Posts
In recent
years, there have been several attempts to categorize LARPs in ways that would
help players understand what they’re getting into and help writers and
researchers talk about different game styles. I’m strongly in favor of anything
that provides more clarity of expectation, but I think that there are several
different scales on which LARPs can differ, some of which correlate well with
particular style divisions. This really struck me when I saw Freeform placed
between Tabletop and LARP, when instinctively, I tend to think of Freeform as
further from Tabletop than Secrets and Powers LARPs are, headed more towards
straight theater in many ways. Here are several axes that occurred to me. Let
me know if you think of others that are important to you.
EDIT: I wanted to clarify my intent with this post. There have been several attempts to do similar things from the player experience perspective. However, a lot of the conversations I have about LARP are comparing game structure from the writing and running perspective. This is focused more on structure and approach and less on experience.
EDIT: I wanted to clarify my intent with this post. There have been several attempts to do similar things from the player experience perspective. However, a lot of the conversations I have about LARP are comparing game structure from the writing and running perspective. This is focused more on structure and approach and less on experience.
Verisimilitude:
How much of the game is narrated and/or imagined, vs WYSIWYG? At the low end of
this scale is a classic tabletop, where all action and setting, and many
conversations are described rather than shown. At the high end are 360°
physical immersion games and boffer games, where—as much as possible—the action
is acted out and the setting is WYSIWYG.
Mechanics: When
it is not possible (or desired) for the action in game and out of game to be
the same, how complex are the mechanics that are used to resolve it? At the low
end are games where the action is simply described and happens as described, or
negotiated among players and/or GMs. At the high end are very “crunchy” tabletop
games, like early D&D or Hackmaster, where there are very detailed
calculations to determine exactly what happens.
Scope: How big is
the narrative effect of character actions in game? At the low end, this focuses
on small, mundane interactions in their lives and has little to no impact
outside the characters. At the high end, the game is about the interactions of
worlds or nations, or about saving the world from some greater force.
Secrecy: How much
game information is kept secret from the players? At the low end, the players
have access to all game materials and use this information to collaboratively
create the story. At the high end, not only is all character information for
other characters secret, fundamental features about the game world may also be
secret, and character secrets are extremely important for plot. In the middle
are games where players don’t get the sheets for other characters, but the game
meets the set expectations and secrets are not the main focus of in game plots.
Continuity: Does
the game occupy one consistent spatial location and have temporal continuity?
At the low end are scene-based games, where scenes may go backward and forward
in time and take place in a variety of locations. At the high end a game takes
place in one location or set of connected locations and time goes forward in
real time. One hour after game start in player time is also one hour after game
start in character time.
Persistence: Do
players play the same roles the whole time? At the low end of this are horde
games or some scene-based games in which players embody a variety of roles over
the course of the game. At the high end are games where players continue with
one role throughout the entire game, particularly in campaign games, where
roles may persist over many game sessions.
Obviously games can differ in many of these axes, and I’m
not particularly intending these axes to be used to score games. I’m hoping
that talking about high vs. low secrecy or scope might be useful in setting
expectations for a wide variety of LARPs.
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For a slightly different take on this, see the Mixing desk of LARP, which is doing something similar. My goal here is to use few enough terms that they might actually get used that seem to focus on some of the big differences I see come up in LARP styles.
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For a slightly different take on this, see the Mixing desk of LARP, which is doing something similar. My goal here is to use few enough terms that they might actually get used that seem to focus on some of the big differences I see come up in LARP styles.
