Just throwing this idea out there- what about a Fairytale LARP set AFTER the happy endings (for some characters) of the books? (This is what Sondheim plays with in Into the Woods) You could use many more of the characters that way, I suspect. And it would be kinda fun to have multiple wicked stepmothers squaring off against each other…also the costuming potential for the two ugly sisters (blinded and hobbling) are interesting…
Also, Janetlin, if you have Baba Yaga, you have to have the house on chicken legs. Just saying.
It could. Most fairytales take place in a medieval or maybe renaissance kingdom with royals, noble factions, peasants, soldiers, magical folk, etc. Like in Cinderalla, there’s a whole ball full of people. You’d have to give the crowd of people much more depth as individuals than they’re usually shown with, but that’s true for a lot of genres.[/quote]
Agreed, a royal court would be a perfect place for a large-scale larp. I think the Sidhe Unseelie court from the Merry Gentry series would be good setting for a dark faerietale setting, partly because it is set in the modern day which enables additional flexibility in characters and plot. You would have to tone down the sex and violence, but you could easily keep the sense of meanace. I’d be keen to assist in a fae larp.
Ah, but that really is a fae larp, perhaps a modern one. And if we were heading that way, I reckon that something like the Troll Market in Hellboy 2 might be even better than a court setting because it’s a good place for noble and common fae/trolls/goblins, there’s much more than just politics going on (i.e. politics doesn’t have to hog the limelight), and a market would feel like a more unusual environ to dress the hall as than a court. Downside is high costuming/makeup requirements, although it does allow for some modern clothes.
But what I was actually responding to is the idea of a fairytale larp, in the Brothers Grimm folk tale tradition. Apart from the occaisonal fairy godmother fairies don’t feature, IO think especially not the seelie/unseelie interpretation. Instead it’s about wicked stepparents, sorcerous monarchs, helpful woodsmen, etc. Folk tales.
We’d have to be very very careful with this if it was gone for. While Phil and Kaja (the creators of GG) are apparently awesome people, we would still be asking to use their intellectual property.
Very true, and I sorta assumed relevant IP permission-seeking would be a must if a pre-created universe were employed, however I know they’ve created a GURPS implementation of Girl Genius, so so I suspect they are at least open to it being used in a roleplaying format.
I disagree. This is non-profit fan usage, and in such cases it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.
There is any amount of unofficial non-profit fan use of various IP material out there, and most creators are happy about it. Does Rowling crack down on people cos-playing Harry Potter? No.
But if you ask for permission, you’re asking to be official. They are almost forced to say no, unless you’ve gone through their lawyers and are paying a license like the official tabletop RPG publishers would be.
If they get antsy, buy the tabletop RPG and say you’re running a homebrew version of it live. It’s true.
I would prefer we didn’t run anything based on existing literature or settings, and keep things unbranded. Not for IP or copyright issues, but because it’s easier to tell people “It’s a steampunk larp!” and get them interested rather than “It’s a Girl Genius larp” because then people who haven’t read it get put off. I think it’s better to take inspiration from published works, rather than based directly on it.
Much as I’d like to see a 120-person Judge Dredd larp, avoiding specific properties for the flagship is probably a good idea.
But the way things are going, we can probably soon have 50-person larps based on an IP in a non-flagship slot. If there are three other choices, it doesn’t matter if not everyone digs that IP.
I would definitely have to say the Flagship larp for CHIMERA 2011 will be Joel’s Space Opera LARP due to they’re bein’ ultra organized (it’s a miracle!!), they’ve already had at least one meetin’ (technically), started on 40 characters usin’ the larpwriter site…
ORGANIZED!! xDDD
An’ yuss I can attest to this quite happily to any disbelievin’ fellow larper who knows teh people on Joel’s team ^__________^
