Wules for Weaving a Warp
May. 30th, 2006 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mneme posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
labcatsI've been mulling over some rules for larp character design, expanding on advice that was given when I started this stuff, but working into it insight earned through play. Note that my use of "push" and "pull" is intended to describe my principles, as the best words I could come up with for them, rather than indending to match the terms "push" and "pull" as used in the theory sphere.
1. Push: They must have a relevant, and ideally, unique way of impacting the game. Usually, this amounts to a unique power, but regardless, the player must have a way to treat their character as a tool to impact the game, and the character must therefore have some ability that lets them Do Stuff. Not always the same stuff, but something.
2. Pull: The character must have something they can provide other characters, which nobody else can provide, or as well, thus giving people a reason to interact with them. They must be able to do something for others, and have something about them that causes them to be sought out and be part of the weft of the game, rather than constantly having to work to stay part of things rather than be swept aside.
3. Tension. The character should have an important choice to make -- often, one that affects their personality and destiny, and usually, frontloaded by the game design, not simply emergent in play. This should be a choice stemming from their character -- stability vs growth, greed vs vengence, or love vs honor, and the choice shouldn't be predetermined -- the player should be free to make the choice based on their own judgement. [It's possible to provide system support for such choice-making -- frex, you could have two combat cards that each couldn't be used without tearing up the other one]. As exemplified by "greed vs vengence", villains need not have cruxes that lead them away from villainy, though they might. (Note that I wrote this before I renamed the rule "tension" -- it could be reworded using that, rather than the choice between the things causing the tension, as the most important thing.
4. Flex: the game should not have any crucual moving parts; no player should be dependant on any one other player for all their fun. This isn't exactly redundancy -- by rules 1 and 2, it's crucual that every player have an impact on, and be involved in the game, and by rule 3, their choices should matter, but a necessary prerequisite for this is that the game should continue to function even if they make the "wrong" choice, or even if one character isn't there at all, for all intents and purposes (including actuality). Usually, this means that things should be organized in venn-like sets where each character is involves in multiple "Circles" -- if one fails to conform to expectations (perhaps the "lover" is uncomfortable playing out romance; perhaps the subject of vengance got sick), they should be able to turn their attention to another and still have a game.
1. Push: They must have a relevant, and ideally, unique way of impacting the game. Usually, this amounts to a unique power, but regardless, the player must have a way to treat their character as a tool to impact the game, and the character must therefore have some ability that lets them Do Stuff. Not always the same stuff, but something.
2. Pull: The character must have something they can provide other characters, which nobody else can provide, or as well, thus giving people a reason to interact with them. They must be able to do something for others, and have something about them that causes them to be sought out and be part of the weft of the game, rather than constantly having to work to stay part of things rather than be swept aside.
3. Tension. The character should have an important choice to make -- often, one that affects their personality and destiny, and usually, frontloaded by the game design, not simply emergent in play. This should be a choice stemming from their character -- stability vs growth, greed vs vengence, or love vs honor, and the choice shouldn't be predetermined -- the player should be free to make the choice based on their own judgement. [It's possible to provide system support for such choice-making -- frex, you could have two combat cards that each couldn't be used without tearing up the other one]. As exemplified by "greed vs vengence", villains need not have cruxes that lead them away from villainy, though they might. (Note that I wrote this before I renamed the rule "tension" -- it could be reworded using that, rather than the choice between the things causing the tension, as the most important thing.
4. Flex: the game should not have any crucual moving parts; no player should be dependant on any one other player for all their fun. This isn't exactly redundancy -- by rules 1 and 2, it's crucual that every player have an impact on, and be involved in the game, and by rule 3, their choices should matter, but a necessary prerequisite for this is that the game should continue to function even if they make the "wrong" choice, or even if one character isn't there at all, for all intents and purposes (including actuality). Usually, this means that things should be organized in venn-like sets where each character is involves in multiple "Circles" -- if one fails to conform to expectations (perhaps the "lover" is uncomfortable playing out romance; perhaps the subject of vengance got sick), they should be able to turn their attention to another and still have a game.
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Date: 2006-05-30 10:23 pm (UTC)Thanks!
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Date: 2006-05-30 11:32 pm (UTC)Hmmm...I clearly see where encouragement is emphasized in pull. I'm a little less clear on push, though. I've had characters who had plenty of power, but were completely disinterested in the plot of the game. Such a character can be boring to play, and even be dangerous to the game, "Well, I don't have any goals, so I'll just screw around and interfere with everybody else because I need to do something." I see encouragement here as something inherent in the character, the plot, or the way they interact which makes the character desire to take action.
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Date: 2006-05-31 09:04 pm (UTC)