LARP, and where babies come from.
Apr. 4th, 2011 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckykaaI actually made it to Serenity this year. Would have been very upset had I missed that. Car stuff happened and LARP stuff happened. Food was good too.
Car stuff:
Got to the site. Overshot the entrance. Turned round. There was a funny scraping noise. Parked. Noticed the engine undercover which had come unstuck. Easily resolved by taking it back to the garage that did the service, and the mechanic put it back on with zip ties while I waited. Works for me.
Food stuff:
Okay, I'll admit, I wasn't exactly as concerned about the ethics of food as I normally am. Thing is, normally I'll err on the side of caution. However, I needed bacon! And I walked past one evening and the smell of roasting pork was so delicious that I couldn't in good conscience turn that down. The other main meal was burgers. Since there was a choice including Roo, Ostrich, and wild boar, they were probably actually free range.
Shame there was no coffee in the NPC area. Will have to make sure something's done about that next time even if I have to bring my own tea making stuff. Having to go into character to get some coffee is a hassle especially if you want to chill out after doing something.
LARP stuff:
Serenity is very much a story led system. I wanted to get some decent roleplaying in so volunteered for one of the major roles for the "Little House on the Prairie" subplot. I was a gay rancher (Joshua from the "Wayne" family) involved in a relationship with a member of the "Eastwood" family* but was accused of being the father of the child of another member of that family. Seemed people were a bit unwilling to volunteer for the gay rancher. Either they didn't want such a big role or they had issue playing gay**. There were other plots. I was less involved with them. I did occasionally play a member of the other family when we went onto the range looking for Joshua. Never did find the guy. The players did too good a job of keeping me away from the Eastwoods. I was looking forward to a shotgun wedding. Actually I was looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and scrapping.
It's sort of interesting the preconceptions players seem to have about the NPC characters. Because we live on a ranch they assume we're a bunch of know-nothings. This conversation seemed to come up a lot:
Player: "You do know where babies come from don't you?"
Joshua (My character): "I live on a ranch!"
I feel I'm getting more into the Rope-laying malarkey. Hope I did okay. There was a lot of stuff in the brief that I didn't quite get across. Also it was important to get across the fact that my character was involved with another guy while also getting across that this is about family feuding, not homophobia. Other character aspects (like bossing my brother about) seemed to get pushed to the wayside. I had a lot on my plate.
The whole improvising things (i.e. making shit up) on the fly is not something that comes naturally to me but I'm getting the hang of it. It's something that requires a bit of flexibility. Never anything important. The key details of family background and relationships are dealt with in the brief. It's details. The trivialities. Someone asks what sort of steers you have. Well, that's obviously not in the brief, so you gotta make something up quickly. But you need to make it sound like you know what you're talking about. And you need to add details that don't mess with other people
The stuff that some people come up with frequently amazes me. Just little details that they can then pick up and run with. Like the farm hand who got injured in a fight decided she needed that hand for calving season. It's nothing hugely important but it gives the rest of us something to work with. Some people manage to come up with detailed stories from somewhere.
It's good to have an event I enjoy. And I like crewing. If things get on top of me I can take time out and go back in as a cockney geeza.
I really have a hankering to do more roleplay.
Will have to find a game that somebody is running.
* Yes. It is very Brokeback mountain.
** I live in Brighton and hang out with a pretty eclectic crowd. This tends to wear away your hangups about this sort of thing.
Car stuff:
Got to the site. Overshot the entrance. Turned round. There was a funny scraping noise. Parked. Noticed the engine undercover which had come unstuck. Easily resolved by taking it back to the garage that did the service, and the mechanic put it back on with zip ties while I waited. Works for me.
Food stuff:
Okay, I'll admit, I wasn't exactly as concerned about the ethics of food as I normally am. Thing is, normally I'll err on the side of caution. However, I needed bacon! And I walked past one evening and the smell of roasting pork was so delicious that I couldn't in good conscience turn that down. The other main meal was burgers. Since there was a choice including Roo, Ostrich, and wild boar, they were probably actually free range.
Shame there was no coffee in the NPC area. Will have to make sure something's done about that next time even if I have to bring my own tea making stuff. Having to go into character to get some coffee is a hassle especially if you want to chill out after doing something.
LARP stuff:
Serenity is very much a story led system. I wanted to get some decent roleplaying in so volunteered for one of the major roles for the "Little House on the Prairie" subplot. I was a gay rancher (Joshua from the "Wayne" family) involved in a relationship with a member of the "Eastwood" family* but was accused of being the father of the child of another member of that family. Seemed people were a bit unwilling to volunteer for the gay rancher. Either they didn't want such a big role or they had issue playing gay**. There were other plots. I was less involved with them. I did occasionally play a member of the other family when we went onto the range looking for Joshua. Never did find the guy. The players did too good a job of keeping me away from the Eastwoods. I was looking forward to a shotgun wedding. Actually I was looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and scrapping.
It's sort of interesting the preconceptions players seem to have about the NPC characters. Because we live on a ranch they assume we're a bunch of know-nothings. This conversation seemed to come up a lot:
Player: "You do know where babies come from don't you?"
Joshua (My character): "I live on a ranch!"
I feel I'm getting more into the Rope-laying malarkey. Hope I did okay. There was a lot of stuff in the brief that I didn't quite get across. Also it was important to get across the fact that my character was involved with another guy while also getting across that this is about family feuding, not homophobia. Other character aspects (like bossing my brother about) seemed to get pushed to the wayside. I had a lot on my plate.
The whole improvising things (i.e. making shit up) on the fly is not something that comes naturally to me but I'm getting the hang of it. It's something that requires a bit of flexibility. Never anything important. The key details of family background and relationships are dealt with in the brief. It's details. The trivialities. Someone asks what sort of steers you have. Well, that's obviously not in the brief, so you gotta make something up quickly. But you need to make it sound like you know what you're talking about. And you need to add details that don't mess with other people
The stuff that some people come up with frequently amazes me. Just little details that they can then pick up and run with. Like the farm hand who got injured in a fight decided she needed that hand for calving season. It's nothing hugely important but it gives the rest of us something to work with. Some people manage to come up with detailed stories from somewhere.
It's good to have an event I enjoy. And I like crewing. If things get on top of me I can take time out and go back in as a cockney geeza.
I really have a hankering to do more roleplay.
Will have to find a game that somebody is running.
* Yes. It is very Brokeback mountain.
** I live in Brighton and hang out with a pretty eclectic crowd. This tends to wear away your hangups about this sort of thing.
