Larpercalia plan-musings

[breakinglight11]

So I am pondering various things about planning for next Festival. And though at this early, early point I am simply thinking out loud, but I'd like to hear people's opinions on whether my thoughts might be useful.

Bernie made the suggestion that it be made known that there will be board games for play during downtime in the con suite. I like this idea as it is good for facilitating socialization. This is easy enough to arrange; just make sure that the BSCF games are present and available. This also, however, may make another idea I had more feasible.

So for the first time this past weekend I had a situation where one player just didn't show up, and we had to scrounge for a last-minute replacement. We got lucky and secured one fairly quickly, but that sure is an unpleasant situation. I was thinking that perhaps, when time draws near to the con, there can be an extra sign up that basically indicates "I am going to be in the con suite during this slot and am willing to fill in for a no-show, so if you need a last-minute player, you know who and where to look." It might be overkill a little, as it seems like most games find replacements without excessive difficulty anyway, but I think that might make the whole process more efficient, and minimize delay to the game. I envision it as possible to be on a waitlist AND be on this "pinch-hitter" list at the same time, but you're removed automatically if you get off a waitlist and into a game. If people think this might be a useful idea, I'll talk to natbudin about the technical workability of it.

The most important thing I think we need to gauge is the number of player openings we want in each time period. Using the very useful data kindly compiled for me by bronzite and Nat, and comparing it to my own observations of the website post-Festival, it seems like between sixty and seventy-five player openings per time slot is about right. In certain higher-participation slots, which seem to be Saturday afternoon and night and maybe Friday evening, the number would be on the higer end of that range. In certain lower-participation slots, like Saturday morning and Sunday, the number would be on the lower end. Heck, it would probably be smartest to push it down to fifty-something for Sunday.

And I'm thinking of making a point of finding someone who would be willing to throw an extra, probably smaller game up on the schedule if we find ourselves getting close to the con and there are still lots of interested people without a game. It would be understood that this game would only get put up if there seemed to be unusually long waitlists; otherwise, this person willing to GM would probably be sitting that slot out. This would allow us to err on the side of helping games to fill while still having a contigency to include anyone who didn't get into anything.

I also would like to encourage people to bring new games this year, or at the very least games that have not been run at Festival before. This would cut down on the "I've played everything interesting in that slot already" trouble that I think we had a bit of this year.

Does anyone have any opinions on these things? Suggestions? Desires? Issues you want resolved? Let me know, so they can be included in the planning process.

Comments

[yunafonfabre.livejournal.com]

Caveat: I am completely unwilling to ever be lead GM on a game again under any circumstances.

That said, I can make you an offer I've made before: I can show up with some "instant games," short pieces with low player requirements that come in a box. Just give the GM twenty minutes to prepare and everything else just runs right out of the box. Some have been run as part of Festival Fast-Forward, but a lot of them haven't.

I'd also be willing to work in the con suite and serve as a last-minute substitute. Not really planning on signing up for anything really but I know sometimes a part just has to be covered, and I figure another pair of hands in con suite is always welcome if that doesn't happen.

Lastly, if it looks like you're going to have players with nothing else to do, I could run a Following Light improv session. It's not a LARP, but it can accommodate 6-12 people and they don't need any prep time for it whatsoever. All I need is an empty room.

(Still remembering INTERGALPOL, a mystery game where it became impossible to trace the path of the gun because one player just plain didn't show. Even two hours' notice would have let me fix things, but not ZERO notice ...)

[laura47.livejournal.com]

did this pinch hitter idea come independently of those of us in KFT on friday night discussing it? Cause if so, that's eerie. That issue has been driving me mad, I *wasn't* able to find enough replacements at intercon, and I think it's a wonderful idea as long as it doesn't make people think it's more okay to drop.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I was going to comment here saying that I was part of another group that discussed pinch hitters last weekend!

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Apparently lots of great minds were thinking alike!

[darkoni]

Con suite would obviously need to be in a room with tables if you are going to have board games around.

The pinch hitter thing sounds interesting. However, I find it weird sometimes that people are available to do that when some games didn't fill completely.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Being a LARPer doesn't mean you're willing to play any game no matter what. There are games out there I have no interest in playing, even if it keeps them from being full. *shrug*

[darkoni]

There are games I am not that interested in, but if I'm not doing something else and it would help the game run well, I'll likely sign up so that it can.

