Chaotic charaters and the "right" choices

Community Larp discussion
#1

The infiltration of shadowbase 13, has gone off without so much as a hint of trouble, the guards at the waste disposal tunnel where easily dispatched with the tranq gun, Norts worked his magic on the motion sensors and now you just need to wait for the files to load into your encryp drive. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you notice it;s resplendent in its redness, large in its size and with a distinctive button-like quality. Above it are emblazoned the words DO NOT PRESS!!! . Its mere presences, hypnotizes you, draws you in with promises of endless possibility. Almost without thinking, your hand hovers, above, poised and ready to press. What do you do?

Recently, I have been thinking (No, it didn’t hurt but thanks for your concern), about what makes LARP enjoyable for me and reflecting on some of my favorite moments, and then I had a realization that most of these moments had come as of pushing that button, making some incredibly stupid (IC) choices. I have been rewarded for making the “wrong” choice. So lets go back to the original scenario, you have a fairly binary choice, press or don’t press (Ok smartypants, you could build a perfectly sealed box with a quantum particle and a radiation detector inside therefore, though the magic of science, leaving the button both pressed and unpressed. We will ignore this possibility as it is silly). If left unpressed, you will be able to recover the data and escape with minimum fuss. If pressed, you have no idea what will happen, but it will most likely be fun (hopefully explosions are involved somewhere). So be honest, who pressed the button?

If larping were a thing that you did alone in your room the decision would be largely immaterial, but unfortunately, this hobby (insanity?) of ours require at some social contact so we also need to look at this decision in how it effects others (unless you want to be entirely self-centered, in which case please get on the first train to fuckoffsville). For example, if Bob spent hours meticulously planning the raid, it would be a pretty dick move on your part to press. Even your decision has no direct impact on other characters, the logistics efforts that the GM team may have to put in to render the chaos you have “unwittingly” unleashed could prevent other scenes from running and make others feel as though you went and kidnapped the lighting director’s daughter and forced him to keep the spotlight focused on yourself.

Please note that I am not suggesting that you never push the button, the day that we cannot press buttons is the day I stop larping. Causing a bit of chaos at the correct time can open up a lot of plot, and create interesting RP opportunities. I just wish to open some dialogue on how us chaos monkeys can work our play-style in with other, more sensible styles to create a more enjoyable environment for everyone.

#2

I keep my hand poised there until at least one other player has noticed this and asked me what the hell I think I’m doing. I roleplay this scenario, with the intention of dragging as many interested parties as possible into the scene. My argument is that because this ‘do not press’ sign was clearly intended for the original employees of the shadowbase, pressing the button would only be good if you wanted to destroy said shadowbase. Is that something we want to do? Are we sure we don’t? I mean, we’ll wait for the encryp to finish, obviously, but then? When the encryp is finished, I push the button.

Pushing the button without waiting means that we mess up Bob’s organisation, not pushing the button at all means we leave a story avenue unexplored. And while some story avenues never get explored, if the GMs are quite literally signposting something, then it’s worth considering, at least to me.

#3

You should ask Mat G about button pressing at Larps sometime, he has a tale to tell.

#4

Just push it :smiling_imp:

#5

I’d do whatever was right for my character, probably.

#6

I think the point where you make sure your character doesn’t ruin the game is character creation rather than any individual scenario in play. Chaotic and impulsive characters in general can be great for plot and roleplay, and it’d be hella boring if everyone was all sensible all the time. I figure most people would realise they should probably avoid characters with descriptions like ‘Bob randomly murders NPCs for no reason before people can talk to them’ or whatever that are destructive without really adding anything. There are loads of cool ways to play chaotic characters and so as long as you create a character that is going to be interesting, add something (even if it’s just a foil, frustration, or an interesting villain) and that doesn’t look at a glance as if it’s going to wreck everyone’s game, then it seems you should just be able to roleplay it however you think it should act without having to reconsider every scenario.

Then I guess the other thing is OOC accepting the IC consequences? Punching the irritating noble in the face is a totally legit IC option but it’s then also pretty IC that the nobles posse is then going to lay the smackdown. This sort of applies to everyone but I suppose it has more of a chance of coming up with characters that go against the orderly grain. Someone that rolls (at least ooc) with the consequences of their actions seems perfectly legit and will probably just lead to some interesting roleplaying situations wheras someone that does something stupid or crazy IC then complains OOC at the inevitable consequences would be a big cause of OOC frustration for people.

Also I agree with Russ that making it obvious what you are about to do is a legit option if you think it might be something that’ll have a big effect. Also I guess if you play the character as clearly crazy/impulsive/whatever it may be before such an important situation comes up, then the other characters would hopefully have noticed and not let you get so close to the important machinery without someone to watch you :stuck_out_tongue: If they didn’t, then well, that’s unfortunate for them.

I realise the scenario you gave is just a thought experiment but if the GMs put a button in the game they are probably prepared for someone pushing it, so I don’t think pushing it would be messing with their plot.

#7

Only until someone observes it :stuck_out_tongue: and in LARP, if no-one’s observing the outcome of an event then the event didn’t exist in any meaningful sense.

Which actually kind of rolls on to this

which I think is an excellent idea. After all, where’s the fun in pushing the button if no-one’s trying to stop you?

#8

I just replied to Lucy’s post, which I think falls in a very similar vein.

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10360

[quote]
So if we want power hierarchies and secret power plays then they need to be discussed before hand, not as in “I am going to do this thing in the larp” but more like “my character is a devious bastard and likes to do things like…”. Many euro larps provide workshops on expectations of their games, along with that culture of collaboration and play to lose attitude and calibrating game culture so everyone is on the same page.

nordiclarp.org has a number of articles like this.[/quote]

Pushing the button alone is essentially a personal power play. Allowing people to have a chance to interact and stop you, embraces the culture of collaboration. Losing control of that situation as a sole player potentially benefits more people.

#9

I don’t believe that in any group of more then 3 people there would ever be a scenario where the button did not get pushed.

Ever.

In years of tabletop role-playing I have never seen the button ignored.

If pushing the button ruins the game, you have a GM Team that has no idea how human beings work and they are probably not yet ready to GM.

However that doesn’t actually help the posed question.

The actual question I think was pretty much discussed to death after Teonn, where people were surprised at the presence of Evil, or at least self-focused characters whose actions in some cases radically changed the story.

If the game is advertised as fluffy, evil is out. If you advertise the game as Dark-Fantasy evil is in. Basically it is on the organisers to be clear in the initial advertising what is and isn’t acceptable and/or likely in the game. Once that is clear it is on the players to ensure that their nasty characters are built in a way that can actually interact with the game without them being an idiot.

As an example, in Teonn I played a serial killer, I could have gone round killing everyone I spent any time alone with, but that would have just messed up the game, so instead I played with the psychological behaviours that serial killers exhibit which meant I could play the character without damaging the game.

So basically, Chaotic Yes/NO is up to the GM’s. Chaotic being playable is up to the Player.