So how do you do it?

[kythe]

I've been fiddling with a LARP for about a year and a half now, and have been pondering on exactly what makes a good LARP. Is it possible to just make characters, give them backgrounds and let them bounce off of each other? Is a GM written, big mondo storyline neccessary? What do you guys like in a LARP?

[Kate Beaman-Martinez]

Keith,

If you want to get some more insight, I suggest popping over to the LARPA forums. They folks over there are always really helpful and friendly. 

Once I find the forums link, I'll post it.

[Avie]

I have a pretty pat formula for LARP writing, when doing "one shots", things that aren't part of a campaign.

Give 'em some factions. Break people into pre-determined groups with pre-determined prejudices for or against each other.
give some people connections that go against those faction lines, like a brother/sister pair whose relationship is unknown.  Add some other secrets, like love affairs.
Put the factions at odds with each other, add some in-game plot happenings and let 'em roll.

In MY opinion,  the characters, their relationships and the dynamic between the groups should be so strong they don't really need you except to resolve combat and to handle player-generated curveballs.  If you've written tightly enough, two GMs can handle 40 people for 4 - 6 hours, no problem.

--Av

[GM John]

Unless there's DE Senior Staff involved, as the Perfectly Normal University GM's found out at DEX 9.  They were musing that generally the plot doesn't get solved till the end of the slot, but with six of us in it, I think it was cut at least in half.

[KevinM]

Admittedly I've run exactly one LARP so far but since that was reasonably succsesful I do have some thoughts.  For our part we tried a couple approaches.  One we created two groups that were opposed to each but left them fluid (positing a sort of mind controll/possession power that could infect the other players).  Second we created multiple patterns of clues for the group to find.  Of these one was pieces to a logic puzzle, one was a phrase done in pictures and the last a sentence broken down word by word.  The sentence and pictures we actually physically hid and they were defenaely the most succsessful aspect of the LARP.

As a side note I can say that myself and the other two GMs(for those who may not know ours was the Scooby Doo Larp at Dexcon 9) have some really exciting ideas for this year.  I don't want to give any thing away but expect to see two new larps one at Dexcon and one at Dreamnation.