Maybe the game will surprise me.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

And both philosophies are valid. :)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

The only problem I see with the pinch LARPer situation is a mindset among players of, "Oh, it's okay if I drop, there's someone set to fill in for me," in situations where they otherwise would put extra effort into playing. I don't know how much to suspect this would happen, but I'm sure it's nonzero.

[valleyviolet.livejournal.com]

Even excluding more serious issues, when you have a game including 20+ people and 10% of the population of North America regularly suffers from migraine headaches (for example), losing people to sudden illness is sometimes unavoidable. Some things like migraines are also exacerbated by environmental conditions like pressure fronts that precede storms, so you can end up with a whole slew of dropouts through no fault of the players.

I think you'll find that most people realize they're leaving others in the lurch in a very bad way if they don't show (and thus they should give as much notice as possible), they just don't have much of an alternative if they are genuinely unable to be there.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry if you felt somehow attacked by my comment above, but if you re-read it I'm sure you'll see that I made no indication that people who drop games out of medical/financial/etc necessity are in any way 'bad'. Outside of necessity, though, circumstances can often mount up to make it inconvenient for someone to attend a game, and the amount of inconvenience they are willing to put themselves through in order to stay is (I suspect) quite different if they know there is a player ready to fill their character's role. In those situations, doing what is convenient is less likely to ruin the game. Therefore, I predict that if pinch-gamers are instituted and publicized, we'll see more convenience drops than before. The necessity drops are unaffected by this and will stay the same.

[electric-d-monk.livejournal.com]

Yes, people drop for legitimate reasons, sometimes at the last second.

Yes, there's a sizable portion of the population that realizes the myriad problems that can arise from drops, and will avoid it unless absolutely necessary, and will do their best to inform the GM's if they have to drop.


However, there are two big 'buts.'

First, while those 'heavily involved' in the hobby are fully aware of the problems that may arise from dropping, not everyone belongs to that population, and not everyone is really aware of that. First time LARPers, those that play an occasional game but have never GMed or help run a LARP con, whose social circle isn't full of primarily LARPers... there is a notable, non-zero population that is covered by that, and they're not necessarily going to be aware of just how many issues dropping can cause.

Secondly, to put it bluntly, sometimes people are just flighty, or flaky or irresponsible and don't care if they ruing things for others.


There was at least one drop issue this year that falls, best case scenario, squarely in the 'didn't know better' category.

Best way to deal with outside of the players control, legitimate real reason they can't make it drops is to have a pool to draw from. It's also probably the best solution to the flakes and irresponsible sorts...

But those that don't know better... letting them know and cluing them in really seems like a good idea. There is the caveat that stressing the point to thoroughly needs to be avoided, don't want to really scare off the first timers and less involved players, but at least making certain they know really seems like a good idea.

[valleyviolet.livejournal.com]

Part of my point in bring this is up is that I think most people immediately jump to the conclusion that any drop at the last minute means a player "just didn't feel like it" and was too self centered to understand what their lack of attendance does to everyone else. As someone who often has to travel hundreds of miles to attend events, I find that social stigma very painful to bare if I'm not physically capable of keeping my commitments.

I understand that there are some people who don't know better or who are less committed to the hobby, but I get frustrated by the automatic assumption that they are the majority or that they are some sort of force of nature that can't be altered.

Instead of railing against the players who we consider irresponsible, possibly we should be working to make sure they are invested in the game (and thus want to be there) and conscious of the disruption their absence will cause (so more likely to give notice if they can't).

[yunafonfabre.livejournal.com]

It doesn't make me angry when a player drops at the very last minute unless they make a habit of it.

What makes me angry -- or, at least, resentful -- is when a player drops with no notification. Even if it's only sending a message with someone else. I've had game starts delayed by ~30 min. because a major character was missing ... had I known, I could have had one of the GM team grab the character sheet. It's one reason I always tried to have one more GM than I really needed.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

It did feel like there was this weird perfect storm of people dropping at the last minute. Was it just that I noticed it more, or is it always like this?

[darkoni]

This felt very weird to me. I don't usually have last minute drops, right before the game. Scarlet O'Hara and Buttercup were last minute replacements for us, dragged out of the con suite I think.

We lost one player due to illness and the other was a flake. The one who was ill was going to try to make it late if she could.

