Plots for New Players

I've spent many nights thinking about plots for larps, and what works for established players and characters doesn't always work well for new players and new characters.

The classic plot in larp is something bad happening that must be fixed. What I'm going to call Stick plot. This can be the Orcs are gathering in the woods, or the Sabbat are invading, or a masquerade breach has brought hunters. Obviously there are embellishments, suprises, etc, but I'm talking basic structure.

In some larps, especially OWOD vampire, where I have the most experience, once players get to a certain level, instead of involving newer players, they will cut them out, because they will be capable of dealing with the problem themselves, and consider the new players to be a risk.

Often STs try to combat this by giving information to new players that the older players need, but new players generally don't know how to leverage their information into being involved in plot, and older players can simply threaten them if they don't give the information over. It's often hard to come up with ways for this information to be given, since influence rumors work better for people with more influence, not those just starting out.

Another method STs will often try to use is to limit plot to newer characters by OOC means, telling older players to ignore it. However stick plots are usually the business of city officers, which tend to be the more experienced players. Thus one way or another, the plots get brought back to the more experienced players, and the new players are often shut out.

There are ways to make such plots work, but it's difficult.

What I have found is that new players need a different type of plot. A Carrot Plot. A plot that gives them good stuff to deal with instead of bad stuff.

There are some things that make this work better. Something that other mor PCs can't easily get or take for themselves works well.

My preference is relationships with NPCs. It's hard for an experienced PC to take away an ally and keep it for themselves. Maybe the Anarchs in the city don't want to deal with anybody but the new Brujah. Maybe there is a gang of street kids that brings info to the Nosferatu. Or the Ventrue political scion has connections to the local Mob Boss. Maybe an NPC gives them access to influence, or the ability to grow influence. Maybe an NPC elder gives them a favor, one that they won't transfer.

This doesn't have to be ongoing. Especially if there are stick plots which require investigations, giving new PCs access precisely because they aren't famous and powerful often makes sense. A toreador neonate will know about the avante garde theater troupes private performance, and can get you in, but the Harpy is too establishment. The city college's wiccan group would be seriously weirded out by the Tremere elder's conversations about the four humors, but his young apprentice can quote buffy at them.

You can also give them other stuff, a bag of unset diamonds, a suitcase full of heroin, a counterfeit printing press, even a magical item that has a limited number of uses or can't be given to others. Give them the loot first, and ask them, "okay, now what do you do?"

If you are going to give them information, blackmail information, haven locations, knowledge of hidden passages in the elysium site, and knowing how to contact a secret society/cult is all great. Stuff which if revealed widely loses it's utility.

Then for new players the story is not inherently about the more experienced player's plot and if they can or can't be part of it, it's about what they do.

On the other hand, older players deserve stick plots. If they are regularly handling stuff, step things up. They've shown they can deal with stuff, and they should be expected to make their own opportunities.

But you give them carrots too. Poisoned carrots. Opportunities that will screw them as much as help them. And if possible you give new players the antitote.

But at the level of experienced players, of people with big sheets, you should set things up so they are competing with each other. Make there not be enough high level influence to go around. Say that something's happened, and there can only be one person with that 5th dot of Police influence, and they'll fight over it, and bring in new players as pawns to do it.

Of course plots don't need to be carrots or sticks for new PCs. Things can just happen that are interesting. One of my favorite plots from the game I ran was a magical music box that when opened forced the PC to rexperience the hours surrounding their embrace from their sire's perspective. In real time it took only a round or two. It would regularly disappear and reappear among the cities Kindred if they tried to lock it away for themselves, even vanishing from other Domains when taken there.

It forced new players to come up with their actual embrace. It served as a possible way for amnesiacs to learn about their Sire. I don't think more then one player figured out that it worked on humans too, showing them their birth from their mother's perspective.

Stuff from the OWBN ST list #1: The Horror of Setites

This is from a tangent on a tangent of a tangent discussion. Such is the ST list. but it's really not important what it was about. It lead to an AHC telling me I was the coolest ST of the day, and an ST telling me they loved me beyond words, so hopefully it's worthwhile reposting.

"And I'd argue that vampire is a game of personal horror. Human horror. Horror with reasons. the horror of dark impulses that you can't control, of losing yourself and liking it. Of being a slave and loving the whip.

That's what makes setite genre so cool. Because they believe that the only way to deal with the beast is to go beyond it. When you have given in to your worst fear, experienced your worst rage, lost everything you thought you knew, lose faith in your bedrock... You become what you truly are, beyond all your petty illusions of yourself, then your free.

Enlightenment basically. Free from attachments and illusions. Free from the chains of guilt and fear that bind you. Able to act on your true will, instead of the will of the aeons.

And you want to free others.

Being a tool to a setite is only the first step. Being corrupted is a process of revelation.

Blackmail as sacrament. Corruption as worship. Tell me that isn't horror. And it's human. It's the fear that by holding tightly to what we think we know and value we are our own jailers. The fear if giving in to temptation. Setites don't fall to temptation. They dive."

Anyway I've been thinking more about horror and Setites since then. I reread part of the Kult rulebook. Kult is probably the darkest horror game in existence, based on gnostic ideas of humanity being trapped in a cosmic prison. That's basically the setite philosophy.

That's why I hate how Setites are often portrayed. Sabbat are the monster you fight. They are the slasher films of larp. Setites should be used for psychological horror. They need to stop being the pushers and pimps and start being the ones that force players to face the uncomfortable truths about themselves. They need to tempt people less with physical objects and more with what they think they want. They should show people that what they think they want won't make them happy, and isn't what they need. They should bring revelations.

Horror I'll write about in a later post.

Gold Star Method of dealing with new Players

This was tested at Kublacon 2008, and reportedly worked very well.

Make up a bunch of pregen character sheets.

Contact established players and arrange for their characters to know or be otherwise related to one or more of the pregens. It's better if multiple people are.

List the relations on the pregen sheet.
If somebody uses the pregen, make sure the established player remembers how they know the pregen.

Give the new player a gold star sticker to wear, or other prominent symbol, that indicates, "new player, playing a pregen."

Basically the idea is to get new players playing, not have them spend the whole game making a character. making a character when you don't know the game is time consuming and generally fun killing. Most new players are there to have fun, not to do paperwork.

Having the gold star means everybody knows to help the player, go OOC to help with rules, establish that they know each other, treat nice etc.

New players are often treated badly. Players try to take advantage of them or just don't act well towards them. A friend of mine went to an OWBN game in the midwest, and was yelled at by the player of the Prince. She had given no indication that she was an experienced roleplayer, but she told me that she almost didn't come back. I don't think a new player would have come back.

I think in general, establishing a new player symbol, and rewarding those who interact with the new player and if necessary, disciplining those who try to take advantage, will serve to help recruit players and get them to stay in game.

Introduction

Hey Folks,

A short little introduction here. I'm writing this blog as an outlet for my thoughts on gaming and larping, of which I have many. Basically I believe that by thinking hard about the various elements of gaming, as well as our motivations, we can improve our enjoyment of games.