LARP or other Role Playing Geekery...?

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:29 am

Some geeks I know are going to things like DragonCon... I'm coming to BurningMan (community building is so much more my scthick). I was wondering if any other Burners were LARP (Live Action Role Play) friendly (this is wrt World of Darkness) and if there would be any camps or individuals planning a LARP of any sort. Would be nifty if there was a One World By Night game planned (I'm new to OWbN, so I don't know how that official schtick works.)

If you don't have anything planned but would like to see about getting something together, get in touch w/ me... maybe we can figure something out. In a city as large as ours, there's got to be enough geeks around to LARP one good game. Just need some ST's and players...

PurpleKoosh · Post by **PurpleKoosh** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 1:24 am

Speaking as someone who's been going to SF conventions for 20 years, married to someone who writes for RPGs...why? The playa is an alternate universe all on its own, without having to worry who's going to cast Obfuscate on you the minute you walk into camp.

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 4:22 am

It's mainly because I like having opportunities that I feel I can do just about anything I want anywhere I want... so I thought that if I wanted to LARP it would be neat if that was an option in BRC.

This is not to say that yes, BurningMan is DEFINITELY an alternate universe in itself... admittedly it is. I've walked around the playa as a Superhero before and people were perfectly fine w/ it.

It' was just a random thought... esp. considering I remember one year someone brought the Rocky Horror Picture Show... (which I've found to be a similar kind of crowd to LARPers.)

I also got kinda inspired when I Realized after playing a OWbN game a few times that there were all these people traveling to different places and deliberately finding OWbN games to play. Since BRC seems to have just abou everything, the thought of... "Yes, but does it have an OWbN chronicle?" came to mind.

*shrug* I just get easily amused sometimes.

Icepack · Post by **Icepack** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 8:46 am

Why not bring the materials you need, and host it yourself? Post it on the eplaya calendar and see who shows up. If you can't find someone else doing what you want to do, start it up and see if anyone joins in.

TheMuse · Post by **TheMuse** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:21 pm

I would do it! I am an uber geek... my nickname used to be RPGGoddess. Please oh please host one! You can even run it at my camp if you want... Spikes Vampire Bar

_tears_ · Post by **_tears_** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 8:15 pm

That would be fun/interesting.

Not only would you be giving people who enjoy doing it a chance, but people who may have never even THOUGHT about doing it a chance to look at something new.

I suggest you host one.

Good Luck!

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 10:37 pm

TheMuse wrote:I would do it! I am an uber geek... my nickname used to be RPGGoddess. Please oh please host one! You can even run it at my camp if you want... Spikes Vampire Bar

This sounds like a great venue. I'd definitely like to know more about your camp, RPG/LARP experience, and maybe some of your camp-mate's RPG experience. I've been playing RPG's for about 10 yrs on and off, I've been LARPing for about 4 yrs, w/ my main emphasis being in char and personal plot dev. Most of my friends seem to be STs, I've never ST'd before, though. I can likely get a quick-dirty ST tutorial and can have a plot together for perhaps a midweek and onward game, depending. I'm guessing since the bar would be Vampire related that it should likely be a Vampire game, starting at nightfall, perhaps?

If your camp is willing to host and do some advertising (I would help) this could be fun. I would likely need a co-ST/Narrator to help out, depending on who all wants to join in the fun.

Thanks for your interest!! (feel free to email or contact me w/ further info)

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:21 pm

Koosh, please don't kill me...

A few years ago, I created a 'Net-tribe of Fera called The Experiment. It started as an offshoot of Glass Walkers who decided that moveable, ephemeral Cities were the wave of the future and split off from the main tribe. They attracted some Bone Gnawers who were tired of the "down 'n out on the streets" schtick, some Silent Striders (desert nomads — natch), a gaggle of Desert Ratkin, and an errant Nuwisha who called himself Into The Frying Pan. They took Mantis as their totem and held their annual tribal concolation at Burning Man.

Mantis taught them a Rite that let them weave caern energies via a fetish called a Spindle and create tapestries and rugs that can be carried from place to place, unfurled, pitched as tents or whatever, and these were called Spindlecaerns.

So in my creative excitement, I started playing with the idea of doing a theme camp that would be home base for a week-long, 24-7, slushpile-type LARP like the Santa Cruz Vampire game used to be. I figured out that the camp would gift out bead-phalli like you see in established LARPs...players start with six beads to indicate breed/auspice/tribe and renown. These would be added to as Renown expands, players join packs (in the Experiment's parlance, "Campos") and septs ("Villagios"), acquire totems, et alia. The string would be theirs to keep and that would be the LARP camp's giftable.

