Alice has filled!

[breakinglight11]

I just noticed that Alice filled at Festival! Huzzah! We were missing one player for, like, two weeks. You don't know how pleased and proud I am by the fact that it's a large game that has had four previous runs, and it still fucking fills.

Mike Hyde gets the award for most entertaining casting questionnaires. I am also amused by how many questionnaires list that they would prefer not to have plots involving a specific despicable thing, like rape or psychological torture, but then follow up with something along the lines of "But you probably don't have anything like that in this game." Heh. To give you an idea of the nature of the story, I began my writing process by making a list of all the horrible things I could think of to see what among them I could turn into plots.  ALICE IS THE GAME OF HORRIBLE THINGS.

I have also agreed to help run LXHS with captainecchi and electric_d_monk, about which I'm very excited. I loved playing that game and am very happy to help them. There are still a a handful of spots left for gentleman or those ladies willing to play as gentleman, so if you haven't already, I suggest you check out this excellent game!

Comments

[londo.livejournal.com]

I must have forgotten to include the synopsis of the background I wrote for witticaster-and-my Werewolf character(s). ...grammar is hard.

Anyway, ask me some time, it's pretty terrifying.

[valleyviolet.livejournal.com]

"To give you an idea of the nature of the story, I began my writing process by making a list of all the horrible things I could think of to see what among them I could turn into plots. ALICE IS THE GAME OF HORRIBLE THINGS."

This is the sort of thing you might want to make more clear in your game write up. That will let people who truly aren't comfortable with these themes self select for you. It'll limit the number of drops you get when questionnaires and characters go out. It may also attract certain people who didn't realize it was that kind of serious psychological game.

(I am assuming that you haven't substantially changed the game description since Intercon H, since that's the most recent one I can find to look at. It says "dark and twisted" but that doesn't automatically say "I stuffed it full of rape and torture" in my mind.)

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

"Stuffed it full" isn't exactly accurate. In fact, I chose "dark and twisted" because I believe it is perfectly sufficient, given how much any given thing factors.

[jh1230.livejournal.com]

My apologies if this comes across as defensive; such is not the intent. That said, you seem to have made some incorrect assumptions, and for better or for worse I tend to take it upon myself to fix misconceptions.

While your reaction makes sense based on the way Phoebe phrased things, it's also untrue. There *are* games stuffed full of rape and torture. Alice is NOT one of them.

Now, Alice IS the game of horrible things; Phoebe has accurately described its genesis. Every character is defined by at least one horrible thing, sometimes more.

NOT ALL HORRIBLE THINGS ARE RAPE AND TORTURE. Horrible things can mean suicidal tendencies, sadism, crippling addiction, moral apathy, insanity, delusional paranoia, or any number of other things, many of which are so common in LARPing as to seem comparatively normal. These are things that may not seem to the reader/player to be in the same ballpark, but from the perspective of the writer/GMs, who see the origins, consequences, and interconnections they form, these things differ more in their degree of horribleness than in whether or not they ARE horrible.

We omit this information in the blurb because we know the number of characters directly involved with any given kind of horribleness. We also know that some characters' horribleness is basically internal, and won't affect other people.

If we were to say "at least one character in this game deals with rape" - which would be the truly most accurate way to say it - frankly, many players who otherwise would enjoy the game (and might not even have any contact with rape) would not sign up.

[valleyviolet.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the clarification.

I wasn't trying to imply I think Alice is all about rape and torture. I picked those as examples based on Phoebe's post. The only reason I brought this up is that there seemed to be a disconnect between player expectations (as expressed on the questionnaires) and the nature of the game.

When I look at a game description, I want to know what I'm going to be doing at the game and what (if any) things I will be encountering that may not be in the "average" LARP. I expect to play a character, to talk to people, probably to have goals of some sort, maybe to have paper cards representing items. I don't expect to be doing massive obstacle courses unless you tell me and I don't expect to be dealing with deep psychological dysfunction unless you tell me that either.

You don't need to spell out every issue, but a general idea that "darkness" means that sort of class of horrible would be helpful ("terrible crimes and broken people" or something).

Adding a clarification to the description doesn't have to terrify people, but sometimes the point is to let people self select.

Every game is not right for every player. I understand that you may want the game to be right for all players, but sometimes you have to trust people and give them the information to make informed choices. Interested players will try to stretch for you. Truly unsuited players will stay away (rather than dropping out or being miserable at the game).

[katiescarlett29.livejournal.com]

This is awesome, go you!

I will definitely be there to watch it!

[nennivian.livejournal.com]

I just recruited one of my friends to be part of Vestival! :)

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

You did? That's awesome! Thanks!