[size=150]The MacLarp Manifesto[/size]
Premises
- The number of players that you have at a larp shows how good it is.
- If you are not trying to maximise player numbers then you a clearly just pandering to your own egotistical ideas of quality in larp, not the actual goodness of the larp that is indicated by its size.
- This manifesto lays out the one true way to maximise the size, and therefore the goodness, of your larp.
- Therefore if you want to maximise the goodness of your larp and not just pander to your ego you must follow this manifesto.
Action Points
- Fantasy larps with live combat are the biggest in the world. Therefore your larp must be fantasy with live combat.
- Your larp must be as psychologically addictive as possible, to ensure that players feel compelled to return. Provide players with a variable ratio reinforcement schedule on which they will be rewarded with character advancement. Ensure that once they are sufficiently advanced they can lord it over new players, giving experienced players the payoff of status bullying and new players an added incentive to advance through continuing attendance.
- No character death. Poor roleplayers might get upset if their character dies and leave your larp. You want to minimise people leaving.
- Speaking of poor roleplayers, be kind to them. Don’t exclude anyone on the basis of weak play, poor costuming, cheating, or social malajustment unless they are driving other players away.
- Growth requires recruitment. Provide your players with the best reason imaginable to recruit: money. They will get a “finder’s fee” cut of every event fee paid by every player they recruit, so long as they and the person found continues playing. If they recruit enough people, they can play for free and even make a profit! Make sure they don’t get a cut of their find’s find’s event fees or you could come up against your country’s pyramid selling laws.
- Active retention! If a player leaves, the person who recruited them won’t get any more money from their fees. Don’t discourage the culture of violent recrimination that may ensue from this policy, it will keep people from leaving. But don’t visibly encourage it either, or you might be up against the law again. Just deny it.
- Make it as cheap as possible to attend. Latex weapons are too expensive, as are good costumes. A duct tape boffer and a nylon tabard are all anyone needs.
- Let other people buy franchises of your larp or run sanctioned events. This way your larp is growing without much extra effort from yourself.
- If you believe that other people’s knock-offs of your larp count towards the total size you’ve attained, then make your system really rubbish. People will constantly form splinter groups and attempt to improve on your system. With such a poor basis, they’ll never have a chance unless they start from scratch, but they won’t want to do that because they’ll be enculturated into your school of crap larp design.
