Rock star LARP

This idea popped into my head after eating alot of pizza. I thought some people might get a laugh out of this and it might actually make for a pretty decent LARP if executed correctly.

The idea is as follows: Four crew are assigned to play the four members of one of the world’s leading rock and roll outfits (think Spinal Tap, or Deja Voodoo with the money and publicity of Motorhead), and the game is set around the night of the first stop on their latest world tour, celebrating the end of their six-year hiatus (creative differences). The other crew would play roles such as police officers, rabid fans, venue management, and et cetera.

The players would take on the role of the stage crew, band manager, PR people, roadies, and members of the opening act (have fun coming up with this one!).

Though these guys are a goldmine for their label, they are also some of the most difficult bastards to deal with from a business and PR standpoint. The action of the game would revolve around making sure the concert goes off without a hitch-- through the ocean of mishaps. Examples:

-Missing gear and faulty equipment-- the stage has not been safety-checked in four years. The guitarist has left his prized guitar at the airport and will not play on anything else. Someone in the equipment department has provided an Xbox instead of the standard mixing desk.

-The band’s constant trouble with the police and venue management. The bass player is one drug possession, assault or public nudity offense away from 30 years imprisonment. The singer has caused $10,000 worth of property damage to the hotel room. The drummer has copped a feel on the hot venue management spokesgirl.

-Creative/interpersonal issues between the bandmates, threatening the performance. The drummer’s fiancee has just called to break up with him. The bassist is new and doesn’t know half the repertoire. The singer simply can’t work with these HACKS-- he’s TOO BIG FOR THIS BAND-- and a fistfight breaks out in the dressing room.

I’m sure as crew we could come up with plenty of absurd, gut-wrenching challenges for the player group to deal with. As far as the players go, I want to see equally absurd solutions to problems mixed in with the sensible thinking. I want nosy cops bagged and stashed in empty dressing rooms while venue management are bribed or reasoned with. I want shootouts with disgruntled, tastelessly ethnic hotel cleaning crew. I want screaming roadies making guitar solos with their mouth during sound checks when the amps are not working.

Do I hear support for this idea? I’ll start writing up a list of rules and scenarios once I see some interest.

sounds like fun, will be interesting to see how it works.

That sounds like heaps of fun…bags the role of Lead Guitarist :wink:

That’s a great concept. Would you deal with the actual live music somehow?

At the moment I’m envisioning the live music being handled by getting together a mix CD of 70s thrash metal and having the band members fake it to a decent sound system, but if we happen to have people talented enough to actually play the instruments that would be great. During the actual performance we could stop the music every so often and tell the players “such-and-such goes wrong” and then continue as normal, and let them deal with it.

Damn, this sounds brilliant.

To do this, you need a bunch of people, a stage and some sound gear.

Ideas:

  • Skip the screaming fans, emulate them with the sound system.
  • Set up a couple (or three) microphones and do the rest of the “music” with pre-recorded instrumental tracks. Give those tracks to the vocalists beforehand but don’t give them lyrics. They have to sort that out themselves.
  • Add in some instrumental tracks noone’s heard.
  • Record the whole performance.
  • Put a player on the mixer and effects. They can have it set up beforehand, but they’ll have to balance everything and do effects that work. They’ll be responsible for feedback. I’ve got a perfect effects box to use for live performances.
  • Hire a nice big sound system. It’ll cost about $150.

My reading of this game concept is that it provides a pressure-cooker environment where everything is going crazy, and the players need to work together to manifest the required outcome. Very cool!

The issue with faking the stage performance is that it necessarily lowers the immersion for little gain. Also, it would be less that appealing to lipsync/mime playing a set of rock songs.

So, how about the game starts at the sound rehearsal which is, say, a couple of hours before the band need to go on stage. For simplicty, the could even be practicing in a practice stage (different from the public stage) if you don’t have the space to move them to another location.

The goal of the players is to marshall the band through to the point where they go onstage (the contract with the touring company says they can be a max of 15 minutes late, so the players are working towards a dealine).

So, at the sound check, the band would only need to play the one song. (which they could practice before the game starts to make it sound authentic).

Of course there are interruptions, fights, pouting, broken strings etc all mixed in. Once the sound check is over/abandoned, then other crazy stuff can take place to thwart the player’s intentions.

Also, don’t forget the obligatory keyboardist-is-a-junkie-going-through-DTs…

:wink:

BTW, a band of actual rock musicians would, er, rock, and I can play lead guitar.

I play bass, but I’d need to be head-GMing the event so I couldn’t play that role at the same time.

And I can’t help but picture Tigger as the frontman. >.<

Having done stage shows… it would be absolute HELL in the middle of it, but very satisfying when it’s all out there, happening to schedule and so on.

I look forward to this happening… and would be willing to help.

This sounds unbelievably crazy and fun. I’d love to see this happen.

Bags roadie :stuck_out_tongue:

Mmmm can you say “lip sync”

Hiring a few hotel rooms could make a good venue. Plus, you can trash them :smiley:

Ten points to anyone who either: Models their charachter on Shuichi from Gravitation, or, Brings a goat.

What about hiring a smallish theatre? I have no idea how expensive something like that would be. If it’d be mostly on stage/backstage, we could ignore the fact there are seats instead of an audience pit.

Whatch the movie “Still Crazy” for inspiration and ideas. :slight_smile:

can i be the amoral money grabbing promoter who wants to kill the bass player to boost record sales?

Dude- this is the mose brilliant damn idea I’ve heard in zonks. Music is my PASSION. Good music that is. Can I just ask though- what era are we set in? Because I AM GOING to be in this!!! But the era will help me set up my muso/fan. (I prefer 70s myself)
Either I’m the crazy druggy/drunk keyboardist chick or I’m a roadie-temptress who freaks the band out by knowing more about them than they do. Eitherway- once we get a plot underway, I’ll figure me out.
Once again- this is brilliant :laughing:

This sounds like the band themselves should be NPCs (all their background etc and interrelationships controlled by the GM) but the various support personnel would be the players. Since all the problems and situations arise from the actions of the band it wouldnt make sense for them to be players as such - they need at least some background from the GM and choreographing…

Yes, that was the idea.