[UA] UA larp

[James O'Rance]

Royal Minister of Stuff <yokeltania at yahoo.com> said:

 >>>When the time came, my friend tossed off the jacket to reveal the
wings (to the applause of a few of the other characters) and the asshole GM 
said he flew into some spikes and got impaled or something.<<<

Sorry to hear that.

 >>>I once spent a couple hours at a Changeling game bouncing around
from player to player trying to get them to say something or include me in 
some conspiracy or, well, anything.<<<

Here's a controversial idea: if you can't find an "in" to a conspiracy, make 
crap up. Talk about invented details as though you'd overheard somebody 
else's conversations, or pretend to read something from the briefing notes 
that many games provide to each character, and other players may assume that 
it's a valid part of the game.

Furthermore, once people know that you're involved in one important plot 
(eg, you're one of the few who know that a strange woman has been asking 
after some duke) they're more willing to include you in other stuff.

I don't deny that there are serious problems for some players, especially in 
cliquey games. If you understand why people are acting the way that they do, 
you can often figure out a new approach, though. I don't see that forcing 
people to interact with you will make for a more pleasant roleplaying 
experience, but I haven't tried it; maybe I'm wrong.

 >>>However, not everyone is charismatic and not everyone has LARPing 
buddies.<<<

Advice of the "how to win friends and influence people" type works just as 
well in a gaming environment than anywhere else. It is hard for the socially 
awkward, because larp/freeforming relies so much on social skills, but you 
can also learna lot from it.


 >>>Problematically, in many LARPs, I don't think there are very many 
secrets. If someone writes a UA LARP, I hope they remember to include 
some<<<

Secrets are an example of cool stuff that PCs can have. Each PC needs cool 
stuff. Not giving it to them is poor design.

I'm hoping that a UA larp/freeform would be written by someone who 
understands this.

 >>>I'm gonna try for a "quick-start/make-your-own PC" style game.  This is 
against everbody's advice, of course, but I assure you I listened to every 
printed word of it.<<<

Good for you. At least you've made an informed decision.

Cheers,

James O’Rance
“Divine being creates petting zoo. It gets out of hand.”
- The Bible (summarised by John W. Mangrum)

http://www.geocities.com/dragon-dreamer/



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