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I was just thinking about my old LARP experiences today, and I realized that there was one that stuck out in my mind as the Best LARP Ever. Just remembering it makes me feel wistful and lures me back to LARPing again, even though I know it's unlikely to ever be as much fun again as it was that once.
See, to get the background for this, you have to know that I started playing White Wolf games back at the dawn of time. :) My first vampire game ended up being on the very first Vampire MUSH, named Masquerade, back when it first started. We found it not long after it had opened, David and I, and ended up devoting totally unhealthy amounts of time to playing on it. We ended up meeting and becoming friends with the crew who ran it at the time. David and I both played humans who got drawn into the supernatural goings-on (me as a museum curator, David as an undercover FBI agent who was investigating something else entirely) and we really had tons of fun. There was a lot of highly implausible stuff going on, but it was the very first of its kind and everyone was just making it up as we went. There were no staff dedicated to GMing stories, because everyone was expected to create their own, and anyone who got too out of hand got eaten in character by an Elder vampire whose character was kept around just for that purpose.
Anyway, after a while Masq started to implode a bit, and someone who had played there started Elysium, set in Oklahoma City. David and I got involved there and eventually ended up becoming staff and helping to run the place after it had a staff implosion as well. We were still playing on Masquerade and many of our friends from the first place came over to the second, and we all hung out together and had more fun. Somewhere in this, one of these friends suggests that I have a New Years Eve party and invite people from the MUSH to attend. Thus a five year tradition named Elycon was born, starting in my apartment and eventually branching out to where we had to get a hotel room to hold it all.
So, one of the things we'd do when people came was we'd LARP in the evenings. We didnt bother with Mind's Eye theater rules, since not everyone knew them and fewer really liked them. Instead, we'd just act things out and discuss what would happen and run with it. See, we LARPed as our characters from the MUSH, so we all knew our stats and had a rough idea of everyone else's, and we had all the relationships and history laid out so there was a commonly known and enjoyed background to work with. We did this for a number of years, and it never failed to be a hall of a lot of fun. Typically I ran them rather than play in them as I played the NPC prince on Elysium, so it was just easier that way.
The most fun I ever had though was the year I broke my leg. We still had the party, but I was still recovering from the surgery and all and hadn't the energy to really run much of anything. A friend of mine, Strangefellow, heard that everyone wanted a LARP and I wasn't up to it, so he offered to run one for me. The entire concept was as follows: this Maurader (or some other mischievious spirit from the Umbra, we were never sure) came to the hotel and changed everyone into the characters they were playing, with no memory of their former lives. Mages, Fae, Werewolves and Vampires all suddenly existed with their memories from the game and no real clue why they were suddenly here rather than where they were supposed to be, or who all these other people were -- unless the characters knew each other, in which case they tended to band up in a hurry or try to kill each other on sight. There was very little middle ground, really.
That was the LARP that saw the Troll crooning into the keg dispenser because he wanted wine instead of water. It also saw Trolls marching down the hall in lock-step, singing "Hey hey, we're the Monkees."
I was the exception. I'd missed the start of the LARP due to my leg and not knowing if I wanted to play or not, and so came out late. I was the only one who wasn't transformed, and who remembered things as it were. I saw my husband as a troll who didn't remember me, my friends as vampires from a game I'd played, and my other friends changed utterly beyond recognition. No one knew me, and I was the only one who could convince the being in charge of this change (who was vastly amused) to talk about it. He agree to change things back if people were willing, but they had to be convinced that this wasn't the way it should be -- and very few had any interest in hearing about it. The key was an object that lots of characters wanted because it could allow them to effect one major shift in reality -- thus undoing the shift we'd already had or else doing something even more dire. It changed hands more often than Halliburton contracts in Washington.
The thing that was great for me, though, was that everything was set. I knew everyone, I knew my relationship with them. I had history with them. I almost convinced a near-insane vampire (the childe of the vampire my character was ghouled/married to in the original game) of the reality of the situation, mostly because I knew every damn thing about him and he had no idea who I was. I nearly got killed three times. I made people cry when I begged David's character for the piece, knowing he didn't remember me at all and had no reason to give it to me. It was the best damn acting I'd ever done.
I miss that. I want to LARP again, but I don't know that it could ever be like that again, given the circumstances. I'm considering it anyway, but it's with the knowledge that the odds of recreating that feeling are unlikely. Part of me wants to try, though. I miss those friends, and I miss that time in my life. I can't really go back, but I wouldn't mind trying again somewhere new.
I don't know. But it really was the best damn game I've ever played.
