Mood music.

[saxikath]

My father has often said, and I agree, that it is impossible to be grumpy while listening to a Strauss waltz or a Rossini gallop. To that, I would add Too Hot to Handel, the gospel/jazz Messiah I've mentioned here before. I know, I know, why would you do something like that to the Messiah? But it really works. And I love listening to it, especially when walking down the street; I find it's one of those things that changes my gait as I listen.

Not that I especially needed degrumpying today. I'm actually in quite a good mood, for once. Had a one-off tabletop RPG session led by dcltdw last night (and including desireearmfeldt and, er, Bill, whom I hadn't met before and whose LJ, if extant, I don't know), which was a blast. I was pleased but completely unsurprised to discover that dcltdw makes a great storyteller/GM.

I admire my friends who can GM and write plot for LARPs and all. I love coming up with characters, but I completely suck at plotting. I feel a little guilty sometimes at the amount of playing I do without staffing or GMing in return, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be as good a staffer/GM as I like to think I am as a player. So I sew, instead. :)

Long weekend. Yay!

Comments

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

I still need to get your input on Broadway. In my copious free time... :)

[dcltdw]

One of the interesting tidbidts I got from one of the novel-writing books I read was: plot is easy, if you focus on conflict and work backwards.

We-ll, I'm not so sure how much I believe that. ;) But I think it works well for tabletop. For a novel, you want a tightly focused AND compelling plot. Waaugh! But for tabletop, you have a lot more flexibility -- if for no other reason you want to give your players flexibility.

So I sorta feel like you can reduce tabletop (or larp) plot to The Impetus and then the plot kinda takes care of its own, because the players run with it. And getting The Impetus is easy: just look around. Last night, it was "there's something making people sick. And they get sick because they drink water. They get water from the well, and the water's gone bad because of a thingy. And someone has put the thingy in there. And the way they do that is a weird magical thing that the characters will never figure out, but who cares, because the thingy leads straight to The People who did this thing, which they did by accident. I wonder if they'll get to The People in 3 hours. Hmm."

Basically, start from where the PCs are, and figure out the path they'll take to find the source of the conflict. But then expect them to short-circuit your path, because players are smarter than you. :)

[dcltdw]

oh, but I forgot my point: The Impetus was "small animals got sick".



I suspect this is where veteran LARP plotwriters scream NO OH MY GOD DON'T LISTEN TO HIM. :>

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't. LARPs and tabletop is all about the conflict, whether physical, mental or social. It does depend on the game, but usually there is a Problem (tm) and the PCs have to figure it out.

[dharklady.livejournal.com]

I wish I could boil down how I think up plot for LARPS in just few words but I can't. There is no one good method. I don't even use the same method everytime. This weekends ToV plot is coming from the method of "Oh shit 3 LARP games on the same weekend and we are getting the short stick!" Sometimes plots just naturally come from ideas about the world, othertimes roleplaying with folks, and yet othertimes I have to think and mull and brood about a plot until inspiration hits. Then we throw them to the wolves (known as our staff) to tear apart with logic and rebuild it. And once it hits the players it almost goes as intended (the worst time was when we sent out all our cast as Betrayers Legionnaires in a fighty plot and the players hemmed and hawed and decided not to attack us since we had the better ground...after 45min of standing there- so we left.)

It also really depends on the type of players you have. Veteran LARPers who understand what happens behind the scenes are MUCH easier and more forgiving to write plot for then young'uns who simply want to win. Plus they make their own plot which can be good and bad :D

Anyways enough with my boring discourse. I'm glad you had fun and I can't wait to see you at ToV and Prophecy! (I'm assuming you are pre-regged for Proph? We should figure out cabins, food, and the like...)