I envisioned bringing my yurt and lining it with tapestries and rugs and things and it would be both the camp's identifier and an in-character Spindlecaern that the players would congregate at. Naturally to cut back on the "geek factor," there wouldn't be so many challenges; it would be more like guerilla street theatre and deep roleplaying.

Then the Opera grabbed me and I thought about it. I tried doing a standing, 24-7 deep roleplay back in '01 and it was hard. But, I kept the idea in the back of my head.

PurpleKoosh · Post by **PurpleKoosh** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:42 pm

diane o'thirst wrote:Koosh, please don't kill me...

You? Never.

diane o'thirst wrote:I tried doing a standing, 24-7 deep roleplay back in '01 and it was hard.

I think that's as much of my objection as anything else.... My very best friend was one of the storytellers for Siempre Viva in Palo Alto in the late 90s, and is on the Plot Committee for NERO Seattle. Knowing how much energy and effort he put into SV, I can't imagine giving so much of my time and energy to something like that in the middle of BRC, wherere there's already so much to see and do. (It's the same reason I've never gotten into the LARPs at BayCon....)

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:15 am

PurpleKoosh wrote: Knowing how much energy and effort he put into SV, I can't imagine giving so much of my time and energy to something like that in the middle of BRC, wherere there's already so much to see and do. (It's the same reason I've never gotten into the LARPs at BayCon....)

Would putting together a LARP at BRC be any more effort than any other theme camp/installation/project? If you handle it right you can still do and see everything you would if you weren't in character. In fact, it would probably be a great premise to get out and go around and interact and participate — you'd just be playing out a persona which is what people do out there anyway.

But that's just it...you're playing out a character!

If it was sequestering yourself and five or six other geeks in a shelter somewhere and just playing playing playing a paper game — hell yeah, waste of time, stay home! Why pay $200 each and go to all the trouble to haul all your supplies and books and MOOPable papers and dice and all just to play in a hot and dusty tent for a week?

One way to do it would be have several STs, and a slushpile of Narrators. They take shifts and go out with the players to keep the action going and adjudicate and storytell. Say, one ST shift is 8 hours, Narrator shifts are 4 hours. Have a narrator with each group and everyone on the Storytelling team is connected via radio headsets, like some Bay Area LARPs do.

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 2:29 pm

Perhaps a Changeling type LARP might be preferable? Though I know some peopel don't dig the Changelings, it might be a better fit.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 3:27 pm

Ye Gods, was that right on or what? Can you imagine the Glamour-feast something like Burning Man would provide?! It'd be a regular gravy train, plenty of Glamour for everyone, no Ravaging required!

Nockers, Pookas and especially the(e Mystick Krewe ov) Satyrs would probably be the most populous Kith there.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 3:29 pm

Ye Gods, was that right on or what? Can you imagine the Glamour-feast something like Burning Man would provide?! It'd be a regular gravy train, plenty of Glamour for everyone, no Ravaging required!

Nockers, Pookas and especially the(e Mystick Krewe ov) Satyrs would probably be the most populous Kith there.

TheMuse · Post by **TheMuse** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 6:25 pm

We are a camp of about 7 people... 5 of who I think have played before and the others could be into it too Im sure. We could do a Vampire Masquerade in the bar and other patrons wouldn't even have to know (the success would be if they couldn't tell muahahaha) but I think the deadline to add something to the playa calendar has passed

But word of mouth is a great thing and I am sure we could get a great group together on the fly. We are at www.spikesvampriebar.com if you would like to see some prelim pics of the bar (in progress)

Icepack · Post by **Icepack** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 6:33 pm

TheMuse wrote:We are a camp of about 7 people... 5 of who I think have played before and the others could be into it too Im sure. We could do a Vampire Masquerade in the bar and other patrons wouldn't even have to know (the success would be if they couldn't tell muahahaha) but I think the deadline to add something to the playa calendar has passed

But word of mouth is a great thing and I am sure we could get a great group together on the fly. We are at www.spikesvampriebar.com if you would like to see some prelim pics of the bar (in progress)

IF the deadline for the PRINTED copies of the playa calendar has passed, you can still add things to the playa calendar online. I'm sure there are folks who wait until just before they leave home and then print out the online version since it is more up-to-date than the pre-printed version that has the early deadline on it.

