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Away from the Dinner Table
#6: The Watchwords Of LARP
by thecraichead
March 25, 2003 10:14 PM
The watchwords of LARP should be Simplicity,
Playability, Believability, Consistency, Continuity,
and Consequences. I've mentioned this before. I'd like
to lay out the groundwork for some future columns by
taking a look at each of these terms and establishing
a working definition for them.
Before we begin, I would like to direct the reader's
attention to the fact that the word "Realism" is no
where in my list of desirable LARP qualities. Realism
is not a good thing in a LARP. In fact, it is a
serious Bad Thing. In a realistic sword duel, one
combatant will probably die. In a realistic battle,
many of the participants will almost certainly die. In
a realistic dungeon crawl, the trolls--wait, there
wouldn't be trolls. In a realistic vampire hunt, the
hunters would never find a damn thing. Realism is
exactly what we're trying to get away from when we
LARP. At the same time, though, we don't want to look
at something in the LARP and think, "Oh, come on!" We
can look at a comic book or a movie and accept that
Superman is flying. But when we see some guy running
around with his arms above his head pretending to fly,
we think he's cute (if he's five), or we think he
looks like a goofball (if he's 20). We should be
willing to suspend our disbelief. We should not be
willing to suspend our intelligence.
Now, then.
Simplicity
Less is more. A low number of rules is a good thing.
Special exceptions to rules are bad things. For
example, a simple rule is when you hit someone in
combat, call out the number of damage points your
weapon causes. That person will mentally subtract that
number from their total of hit points. When their hit
point total reaches zero, they'll fall over. Needless
complexity added to this rule includes stuff like
damage type. Edged weapons do different damage than
blunt ones. Fire does different damage than say,
electricity. A silver weapon might be more effective
against certain creatures. To require people to call
"One Blunt" or "Two Edged" might be reasonable. But
suppose a guy has a magical silvered mace that's been
enchanted with a Zap spell. He hits you and calls
"four blunt silver electric magic!" But you're wearing
your anti-electric helm, so you don't take electrical
damage. But how much of that hit was electrical, and
how much was just bash? You'll have to ask the guy who
just hit you, but he's in the middle of hitting you
again. You'll have to call time-out and ask him. See
how complex damage types can become if you let them?
Playability
If you can look at it and know what it is, it's
playable. If you can hear it and know how to act, it's
playable. If there is any ambiguity regarding the
location, size, weight, color, or whatever of an
in-game object, it is not playable. For example,
Morland the Mage casts a Wall of Fire to stop the
goblins from chasing him. Just then, a bunch of his
buddies rush up, see the goblins standing there
shaking their fists, and they charge. Right through
the wall of fire that Morland didn't get a chance to
tell them about, but which they would have seen if
it'd been there. A spell that calls an object into
existence is not playable. Another example, Janos the
Druid casts an Uglify spell on Morland to get back at
him for the wall of fire incident. So now Morland must
pretend that he has snaggle-y teeth, skewed eyes,
festering sores, greasy hair, and so forth. That's
fine. But he also has to go round explaining to
everyone he meets what he 'actually' looks like. A
spell that changes the appearance of a person is not
playable.
Believability
It's easier to explain what believability is not than
what it is. For example, a kangaroo crossing a highway
in Australia is perfectly believable. A kangaroo
crossing a highway in Austria is pretty hard to
swallow. (Maybe it escaped from the zoo?) A kangaroo
on the moon is completely unbelievable. (Maybe the
Apollo mission secretly brought a couple 'roos along
and left them behind, with enough air and food to
breed enough generations to evolve into
vacuum-breathing, rock-eating kangaroos. . .) The more
stuff you have to make up to explain something, the
less believable it is.
Consistency
The game world should behave in a reasonably
predictable way. If one day goblins show up and they
take an average of three hits to kill and do an
average of two hits when they successfully attack,
they should stay at about that power level. If one day
a pack of goblins show up doing five hits per attack
and taking ten hits to kill, that should be a
significant plot development, not simply a response to
powerful players. Likewise, if a spell or a skill
allows a PC to accomplish something one day, it needs
to allow the same accomplishment the next day. Do not
change the rules unless there is a clear and present
danger to Believability, Playability, etc. or to the
game remaining fun. If you tweak the rules too often,
your LARP will begin to resemble a game of Calvinball.
When and if you do change the rules, be sure to
explain the change to all your players and answer any
questions they may have.
Continuity
The game world continues on from event to event. It
should not be entirely episodic. If the heroes meet
Simon the Rockmonger and then go on their way, that
NPC doesn't evaporate. He still exists somewhere in
the game world, and it's possible for the heroes to
run into Simon again at a future event. If the heroes
do run into Simon again, the GMs need to do everything
possible to ensure the same person plays him in the
same costume. It's very confusing when a person walks
up to you and says, "Hey, remember last month when you
promised to give me ten gold pieces today?" But you
can't remember promising anything to this person, so
you blow him off. Then a couple hours later, your
mates tell you, "Simon the Rockmonger was saying
you're a lying, cheating no-goodnik." Now you have to
go find the new Simon, and explain that if you'd known
he was Simon you'd never have. . . The same applies to
things like towns and castles and ruins and such. If
there's an abandoned tower an hour's walk to the south
today, there needs to be one there tomorrow unless
there's a darn good reason for it to be elsewhere.
Consequences
The heroes need to experience the backlash of their
actions. This can be good or bad. If the heroes
massacre a goblin camp this event, maybe some other
goblins come looking for revenge next event. But at
the same time, if the heroes exterminate the goblins
that have been plaguing the countryside these many
months, the local lord will probably have a reward of
some kind for them. By no means should the heroes be
able to do whatever they want with no thought for the
future. If Alexandra the Scout defies the Countess's
orders, she should expect all manner of inconvenience
in the future, from stony-faced officials refusing to
process her writs to a band of soldiers politely but
insistently inviting Alexandra to the Countess's
dungeons.
These watchwords could apply to any tabletop game as
well as LARPs. The reason LARPers need to be reminded
of them is it takes much more effort to maintain
Continuity and Playability in a LARP than in a
tabletop campaign. On the tabletop, the GM can simply
say, "You see Simon the Rockmonger waving at you," and
poof, there he is. On the LARP field, Simon needs to
look like Simon every time. Likewise, if a magical
effect is called into existence, a tabletop GM just
draws it on the map. A LARP GM needs to physically
represent that effect in such a way that a new arrival
can look at it and make a good guess at what it might
be.
Now, while enforcing Simplicity, Playability,
Believability, Consistency, Continuity, and
Consequences in the game, the Game Committee needs to
keep in mind the game should be FUN, first and
foremost. Consequences that do not fit the action are
not much fun. It's kind of harsh to be executed for
not bowing quickly enough, but it's warranted when
caught trying to assassinate the King. Likewise, if
you try to single-handedly slay a dozen trolls, you
should probably get killed or at least captured for
your serious lack of judgment. If you learn that you
can waltz in and out of a trolls lair at will, the fun
will diminish rapidly.
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