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

[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.

....so is that what people usually mean when they talk about how everyone else at maelstrom outside the group seems like an NPC? I'd previously always parsed that as being one of three things
a) humans aren't great with packs bigger than 40 or 50
b) the more distant characters are primarily significant in terms of the plot/trade/introductions etc they bring, to advance the game, as opposed to people in your own group who are more likely candidates for soap opera as you already know their info/goals etc
c) sadly, there are quite a lot of people whose characters are pretty 2D, whereas in your own group you play off each other and are affected by each others actions so there is more chance of percieving them as 3D and 'people'/significant rather than just as parts of the setting.

This makes me quite sad because it implies that it might be essential to belong to a group of OC friends who know each other well and spend a lot of time outside the event discussing it in order to have fun at all. :( This is all very well, but it goes against my perception of LARP as something that any (confident) individual (with a low sense of shame) should be able to turn up and have fun in, and implies it is much cliquier/more elitist than I'd imagined before (and I note it is already somewhat elitist). Also that what you do in uptime *isn't* how you interact with the game to the extent that is generally held up as ideal (100% or as close as possible, certainly IC actions 100%), that is just a facade, because having the right friends OC (rather than IC) is also a definite requirement, just as much as kit. :(

I cannot currently think of evidence disproving this (whereas most of my other first ideas as to what is different between everyone else who is having fun and me are things like 'maybe I'm too self-important/impatient so I snap sooner' but actually I'm not sure I'm significantly more of any of these individual traits than at least a few other people, in each case, who I do see having fun).

[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 have such tells and that probably, everyone does (eg: I drank Chai with my Persian group and it seemed quite novel, but I hear that the Marshalls drink a lot of Chai too) - but this seems to imply that it is not possible to get away from them ever without sacrificing most of the rest of the game alongside. :( This acts against the basic purpose of LARP for me, which is basically to seek out new life and new civilisations and to boldly go where no man has gone before. :)

[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 ;-)

It is easier to make that happen with a group of people that I already know, as I am usually selecting people who I think will buy into a certain concept and go 'hey cool'. But that is partly because I am lazy. It doesn't have to be that way at all - eg: tea and Rosie have joined different groups in Carthage with people that they haven't roleplayed with much before as far as I know. Both groups come across as having a strong concept though so clearly there has been discussion behind the scenes to decide what that concept is.

I also like roleplaying with different people, of my current Maelstrom group I only knew Tim on joining. Everyone else I didn't know at all OC but had spent some time trying to kill IC and had a lot of trust that they liked the same kind of game - although I had no idea what anyone's name was and didn't recognise faces without the snake masks. That has worked out very well as I now have a whole new group of friends/contacts - although I'm not sure I would have had the confidence to go in entirely alone without Tim or someone else as a known contact.

That said, it is hard when you are building a group from scratch though not to froth at the people you know OC and end up recruiting that way, especially if you are trying to make sure everyone wants to play the same kind of game.

[green_bryony]

So a couple of quick thoughts -

- firstly lots of people do turn up as solo characters and report having a whale of a time. So assuming that they are reporting their experiences honestly, clearly that works for many people and it is not essential to have a group. But they may be people whose brains are wired differently to mine. I guess part of the problem is that I am not very motivated to make a complex background for my character if it is just me, where as I like world building and writing group briefs and then once I have that it is easy to create a character in the context of that group brief.

- secondly, there are lots of recruitment threads on rule 7 where you can join like minded people that you have never met before. I don't think it is at all essential that you know the people beforehand or ever meet up in real life, I just need there to be a strong group concept that I can buy into. So it is not restricted to OC friendship groups - but that is often an easier way to make that discussion happen so often groups do have a core of OC friends at the centre.

In the Khemenethorus there are a couple of people who I don't think I had ever actually spoken to IRL before we all rocked up on the field to be a tribe together. But we had discussed the group online, so that was all okay and we all slipped into 'but I have known you for many years, cousin Abel' very easily.

The problem I would have with going into a group where I know no one at all is having the trust that they would want to play the same kind of game as me and be as invested in creating a group dynamic. But I could get round that if they advertised sufficiently clearly that this was a thing they were seeking to create.

The group I am thinking about joining next in Odyssey is a group in Rome where I know two people OC, from my current Maelstrom group (who I met a year ago), and Entimix, and then the rest of the group I don't know at all and the dynamic would be very new.

So I would say that there is often, but there does not necessarily have to be, an OC friendship link. What I would say is essential (for me) is having a group who are willing to discuss (usually by email) what the group dynamic and purpose will be. So that is an OC time and energy committment before the event - but IME it pays off, while not putting in the commitment leads to frustration and woe.

But, again, there are clearly many people who don't work that way so I would be cautious about basing all assessments on fest larp on my personal preferences and experience.

[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.