[lightgamer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was only able to fill my last-minute drop in Sunnyvale thanks to serendipity. I think having pinch-hitters around seems like a good idea. I think that flaking out on games (especially within a week or so of game) is abhorrent and that we shouldn't do anything to encourage it. However, there is a difference between flaking out and being violently ill, or being cursed by the travel deities, or other such "circumstances beyond one's control." As long as we make it perfectly clear that the pinch-hitter pool is for replacing people who MUST drop and not people who WANT to drop, I think we'll be fine.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

How do we make that clear? What stops me from waking up on Sunday morning to an email from a friend saying, "Let's get brunch!" and me calling up the con and saying, "I got a flat tire, I'll be way too late for game!" and running off for pancakes? This is obviously an extreme example, and certainly not something I'd actually do (brunch can happen any weekend; LARPs are special! ;) It's a psychology thing. The resource is there; it's going to weigh in people's decision-making.

I'm not at ALL arguing against the use of pinch-LARPers, just making it clear that this will be a Problem.

[ultimatepsi.livejournal.com]

I've often informally left myself free for a slot to be a last minute add at LARP cons, and would appreciate having a way to indicate that to GMs. There exist some small games, like "The Road Not Taken" that I'd be willing to run as a contingency GM. Having a board game room increases my willingness to be flexible about having a game in every slot.

[ninja-report.livejournal.com]

I agree with the concept of pinch-hitters (something I also debated this weekend). Especially since we're on campus, there's the potential likelihood of "Oh, I had less homework than I thought/professor gave a random extension/don't need to do that 'til later" surprise that precludes signing up for games in advance but not pinch-hitting.

Though I'd suggest in terms of lists that there be one person who everyone (players and GMs) knows is the person to go to for pinch-hitting. There were occasional miscommunications in ConSuite about how many were needed in what games and when things were filled. If one person knows what's going on and everyone knows they're the person to go to, makes things easier.

(Though I am slightly amused by the concept of "Okay, you're in ConSuite and are available to pinch-hit! Place this blue sticker on your head!" so GMs can easily run in and grab players.)

The major problem with pinch-hitting is that, as juldea said, not everyone wants to play every game. If you're a pinch-hitter, do we require that you're available for every game in the slot, even if one deals with themes you aren't comfortable with? How do we make it necessarily fair for the pinch-hitters but not have it be just like super-waitlists? (I have some ideas, but they're complicated and this post is very very long already.)

[londo.livejournal.com]

Festival will grow next year over what we had this year if games are advertised more than a month in advance. People sign up more readily for an actual list of stuff than they do for "oh, well, it was good last year."

Also next year you probably won't conflict with learnedax's wedding.

[darkoni]

Ealier advertising and signups will increase the people who attend. I'd say plan to open signups in January if at all possible, February at the latest. That will also give an indicator of whether you might need to add some more games, and a time frame in which you can try to do that.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

i continue to think that this really is just too soon after Intercon. I really think you'd get more people if they had more time to recover after Intercon, based on conversations I've had with some of my friends.

[londo.livejournal.com]

Can anything be done about this at all? Moving Intercon for Festival is unlikely, and moving Festival later... it could be moved to the fall maybe, but putting it a week or two later might run into Brandeis finals, which is poor what with it being a Brandeis-based institution.

[natbudin.livejournal.com]

You never know. I hear learnedax gets married pretty frequently these days. (Sorry, learnedax, it was right there...)

Anyway, I would definitely agree it would be a good thing for Festival to get things advertised and going way earlier - January if at all possible. I've already talked about this in an earlier comment thread on this journal, but there are a few major things that need to happen in order for that to be possible: games have to be bid earlier, and the con com needs to be mobilized and doing stuff earlier too. But it's definitely possible IMO, and probably would be a good plan.

[offside7.livejournal.com]

It's really hard to predict which would be the greater effect. Will the number of spaces being filled be larger than the number of people who will be more willing to drop? Or vice versa?

If I had to guess, I would probably say it's worth it to have the spots filled more quickly and more easily. (GMs would be able to spend less time trying to track down a player and get the character information out sooner.) Additionally, right now it seems GMs will mostly just grab the first person who is willing, but if you have a list to work with, you'll be more likely to find someone who actually wants the role.

[electric-d-monk.livejournal.com]

On boardgames...

I do think having boardgames available is a good idea, but I have two notes on the issue.

First, I would put at least one vote towards keeping con suite and board gaming separate but adjacent spaces. Board games + room of people not interested in board games going for food including sticky things like soda = possible problems. (and as others have noted, tables are very important for this)

Second, while I think it is a good idea, I wouldn't count on it having a massive effect on the amount of socialization at Festival. I suspect the big impediment is the need to commute off campus, both for getting actual meals and at the beginning/end of the day.