Its the end of the year, and the end of the decade (if you use proper 0-based counting, and not some FORTRAN stuff), so everyone is doing retrospectives and listicles. Over on PrivacyInvasionBook, one of my friends is doing a list of tabletop rpgs that inspired / influenced them by decade. That seems like too long a time-scale, so I thought I’d just pull out a random grab-bag of larps that have inspired me / shown me how to do things differently from the past decade:
- The Heat at 3AM: @tigger’s film noir masterpiece. Its a theatreform, but draws on campaign-larp styles to have a rotating crew of NPCs to stir the pot and make sure everyone gets their special moment. Break Room 3: Basilisk Green does a similar thing, but not as focused.
- The Kestrel saga: A series of SF theatreforms (really a stealth campaign), which showed how you can do sequels in that format. My regency /Downton Abbey duo, Longmuir Hall and Property & Propriety was inspired by that structure.
- Tears of Heaven: introduced me to walking larps, but also used its structure (specifically the watches in the night) to keep the conversation going. @Ciaran should really publish this one.
- Will That Be All: showed me that workshops aren’t always bullshit, and that you can produce strong, emotional play in a short format without needing pre-designed relationships.
- Boats Against the Current: From @Anna_K. Showed me that you don’t need active plot, and that you can just do a game about getting drunk on a boat while waiting to find out what happened.
So, what laps influenced you this decade?