Stand blah

[breakinglight11]

So in The Stand, a lot of the plot in the game is driven by what dead people or distant characters or otherwise NPCs did in the past that has had strong consequences on the PCs. There's this one NPC who I knew when I originally conceived of it would be the author of some troubles in game due to some personal issues. But as the game developed, I discovered that this character could create even more plot if I made it have even worse issues. I keep making the character more and more twisted because it develops more storyline with every twist. But it's really funny to me how screwed up this person has become given my original plan, and especially given the outward persona the character had. Twisted for my convenience!

Why is that I write a larp, then don't write a larp for a year, then write TWO LARPS AT ONCE GAH DYING OF WRITING... then I write a larp, then don't write a larp for a year, then write TWO LARPS AT ONCE GAH DYING OF WRITING again? I am not sure this is the healthiest pattern. It does mean, however, that by Intercon K I will have been an author for six games-- Alice, Oz, Paranoia, Labor Wars, Resonance, and The Stand. Four four-hours, one six-hour, one weekend-long. Three alone, three in groups.

One kind of game I've been wondering about lately is the conversation game-- the sort of game where there isn't really plot, but the whole point is to just roleplay out interpersonal relationships. Generally I perfer games with more narrative than this kind, but I have had fun in them in the past. I wonder if I could write one that was sufficiently engaging to be fun even without much plot. It feels like not having to worry about plot so much would be a welcome break, but probably creating enough substance to just make the interpersonal relationships interesting enough to carry the conversation would be just as hard. It would be an interesting challenge for me. Maybe at some point I'll try to write one. Something short, like two hours, just to see if I could do it.

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[londo.livejournal.com]

One of the best roleplaying experiences I ever had was in a game called "Symposium" in which there was no plot whatsoever, only six non-fictional historical characters having dinner.