This year I started a new project on the Gauntlet Hangouts
calendar under the name: live action online games. It’s my attempt to bring
some of my favourite moments I had in Nordic larps and American freeform into
an online world. In a laog, you stay for the actual play time 100%
in-character, often the nature of the video call is part of the game. There can
be mechanics or meta-techniques but we don’t describe what our characters are
doing, but what we do, we do.
I have written a bit more about the potential of lagos in
the form of a manifesto:
You might have also heard of the phrase digital larp, as
Tara M. Clapper is using it for her work. I hadn’t had a chance to play her
digital larps yet but I belong to the lucky ones who will do so with her at
Gauntlet Con (Chariot). On geekinitiative she has written about her experience
with digital larps / laogs. Tara is offering laogs / digital larps on a much more professional level and hence you definitely should keep on your mind if you want to get a full laog experience.
My background on
larps
I only returned to larp in 2016 but with a big bang for
myself: I travelled to the annual Knutepunkt convention, as it was in Finland
it was called Solmukohta that year. I went a week earlier to Helsinki to
participate in the pre-con week hosted by the local scene which allows visitors
to play a bit more since the actual convention is rather theory and thought exchange
focussed.
Nordic larp
Nordic larp and its brothersister American freeform is often
focussed on a precisely defined experience framework the participants shall
have. Experience as with all media but specifically roleplaying is something
deeply personal, but games which for example include the joint creation of art
in the game to fill the life in an arty 19th century café (Sarabande)
create a well-designed play space I love to explore.
Moving away from larp
world
I went on playing larps at the amazing it’s full of larp barcamp
style weekends in Germany, I played at the Academy of Art in Berlin (Level 5)
but after my family moved to Guatemala my larping came to an abrupt stop. I
eagerly took any larp in I could get at Metatopia last year but already knew I
need to create my online versions of the larps I like if I want to continue playing.
The community of potential players here in rural Guatemala is just too small to
realistically belief I could build something up in the short run.
Looking for playing
larps online
The Gauntlet
community
I found an enthusiastic crew of players in the Gauntlet community. Some of them had never larped before but were curious about the
concept, others were already eager to try to the game in their local
communities and wanted to experience it as a player before. The Gauntlet
community is a great place to bring such ideas out.
There is a huge pool of open minded players, a supportive crew to put things together and if it doesn’t go well, I always felt people were around me to pull me out of my misery. Which actually rarely happens. Just this week, my power vanished in a game I ran and my players didn’t hesitate to just continue with guiding each other through CATS (concept, aim, tone, subject matter) and character creation until I was back.
There is a huge pool of open minded players, a supportive crew to put things together and if it doesn’t go well, I always felt people were around me to pull me out of my misery. Which actually rarely happens. Just this week, my power vanished in a game I ran and my players didn’t hesitate to just continue with guiding each other through CATS (concept, aim, tone, subject matter) and character creation until I was back.
Getting started with laogs
As it turned out, Winterhorn was a good first catch trying
out laogs. Staying in-character made total sense and I already had the
opportunity to test out some of the things I now consider standard for my laog
design.
Digital black boxes
For example, we all switch cameras and mics off before we
start play and when we return we are instantly in-character. I even recommend
that people leave the room they are in and are in-character the moment they
close the door to their room. It’s a little thing but has very interesting
effects. When doing scenes 1:1 or solo scenes the effect with all other players
having their camera and mic off is even stronger. I call it a digital black box
in resemblance to black box larp which is very theatre without props like: just
light and sound accompany the players.
In the Election of the Wine Queen, a German larp by Silvia
Ochlast and Björn Butzen, which I adapted for online play, we have a
pre-determined scene with all characters on a dance floor changing dancing
partners continuously. The scene starts with two players only having their
camera on – pretending to dance together. After a while, each of them can
either ask for a new dancing partner – or somebody else switches their camera
on and asks to hand over one partner, so the other one goes off camera again.
The scene had an amazing flow and created one of the most beautiful
conversations I have experienced in gaming.
Safety online
Workshopping
Workshopping, i.e. actual practicing certain techniques used
in a game is something I very much enjoy in larping. It takes the often purely
theoretical explanations used in online games especially for the X card to
another level, in my opinion. For the Election of the Wine Queen we practiced largo
(asking the other player to reduce the intensity of the scene a bit) by going
into 1:1 scenes insulting at each other.