See, to get the background for this, you have to know that I started playing White Wolf games back at the dawn of time. :) My first vampire game ended up being on the very first Vampire MUSH, named Masquerade, back when it first started. We found it not long after it had opened, David and I, and ended up devoting totally unhealthy amounts of time to playing on it. We ended up meeting and becoming friends with the crew who ran it at the time. David and I both played humans who got drawn into the supernatural goings-on (me as a museum curator, David as an undercover FBI agent who was investigating something else entirely) and we really had tons of fun. There was a lot of highly implausible stuff going on, but it was the very first of its kind and everyone was just making it up as we went. There were no staff dedicated to GMing stories, because everyone was expected to create their own, and anyone who got too out of hand got eaten in character by an Elder vampire whose character was kept around just for that purpose.
Anyway, after a while Masq started to implode a bit, and someone who had played there started Elysium, set in Oklahoma City. David and I got involved there and eventually ended up becoming staff and helping to run the place after it had a staff implosion as well. We were still playing on Masquerade and many of our friends from the first place came over to the second, and we all hung out together and had more fun. Somewhere in this, one of these friends suggests that I have a New Years Eve party and invite people from the MUSH to attend. Thus a five year tradition named Elycon was born, starting in my apartment and eventually branching out to where we had to get a hotel room to hold it all.
So, one of the things we'd do when people came was we'd LARP in the evenings. We didnt bother with Mind's Eye theater rules, since not everyone knew them and fewer really liked them. Instead, we'd just act things out and discuss what would happen and run with it. See, we LARPed as our characters from the MUSH, so we all knew our stats and had a rough idea of everyone else's, and we had all the relationships and history laid out so there was a commonly known and enjoyed background to work with. We did this for a number of years, and it never failed to be a hall of a lot of fun. Typically I ran them rather than play in them as I played the NPC prince on Elysium, so it was just easier that way.
The most fun I ever had though was the year I broke my leg. We still had the party, but I was still recovering from the surgery and all and hadn't the energy to really run much of anything. A friend of mine, Strangefellow, heard that everyone wanted a LARP and I wasn't up to it, so he offered to run one for me. The entire concept was as follows: this Maurader (or some other mischievious spirit from the Umbra, we were never sure) came to the hotel and changed everyone into the characters they were playing, with no memory of their former lives. Mages, Fae, Werewolves and Vampires all suddenly existed with their memories from the game and no real clue why they were suddenly here rather than where they were supposed to be, or who all these other people were -- unless the characters knew each other, in which case they tended to band up in a hurry or try to kill each other on sight. There was very little middle ground, really.
That was the LARP that saw the Troll crooning into the keg dispenser because he wanted wine instead of water. It also saw Trolls marching down the hall in lock-step, singing "Hey hey, we're the Monkees."
I was the exception. I'd missed the start of the LARP due to my leg and not knowing if I wanted to play or not, and so came out late. I was the only one who wasn't transformed, and who remembered things as it were. I saw my husband as a troll who didn't remember me, my friends as vampires from a game I'd played, and my other friends changed utterly beyond recognition. No one knew me, and I was the only one who could convince the being in charge of this change (who was vastly amused) to talk about it. He agree to change things back if people were willing, but they had to be convinced that this wasn't the way it should be -- and very few had any interest in hearing about it. The key was an object that lots of characters wanted because it could allow them to effect one major shift in reality -- thus undoing the shift we'd already had or else doing something even more dire. It changed hands more often than Halliburton contracts in Washington.
The thing that was great for me, though, was that everything was set. I knew everyone, I knew my relationship with them. I had history with them. I almost convinced a near-insane vampire (the childe of the vampire my character was ghouled/married to in the original game) of the reality of the situation, mostly because I knew every damn thing about him and he had no idea who I was. I nearly got killed three times. I made people cry when I begged David's character for the piece, knowing he didn't remember me at all and had no reason to give it to me. It was the best damn acting I'd ever done.
I miss that. I want to LARP again, but I don't know that it could ever be like that again, given the circumstances. I'm considering it anyway, but it's with the knowledge that the odds of recreating that feeling are unlikely. Part of me wants to try, though. I miss those friends, and I miss that time in my life. I can't really go back, but I wouldn't mind trying again somewhere new.
I don't know. But it really was the best damn game I've ever played.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 01:53 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 02:34 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 02:08 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 02:34 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 08:25 pm (UTC)From:My first thought was to try designing a one-shot along those lines, but you're right that it would be hard to recreate that situation since it requires a lot of background...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 09:46 pm (UTC)From:Of course, I'm biased on that one because I got to be the malkavian who thought he was a superhero ("Bruce!") a la "The Tick." (I'm 6'5" and 280 lbs so I can almost pull off the size). That one went twisted pretty quick, but I was unendingly amused by getting to bound around down the halls and strike a heroic pose at every corner before heading off in my new direction. The peals of laughter that normally followed were quite satisfying. :) Getting introduced to the main bad-guy character and jumping right in his face and shouting "Are you EVIL??" was also a lot of fun.