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A larp insight
Feb. 10th, 2018 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mnemeSo a thing I've known for a while when designing Intercon-style larps:
Never, ever tell a player that their character is shy.
The problem with writing a larp character as "shy" is that the player might roleplay this characteristic. And while sure, some players can play a "shy" character and still turn it into a fulfilling and engaging experience, it's one of the easiest ways to tell a player "your character shouldn't engage in the game, shouldn't talk to other players" -- exactly the opposite of good play in most larps.
So one thing that occured to me today rewriting/editing A Vue to Kill:
It's fine to tell other people that a larp character is shy.
If you tell people that a character is shy, they're probably not going to avoid them; instead, they'll reach out to them, try to make space, seek them out and draw them in; and those -are- behaviors you want. Of course, that opens the question of how you write a game where one player doesn't know their character is supposed to be shy while other players do. My answer is that you can tell them their character is awkward around people, that they get nervous, are bookish, tend to look to other people for cues as to how to act, etc -- all those things make them -seem- shy, and fit the basic goal of making a character that other people are making an effot to talk to. But NONE of them tell them that their character avoids talking to people, which is the behavior you want to discourage.
Never, ever tell a player that their character is shy.
The problem with writing a larp character as "shy" is that the player might roleplay this characteristic. And while sure, some players can play a "shy" character and still turn it into a fulfilling and engaging experience, it's one of the easiest ways to tell a player "your character shouldn't engage in the game, shouldn't talk to other players" -- exactly the opposite of good play in most larps.
So one thing that occured to me today rewriting/editing A Vue to Kill:
It's fine to tell other people that a larp character is shy.
If you tell people that a character is shy, they're probably not going to avoid them; instead, they'll reach out to them, try to make space, seek them out and draw them in; and those -are- behaviors you want. Of course, that opens the question of how you write a game where one player doesn't know their character is supposed to be shy while other players do. My answer is that you can tell them their character is awkward around people, that they get nervous, are bookish, tend to look to other people for cues as to how to act, etc -- all those things make them -seem- shy, and fit the basic goal of making a character that other people are making an effot to talk to. But NONE of them tell them that their character avoids talking to people, which is the behavior you want to discourage.
