Immersion in Larp

I've been talking a lot on how my larp experience have changed after attending the Dragonbane larp.
A year later I also went to Knudepunkt in Denmark, where I was even more influenced by how we can improve Larps over here.
Since those days I've been sold on the immersion thema and done my best to introduce it in my games.
With the new Empire larp in the UK upcoming the team, under leadership of Matthew Pennington started to look into how they can improve their game. The below video is one where Matthew talks about immersion.



It's a great watch/listen for anyone new to the term immersion in the larp world.

Player organised IC get together

I was browsing the Dumnonni Chronicles forum when I saw a discussion about an IC Social get together.

Seems some people think that if players come IC together it might ruin the actual game itself.

Well I disagree. Nothing is more fun than players coming together IC to socialise IC. They may even make big plans, forge alliances, try to kill one another (without really killing someone as that should be reserved for during the actual game), ...

For Manticore we've always allowed that (we even encourage it) and most players even invite us (the crew) to attend. When we have time we gladly accept the invitation and create an NPC character for ourselves.
For players it's always nice when crew attends since we can then give them some extra background information, mostly concerning their own group. We do try to make everybody equal be making that info either group specific or publishing the given info in the IC newspaper.

One of the fears that some crew have is that people would undertake actions that might break the game. But I don't understand this fear. Players can always secretely come together (IC or OOC). At least when the crew knows about the get togethers they can invite themselves :-) and check that everything goes well.

Most notoriously of all player IC get togethers I participated in must be the annual Rafiki's Birthday party each August. In 2008 there was even a murder attempt on Rafiki, without actually killing him. Result: the players who attended it were even more anxious for the next Manticore event.

I believe that the crew should be thankfull that players want to organise IC get togethers. It proves that you have players who really enjoy your fictional world and want to spend time in that world. What better praise can there be? :-)
It also means your players want to prepare themselves for the next game, meaning better IC-ness on their part.

This makes me remember Dragonbane, the day before the game started we were already IC-ish, which helped us get to know each other better in RL (we only knew most of the other players from the internet). Get to know the IC names of everybody etc. All in all the end result is in most cases better IC moments and immersion.

The only caveat of IC get togethers and crew attending is that the crew might give those attending the get together some advantage. Here I mean that the crew can give some background info that is specific to some plot of the (next) event. Crew should take caution to make sure that (a) the info they give is solely intended for the given playergroup or (b) that the info will be distributed via an IC newspaper or such.
As it would else be unfair to those players who are unable to attend/organise IC get togethers.

Let me know if I missed something major :-)

Dragonbane II

While pondering about Dragonbane I posted on Facebook that I'd love to get some idea if there would ever come a Dragonbane II. One of the former team-members of Dragonbane then posted that I'd probably had to do it myself if I wanted a DBII.

Since I'm never scared to take up a challenge I'm asking you: "Would you be willing to travel all the way to the middle of Sweden to spent a week (5-6 days) in the middle of nowhere and larp like you've never larped before?"

If the answer is yes, then let me know. If I get around 50 serious commitments I'll start working on a possible Dragonbane II. BUT, be aware that it will take at least 2 to 3 years to organise such an event.

First we need to get permission to re-use existing DB material, next we'll need access to the site, then we'll need to know the state of the village is (last I heard it was rather bad), we'll need money to fix the village and most importantly: we need crazy people like you and me to go there and fix the village.

So if you're fed up with me telling you how GREAT Dragonbane was and how it's still, to this date, the BEST LARP EVER, then let yourself be heard and let me know you're committing to attending DBII (whenever it may take place).

PS: if you're not sure you'll be going to Sweden for a Larp then DON'T commit!

Update

Well it's more than time for an update :-)

Manticore 16 is right in front of us. Only a couple of days to go and people can be back in Mythandir, the mystical world of Manticore.

The team is prepared and ready, if all goes as planned it'll be a great one :-)

Next on the list is an update on Calam.

We are building a strong team for the next event. Main scenario theme is set and we now need to fill it out and add extra's to give a boost to this young event. We've listened to all the feedback we got and are set to create a great event and wonderfull experience.

In my last post I promised pictures from Dragonbane, well here is the first one. (Copyright for this picture lies with www.dragonbane.org). Click on it for larger version, can you find me?

