Publish your game!

Auckland Chimera
#1

Hey game writers. I was thinking that it would be awesome if we develop a culture of publishing the scenarios we create so that people around the world can play them. There’s a list of larp scenarios here and it would be cool if heaps of kiwi larps could end up there. I think that list is going to get a lot of use.

It takes a fair amount of extra effort to write your game up in a way that some other person can run it, but it’s really valuable to them. Just look at all the games from around the world that we’re able run at Chimera, we’re really relying on the generous writers who have published them for free, and the hard work of those who publish them for purchase. Publishing means that all that effort you put into writing a game won’t just give 3 hours of satisfaction, but will pay off again and again around the world. Writeups don’t have to be pretty, they can just be the bare minimum, as they can always be revised and improved later after publication.

It’s just a thought, but this might be an idea to keep in mind while writing larps for this year’s Chimera.

#2

You could actually maybe introduce something like the Scenario Design Contest that Kapcon runs - best submitted written game gets one of the prizes. 'Cause people like winning things, and it means we would be able to build up a library of interesting stuff of our own.

#3

Good idea, an incentive would help. Best Original Scenario or something.

How would you suggest judging should work for somethign like that? The SDC is judged by a panel of judges who read all the scenarios, right? How does that work if one of the judges is a player in the scenario - do they read and judge it afterwards? Whereas the awards at Chimera are judged by the players at the event. In which case they’re not so much judging just the written scenario but how it was staged and how it played out.

#4

Its judged by one person, before the con, and assessed on the read-though, not actual play.