What I Did At ODC Parts 2 and 3 (of 4)

[zebbiejohnson]

Being more of the Epically Long Report about my failure to locate the correct things to do to make ODC work for me, including death and pharaohs.

Comments

[green_bryony]

Thank you for posting these, I have found them interesting and useful for reflecting on my own game

[zebbiejohnson]

Oooh....that is something I had never considered - that people are effectively using their group in order to proxy being in a small larp system with only a limited population who know each other well/are 3-D *within* the greater fest larp. At which point, I can totally see that the fest larp being bigger becomes an asset because one of the major limitations of smaller larps is lack of monsters/only being able to simulate a few aspects of the rest of the world at a time from the refly side. For example, TT would be much more awesome if there were a fully physrepped merchant venturers/warlocks guild/whatever *actually* plotting a few streets away (even if any one pc didnt speak to them much) rather than all of them being in the refs heads and a couple occasionally seeing play where that simulated plot intersects

[zebbiejohnson]

It also makes me very sad because in an ideal world I would always LARP entirely with strangers because I find larping with people I know well gives me strong "oh look it's that actor that was in the other thing, do you remember, the one where she was that guy's mother" syndrome which works against immersion in the same way that coke labels on the bar of the Wessex Arms do. This was partly why I chose to go with Persia rather than Egypt at ODC, because I know the people I grouped with less well and so their actions are more unpredictable to me and thus less OC (whereas I am really quite used to larps or even real life with you and Timb swiftly involving drums, some storytelling and Timb having a duel, for example, regardless of setting - it is definitely not that these things are bad or unfun or that I don't want to ever do them, but that when they are brought into the game in any reality rather than being an emergent part of it, when I see them I recognise them as recurring approaches and it jolts me un-IC a little). I am sure I also

[green_bryony]

I think the key thing is not 'people I know OC', but 'people who are willing to build a world with me, and/or have already created a world that I want to buy into'. Where by 'world' I mean group concept, maybe that says a lot about how I approach the game

[green_bryony]

So a couple of quick thoughts

[zebbiejohnson]

"I would be cautious about basing all assessments on fest larp on my personal preferences and experience."

I appreciate that but I also appreciate ideas, especially as it seems quite plausible that I will not otherwise be able to notice what the missing qualit(ies) that I lack relative to others who do 'get' fest larp is, due to missing it.

I am now wondering what would happen if I went to the LT again, as I do not recall getting anything like as actively bored at the Gathering as I do at PD events, even though I often also didn't actually do very much either, and wondering if either my playstyle or self have changed sufficiently in the meantime that now I would get very frustrated there too, or if it is also partly a PD-games issue.