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 7:12 pm

diane o'thirst wrote:Ye Gods, was that right on or what? Can you imagine the Glamour-feast something like Burning Man would provide?! It'd be a regular gravy train, plenty of Glamour for everyone, no Ravaging required! :D

Nockers, Pookas and especially the(e Mystick Krewe ov) Satyrs would probably be the most populous Kith there.

Eshus too... I mean, you must have the travelers and story tellers as well :)

I know that I used some of my prevoius BurningMan experiences to flavortext my old Eshu character. :)

_tears_ · Post by **_tears_** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:14 pm

I admit i have never done something like this, but i would LIKE to try it and what a better place but Burning man? Would you accept newbies as well?

I am bringing a gothic princess type gown with me this year, would that work?

Selkie · Post by **Selkie** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:37 am

POOKA! Pooka pooka pooka pooka pooka.

I feel a pooka mood coming on.

Too bad for my poor unknowning co-workers. :twisted:

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:37 am

_tears_ wrote:I admit i have never done something like this, but i would LIKE to try it and what a better place but Burning man? Would you accept newbies as well?

I am bringing a gothic princess type gown with me this year, would that work?

Sure. I mean, you can do whatever you really want :)

Dardanian · Post by **Dardanian** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:45 am

I've tried to avoid posting here because I really did want to keep my Escapist Fantasy Format #1 (role playing) seperate from my Escapist Fantasy Format #2 (BRC). It just seems wrong.

Now that my disclaimer is out of the way...

BRC is built in a huge, flat, dark desert away from anything even remotely looking like civilization. When reading the Gehenna book, one of the last days senarios was the return of Lillith. In reading the setting I kept thinking time and time again of the Playa. The earlier book "Revelations of the Dark Mother" plays out in the desert as well.

Since the Lillith Cycle is a short one and is about spiritual transformation, wandering in the desert, and reconsitering basic assumptions about the world it MIGHT be so topical that it would stay in flavor for the event. Maybe 3 acts: A narrative/scripted acting to tell the origional story, a character conversion (or at least contact) scene, then the apocalyptic scenario from the Gehenna book to finish it off-- each done for perhaps 2-3 hours per session after dark on consecutive days?

Just a thought. I'm sure there are other stories that could be in flavor, but this is the one that comes to mind for me. It seems like it would be a waste of precious playa time to run a chronicle not set mostly in the desert, or one that is in the desert but ends up being your run-of-the-mill saturday night game type plot.

Any thoughts/alternatives?

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:59 am

Dardanian wrote:I've tried to avoid posting here because I really did want to keep my Escapist Fantasy Format #1 (role playing) seperate from my Escapist Fantasy Format #2 (BRC). It just seems wrong.

Now that my disclaimer is out of the way...

BRC is built in a huge, flat, dark desert away from anything even remotely looking like civilization. When reading the Gehenna book, one of the last days senarios was the return of Lillith. In reading the setting I kept thinking time and time again of the Playa. The earlier book "Revelations of the Dark Mother" plays out in the desert as well.

Since the Lillith Cycle is a short one and is about spiritual transformation, wandering in the desert, and reconsitering basic assumptions about the world it MIGHT be so topical that it would stay in flavor for the event. Maybe 3 acts: A narrative/scripted acting to tell the origional story, a character conversion (or at least contact) scene, then the apocalyptic scenario from the Gehenna book to finish it off-- each done for perhaps 2-3 hours per session after dark on consecutive days?

Just a thought. I'm sure there are other stories that could be in flavor, but this is the one that comes to mind for me. It seems like it would be a waste of precious playa time to run a chronicle not set mostly in the desert, or one that is in the desert but ends up being your run-of-the-mill saturday night game type plot.

Any thoughts/alternatives?

Well... I do want to say that I understand your wish to keep your worlds seperate (but then again, there are people who trip outside of BRC, and people who spend most of their time tripping inside BRC) so it's not that far off to consider another layer of reality on top of the bizarre reality of BRC.

My intentions for plot, if I'm going to be the one running/coordinating this, are to incorporate BRC and the Vault of Heaven into the plot. I'm still looking for STs at this point, though... as that I'm not sure how good I can run this on my own, though I will give it my greatest effort.

Thanks for your input.

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:31 pm

if you are interested in contributing to the LARP (either space, time or as a player) please join the yahoogroup: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/brc_masquerade/

I have one volunteer to ST, and I'm planning on STing as well.

Thanks!

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 2:44 pm

If you're going to do a "Vault of Heaven" LARP — ya GOTTA do Anthelios!

