Consequences
>against the night,
I did the first run of my B5 freeform over the weekend. Just like Serpent of Ash which influenced it, one or two players didn't seem to get it, but the others did. The theme of self-sacrifice emerged well, as did the theme of humanity e.g. what does it's survival mean? (the continuation of it's genetic code? the continuation of it's culture?), what does it mean to be human? (e.g. can humans from other worlds, telepaths or aliens be human in some sense?) The closing moments did seem to get the deep level of emotion I was aiming to hit, despite technical failure.
I plan on sharpening the briefs up a little, but keeping it mostly the same for the next run (at Mittelpunkt in January)
>freeforms generaly
I found the freeforms a mixed bag. In some ways, they suit me better than uk larp mainstream (less gamists, no power progression, etc). However, some (not all) of them are still heavy goal-based. Some seem to boil down to the old larp puzzle of 'try to get alone with X so you can murderise them.' or the slightly more advanced puzzle 'spread gossip against X.' I also dislike the use of item cards rather than even low-grade props,
The one I think I most enjoyed playing over the weekend was 'The show must go on,' (set 1930's backstage at a small town threate, just after a murder) which managed to put me into a tough emotional dilemna just before the end. It was also notable for making use of a flashback technique, which is very unusual for the UK. It also benefitted from all the actor cliches to draw upon.
What most of the freeforms still seemed to lack which I felt I needed to really enjoy them was an underlying theme to give them a deeper meaning. I really don't think this is a particularly high brow concept for role-playing. WW (which is about as mainstream as it gets) has been saying this for almost two decades now.
>In other news
I'm out in the trenches again tomorrow over in the far side of bristol. I'm expecting lots of worried customers since the the changes to the law concerned our benefit rules came in today (and so have been in the news).
I did the first run of my B5 freeform over the weekend. Just like Serpent of Ash which influenced it, one or two players didn't seem to get it, but the others did. The theme of self-sacrifice emerged well, as did the theme of humanity e.g. what does it's survival mean? (the continuation of it's genetic code? the continuation of it's culture?), what does it mean to be human? (e.g. can humans from other worlds, telepaths or aliens be human in some sense?) The closing moments did seem to get the deep level of emotion I was aiming to hit, despite technical failure.
I plan on sharpening the briefs up a little, but keeping it mostly the same for the next run (at Mittelpunkt in January)
>freeforms generaly
I found the freeforms a mixed bag. In some ways, they suit me better than uk larp mainstream (less gamists, no power progression, etc). However, some (not all) of them are still heavy goal-based. Some seem to boil down to the old larp puzzle of 'try to get alone with X so you can murderise them.' or the slightly more advanced puzzle 'spread gossip against X.' I also dislike the use of item cards rather than even low-grade props,
The one I think I most enjoyed playing over the weekend was 'The show must go on,' (set 1930's backstage at a small town threate, just after a murder) which managed to put me into a tough emotional dilemna just before the end. It was also notable for making use of a flashback technique, which is very unusual for the UK. It also benefitted from all the actor cliches to draw upon.
What most of the freeforms still seemed to lack which I felt I needed to really enjoy them was an underlying theme to give them a deeper meaning. I really don't think this is a particularly high brow concept for role-playing. WW (which is about as mainstream as it gets) has been saying this for almost two decades now.
>In other news
I'm out in the trenches again tomorrow over in the far side of bristol. I'm expecting lots of worried customers since the the changes to the law concerned our benefit rules came in today (and so have been in the news).