And another project starts to get very real

[jducoeur]

Two days until Intercon O signups open (if you don't have a membership yet, get it now). That's going to become more and more a focus for me, since I'm finally diving back into LARP writing, after several years away from it

Comments

[jducoeur]

As you say, we're not likely to come to consensus here, but your points are valid. "Small" artforms are much more varied, for better and worse -- for instance, these objections are often leveled at performance art, and for many of the same reasons: it's often *very* challenging, varies a lot from instance to instance, and is more likely to cross subjective lines of good taste.

As for unpredictability: absolutely true, you're right that I can't control what the players will do. I hope that, by being clear with folks that this is a down-to-earth, serious game, I'll get players who treat it in that spirit -- frankly, it makes for a better run when the players are sympatico with the intent of the author. But that trick sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. (It's worth noting that the same is true of theater as well, albeit usually to a considerably lesser degree.)

I should note, BTW, that all of this is why we (in this case, the Bid Committee that evaluates proposals for the con) pay a fair amount of attention to whether a game has appropriate trigger warnings, and gives a clear sense of what it's about. The sort of reaction you're having is *not* unusual, although it is more frequently a reaction to sexual or gender-identity issues than violence ones. We try fairly hard to make sure that players can judge whether they will find a game personally unpleasant. (Fortunately, having ten tracks at Intercon means that it's usually easy to avoid a game that is a bad fit.)