A quick and fairly easy way to do it: either a red-coloured floating candle, or a weather balloon with red lights in it. Perhaps a string of battery-powered red Christmas lights. Maybe even a glowing spiral glyph on it.

buckethead alien · Post by **buckethead alien** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 11:41 am

Who gets to play Larry Harvey?

Just asking.

phoenix13 · Post by **phoenix13** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 12:22 pm

ohhhhhh... i would be down for a changeling larp. i think that running a larp at burning man would certainly be interesting. you could probably get away with a sabbat larp as well, well, with all the fire and stuff...

but i know i would be down for rp. i also have some fellow gamer friends coming with as well... i'm sure i could certainly drag them along as well...;)

quasilaur · Post by **quasilaur** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:23 pm

phoenix13 wrote:ohhhhhh... i would be down for a changeling larp. i think that running a larp at burning man would certainly be interesting. you could probably get away with a sabbat larp as well, well, with all the fire and stuff...

but i know i would be down for rp. i also have some fellow gamer friends coming with as well... i'm sure i could certainly drag them along as well...;)

It's going to be billed as a Vampire LARP, but other WoD chars will be welcome. Please join the yahoogroup (mentioned previously in this thread) for info and other stuff. Thanks!

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:32 pm

The best news is that, unlike out here in Default Camp, if your character has a penchant for going naked, topless or otherwise, you can do that out there. The costuming options are increased a thousandfold.

Perhaps some specialized Playa powers? Here's a Gift I wrote up as part of the Experiment:

Costumerie (Second Level Gift)<.b>
Your beast-forms can pass for a well-crafted, semi-realistic costume. Crinos appears as a body puppet, Hispo appears as an art bike where the rider is completely concealed, Lupus appears as a very limber person in a four-legged wolf costume. Joints creak, eyes are glassy, teeth look plastic, velcro "flies" emerge at strategic points such as the wrists and up the back, and your voice appears to emerge from somewhere around your diaphragm in Crinos. Unawakened humans are 5 places higher on the Willpower chart when testing for Delerium. Naturally if anyone sees you shift this effect is nullified. This Gift is taught by a spirit of Artifice.
System: Perform a Mental Test against 6 traits and spend a Gnosis point. The effect lasts for a scene or until you shift (out of sight, we hope).

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:46 pm

/b>
Sorry 'bout that...

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:34 pm

Hope I'm not stepping on Q's toes here, but I didn't see any mentions...

We've pretty much sorted everything out on the game. It's going down Friday night on the Playa, as in the night before the Burn. Game On at 9PM, various locales unless we get rain, then we'll start in Center Café.

The Storyteller Team will be holding character creation sessions every night in the Café, at midnight. Look for the World of Darkness sigils on banners, or listen for howling (that'll probably be me).

As for the Game itself...

None of my campmates pitched a screaming fit and said "No!" when I told them about the game, so the Werewolf Venue will be Opera Camp, 3:30 Esplanade. Come in and ask for Wolfie. We'll be ranging the open Playa, interacting with art, people and spirits in our search for QUAN. Everyone who participates in the Werewolf game will get a string of beads to indicate your auspice, rank, renown and various Backgrounds to keep as a gift of our appreciation for your PARTICIPATION!

We will form a huge meta-pack, a Sentai as it were, and our pro-tem to-tem will be Chiron. In my game, I assumed that the War of Rage did not happen so all Fera-types are welcome to join: wolves, leopards/panthers, tigers, lions, jaguars, pumas, cheetahs, lynxes, faerie cats, bears, crocodiles, bats, aurochs, boars, snakes, rats, ravens, coyotes, foxes, sharks, falcons, spiders!

The Vampire Venue will be Spike's Vampire Bar in Center Camp, and our own Phoenix1313 is coordinating that. Black Rock City is a Sabbat City and they'll be conducting firedances and other Ritae Ignoblae getting ready to wage war on the Camarilla city of Reno!

I have it on good word from Q, our head ST, that she's digging up some nasty and tough surprises for us all so it should be a fun game!

phoenix13 · Post by **phoenix13** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 1:37 pm

yup, the sabbat thing is going to be interesting.

i've have certain rules and jurisdictions for sabbat characters. i'll have a written out version at the game. i'm still working out how to symbolize sabbat rank and blood.

if you have any concepts that you would like to be pre-approved, e-mail me at isis_dumare@yahoo.com.

i'm willing to read and approve (or disapprove if it's too outlandish) all sabbat/ anarch concepts.

LARP or other Role Playing Geekery...?

LARP or other Role Playing Geekery...?

Ultimate Argument of Logic — Mental Challenge!

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