Aaah! I'm so glad you talked about this part of the question. It was very entertaining to say the least! I'd like to add one more pet peeve to that list, as I agree with you on all of your points, and that is: mainstream copies. Basically a player who can't tell the difference between The Witcher cosplay and a larp outfit, or a guy who randomly decides to wield a foam replica of Escalibur/Mjolnir like it's nothing. If anything the more attention to detail they put in to copying the original the more it breaks my immersion.
I think there's value to be found in this sort of "airing of grievances" type of video, where nobody's being personally attacked but we acknowledge that a) we're imperfect people and we're allowed to be annoyed by things; and b) not all approaches to the game are equally valid. I've encountered a lot of these before, and I think I find plot sink play to be especially irksome--because I *want* to know what's going on, I want to see what sort of content staff has in store for us, and having it blocked just so one player can feel powerful and special, that really sucks.
Exactly, there is absolutely no benefit to not share plot out in a collaborative game. It just makes everything more difficult, especially for the plot writer who probably has to slow their plot pace down to accommodate only one brain trying to work through it. It's not fair to them as well as other players.
With Plot Sinks, you can also solve plot sinks from a ref point of view, by making the plot proactive rather than reactive. So even if a player has hold of juicy info, if they don't act on it with others - things continue to happen. Alternatively, seed information to more than one person or in more than one way. In media, Anti-heroes tend to be written-in a way that other characters engage with them for no logical reason or we as viewers, are privvy to their reasoning/thoughts. Doesn't really work in LARP, agreed. Fake bad guys... Ehhhh i'm of two opinions. Most people can justify their bad actions in order to create a 'greater good' or their vision of good, but i do like a villain whose nature is bad too. I think my main pet peeve is falling out of OOC, it's easy for someone to go ooc and to cascade from there. I love staying in character! Good talk!
I don't mind villains who think they are doing good things, I love them. I just hate villains who are being controlled by someone else more powerful than they are like an evil god. I think it takes agency away and is an excuse not to deal with consequences.
I can't agree more with every point. Like with kit snobs, at my local event we had a group of people come in for their first event. They had duct tape armor and weapons. (My group uses boffer weapons in addition to latex) One of the guys who've been in the hobby for many years talked smack about them all because of the duct tape and they over heard this... They have yet to return to our events and even left the facebook group we have all because one d-bag. People gonna remember that words have more power then they think.
That's such a sad story. If they had had a good time, I'm willing to bet their kit would have improved by the very next game. And even if it hadn't, there's no need to be cruel to anyone, but especially new players. I hope they found another game to play, I hate the idea of losing LARPers due to one bad experience.
Question. My friend, my son and I are completely fresh into larping. We're doing all of the research into history, costumes, armor, and character creation. When it comes to character creation, my friend wants to be a fighter, my son a barbarian, and myself a ranger. I'm curious about the antihero aspect of my ranger character. Whereas my friends fighter character has tons of energy and would likely be the face of our group, my character wants to stay in the dark corner and observe the surroundings, listening to the interactions, keeping curious if we can trust our sources or not. Not necessarily being as involved as the others. Would this character be one that ruins the fun for everyone? I'd like to avoid this antihero stigma that others seem to not enjoy. What advice could you give to make this character more pleasant? My true (non-character) personality is always outgoing and ready to make friends. But with this character, I'd like to take a step back and be more of an observer and one who only trusts his closest of friends.
Aaah! I'm so glad you talked about this part of the question. It was very entertaining to say the least! I'd like to add one more pet peeve to that list, as I agree with you on all of your points, and that is: mainstream copies. Basically a player who can't tell the difference between The Witcher cosplay and a larp outfit, or a guy who randomly decides to wield a foam replica of Escalibur/Mjolnir like it's nothing. If anything the more attention to detail they put in to copying the original the more it breaks my immersion.
I think there's value to be found in this sort of "airing of grievances" type of video, where nobody's being personally attacked but we acknowledge that a) we're imperfect people and we're allowed to be annoyed by things; and b) not all approaches to the game are equally valid. I've encountered a lot of these before, and I think I find plot sink play to be especially irksome--because I *want* to know what's going on, I want to see what sort of content staff has in store for us, and having it blocked just so one player can feel powerful and special, that really sucks.
Exactly, there is absolutely no benefit to not share plot out in a collaborative game. It just makes everything more difficult, especially for the plot writer who probably has to slow their plot pace down to accommodate only one brain trying to work through it. It's not fair to them as well as other players.
With Plot Sinks, you can also solve plot sinks from a ref point of view, by making the plot proactive rather than reactive. So even if a player has hold of juicy info, if they don't act on it with others - things continue to happen. Alternatively, seed information to more than one person or in more than one way.
In media, Anti-heroes tend to be written-in a way that other characters engage with them for no logical reason or we as viewers, are privvy to their reasoning/thoughts. Doesn't really work in LARP, agreed.
Fake bad guys... Ehhhh i'm of two opinions. Most people can justify their bad actions in order to create a 'greater good' or their vision of good, but i do like a villain whose nature is bad too.
I think my main pet peeve is falling out of OOC, it's easy for someone to go ooc and to cascade from there. I love staying in character! Good talk!
I don't mind villains who think they are doing good things, I love them. I just hate villains who are being controlled by someone else more powerful than they are like an evil god. I think it takes agency away and is an excuse not to deal with consequences.
I can't agree more with every point. Like with kit snobs, at my local event we had a group of people come in for their first event. They had duct tape armor and weapons. (My group uses boffer weapons in addition to latex) One of the guys who've been in the hobby for many years talked smack about them all because of the duct tape and they over heard this... They have yet to return to our events and even left the facebook group we have all because one d-bag. People gonna remember that words have more power then they think.
That's such a sad story. If they had had a good time, I'm willing to bet their kit would have improved by the very next game. And even if it hadn't, there's no need to be cruel to anyone, but especially new players. I hope they found another game to play, I hate the idea of losing LARPers due to one bad experience.
Question. My friend, my son and I are completely fresh into larping. We're doing all of the research into history, costumes, armor, and character creation. When it comes to character creation, my friend wants to be a fighter, my son a barbarian, and myself a ranger. I'm curious about the antihero aspect of my ranger character. Whereas my friends fighter character has tons of energy and would likely be the face of our group, my character wants to stay in the dark corner and observe the surroundings, listening to the interactions, keeping curious if we can trust our sources or not. Not necessarily being as involved as the others. Would this character be one that ruins the fun for everyone? I'd like to avoid this antihero stigma that others seem to not enjoy. What advice could you give to make this character more pleasant? My true (non-character) personality is always outgoing and ready to make friends. But with this character, I'd like to take a step back and be more of an observer and one who only trusts his closest of friends.
You are so right about all this.