So much interest in Labor Wars!

[breakinglight11]

Had a fun conversation with natbudin last night about how apparently lots of people are clamoring for a spot in The Labor Wars. We could fill the game just from pre-interest alone. And since the residents of BCOS are getting priority because they are letting us use their house as the location for the run, there are even fewer up for grabs. For a weekend long this is a fairly small game, only seventeen players total. Nat suggested maybe doing a lottery from everyone who expresses interest. I think that's a very good idea, and probably as fair as we can make it. Though personally I was thinking of soliciting bribes from everyone, and only letting the people who give me the best ones in. ;-) And hey, I can always take the bribe even if there's no space left, and just say, "Sorry, my co-GMs overruled me!" Heehee.

Comments

[emp42ress.livejournal.com]

See my dream (and totally unfair) way of doing this is to take all the apps, and then only cast the player that gives us the best app for each character. Best run ever!

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

I don't see that as totally unfair. Rewarding promptness and acknowledging contributions with roles is certainly laudable, but so is casting on merit.

[beholdsa.livejournal.com]

It may not be unfair. It is, however, likely to garner bad feelings from one or more people who app'ed and who were rejected.

All other concerns aside, though, that approach would likely make for a good run.

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

The feelings concern is valid, but I've always leaned more toward rejection being a good growing experience for both the rejector and the rejectee -- taking the bad as you take the good and all that rot.

Its does make me think, however, if it would be an interesting exercise to run a LARP convention in which the players applied for all the games they were interested in, and the GM's competed for the player's slots, as opposed to vice-versa, as we generally do it today. Might be a terrible idea, but I'll have it mull it a bit more when I get a chance.

[darkoni]

That is a terrible idea. It just ... wow, I don't even want to think about it. Many games would end up not running under that variation.

[ultimatepsi.livejournal.com]

I think that's an experiment worth trying, especially if you make it clear that you're choosing players based on *character-appropriateness* not player-skill. Given that players tend to be unhappy if they don't get what they app for anyhow, you might get happier players.

[in-water-writ.livejournal.com]

I have to have someone clarify for me, but I think that is the way they do it for the ten-day games they run at MIT? I remember hearing something that at least implied that the app process was not "first come first serve."

[laurion]

There is a shortage of good new weekend long games. Be a shame to... . wait, wrong movie. In fact, with almost no new weekend games being written (at least, outside MIT), I am not surprised at the high interest level.

With only 17 characters, have you considered doing multiple runs? Is the character number an artificial, self-imposed limit, or is it that the game doesn't support more characters?

[natbudin.livejournal.com]

The game really doesn't support any more characters. I actually can't imagine adding too many more starting characters to it - it would become totally unplayable fairly fast.

If the first run goes well, there absolutely will be multiple runs. Hell, if the first run doesn't go well, there will probably be multiple runs, we'll just need to take longer to fix it before the second run.

[offside7.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of the "multiple runs" option. Or even an "as many as possible" option. ^_^

The idea of a run where tons of people apply and you pick the best match for each character intrigues me. I rememeber thinking that one thing that made one of my favorite LARPs so great was that everyone was really enthusiastic, and the characters were at least somewhat tailored to the players. So I imagine a run of this game where everyone got the character they were suited best for would be a great run.

[darkoni]

Mental note - never give you a bribe for anything.