Turning deficiencies into
design challenges
In Election of the Wine Queen we had one more interesting
technique which was a drinking song intrusion into a scene. The game is very
much about personally intimate and hurtful situations. When scenes become most
intense, every player not in the scene can start playing the recording of the
Octoberfest style song ‘Ein Prosit’. Then all players have to immediately drop
the scene, respectively go on-camera and heartfully, cheer and sing the song
together while drinking actual wine (this part is optional). When the song is
over, the next scene begins.
To have a game with scenes and a story in which the
characters are not sitting behind screens, a bit of preparation has to be done.
Scenes are better defined that the actual movement of the characters doesn’t
play a role. Again, this goes back to certain types of theatre and black box
larp. What I do is to structure the game into Acts. Between Acts, players leave
their role for a couple of minutes and discuss which scenes they would like to
see in the next Act and who will be in the scene. As soon as the Act begins,
all scenes follow a natural flow. Scenes can be ended by switching the camera
off or neutrally saying ‘cut’.
In End Game, a short interpersonal drama focussed larp
written by David Hertz for Glass Free Games, we play a team of eSport
professionals who just got relegated from the professional league. It’s the day
before they wrap up things, shut down the server and their team’s forum. It’s
very short with just one hour of actual play time but in this one hour a lot is
happening.
Larps can in contrast to online or even face to face
tabletop games can play with space and sub-group interaction much easier. A
group of players can leave one room and discuss in another room easily. End
Game is using this a lot as there are supposed to be two rooms and players can
negotiate what should happen with the eSport team. I decided to turn this
design challenge for a laog into the opportunity to try to run in two separate
video calls between which players can move back and forth in-character. So, to
get the full story, a potential viewer of the game has to move as well from one
recording to the other.
Online though it is much more difficult to estimate what is
going on in the other space – you can’t sneak through the door to just take a
look but it is some effort to switch video streams. So what I did in the design
is to have break points every ten minutes in the game in which the set-up who
is in which room is rigorously changed. For every break point, a different
player had an in-character reason to initiate the switch and could decide –
again in-character – who moves into which space. For example, the Rookie was
about to be interviewed by an eSport journalist and could decide if they want
to take the Captain or the Veteran with them.
That brings me to a last point which is that End Game was
the first laog I designed in which one player is taking over the role of a set
of NPCs. It doesn’t change much for the other players but allows for this
player to take more of a director stance on the story. The journalist in the example
above then was able to take a look at the story so far and either estrange the
Rookie from the rest of the team through the right questions or question their
decision to give up on the team.
Laog design
Live action online games offer a great new perspective. If
you want to hear another voice about how laogs can add to online RPGs in this
Gauntlet Podcast episode Jason Cordova tals about his experience with the Election of the Wine Queen but also generally about the potential for gaming. He gives a
great summary and rightfully mentions how accessibility to larps can be
overcome through online play. So, I would say that the larp community should
take a sharp look at laogs as a fantastic way to extend their audience.
So far, my ambition was to transform existing larps to laogs
and to see through the differences what laogs need to do to create a similar
experience. But also, to show how the larp experience online actually is a new
design dimension and how larps can benefit from being played online.
The next natural step now is to go for direct live action design
for online spaces and how to get the most out of its advantages and design
challenges. There are a couple of design elements many people would consider as
too risky for example in a real world space. One laog I’m currently developing
for example contains getting naked (with camera off, for sure).
What RPG design can
learn from laogs
On the other side of the spectrum I see many design elements
arising from laog design which could be very interesting to leverage in classic
tabletop RPGs being played online. The idea of having workshops before the game,
the power of a digital black box are very interesting for many games.
Generally, tabletop RPGs designers should strongly consider designing specifically
for online groups in my opinion. The way laogs show can offer inspiration.
Another game I’m currently designing contains playing a collaborative online
puzzle game together as its resolution mechanic – the idea came from looking
around for an online way to play games with tumbling towers (Star Crossed,
Dread) but has further developed since then.
I’m personally very much looking forward to explore this design
field more and see what other people bring in it from their perspective and
which needs they see need to be realized. I’m looking forward to get in touch
with you if you are interested in sharing your ideas or collaborate on
something. I’m also happy to playtest your ideas through the Gauntlet Hangouts Calendar.
Material
Election of the Wine Queen laog
End Game laog
So Mom I made this sex tape laog
The laog - live action online games - manifesto
