Larp Resume - a database of larps, mostly from the InterCon / Larpacalia / ILF crowd, which builds an online resume of larps written, played, and run. I’ve been trawling the game descriptions looking for games; sadly the US practice does not seem to be to put your game online, even if you’re never planning to run it again.
That’s an interesting angle. Curious also how there are no instructions, it’s just drops you straight into the data.
I’ll sign up and grow the web. I wonder whether it’s suitable for listing campaign larps?
[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]That’s an interesting angle. Curious also how there are no instructions, it’s just drops you straight into the data.
I’ll sign up and grow the web. I wonder whether it’s suitable for listing campaign larps?[/quote]
They don’t seem to have done so, but OTOH there doesn’t seem to be any reason not to either. The data framework supports it.
I’ve already added Camelot, BTW. So all you have to do is add yourself as an author.
Yup, have done.
I’ve added Forgotten Gods too. Looks like our invasion of this site is in full swing. I’ve messaged the operator to suggest she might want to consider adding regionality features - right now it’s aimed at the US.
Stacy from larpresume has got back to me. She’s added some locations for the NZ larps she has flooding in, added some kiwi conventions, and put the country on the home page listing. Nice response!
I put some of my stuff up. I was wondering though - it seems to be a good place to brag about what you’ve done, but what are it’s other uses?
Seems to be a good place to hear about larp scenarios, some of which might be able to be re-run locally. Could also develop into a place to review scenarios and read reviews?
Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be the usual practice for scenarios to be put on the web or published. But I’ve found at least one through Google: CONDITION ECHO BLUESHIFT, a 15-player Laundry scenario.
The most common reasons I hear are that the scenario is not ready or that the writers would need to write GM instructions and don’t have time. Also, with older games sometimes parts are missing.
So most people seem willing but the perceived amount of work prohibits them.
[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]The most common reasons I hear are that the scenario is not ready or that the writers would need to write GM instructions and don’t have time. Also, with older games sometimes parts are missing.[/quote]I’d say it took me at least as much time to make something ready for publishing as it did to write it to game-ready state. I mean, I could have had lower production standards, and done a bit less editing and proofreading, but even so the time involved wasn’t insignificant. What are other people’s thoughts?
Yep, it really can be time consuming. It’s quite an effort to make it pretty and to write instructions so others can run it.
I find it worth the time though. Not commercially worthwhile (you could make more money in the same time washing car windows on a street corner), but just the satisfaction of knowing that other people are getting a chance to play it. Also it’s nice getting feedback, hearing how runs go. And I like making things pretty, it makes me feel good just creating a nicely-presented end product.
There’s publishing and publishing. Its one thing to make something a commerical quality product. But while that’s cool, its not what’s required. You can skip the prettyfication stage, even the endless editing and spellchecking, and just stick up your notes (or hit “publish” on LarpWriter).
I’ve skimmed a lot of larps which fall into that category. The biggest problem I’ve found isn’t completeness (or lack thereof), but poor gender balance or not really being what I’m looking for. But those scenarios may suit other groups.
If you go to the effort of writing a game, it seems like a shame to get only one or two runs out of it. Publication, whether commercial or otherwise, means your effort may get used. Plus, its nice egoboo.
Oh yeah, it’s nice egoboo for sure. Just, there’s more to it than printing your character sheets to a PDF. And it’s not just prettification - it’s thinking about what characters didn’t quite work and how to fix them, and explaining to the GM what’s going on, and all the bits and pieces that you’d do without much thinking about because you wrote it and it’s in your head much more solidly than someone who’s just read it.