also, in a fantasy setting, it can be really hard to avoid longstanding fantasy-faith cliches. So, some questions...

Firstly, as a staff member/world developer, how do you create a fictional religion? What sort of components do you make sure you include (and why)? What sort of rituals, documents, and/or relics do you make available to the gameworld?

Secondly, as a staffer, how do you implement religions into your gameworld? How do you interact with players to make a faith seem meaningful and "real"? How do you allow players to participate in a fantasy religion structure?

Finally, for players, how do you interact with IG religions? What meaning do they have for your PC? Do you enjoy them? Avoid them? How do you choose what faith to play?

(Also, I've been a bit slow to respond/update this lately, but I wanted to thank readers for their responses to the costuming. Everyone had great advice/ideas for developing wardrobes/makeup.)

Costuming a New Character

A fun and rather lighthearted question for a blustery day...

I'm interested in the problem of costuming a new character-- especially a new player character. For me, costuming a player character is often more difficult as, beyond budgetary concerns, the costuming ultimately has to be functional and weather-appropriate. (A winter cloak, for instance, may look great, but is inappropriate for an unseasonably hot autumn day.) A corset, for instance, might be really beautiful, but it also needs to withstand line fights and long stretches of continual wear. (Hats and boots fall into a similar category.)

How do people set about costuming a new character? Where do you go for inspiration? How do you start purchasing and/or making things? What sort of things do you think are absolutely necessary to acquire for a starting event? Similarly, if you have a limited budget, how do you throw together distinctive and effective costuming (this is especially useful for NPCs)? I know a lot of my readers have large costume bases, so I'm interested in costuming from different perspectives. How do you create a good costume from a lot of wardrobe? How do you create one from a more limited wardrobe?

A Happy New Year to everyone!

Artwork: Remi and Esme 2012

Artwork by Zoe

And now for some artwork that were holiday presents this year: Esme and Remi, my Madrigal PC and my husband's. They were completed in an hour or two last night with watercolors bought in Japan (and forgotten about until 24 hours ago).

On Surprising Staff

A submission from JJ!

So every now and then, the staff I'm on runs into a situation where a player decides that they really want to surprise staff with something.  And by surprise, I mean they want to surprise people OOG, not surprise some character that is played by a staff member.  It doesn't come up all that often, but when it does, it usually generates a fair amount of discussion among staff about how to handle the situation.  Here's the general feeling I've gotten from most of the people I've worked with.

Surprising staff is totally ok if: you are mostly trying to get a fun emotional response from the staff character.  Surprise! confessions of love/hatred, surprising them with a meal to cheer them up, anything that isn't supposed to have any effect other than generating some sort of emotional response from the staff character is cool, and tons of fun.

When it is not so awesome: if you're trying to get the staff character to drop information or actually jumping them with spells and weapons.  I understand the desire for an 'authentic' surprise response, but really, if you want to surprise the staff character into dropping information, it's WAY more likely to succeed if the staff member actually has time to figure out what information they should know to drop.  We try to build really well-rounded characters and to be briefed on as much as we can, but the sad truth is that I don't know everything that all my characters know, and if you happen to hit a topic that I am not OOG briefed on, then you're going to get a shocked exclamation, but no actual information on where my minion hid the liche's bottle.  Which is disappointing for everyone, both the player who set the whole thing up, and the staff member who'd probably *like* to reward the player for setting things up and get out information on their plotline.

Any thoughts on that?

Body Image and Body Hate in LARP

First! Happy end of the season, for most of you! I have had a busy, but productive season, and I’m eager for what the winter revels and spring sessions bring.

With that being said, back to blogging!
A quick note-- this piece contains conversation about body image and body hate within the LARP setting. This may not be your cup of tea, as it may be a) personally upsetting or b) simply boring. I wanted to give fair warning to readers, so that people can skip this if bothered by these topics.

