Poke Mind’s Eye in the Brown Eye

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article are solely of Mad Brew and are not necessarily the views of Mad Brew Labs, its parent, affiliate, or subsidiary blahs.  The opinions may not even really belong to Mad Brew, but this a rant and he is going to say things that will piss people off and he may or may not (most likely not) regret later.

LARP: Live Action Role Playing.  What a cool concept.  I mean what could be more fun than dressing up as your character and performing your actions as you interact with other players and the environment?  Probably nothing if you have the right people, the right rules, authentic costumes, and a controlled environment with authentic props.

My Experience

One hundred percent (100%) of all the LARPs I have participated in have disintegrated into vulgar races for power with in character and out of character squabbles bleeding over the edges into each other.  Add cheating, favoritism, hideous costuming, poor acting (roleplaying?), and the odious smell of unwashed bodies then you have a recipe for SUCK.

Do you realize people PAY for this?  I’m not just talking about the typical buy-in a player must ante in to obtain the rule books and other necessary tools for gaming.  I am talking about a cover charge to play per session.  About three-quarters of the LARPs I played in charged money to play (ranging anywhere from 3 to 10 USD).

At this point I should probably make an important distinction.  The only LARPs I have participated in are of the World of Darkness variety, and predominantly Vampire LARPS.  I have had a long love affair with the World of Darkness, and our steamy escapades stretch back to the early 90s.  I still carry a flame for the Storytelling(er) System.  Now enter the Storytelling System’s red-headed stepchild, Mind’s Eye Theatre (MET).  The title of this article should sum up my feelings for MET.

The Problems with MET

I’ve played official Camarilla games, One World by Night (OWBN), and unaffiliated games under both oWoD and nWoD rules.  The issues are always the same and I think the root of all MET’s problems can be boiled down to these three things:

1. The Premise
2. Character Advancement
3. The Player Base

In the beginning, problem 3 (the player base), was only a symptom of problem 2 (character advancement) and the genre of the World of Darkness.  Since then, the player base has grown to become a problem in its own right.  Now I will explain my theory.

The Premise

There is a lot less cooperation and a lot more struggle between player characters in MET, especially Vampire, than other role-playing games.  The premise is not everyone being united against a common threat.  It is a game of social dominance over your fellow players.

Mostly, players will gravitate towards their out of character friends and plot against the other players.  So if you game alone at a MET LARP, and do not find a group to ally with, you tend to fall prey to the cliques fairly quickly.  This of course feed directly into the next problem of character advancement and power gaming.

Character Advancement

Mind’s Eye Theatre becomes a haven for the power gamer, and I am not talking about min/maxers who can still role-play either.  I am talking about the players who really only lust to have the most powerful character in the game.  They seek to be omnipotent so they can impose their will upon other players, often because of out of character (OOC) prejudices.

But how does MET’s character advancement lead to this kind of gaming you ask?  MET allows a wide variance of power levels between characters, and those characters who have been around the longest have accumulated more experience than the character of a new player.  This rewards players who keep their characters quiet and in the background until such a time arises that they have survived the conflicts of their peers and now stand alone at the highest tier of power.

Not to mention that many venues require you to pay to play.  This can lead to Storyteller’s Greed, a syndrome where the presiding ST realizes that he or she can pry extra money from their players.  So now you can pay for a missed game and recieve its experience, or worse yet, just pay for experience.  So now you have players who only show up once in a blue moon all of a sudden becoming a monumental force to reckon with.  And now they finally come out of the shadows to prey upon the weaker characters.

I find the great chasm of experience that separates the old and powerful from the new and weak to be a great buzz killer.  Especially when you attempt to become part of the story and you have the power gamer bullying your character around. And there is nothing you can do about it.  And so the cycle begins anew.

The player sees he must attain more experience to become effective in play, so he waits in the shadows, biding his time until chance finally removes those above him in the pecking order, allowing him to stand in the lime-light.  This kills any fun a casual gamer can have as well, because if you don’t have the free time (or money) to show up and receive your XP, it could take years before you can be able to exert influence in a game.

The Player Base

To begin with, the World of Darkness is a gothic-horror setting.  So of course, “goths” are going to represent, if not dominate, the make up of the player base, especially in the Vampire games.  Then of course, we have the power gamers discussed in the previous section.

I find that many of these players have little to no imagination, and acting tends to be too dramatic or limited to the sum of their attributes and the value of the card they just pulls (or the outcome of Paper-Rock-Scissors-Bomb depending on the edition).

Now I could argue that your average Lick probably would not be into the “goth” scene, and would avoid it like a burning stake, but whatever dude, if you want your character to wear more mascara than Madonna and fishnets on his arms, it is all you.  But seriously, if I trip over those goddamn straps on your oversized, canon-legged pants again, I’m going to…

Moving on to the ladies.  Listen up gals, I know we are all pretending and acting, but I don’t have enough imagination to hide those muffin tops (but at this stage it is more like mountain tops now isn’t it) showing between the three sizes too small bustier and whatever is showing behind that slit in your PVC mini-skirt, and where did those thigh-highs end?  OH GOD, your thighs are sucking them into Oblivion!

I mean come on, I know we all want to play out our fantasies, but please use common sense when dressing yourself for LARP.  I know no one wants to see me in mascara and thigh highs!  The people that are attracted to these games have fueled many a nightmare.  And please, for the love of Caine, THINK about creating an original character!  We all cannot be Brad Pitt or Kate Beckinsale, or their vampiric characters.

The Solution for MET

I wouldn’t bitch so much about Mind’s Eye Theatre if I didn’t want it to work.  I love the concept.  And I don’t like complaining without presenting a solution to my gripe, so this is how I would run an MET LARP (Camarilla, take notes).

Change the Premise

This is probably the most difficult solution to implement.  The Storyteller needs to craft exterior forces to cause cooperation among the player characters.  These forces will tend to be NPCs.  Since it is Live Action, you need actual bodies to play the roles of adversaries, which means a Storyteller will have to pull players to fill the roles of NPCs.  This can work if you have willing players who are not in the current scene.

How a Storyteller overcomes this obstacle depends on his resources.  Having a group of players willing to be narrators works the best.  A creative Storyteller could even use cardboard stand-ups, manicans, or perhaps just simple paper tiles that denote the presence of NPCs.  The ST can then “step into” the required position as the NPC when the need arises.  This method would work best when actions need to be resolved and not as well during “free movement.”

Mentoring

I would also assign new players to mentors, old players who are willing and able to teach the ins and outs.  The mentor would be responsible for getting the new player into role-play and stitching the character into the existing narrative.

Experience Threshold

I do not think that every player should have the same experience on their character sheet.  But I do think there should only be a 10-25% margin between the highest amount of experience on a character and new characters.  This still rewards people that show up every week without fail with a slight edge but doesn’t leave new players in the dust.

Dress Code

Probably the next most difficult solution to enforce, especially if a Storyteller doesn’t like to hurt people’s feelings.  I would just state that all clothing should be appropriate, tasteful, and the Storyteller has final say on what isn’t.  Then if you see someone not wearing something up to par, pull them to the side and let them know.  If it happens again, send them home.  A third time and they are no longer welcome.  And make sure this rule is posted and visible.

Money

This rule is simple.  Don’t accept money for play.  However, I understand that sometimes venues need to be rented, so it should be pretty transparent.  Your players should know the cost, how much is collected, and where any extra money goes.  And STs sure as hell should not sell experience for money or gifts.

Listening to: Fear Factory - Obsolete – Smasher/Devourer

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