Lit students shouldn't write LARPs
So I've been thinking again about the Eve of Ivan Kupala, the LARP that I have been not letting myself write for the past year or so. Regardless, it has been marinating in my head, and every once in a while an idea will come about plot or a character. The premise is that it is Midsummer night, or in the Russian tradition Ivan Kupala Night, which is like Halloween in that it is the night for all the supernatural stuff to come out of the woodwork, but mostly it is a big fertility festival (some sources indicate big orgy), and a bunch of young people from the villages in the area are coming together in the woods to build bonfires, sing, dance, hook up with their honeys, and maybe look for some magical herbs. Big clusterfuck of Russian folk tale characters, with a bit of a dark Gogolian twist and a dash of old Ural oddity.
So I was thinking about themes that would make sense in the context. As always, I am thinking of atmosphere, and how to preserve the flavor these folk tales and avoid Disneying them up.And then I realized what is going to be the most difficult. You can't do justice to the Russian folk tradition without embracing the inherent romanticism of the culture. And you cant have proper romanticism without tragedy. Tragic love affairs and doomed characters are at the very foundation of Russian romaticism, but as a LARP writer, I cannot see a way of exploring those themes in a LARP, especially one with magic and witches. Players generally want a happy ending for their characters, and will work hard to get them. They generally dislike being doomed, dislike sacrificing themselves, dislike not having a prayer of achieving their goals. But how do you write tragic heroes without self-sacrifice? How do you convince players of the beauty of giving up and dying of grief rather than proactively cobbling together a cure, or worse yet getting frustrated and leaving the game? To be fair, being one of those proactive LARPers I dont even know what would make me not act that way myself. How to do hopelessness and make sure that players are enjoying it rather than getting frustrated?
So I was thinking about themes that would make sense in the context. As always, I am thinking of atmosphere, and how to preserve the flavor these folk tales and avoid Disneying them up.And then I realized what is going to be the most difficult. You can't do justice to the Russian folk tradition without embracing the inherent romanticism of the culture. And you cant have proper romanticism without tragedy. Tragic love affairs and doomed characters are at the very foundation of Russian romaticism, but as a LARP writer, I cannot see a way of exploring those themes in a LARP, especially one with magic and witches. Players generally want a happy ending for their characters, and will work hard to get them. They generally dislike being doomed, dislike sacrificing themselves, dislike not having a prayer of achieving their goals. But how do you write tragic heroes without self-sacrifice? How do you convince players of the beauty of giving up and dying of grief rather than proactively cobbling together a cure, or worse yet getting frustrated and leaving the game? To be fair, being one of those proactive LARPers I dont even know what would make me not act that way myself. How to do hopelessness and make sure that players are enjoying it rather than getting frustrated?