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Submitted my article to Game Wrap Magazine
Today is the submission deadline for the first drafts of article for Game Wrap Magazine. That, you may remember, is the new yearly publication I’m on the editorial board for, “focusing on the art and craft of live action roleplaying games.” Not only am I a staff member, I am going to be a contributing writer, and I am happy to say last night I finished and sent in the first draft of my article.
My article is called “Smile and smile and be a villain: supporting the narrative function of villain roles in larp.” It’s about how villains exist to add a dimension of conflict in game, but because of that, they can be tricky to write, cast, and play. I’ve played many, many villains in my time as a larper and thought about this a lot. Therefore it is imperative that, as my thesis says, “to best accommodate their challenges and incorporate their advantages, villains should be designed and cast in such a way as to facilitate the player finding enjoyment in pushing the conflict.” In the article I enumerate what challenges villain characters can pose to serving the game and serving the player, and then I offer suggestions about how to deal with each one in turn in both the writing and the casting processes.
I feel good about my draft, though it will probably need editing. I may have not included enough examples to support my conclusions, and at times I think my language wandered off into the excessively academic. It came in at about five pages single-spaced, which meets the requested number of between three and ten. I focused on the writer, designer, and game runner’s perspective more than how players should approach villain roles. All my points are about how people on the production side of the larp can work things so that players have an easier time performing and enjoying those characters. That may have been an oversight on my part, but there is another article in the queue about villainy that I think talks about the player perspective on larping bad guys, so that may work out nicely.
I’m really excited to be contributing to this project, both as a writer and on the editorial staff. I always wanted something like this to exist, to treat larp with the respect as an art form it deserves, and actually creating content to that end makes me feel like it’s that much closer to being a reality. I’m looking forward to seeing other entries roll in, and get down to editing everything into publishable shape!
My article is called “Smile and smile and be a villain: supporting the narrative function of villain roles in larp.” It’s about how villains exist to add a dimension of conflict in game, but because of that, they can be tricky to write, cast, and play. I’ve played many, many villains in my time as a larper and thought about this a lot. Therefore it is imperative that, as my thesis says, “to best accommodate their challenges and incorporate their advantages, villains should be designed and cast in such a way as to facilitate the player finding enjoyment in pushing the conflict.” In the article I enumerate what challenges villain characters can pose to serving the game and serving the player, and then I offer suggestions about how to deal with each one in turn in both the writing and the casting processes.
I feel good about my draft, though it will probably need editing. I may have not included enough examples to support my conclusions, and at times I think my language wandered off into the excessively academic. It came in at about five pages single-spaced, which meets the requested number of between three and ten. I focused on the writer, designer, and game runner’s perspective more than how players should approach villain roles. All my points are about how people on the production side of the larp can work things so that players have an easier time performing and enjoying those characters. That may have been an oversight on my part, but there is another article in the queue about villainy that I think talks about the player perspective on larping bad guys, so that may work out nicely.
I’m really excited to be contributing to this project, both as a writer and on the editorial staff. I always wanted something like this to exist, to treat larp with the respect as an art form it deserves, and actually creating content to that end makes me feel like it’s that much closer to being a reality. I’m looking forward to seeing other entries roll in, and get down to editing everything into publishable shape!