Ideas for Chimera 2009's big larp?

Auckland Chimera
#61

Pulp SF sounds do-able, maybe set in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe…

However, with SF-based games, you get the problems of there being too much magic-technology and difficulties in representation… also there’s maybe too wide a range of pulp-SF (eg, depending on what era it was written in) for things to gel together easily. Hindenberg had lots of time travellers and aliens, but they were all incognito and still trying to fit in with 1930s. I like it, but think Victorian might stillbe easier.

Arthurian is good, but you might find there’s not enough well-known characters in the era that you can draw on.

#62

As an interesting factoid on things Arthurian.

In the middle ages, as I understood from my lecturer on the topic, the legend of King Arthur was considered history in England. Over in France, it was the equivalent of Lord of the Rings. It was France’s epic high fantasy, and they loved it, and wrote endless stories involving them. Kings of France would organise jousting events for their important knightly mates where they would all come around to the castle of the King, pick their favourite character from Arthurian legend, and go around as that character for the duration of the event.

So there we have it, historical proof that larping is indeed the sport of kings. :smiley:

#63

It’s certainly easier to get a lot of characters that soemone will be familiar with in a mash-up setting. But there are a lot of relatively well-known characters in the Arthurian legends, and most of them have households around them with less familiar names but strong associations with familiar characters.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthurian_characters

Leaving aside the main Arthurian heroes, there are many moderately-familiar characters that could adapt to larp well like The Lady of the Lake, The Black Knight, and Morgan le Fay.

If it was for the big larp, I think it would benefit from crossing over with some fairy characters like Oberon, some folklore characters like Robin Hood, and other traditional characters from Merry Olde Englande, as well as some foreign characters and supernatural characters from medieval Christiandom. That would give the mash-up feel, which comes with added familiarity, multiple centres of plot, and the option to cross over the sources with interesting twists. But it shouldn’t stray into “all fairy tales” or “A Very Confused History of England”, those are whole different themes.

#64

Arthurian works for me. I can probably line up a few pavilions and things.

You’d need a reason for everyone to gather of course, like a tournament and / or quest.

Not sure about the paper / scissors / rock for the combat though, it’d be nice to see people go a little more hammer and tongs…

#65

[quote=“Derek”]Arthurian works for me. I can probably line up a few pavilions and things.

You’d need a reason for everyone to gather of course, like a tournament and / or quest.

Not sure about the paper / scissors / rock for the combat though, it’d be nice to see people go a little more hammer and tongs…[/quote]

I agree, the P/S/R system is okay for fist fights and quick resolution but for Arthurian hammer and tongs is more the way to go :slight_smile:

#66

I think I love you!

#67

I think Arthurian would be pretty cool for an afternoon game.

#68

Now you’re thinking! I love modern larps, so much more hassle free in costuming, and the stereotypical characters/personalitys the eras are way easier to ‘get into’ than, say, the etiquette of the Victorian era.

#69

Is there anything else to come in this thread? At the moment, the only people offering to write the Big Larp are Rowena and Dave, which means the Victorian idea is the frontrunner.

#70

I’m offering to do some writing for the Big Larp if we’re doing victorian, as well. I’ve a bunch of ideas. Writing is something I can conveniently do in bits around family commitments, unlike actually playing or attending committee meetings :frowning:

I’ve also set up a section on the NZLARPS Wiki to demo how it can be used to group-develop this sort of larp. Dont know if other people’d want to use this though.

#71

The Great Exhibition larp has been chosen for Chimera 2009. Keep your ideas swirling, we’ll need a new larp for 2010 :wink:

#72

Cool, looking forward to seeing what the team for the big larp come up with.

I’ll be running an Arthurian larp in one of the general larp slots (for around 20 PCs). It’ll be physical combat, but with pregen characters and PvP style like Hindenburg.

#73

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Cool, looking forward to seeing what the team for the big larp come up with.

I’ll be running an Arthurian larp in one of the general larp slots (for around 20 PCs). It’ll be physical combat, but with pregen characters and PvP style like Hindenburg.[/quote]

Would you like a hand with that?

#74

That’d be great. I was going to ask you, but thought you might prefer to play.

I have a few ideas for plots and characters so far. It’s nothing like complete, but I do have some plans that I’m fairly attached to that I’d want to work into it. I love creative collaboration though, so would be keen to incorporate a whole bunch of whatever ideas you have too, so long as it all fits together. PM me if you’re keen and we’ll get (another) private forum for it. Or we could just use that dormant one we already have. :wink:

#75

Any chance we can discuss it face to face?

#76

If you’re in town on a weekday that’d be pretty easy.

#77

Oh man. I have to wait a whole year to play in this Arthurian larp. Can I tell you both right now that I’m totally psyched?

#78

I’m working on the Arthurian larp at the moment. It’s an interesting challenge, because there are so many conflicting sources. The Camelot mythos have been elaborated and altered a lot over the centuries, so the characters and events get jumbled up from one retelling to the next. Finding 10-12 female parts is interesting too - the stories have a huge cast of men (mostly knights and lords), but apart from a handful of strong female characters like Guinevere and Morgan, the female role is typically that of a helpless (and largely personality-less) maiden getting rescued and then marrying the rescuer. So I’ll be expanding and deepening the female parts a lot. If anyone knows of some obscure but interesting Arthurian women, do tell.

Unfortunately Derek had to pull out of helping due to other commitments, but it’s coming along well in any case. I’m focussing on retaining the mythological and epic Arthurian feel, as opposed to say a light-hearted take. I’m picking and choosing a mixture of versions of the legends with an eye to creating a tight web of character intrigue, and introducing some novel material to keep it surprising and to adapt it to the pregen larp medium. It’s early days, but looking very promising.

It would be great to have really rich staging & costume, so if anyone spots material that would be suitable please let me know. The look to aim for is timeless chivalric romance (in the old sense), so historical accuracy isn’t a concern. The look is approximately medieval, but later-period plate armour would be fine too. Clothing could be more decorative than might be accurate, or somewhat later period. Most of the characters are noble, and rich finery is the look. At this point my staging concept is a pavilion in the woods.

428×590

#79

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The female lead in that is ace.

#80

You mean the wife of Bertilak de Hautdesert, whose name is not mentioned? Even Gawaine’s horse Gringolet gets a name. From what I can tell of the original, she is just a pawn in the plot to trick Gawaine. Although the parts where Gawaine has to kiss the lord are pretty funny.

Anyhow, I think I have a character list sorted now. I have 10 required males, 8 required females, and 3 optional characters of each gender. So it can run with anything from 18-24 characters, and with even gender numbers if it’s 10-10 or 11-11. The scenario is coming together nicely.