Tryst: cosmic grotesquery

I have this idea where grotesque invisible monsters try to fix reality gitches in modern day Earth homes. The name I have for the game is “Tryst”, meaning a secret meeting.

The whole thing is a bit weird. Let me start at the beginning.

The concept is based in the mask-work of improvisational theatre guru Keith Johnstone. Johnstone discovered that improvisational work with grotesque masks often brings out architypal and usually infantile personalities in people, especially if you do a fair amount of freeform rehearsal in mirrors and interacting with other mask-characters, all while wearing the masks. In Tryst, some of the players wear prosthetics to make them into grotesque trolls and play them as baffoons in the Johnstonian tradition.

Some of the players would be (mostly) ordinary modern people, and some would be these idiotic creatures (in full-body prosthetics) that suddenly arrive and must try to solve a cosmic conundrum, an error in reality. A different problem each time the game was run. The people go about their daily lives and usually cannot see the trolls unless they become obstructive. The trolls have to be careful not to disturb reality (get noticed) too much, so they’ll often be doing a lot of bumbly sneaking.

The play is finding out about the glitch (both for humans and trolls), and the hook is in the inherent comedy of invisible grotesque imbeciles trying to solve a complicated problem. Like Inspector Gadget on a bad acid trip.

From a practical perspective, it has the advantage that you can play it in an ordinary house. The impractical bit is the makeup.

I know this idea is so left field that it’s practically making out behind the bicycle shed, but some feedback would be cool.

Have you been drinking Craig’s Kool Aid?

Would you prefer that I suggest a game based on history or some well-known piece of fiction? I’m more interested in something completely new.

I think that LARP deserves some genres of its own. It’s a new medium with its own requirements and now’s the time to experiment to find out what works with it.

It probably sounds weird because it’s an unheard-of genre and the inspiration comes from an unheard-of impro theory.

I think it will shine in play. It’s on my list, will work my way up to running it.

I’m having trouble picturing it, probably just for explanation’s sake. Could you give some example play’s? What’s an “error in reality” and how is it fixed?

It’s a little hard to explain because I’m trying to keep some things secret. The nature of the reality glitches is the secret of the game, or rather a different secret in each scenario.

The setting will have metaphysics beyond the natural world as we know it. As an example, imagine it was a time-travelling game (it’s not, but bear with me). The players might be time-cops, stopping people from altering past events that shouldn’t be changed or stopping people from sleeping with their grandparents, that kind of thing.

Those aren’t the kind of reality errors that Tryst will have, but it gives you the idea. The actual glitches will depend on the metaphysics of the setting, which the players won’t know in advance. Exploring the nature of the game reality is part of the game.

In play, the humans are living fairly ordinary lives apart from two things:

  1. The glitch in reality, which may be affecting them. Each player of a human will be briefed beforehand about how they are affected.
  2. The trolls turning up. The humans can’t usually see them, but there will be ways in which the trolls may affect the humans.

So as an example of play with no details, you have a group of humans (like a family) in some location, going about their normal lives. Dinner, church, work, whatever. Then you have a bunch of invisible trolls turn up, and try to figure out a) what the problem is b) how to fix the problem. Once they fix the problem by interacting with the people and the rest of the environment in a blumbling but hopefully unobtrusive manner, they disappear again.

I forgot to reply to this when I first saw it. but I must say it looks like amazing fun. I get it, even if no-one else does, Ryan! don’t worry. although, me understanding you does call your sanity into question

I get it, and I like it. Its an interesting concept. When you speak about the troll creatures on being viable if the obstruct the human htgings, how obstructive woudl they have to be? And how would a normal person rect if they encounted a cosmic baffoon? Do these cosmic baffoons have skills needed to fix these problems alone, or do they need the help of the human things, but with out alerting them to their presnce?

I suppose I have asked a whole lot of questions that you cant answer with out givem the game away.

R

It sounds fun. Who would be the Players - both the trolls and the humans?

It might be easiest to papier mache the masks - best to give yourself a fair whack of time to make them, though, there’s a lot of drying involved. Alternatively, you might be able to find one of those Creative Processes or Drama classes at a University or Poly who are making them as a class project and at least get some tips. I suggest Commedia dell’Arte style - that is, the upper part of the face covered, with grotesque noses and what-not added on. That means the trolls will have no trouble speaking, and there is less work involved in making them.