Dragonbane the Legacy

Two weeks ago the Dragonbane book was put online. Last week I received a printed copy along with a DVD containing photo's of the game itself.
I must say that they did a thorough job in the book. It contains all the good and bad things that happened with Dragonbane. They tell about their vision, what they achieved, where they went wrong etc.
All in all a very good book for everyone who wants to organise a Larp.
Here's the link to the book: http://stuff.wanderer.org/DB_the_Legacy.pdf
I'm also very happy to find a picture of myself in the book(page 25, top picture, 2nd from the left) as this is the only one of me at Dragonbane. Now I can proof I was there :-)

All this makes me dream of going back to Sweden and have a larp at that site. As the village that was made for Dragonbane is still there.

400m of fabric is now ours

Yesterday I collected the 400m of the fabric.
Most of the fabric is usable for Banapsis costumes, others will be used for other stuff.
I also had a talk with their PR guy and they sadly won't sponsor us, but we are still allowed to buy extra fabric if we need it. So all in all not a bad deal.

In the meantime we've gotten international feedback. One person already joined the team (a Swede) and another (a German) is on the brink of joining. Both of them were at Dragonbane and therefor know the goal we're trying to reach with Banapsis.
In the summer we will make some videos about Banapsis. Some will show the way of life, others the way we want you to fight, etc.

Most memorable Dragonbane moment

This time I'll tell you my most memorable Dragonbane moment, a moment that I've never experienced during any other larp before and after Dragonbane.

It happened during the 3rd day of Dragonbane. In the village Cinderhill people were getting more and more afraid of what the Dragon (their former protector) would do when it found out that the villagers had used the whole Dragon's treasure to buy extra food for the village over the years.
When evening came the villagers believed that the Dragon would come that night to claim all the children of the village as repayment. I and 2 other Dragontamers opposed the sacrifice of the children and we promised we would keep watch over the children. If the Dragon came we would take them to the forest where the Dragon would have a hard time to find us.
So when night came we went to the children, we prepared food for them and since they were clearly scared (very good roleplay of those children!) we told them stories of our adventures to make them less scared. It felt very satisfying that during our stories the children's eyes started to shine with excitement. When the children started to fall asleep we gave them our own sheepskins to sleep on and use as blankets¹.
During the night we talked amongst ourselves about the Dragon threat, to where we would go in the forest and such. When it was getting really late one of us went to sleep while the other two kept watch. After a couple of hours we woke the one asleep and another would get to sleep some hours. We continued this until it was morning and we were certain the Dragon would not come that night.

The story just told really made me feel the hero of stories. We didn't get much sleep (we really did a 24hour watch), we made sure the children were safe, we kept the fire going (it was very cold at night) and we told them stories to make them less scared. Especially when their eyes started to shine when they listened to our stories made me feel the hero ;-)

Moments like this are what I want to recreate with Banapsis, such moments are what I want Larp to be.

As always comments are welcome, you might even tell me what your most memorable Larp moment was.

¹ as tamers we were obliged by the organisation that everything we would need we should be able to carry ourselves, since as adventurers without horses everything we need is carried by us, this included sleeping gear. I had 4 sheepskins sewn together as a mattress (I could roll it up and fix with IC strips to hang from my shoulder) and another huge sheepskin that I used as cloak was used as blanket.

Why Banapsis?

One of the questions some of you will ask is why am I creating a new larp, aren't there enough already?
You are correct there are a lot of larps, but most are exactly the same in a different wrapping. With Banapsis I not only want to change the wrapping, I want to completely change what's inside.

It all started in 2005 when I went to Sweden to help out in the Dragonbane larp. They were actually building a medieval style village in the middle of nowhere just for a larp! Talking there to the organisers and volunteers, like myself, made me realise there is so much more to larp than what we do here in Belgium. In 2006 it was playtime for Dragonbane and while it wasn't perfect it made such a big impression on me that to this date (more than 6 months later) I'm still in post-Dragonbane rehab.

As some might already know I already run a larp in Belgium, Manticore. When I first came back from Sweden in 2005 I tried to change Manticore to what I heard of from the Swedes/Danes/Fins/... but I only half succeeded. The reason for this is that Manticore is a running larp (started somewhere in 2000) and people don't like it when the concept changes in midways. So I only changed the stuff that was accepted by the participants. Most important of those changes where the (partly) abolition of Time-Stop moments (battleboarding in the UK).

So, since I couldn't bring the Dragonbane atmosphere to Belgium via Manticore I started a new project, Banapsis.

Next time more on my vision of Banapsis.