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I went Fabler, Frender og Fiender (Fables, Friends and Foes), a one night larp with a little more than 25 players and a lot of food yesterday. Set in the fables comic universe we were in the Norwegian fable town to celebrate Rememberance Day. I was Briar Rose from New York and was part of the American group of fables come to secure good friendship with the Norwegian fables. So far so good, right? Now comes the problems:
1. I was invited along by Prince Charming, who at the time was shacking up with me, and the other people in the traveling party was Bigby, Snow White and Cinderella. The problem with this is that they all have functions, they have plans and they have reasons for being there. My character is a side kick in the comic, when she's there at all, and the character they gave me was little more than that. She was secretly in love with Prince Charming and she wanted to live happily ever after. That's it.
And of course that worked at this one night larp, but the rest of my known players had plots and schemes and reasons for being there, while all I had was a love-sick side kick character with no job and very little personality. I decided to make her very interested in politics, which was fun since all my heartfelt sentiments were taken up and incorporated in Prince Charming's political platform so suddenly I was standing there defending him and helping him win the election of Fabletown North. And I made her smart, but idealistic. All that was fun to play, but again, if I hadn't been larping for more than 8 years and known that basically, if you don't have a character that works you've got to develop it by yourself, I would have been bored.
Now, instead, I threw tantrums whenever someone tried to use me as a pawn in their scheme (which happened surprisingly often), demanded to speak with whomever I wanted to speak to, discussed stuff that wasn't supposed to be openly discussed, and forced my way in on secret meetings.
2. The second problem is a much more general one, but still important for me as well: The problem with larps with big players, secrets and plots is that the people in charge; Snow White, Bigby, Askeladden and a few others, ended up locking themselves in a room and doing the important stuff, leaving most of the larp in the dark as to what was really going on, and amputating the game for most of us. It happens often, and it hardly ever works. The game seems important for all the people in on the secret meetings, and kinda dull and annoying for the people who have to wait for someone else to decide what they're supposed to do and what's going on.
3. The organizers decided to throw in the adversary and his men in black. I think it was a problem because it led to much more of problem 2, and it made everybody else's very real and, prior to the attack, important plots uninteresting because we were all going to die. Also, most of us weren't even let in on the important conversations of how we were going to defend ourselves and were stuck in the room outside. Basically, it crippled the game for me, and I think for a few others. I thought it took away more than it gave back to the game and would have liked it better without the big scary bad guy showing up at the end and killing us all (more or less).
When that is said: I had a lot of fun. I got my heart broken, I was betrayed by all my friends and I got to fall asleep and take most of the larp with me. Oh, and I got to say stuff like "I demand to be here. I'm the real victim here!" or "Cindy, I'm not talking to you right now. I'm just telling you, so you'll stop trying to make me feel better." and "I want you out of my house! Out of my life you bastard!" and of course: "Even when I get pricked in the finger, causing everyone to fall asleep it's not even about me. I'm fucking tired of being used all the time!"
1. I was invited along by Prince Charming, who at the time was shacking up with me, and the other people in the traveling party was Bigby, Snow White and Cinderella. The problem with this is that they all have functions, they have plans and they have reasons for being there. My character is a side kick in the comic, when she's there at all, and the character they gave me was little more than that. She was secretly in love with Prince Charming and she wanted to live happily ever after. That's it.
And of course that worked at this one night larp, but the rest of my known players had plots and schemes and reasons for being there, while all I had was a love-sick side kick character with no job and very little personality. I decided to make her very interested in politics, which was fun since all my heartfelt sentiments were taken up and incorporated in Prince Charming's political platform so suddenly I was standing there defending him and helping him win the election of Fabletown North. And I made her smart, but idealistic. All that was fun to play, but again, if I hadn't been larping for more than 8 years and known that basically, if you don't have a character that works you've got to develop it by yourself, I would have been bored.
Now, instead, I threw tantrums whenever someone tried to use me as a pawn in their scheme (which happened surprisingly often), demanded to speak with whomever I wanted to speak to, discussed stuff that wasn't supposed to be openly discussed, and forced my way in on secret meetings.
2. The second problem is a much more general one, but still important for me as well: The problem with larps with big players, secrets and plots is that the people in charge; Snow White, Bigby, Askeladden and a few others, ended up locking themselves in a room and doing the important stuff, leaving most of the larp in the dark as to what was really going on, and amputating the game for most of us. It happens often, and it hardly ever works. The game seems important for all the people in on the secret meetings, and kinda dull and annoying for the people who have to wait for someone else to decide what they're supposed to do and what's going on.
3. The organizers decided to throw in the adversary and his men in black. I think it was a problem because it led to much more of problem 2, and it made everybody else's very real and, prior to the attack, important plots uninteresting because we were all going to die. Also, most of us weren't even let in on the important conversations of how we were going to defend ourselves and were stuck in the room outside. Basically, it crippled the game for me, and I think for a few others. I thought it took away more than it gave back to the game and would have liked it better without the big scary bad guy showing up at the end and killing us all (more or less).
When that is said: I had a lot of fun. I got my heart broken, I was betrayed by all my friends and I got to fall asleep and take most of the larp with me. Oh, and I got to say stuff like "I demand to be here. I'm the real victim here!" or "Cindy, I'm not talking to you right now. I'm just telling you, so you'll stop trying to make me feel better." and "I want you out of my house! Out of my life you bastard!" and of course: "Even when I get pricked in the finger, causing everyone to fall asleep it's not even about me. I'm fucking tired of being used all the time!"
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