I imagined both the humans and trolls/grotesques being players. The humans players would get a little more briefing. No NPCs, just brief all the players and let it go.

Only the humans would be briefed on what might make them alert, the trolls have to figure it out by trial and error. So yes, it’s FOIP (find out in play). But they wouldn’t have to spend the whole time hiding in wardrobes and under beds, we’d design in a fair amount of latitude. The trolls might sometimes leverage humans to get things done as you suggest, as they may not have the skills themselves.

Masks that leave the players’ mouths visible are definitely the way for larp, because we can’t do animatronics. You can do a lot in the way of makeup on the exposed skin to make it meld into the prosthetics. I’m imagining something like foam latex for the masks & other prosthetics. I picture some of them with three big fat fingers (players thumb in one finger, two fingers in each of the others) and big clumsy feet.

The concept is ammusing and I can see the possibilities for some excellent slapstick comedy!

It reminds me of a movie review I once read which said of a movie; “based on a short sentence by Stephen King”.

It doesn’t cry out “ongoing campaign” to me. It says “couple of hours of interesting diversion”.

Which isn’t a bad thing.

But it also doesn’t attract me much either.

I see it as a series of one-offs with some potential for recurring characters, not a campaign.

And while I’m calling it a game, it probably falls deep at the “not very gamey” end of the spectrum, closer to pure impro. Which might be what doesn’t appeal to you.

I think the proof will be in the pudding. It should be dramatic, funny, and super-real (in that the surrealness will highlight the mundaneness). We’ll see.

EDIT: yes, slapstick comedy will be in-genre for it

Then again, it may just be that it doesn’t sound like there will be much of a chance to whack things… :smiley:

No, not a whacking game.

I’m very fond of whacking things too, but there’s some other stuff I want to explore as well.

Hmm, sounds sort of like ‘The Sims’ in live action.

Maybe the trolls can ‘push’ the humans into different actions (you know, grabbing them and walking them over to somewhere, or operating them like puppets) in order to correct the ‘problem’.

I guess the trolls ‘win’ by finding and correcting the glitch. What is the goal of the humans, though? Maybe they should be NPCs if there’s nothing they can do…

Make sure the setting has a copious supply of whipped cream, custard pies, and so on. Muahaha.

Yes and no. More esoteric than the Sims, I think. The puppetry idea is slightly wide of the mark.

What exactly is the difference between calling people NPCs and calling them PCs in this instance? Everyone will play one character for the whole game, everyone will get a briefing, and everyone will have complete latitude in terms of what they do (no GM direction once the game starts). I think calling them different things would be silly.

I don’t see it in terms of winning, because like I said it’s not a very game-like concept. The humans aren’t opposing the trolls, necessarily. They’re just living their lives. They may well have goals too, just not as uniform goal as what the trolls have.

I think trolls may be too mundane a word for them. Imagine an uncaring universe suddenly created a little worker to fix a problem in itself. It’s grotesque and for some reason, basically humanoid. What word describes that?

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]I think trolls may be too mundane a word for them. Imagine an uncaring universe suddenly created a little worker to fix a problem in itself. It’s grotesque and for some reason, basically humanoid. What word describes that?[/quote]An anti-gremlin.

Uh - human? :laughing:

Sounds like a fun game or several if it gets running :slight_smile:

Now that I’ve used it so much as a description, I’m wondering if a “Grotesque” is the correct term.

[quote=“Wikipedia article on Grotesque”]When commonly used, grotesque means strange, fantastic, ugly or bizarre, and thus is often used to describe shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks or gargoyles on churches.

(…)

In fiction, a character is usually considered a grotesque if he induces both empathy and disgust. (A character who inspires disgust alone is simply a villain or a monster.) Obvious examples would include the physically deformed and the mentally deficient, but people with cringe-worthy social traits are also included. The reader becomes piqued by the grotesque’s positive side, and continues reading to see if the character can conquer his darker side.[/quote]

There were excellent examples of the types of character I’m thinking of in the Cirque du Soleil show Alegría, especially that nasty hunchbacked character who I think introduced the shows. The one in the red coat and top hat who ran around in the audience cackling and scaring people - he may have been the ringmaster. In fact a lot of clownish architypes are somewhat suitable in terms of behaviour, although not monsterous enough.

I think it would be interesting if the grotesques were mute - they communicate only by mime. Though I am getting shades of Terry Pratchett mime jokes forcing their way to my consciousness, oh dear.