Davids LARP event self-assessment form.
Sep. 2nd, 2002 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davywavyIn the light of Gencon, it got me thinking about the ‘event’ LARP games I’ve run and the quality of them. I’ve filled out a self-assessment form on them all, but I’d be interested to read others’ opinions of them as well.
Hallowe’en 1998: “Hellfire”. Grade A. 150 players
The first event game (in fact the first LARP game) I ever ran, and I got it right first time. The timings, NPCs and plot were all bang on, and the risk run of linking UKM and Cam into the same continuity paid off in spades. Success first time round led to Hubris, naturally...
GenCon 1999: “Bad Moon Risen”. Grade D. 312 players
A poor game, and the only thing I’ve ever run where I got complaints afterwards. I could make excuses – the person who told me they’d prepared 200 pregens was lying and had actually only produced 4 (total) unusable characters; I was the only person on the agreed reffing team to show up at GenCon that year, and so on. However, the plot itself was second rate, and I learned that you cannot run a game with NPC-driven plot. It has to be player driven, or you’re doomed. I was doomed, as I relied on NPCs to make all the plot and there just wasn’t enough for the paying customers to do.
Hallowe’en 1999: “Hellfire 2 – The way of all Flesh”. Grade B. 50 players.
I’d learned a lot. Not as good a game as the first, but sequels never are. However, ripping off M.R. James for plot never hurts anyone and the player base, though small, was a good one. Very positive, and boded well for the future.
GenCon 2000: “Diablerie on the Orient Express” Grade A++. 21 players.
I have no doubt in my mind that this is the best thing I’ve written in my entire life; every single strand tied, no loose ends, no questions. The players seemed to agree, and reffing it was a very satisfying experience.
GenCon 2000: “The Succubus Club” Grade B+. 200 players.
Still some teething troubles with big games, but we’re getting there. Splitting the PCs up into coteries /domains as well as clans is working, and we can develop for the future. The plot worked well, and involved most of the people there, as far as I could tell. Administratively it was a nightmare, but we worked on that.
GenCon 2001: “The Thirteenth Sign”. Grade A-. 150 players.
The best of the big games we’ve run: the admin worked, and we had a competent team of refs overseeing the players. The entire plot was player driven in reaction to information and events and, despite the fact that it turned into a bloodbath at the end; they all seemed to love it. England beating Germany 5-1 halfway through didn’t hurt the atmosphere either.
GenCon 2002: “Garou of the Baskervilles”. Grade B+. 21 players.
Not as good as Diablerie, but then, sequels never are. I can’t help but think I could have done better if I’d spent as much time on it as I did on DotOE – that took me 6 months, and I wrote this one in 3 months. It needs work to tighten up the plot, but it was good. Oddly, the players seemed to disagree with me, and being told by the guy who organises LARP at GenCon that it was the best game he’d played in in the last 4 years was very pleasant.
GenCon 2002: “322”. Grade B. 100 players.
We were badly scuppered by serious writers block from the entire team, and declining numbers attending GenCon as a whole- for once we had too much plot for the number of players! Coupled with poor planning overall, printers not working, information not going out, and a minor domestic with the wench (thankfully sorted) halfway through the game conspired to make it not all it could be. The most positive thing I could come up with out of it was a bitch of a plot idea for next year.
Come to it. I promise an A+ game to as a goodbye to GenCon in London.
Hallowe’en 1998: “Hellfire”. Grade A. 150 players
The first event game (in fact the first LARP game) I ever ran, and I got it right first time. The timings, NPCs and plot were all bang on, and the risk run of linking UKM and Cam into the same continuity paid off in spades. Success first time round led to Hubris, naturally...
GenCon 1999: “Bad Moon Risen”. Grade D. 312 players
A poor game, and the only thing I’ve ever run where I got complaints afterwards. I could make excuses – the person who told me they’d prepared 200 pregens was lying and had actually only produced 4 (total) unusable characters; I was the only person on the agreed reffing team to show up at GenCon that year, and so on. However, the plot itself was second rate, and I learned that you cannot run a game with NPC-driven plot. It has to be player driven, or you’re doomed. I was doomed, as I relied on NPCs to make all the plot and there just wasn’t enough for the paying customers to do.
Hallowe’en 1999: “Hellfire 2 – The way of all Flesh”. Grade B. 50 players.
I’d learned a lot. Not as good a game as the first, but sequels never are. However, ripping off M.R. James for plot never hurts anyone and the player base, though small, was a good one. Very positive, and boded well for the future.
GenCon 2000: “Diablerie on the Orient Express” Grade A++. 21 players.
I have no doubt in my mind that this is the best thing I’ve written in my entire life; every single strand tied, no loose ends, no questions. The players seemed to agree, and reffing it was a very satisfying experience.
GenCon 2000: “The Succubus Club” Grade B+. 200 players.
Still some teething troubles with big games, but we’re getting there. Splitting the PCs up into coteries /domains as well as clans is working, and we can develop for the future. The plot worked well, and involved most of the people there, as far as I could tell. Administratively it was a nightmare, but we worked on that.
GenCon 2001: “The Thirteenth Sign”. Grade A-. 150 players.
The best of the big games we’ve run: the admin worked, and we had a competent team of refs overseeing the players. The entire plot was player driven in reaction to information and events and, despite the fact that it turned into a bloodbath at the end; they all seemed to love it. England beating Germany 5-1 halfway through didn’t hurt the atmosphere either.
GenCon 2002: “Garou of the Baskervilles”. Grade B+. 21 players.
Not as good as Diablerie, but then, sequels never are. I can’t help but think I could have done better if I’d spent as much time on it as I did on DotOE – that took me 6 months, and I wrote this one in 3 months. It needs work to tighten up the plot, but it was good. Oddly, the players seemed to disagree with me, and being told by the guy who organises LARP at GenCon that it was the best game he’d played in in the last 4 years was very pleasant.
GenCon 2002: “322”. Grade B. 100 players.
We were badly scuppered by serious writers block from the entire team, and declining numbers attending GenCon as a whole- for once we had too much plot for the number of players! Coupled with poor planning overall, printers not working, information not going out, and a minor domestic with the wench (thankfully sorted) halfway through the game conspired to make it not all it could be. The most positive thing I could come up with out of it was a bitch of a plot idea for next year.
Come to it. I promise an A+ game to as a goodbye to GenCon in London.
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no subject
Date: 2002-09-02 03:32 am (UTC)That's looking at them purely as mysteries. As games, they were both great, though if I were to be picky, it would be better (in both cases, actually) if the venue matched the IC location better.
Robert
no subject
Date: 2002-09-02 03:40 am (UTC)Next time, I do something different.
As for venue, I agree. But it was almost much worse this year, as we almost got given the LARP area on the ground floor.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-02 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-02 05:07 am (UTC)"we had a competent team of refs overseeing the players"
competent - nice to get such high praise. apparently its the one time I've shown fear as an ST when that 40 person wedge turned up for a kick off ;-)
no subject
Date: 2002-09-02 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-02 01:08 pm (UTC)I can understand why you feel a bit dissatisfied with your games. It's a feeling I've been having with Cambridge Changeling of late - a bit like I've run out of envelope to push, that I can't take the game anywhere bigger and better. However, and I guess this advice would apply equally to me, it's important to remember that the players still had a great game and a lot of fun. In the light of that, you shouldn't feel too bad because you didn't quite live up to your own very high and increasingly higher standards.