***

A recent piece, by Alex Hern, in the New Statesmen focuses on the “misogyny of geek culture.” It’s an interesting read, and one that warrants some thought. However, the piece brought forward some specific concerns from my community of friends. Most of them were related to this passage (pulled from Tony Harris’s rant that sparked all of this):

Module Writing Processes

As I'm currently staffing three games, I've been thinking a lot on module writing processes. I have a fairly reliable module writing style, but I'm curious as to what more experienced staffers do. Where do you start? How do you brainstorm? How does input from and collaboration with other staffers help you? How do you pair down all of your ideas into a streamlined document, presentable to a larger staff? Do you use any technology or web services to help the process (I'm pretty dedicated to Google docs, myself)? How do you edit text and incorporate criticism?

Just some questions to think about. If anyone has processes, styles, and strategies they'd like to share, I'd be grateful.

Oh, and on the topic of a certain three games...

I'd like to take a brief bit of web space to talk about the three games I staff... and upcoming opportunities therein.

Endgame
Endgame is, well, ending. We have two events left, and, I promise you, they're sure to be exciting. That being said, if you're interested in getting involved in the last two events (happening this coming spring season), please send our NPC coordinator a message. Not only can you get some CP for new games, but you can take part in an excellent, intelligent, and well-executed game. (And I really don't say that lightly-- of all the games I play, Endgame provides some of the most thrilling and emotionally taxing RP I've experienced to date.)

Invictus
Like Rome? Like Egypt? Like your historically inspired fiction with magic, epic battles, intrigue, and ancient lore? The come play Invictus. There will be drama. There will be fighting. (Oh, will there be fighting.) If you haven't already, go check out the rules and forums! And come play!

Clockwork Skies
If you're already familiar with The Calling, then you probably know about Clockwork Skies. If not... it's Steampunk done right. Sure, we all know about Steampunk. But, trust me, this isn't just bustles and goggles: this is going to be a really innovative approach to the world of Steampunk. Plenty of combat and RP, so come play! You can check out the staff here.

Please. Come play. Come NPC. Make my suicidal decision to staff three games worthwhile.

Picturing Fantasy: Photography and Costuming

A post over on Xeph-Ink, about photographing costuming, really caught my attention. (In fact, this post is largely in response to Xeph's blog, so please go check it out!) Xeph writes about the best possible ways to photograph costuming; she mentions lighting, context and environment, and models, as well as her own experiences with the ins and outs of photography. Professional costumers are probably familiar with the trials of photographing LARP pieces well, but, with a more general audience in mind (myself included), I wanted to give a few thoughts on photography and costuming.

During a LARP, I think it's easy to see fantastic costumes and makeup for what they are: well-done elements that add to the immersive IG universe. However, to me at least, once costumes drift outside of their intended context (for instance, in the middle of the woods at 3 am), they lose a lot of their magic. Sure, when someone is standing under the fluorescent lights of a bathroom, I can see skillfully applied make-up and/or a well-conceptualized costume, but something is, undeniably, missing. The diamond studded skin becomes a face with glued on plastic gems. The whiskers or scales body paint. While the beauty of the piece is still apparent, the real life of the person wearing it is obvious. In many ways, this is how the art of LARP works: it's ephemeral-- and tenaciously glued to its own context.

This is problematic when/if we decide to show our costumes and makeup to an audience outside of the LARP event itself. As Xeph writes, costumes out of context look a little sad: in your living room or on your front porch, your highborn tarantula queen doesn't look nearly as elegant as she did two weekends ago, deep in the woods. We've all seen the pictures of costumes photographed outside of their intended environment: unless the game itself is modernistic, they rarely look good (boffer weapons, an entirely different story, even less so). This is a pity: a lot of people, even if they aren't LARPers, could probably understand and get into LARP through pictures of good costuming.

All of this considered, I've seen some pictures, including those on Xeph-Ink, that are fantastic: not only are the pictures themselves artistically taken, but the setting works. The model doesn't seem awkward. The costume, even though obviously outside of a LARP or Faire, is displayed to its full potential. While photographs of costumes may seem superficial, to me, they have a larger significance: well-done photography is one way to preserve and communicate our art form. As I've discussed before, LARP is difficult to communicate or display (as well it should be, perhaps). In my opinion, options that allow us to successfully capture our art form should be pursued.

So, what are methods for successfully photographing costuming and makeup? Are you a fan of photographing costuming? Are there privacy concerns involved with photography? And, please, for some really practical technique tips, go check out Xeph-Ink!