St Forge: 3 Tips for your first Larp
ST Forge is a weekly series to help Storytellers and Game Masters improve their craft and learn new ways to engage their players. Last time, we covered how to handle PVP at the table in a positive light.
Praise be to the insane storytellers who run for thirty to six hundred players at once. Each of them started somewhere. For some it began when their number of players outgrew a single table. Try as I might, fitting twelve people at my kitchen table is impossible. For others, they began their roleplaying career in a live-action game and are still invested in that community today. Live-Action-Roleplaying-Games (or LARP), comes in a variety of flavors these days. There are classic boffer LARPs consisting of a hundred people camping in the woods for an entire weekend. Weekly Vampire: The Masquerade games that offer regular drama, corporate team-building exercises (ever been in a Primogen meeting?), and late-night shenanigans. A step further and you find full immersion LARP’s that serve as a destination vacation for gamers. Games like Dragon Thrones allow you to spend an entire weekend doing what you love, while the event planners tackle everything from food, lodging, and entertainment.
If there is no LARP where you live, and getting to one isn’t feasible, this guide can help you get started. Even if you only start with eight to nine players, the game can grow from this small amount to a large flourishing community. Yet every game starts off with a bunch of nerds pretending they can act in public.
If you are going to be a king in a LARP, might as well look badass doing so.
Image Credit: Dragon Thrones
Finding the Perfect Dungeon…and not that kind.
Unlike a tabletop game where you can paint a location with nothing more than honied words, a good LARP requires a physical location. Hosting an event for ten-to-fifteen of your friends might work out of someone’s house, but even that requires logistics (and raiding those post-Halloween day sales for props). When you get to a large amount of players (30+), you’ll probably have to charge a site fee and spend time booking and reserving rooms.
Plan this about six months out from your projected game date.
I know that seems like a significant amount of time, but it’s time well spent. Look for community centers, parks, or even local businesses that seem to be slow. Pairing up with the owner of Clued-In Escape Rooms, allowed us to host an event with a built in-dungeon experience. Local campgrounds often have lodges available for rent that are cheaper than booking a conference room for a hotel. If you CAN afford a castle for a night…uh… do it. Still, nothing beats the tried-and-true method of just donning a thousand trenchcoats and invading your local riverwalk or college for free. Once you’ve got the location, you’ve gotta set the mood with props and decorations.
Create Mini-Games
There is a golden rule of thumb that you want to average about one storyteller for every ten players in a LARP. This doesn’t always end up the case, and even that one-to-ten ratio will strain time commitments for an engaging experience. The bonus of LARP’s is that the storyteller isn’t every character in the game. With player-to-player interaction as the primary focus of the chronicle, all you need is something for the players to DO. With each other. Outside of your main storyline, plotline, and random alleyway killings—you’ll still need some minigames to keep everyone else entertained.
This is where your crafty puzzle friends come into play. Scavenger hunts, physical props to solve, or even clever riddles from the Book of Nod or a wizard spellbook are great ways to engage players and further the story without active storytelling. These events will help entertain players who aren’t currently engaged with whatever scene you are running, and will allow you to pace your evening time better. Shifting your attention to the current crisis, and then narrating the story reward for solving the puzzle when they are finished.
Even if you think your game is special and you won’t need these, do yourself a favor: make three. You don’t need to use them right away, but when you need an emergency puzzle you’ll have them ready to go. Your players will thank you.
The Larp Checklist
There are many checklists for running your first tabletop game, but I haven’t found many for running LARPs. So…without much fanfare: Here’s mine!
The Stop Stressing Checklist:
Do we have a location?
Pre-build characters a month ahead of time.
Print handy item cards and in-game power effects. (People hate carrying books).
An envelope for each player containing critical character information.
Site dressing and decorations.
Spare costume parts for friends with… struggling creativity.
Did you vet the site one-week beforehand? Does the event need to be canceled?
Did you advertise the game? If yes, cross this off. If no:
Advertise the game.
Pay, beg, bribe, and offer food to a close friend to handle check-ins / administrations.
Get one loud, boisterous person to handle announcements and play a role that is…loud.
1 storyteller for 8 players. 1 NPC player for every 10 to drive narrative. 1 mini-game for 15 players.
Is someone crying in the corner? Address that.
See that planned start time you have? Scoot that back 30 minutes and tell everyone else but yourself.
Did anyone come up with plans for mass combat? If so, end them. No mass combats unless you are a well-oiled machine.
Breath.
Remember 3-part acts work best. Intro into the event. Challenge expectations. Let players resolve in creative ways.
Have fun and enjoy your production!
Drinks are for after.
Here is the spot I ask you to share this article if you’ve enjoyed it. Because…well…have to ask at some point!
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Featured Image: Dragon Thrones
