Intercon I: Thoughts on Larp Preparation

Larp preparation tends to be more involved than preparation for a tabletop rpg. There are several reasons for this.

1. There are usually more players in larps than in tabletops.
2. We usually don't know larp players as well as we know folks we gm for regularly. Even when that isn't so, larping habits are different from tabletop habits. And, one cannot cherry pick one's larp players. At Intercon, in fact, we specifically cannot turn away a person who signs up while we have an available slot. (The Intercon staff will make exceptions for extreme cases. I hope we never have to ask for such an exception.)
3. The larps we run are self contained. There is no "to be continued", although there can be sequels. Therefore, everything everyone needs to achieve their goals needs to be part of the game, unless it is built in that one or more people definitely won't achieve one or more goals. That is, generally, all players won't achieve all goals, but any given goal should usually be achievable.
4. When the gms create all the pcs, we have to write them all up.
5. When the players create their own pcs, we have to modify them and weave them all together so that the larp will make sense.
6. In addition to creating the world and the characters, we are also creating the rules for every larp we run. If I run Cthulhupunk +20 for five years, the rules don't change that much between sessions, if at all.

So, the process is as follows:

What is our deadline? With the exception of Dark of the Moon, every larp we work on is intended to be run at a specific time and place. Thus, we will be running Jamais Vu (already written, but may be tweaked) and Presque Vu (not written) for Intercon I, at the beginning of March 2009, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. We have a year.

Naturally, we aren't going to work on it nonstop. We have lives. We have jobs. We have pbems and tabletop rpgs. We have conventions to go to, movies to see, books to read -- you get the idea. So, a lot of stuff gets put off, and there's likely to be a last minute rush and a hellacious week or two before the con, where there is much stressing and sparking and snarling. It doesn't have to be that way. It just usually is.

Now, for Jamais Vu, I am resistant to the idea of adding any new characters, but there is a chance I will be convinced to allow as how one or two more won't hurt. My spreadsheet shows that there was a character we'd discussed, but never created, and we could add a sort of half character. And a few characters should be rounded out more.

For Presque Vu, we need to set up the initial spreadsheet. This should list characters by type, even if we don't yet have names. This means we need an idea of how many PCs we want. I'd prefer 20, but the rest of Team Straightjackets optional is pushing for 30. And, I do want to finish a 60 person weekend larp, so getting used to running for more people is probably a good idea.

As we list characters, we also list plots. We need enough Stuff to keep all of our players occupied and enjoying themselves for four hours. It would be better if we had Extra Stuff on tap. For example, in Ghost Fu, the larp we just ran at Intercon H, we had an extra plot that we never had to activate.

Once these steps are done, we need to write the characters. This step needs to be at least 3/4 done by, say, the end of January 2009, so we can cast sometime early February. During this time, we need to keep reviewing and tweaking plots. We also need to work on rules, including combat rules. One advantage here is that we will probably use the same combat rules that we created for Jamais Vue. This will not save us preparation time, but it does mean that we have a system already in place.

During February, we also do production. This includes character sheets, item cards, skill cards, any proppage, and so on. For cards, I expect we will use some kind of program or a spreadsheet plus a mail merge. We currently use cardstock. I don't think we will use index cards, but I could be wrong.

We will also deal with things like where each item starts, how locations are represented, and so on.

By this time, we need to be doing production on Jamais Vue as well. And, somehow, we will have everything printed, stuffed, and packed before we head out to the convention.

If possible, we will start setting up an hour before each game, and hand out character packs as players come in. Then, we will give the introduction, take questions, set things up, ant announce the start of the game.

Both Jamais Vue and Presque Vue are amnesia larps. This changes preparation surprisingly little. Such changes as there are include:

1. We do not mail out character sheets in advance. This may buy us a week of procrastination time.
2. We can do last minute recasting. This was extremely useful at Intercon F.
3. It is even more urgent to set everything up correctly, as players have no way of spotting that they have, say, an item or skill they shouldn't or don't have one they should.
4. All the PCs in the amnesia games have gender neutral names. This increases casting flexibility. It also makes writing character sheets more challenging.
5. The above combined with the amnesia means we won't explicitly script romance, and players are less likely to try to spark romance plots and more likely to focus on puzzle solving, at least until they start to get their memories back.
6. Character sheets must work as a whole, but they will probably be broken into 3 parts: Short, Medium, and Long Term Memories. Wherever possible, we will be utter sadistic bastards about the order in which people recover their memories.
7. As these are amnesia games, there must be ways for the PCs to retrieve there memories. We need to make sure to document them.

My preparation as a larp player is a little different.

1. Sign up for games asap.
2. When casting questionnaires come, fill these out and return them asap.
3. Read and print character materials as they arrive.
4. Pack all costumes and other clothing with printed material and food.
5. Make sure someone has| driving directions.
6. Get self and stuff into car on time.
7. Dramamine!