October Review Challenge, #14 - "What’s a piece of yours you feel got slept on?"
Oh, Christ. All of them.
Okay, kidding. Though I wish people would pay more attention to the stuff I've made. People are really resistant to trying new media. GO OUT AND WATCH AND READ MY STUFF, OKAY? IT'S REALLY GOOD AND I WANT THE ATTENTION ON IT.
Anyway, for real. Among my pieces that I always felt were better than they generally got credit for, I would have to say my cowboy larp, The Stand. I finished it back in 2011, after playing in a western game that I thought had potential but didn't quite live up to what I wanted it to be. I've always liked westerns, even though I think the genre needs updating to tell meaningful stories in the modern day, and I put in an effort to do so in this game. I had been writing larp, alone and in groups, for some time by this point, so my sensibilities were fairly well honed. I came up with some fun mechanics— the way you could travel to various locations to investigate in the surrounding terrain, the little mini game where you could wrangle wild horses. And I wrote some really meaningful story.
The game is set in the late 1840s, during westward expansion and just before the Civil War. There was a lot of interesting stuff about how people use power in a situation where authority and law was what you made it, and how people interacted with war and injustice. I did my best to meaningfully include characters who were Native American, Mexican, and black instead of allowing it the history to be whitewashed, especially given the big political issues of the time period. I had a resolution that one third of each racial group present in the game would play a heroic role, one third would play a villainous one, and one third would be a shade of gray. At the time that seemed fair to me, a way to hold myself accountable, though these days I am very, very cautious about villainizing characters from marginalized groups. And I know I am more educated about racial representation now than I was a decade ago, so I'm sure I made mistakes. If I were ever to run it again, I'd make sure it was carefully edited for any possible failures on that count, but I do recall trying my best. Still, there were a lot of really rich characters in the game, with interesting conflicts, relationships, and mysteries to unravel.
I ran it three times. It was kind of a big game, so I worried about it being hard to fill after that. And while I got a fair bit of positive feedback immediately after, it seemed like it kind of immediately left everybody's mind. Nobody much talked about it afterward, and I don't think anybody ever heard of it by word of mouth. I guess the experience didn't stick, which makes me sad. I'm not exactly sure why. The best I can come up with is that the style of larp was very conventional for narrative "secrets and powers" games, to use Nat's term, and the western genre didn't exactly light a fire under anymore.
Still, I'm quite proud of the game. And I have good memories of it. Haz Harrower-Nakama and Ada Nakama were legally married during one run of it, playing characters who were romantically involved. I got such a kick out of that. And![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
natbudin wrote a song called "Stand and Deliver" from the perspective of central character Malcolm Royce, who was called upon to make a stand against a gang of bandits that were threatening the town. It's a really good song, available now on Blue Sky, Nat's latest album on Bandcamp. Those things are pretty serious honors, so I guess I should count my blessings. It means a lot when people emotionally engage with one's work in any way. It's basically the thing I want most in the world from people.
Oh, Christ. All of them.
Okay, kidding. Though I wish people would pay more attention to the stuff I've made. People are really resistant to trying new media. GO OUT AND WATCH AND READ MY STUFF, OKAY? IT'S REALLY GOOD AND I WANT THE ATTENTION ON IT.
Anyway, for real. Among my pieces that I always felt were better than they generally got credit for, I would have to say my cowboy larp, The Stand. I finished it back in 2011, after playing in a western game that I thought had potential but didn't quite live up to what I wanted it to be. I've always liked westerns, even though I think the genre needs updating to tell meaningful stories in the modern day, and I put in an effort to do so in this game. I had been writing larp, alone and in groups, for some time by this point, so my sensibilities were fairly well honed. I came up with some fun mechanics— the way you could travel to various locations to investigate in the surrounding terrain, the little mini game where you could wrangle wild horses. And I wrote some really meaningful story.
The game is set in the late 1840s, during westward expansion and just before the Civil War. There was a lot of interesting stuff about how people use power in a situation where authority and law was what you made it, and how people interacted with war and injustice. I did my best to meaningfully include characters who were Native American, Mexican, and black instead of allowing it the history to be whitewashed, especially given the big political issues of the time period. I had a resolution that one third of each racial group present in the game would play a heroic role, one third would play a villainous one, and one third would be a shade of gray. At the time that seemed fair to me, a way to hold myself accountable, though these days I am very, very cautious about villainizing characters from marginalized groups. And I know I am more educated about racial representation now than I was a decade ago, so I'm sure I made mistakes. If I were ever to run it again, I'd make sure it was carefully edited for any possible failures on that count, but I do recall trying my best. Still, there were a lot of really rich characters in the game, with interesting conflicts, relationships, and mysteries to unravel.
I ran it three times. It was kind of a big game, so I worried about it being hard to fill after that. And while I got a fair bit of positive feedback immediately after, it seemed like it kind of immediately left everybody's mind. Nobody much talked about it afterward, and I don't think anybody ever heard of it by word of mouth. I guess the experience didn't stick, which makes me sad. I'm not exactly sure why. The best I can come up with is that the style of larp was very conventional for narrative "secrets and powers" games, to use Nat's term, and the western genre didn't exactly light a fire under anymore.
Still, I'm quite proud of the game. And I have good memories of it. Haz Harrower-Nakama and Ada Nakama were legally married during one run of it, playing characters who were romantically involved. I got such a kick out of that. And
natbudin wrote a song called "Stand and Deliver" from the perspective of central character Malcolm Royce, who was called upon to make a stand against a gang of bandits that were threatening the town. It's a really good song, available now on Blue Sky, Nat's latest album on Bandcamp. Those things are pretty serious honors, so I guess I should count my blessings. It means a lot when people emotionally engage with one's work in any way. It's basically the thing I want most in the world from people.![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}