Shetra?
Overall fantastic event. Really enjoyed most of it. Post about good stuff possibly forthcoming (if I remember to write it).
Since its a popular subject right now and I have a lot to say about it...
Shetra.
I would like to start by apologizeing for being as negative as I was on Saturday night after the Shetra. I do have an intense dislike for this NPC (more in a min), and I let it get to me. I was too angry and aggressive in expressing my dislike.
So in the interest of being constructive, I’d like to contribute my problems re: Shetra in as even a manner as I can.
1. Shetra is mind control. This one isn’t that bad, but being a “willing” servant of the web is a bit of a sticking point for me. I have a natural aversion to plot that tells me how I feel or think, because I then have to fight against any actual feelings or thoughts I have in the interest of following the plot direction. I’d be fine on this matter if the Shetra was in full control but you were not expected to be willing, just fully physically controlled. I’d still fight just as hard against my friends while begging them to help me instead of telling them how great the web is.
2. My philosophical issues with the Shetra and it’s implications. This is the long one that is really the sum up of why I became angry. To start, I am 100% fine with loosing. As stated above, I even accept it’s our own fault we lost, since we did the fight very poorly. The problem is based on perspective. I see the PCs in a larp as protagonists of the story. Be they good guys, bad guys, crazy, whatever, they are who the whole story is about. The NPCs, no matter how powerful, are the supporting cast that makes the story about the PCs interesting and fun. The Shetra, by it’s very design, changes this dynamic.
If only a few PCs are taken, the PCs remain the main characters and are seeking to retrieve a fallen friend. At a certain tipping point, however, the Shetra becomes completely impossible to beat by the PCs who remain free. At this point, the rate at which PCs become Shetra’d becomes exponentially greater, resulting in the entire town breaking and suffering an unrecoverable defeat. From here, the PCs are totally unable to affect their own story. The only option remaining is to call in the super powerful NPCs to come to the rescue.
As long as a reasonable number of PCs remain free, this situation is undesirable but tolerable. What happens, however, if only 5 PCs survive and 95 are captured? The PCs, unable to be free from the Shetra and unable to further affect their own story, have become NPCs. The story then shifts from the PC as protagonist to NPC as protagonist who must save the PCs and put things back in order. Why then, when presented with these people who can so easily do what the PCs can not, are the PCs the heroes of the story? Clearly the PCs were no match for the Shetra and no match for the NPCs who defeat them to set the world right again. Why do these NPCs not solve the world’s problems instead of relying on the PCs?
5. Disconnection from the game. Stopping the game for safety was necessary. It would have been irresponsible of staff to let people sleep in the cold wet woods and it was necessary to end the game to get them safe. Now, let’s look at this assuming the event was in june, where it was 65 degrees and dry that night. The Shetra has now ended the game anyway. If there are not sufficient PCs to make a dent in the Shetra, no plot can occur. For 100% of the captured PCs, no plot is occurring. Yes, I can talk to other PCs or talk to the Shetra. However, I have been told to fundamentally alter my character so all my interactions are really just filling space to keep me marginally entertained and prevent lapsing out of character. Any ongoing plot has ground to a halt. Game is still on, but might as well be over.
4. Lastly, I know that the Shetra is fun for some people. It’s not fun for me. I know that I cannot plant my view of fun on others, and vice versa. What I want to do is to play a character that I designed and worked on for however long I have had said character. The prospect that I can be permanently captured and forced to play a character other than the one I designed is abhorrent to me. If being captured by the Shetra gave you the option of serving the web or passing to death’s gate when the web was placed on, then you would give the option to the people who find this plot to be no fun to get out. Perhaps even no choice when the web is placed, but at dawn the next day you can opt to die instead of remaining webbed. Giving me the choice to do something other than be a minion (for the reasons above) would be a huge boon. It would not go fully in the direction I would prefer, but again, my fun and the fun of others are not required to be the same.
Since its a popular subject right now and I have a lot to say about it...
Shetra.
I would like to start by apologizeing for being as negative as I was on Saturday night after the Shetra. I do have an intense dislike for this NPC (more in a min), and I let it get to me. I was too angry and aggressive in expressing my dislike.
So in the interest of being constructive, I’d like to contribute my problems re: Shetra in as even a manner as I can.
1. Shetra is mind control. This one isn’t that bad, but being a “willing” servant of the web is a bit of a sticking point for me. I have a natural aversion to plot that tells me how I feel or think, because I then have to fight against any actual feelings or thoughts I have in the interest of following the plot direction. I’d be fine on this matter if the Shetra was in full control but you were not expected to be willing, just fully physically controlled. I’d still fight just as hard against my friends while begging them to help me instead of telling them how great the web is.
2. My philosophical issues with the Shetra and it’s implications. This is the long one that is really the sum up of why I became angry. To start, I am 100% fine with loosing. As stated above, I even accept it’s our own fault we lost, since we did the fight very poorly. The problem is based on perspective. I see the PCs in a larp as protagonists of the story. Be they good guys, bad guys, crazy, whatever, they are who the whole story is about. The NPCs, no matter how powerful, are the supporting cast that makes the story about the PCs interesting and fun. The Shetra, by it’s very design, changes this dynamic.
If only a few PCs are taken, the PCs remain the main characters and are seeking to retrieve a fallen friend. At a certain tipping point, however, the Shetra becomes completely impossible to beat by the PCs who remain free. At this point, the rate at which PCs become Shetra’d becomes exponentially greater, resulting in the entire town breaking and suffering an unrecoverable defeat. From here, the PCs are totally unable to affect their own story. The only option remaining is to call in the super powerful NPCs to come to the rescue.
As long as a reasonable number of PCs remain free, this situation is undesirable but tolerable. What happens, however, if only 5 PCs survive and 95 are captured? The PCs, unable to be free from the Shetra and unable to further affect their own story, have become NPCs. The story then shifts from the PC as protagonist to NPC as protagonist who must save the PCs and put things back in order. Why then, when presented with these people who can so easily do what the PCs can not, are the PCs the heroes of the story? Clearly the PCs were no match for the Shetra and no match for the NPCs who defeat them to set the world right again. Why do these NPCs not solve the world’s problems instead of relying on the PCs?
5. Disconnection from the game. Stopping the game for safety was necessary. It would have been irresponsible of staff to let people sleep in the cold wet woods and it was necessary to end the game to get them safe. Now, let’s look at this assuming the event was in june, where it was 65 degrees and dry that night. The Shetra has now ended the game anyway. If there are not sufficient PCs to make a dent in the Shetra, no plot can occur. For 100% of the captured PCs, no plot is occurring. Yes, I can talk to other PCs or talk to the Shetra. However, I have been told to fundamentally alter my character so all my interactions are really just filling space to keep me marginally entertained and prevent lapsing out of character. Any ongoing plot has ground to a halt. Game is still on, but might as well be over.
4. Lastly, I know that the Shetra is fun for some people. It’s not fun for me. I know that I cannot plant my view of fun on others, and vice versa. What I want to do is to play a character that I designed and worked on for however long I have had said character. The prospect that I can be permanently captured and forced to play a character other than the one I designed is abhorrent to me. If being captured by the Shetra gave you the option of serving the web or passing to death’s gate when the web was placed on, then you would give the option to the people who find this plot to be no fun to get out. Perhaps even no choice when the web is placed, but at dawn the next day you can opt to die instead of remaining webbed. Giving me the choice to do something other than be a minion (for the reasons above) would be a huge boon. It would not go fully in the direction I would prefer, but again, my fun and the fun of others are not required to be the same.