Playstyle as culture?

[Levi]

This is gonna sound a bit weird. I'm just tossing this idea out there to see if it connects with anything anyone else is thinking, because I don't know what to do with it.

A tabletop group has a playstyle - a way of approaching their game. They have the benefit of being able to apply controls and personal tastes to it that affect the whole group at any moment, so they can balance that style more capably.

A LARP group doesn't have that. What they have, instead, is a micro-culture. Playstyle stuff goes out to the group, bounces around, sticks, grows, changes, in ways that can't be tracked over time.

Is that true, or close to true?

And does it matter?

[Eggwhite]

I think it's wrong to say that LARPs don't have playstyles - but it's fair to say that they work differently to tabletop.

With LARPs in general having larger player groups, there are more players with different ideas of what makes the game good. This means you can end up with more than one style of play in a particular game, but overall the game will generally favour one of these more than the others, and it'll be that style that it becomes known for.

To me, each game will have it's main style, but there will be variations within it to ensure that the whole playerbase gets to enjoy some of what they like. So I agree that they do have continuously evolving cultures of play, but I think that culture exists <em>as well</em> as the overall playstyle, rather than instead of it.

[Redfeild]

Style of play should be set by the Storyteller/Game Master/whatever. Thats not to say that other play styles can't or don't exist. I knew a ST once that attempted to cater to each clan of vampires on an individual bases in old World of Darkness. It met with varying success but the thing I noticed was that the players of each clan had there own style of play.

Example:
*Gangrels tended to keep to themselves. Occasional role play. But when the pooh hit the rotatory cooling device they were the first to fight. They like long periods of brooding with breaks for combat.
*Tremere players liked structure. These players seemed to thrive in the most oppressive of clans. They tended to RP amongst themselves mostly but would interact with other clans for information and achieve goals. They liked one upsmenship and/or investigation into mysteries.
*Malkavian liked to freak the norms. These players loved to scare people with there insanities. They were the loose cannons. Whether interacting with others or just counting tiles they liked the attention. I'm not sure what kind of things they liked as far as RP.
*Toreador players LOVED the drama. it was social interaction and RP all the way. Now and then you would get the odd guy that used a rapier in celerity (super speed) but they were few and far between.

What I'm getting at here is that each play styles were different between each clan. Not just because they were different clans but because a certain type of player was attracted to that clan. What you ended up with is a number of play styles being accommodated by a single game. I think that more than anything is what has made MET so much more popular over the years. Not the subject matter.

This the sort of thing you are looking for? Or am I not getting it?

[Levi]

This the sort of thing you are looking for? Or am I not getting it?

It's on topic, to be sure.

And pretty interesting, besides.

[NERO Aeon]

I think that ultimately in a LARP the storyteller/gm makes the game play style. Players who are participating in the game can influence the play steyle by providing feedback, but ultimately it is up to those running the game to decide to implement change or not.

This may be one of the reasons that many LARPers bounce from LARP to LARP until they find one that meets their wants/needs and then they tend to become very faithful to that LARP.

For example, although I run a NERO Chapter (fantasy based boffer style larp), many of my players are not into "hack and slash roll play." We write our storylines as a complete story, and then add elements of combat to them to make them more dynamic, instead of adding story to combat to give it a reason for being there. I have had players tell me that there was too much drama in my game - it's not the play style that they like. Others say that they love it, and it's what they have been looking for in a boffer LARP for years.

[tetsujin28]

Levi,

What you've brought up is interesting and very insightful. Much more than I'm able to deal with when I'm Dr. Funk :D I'll get back to you in a few days after I've thought over what you've said.

[pawsplay]

This is gonna sound a bit weird. I'm just tossing this idea out there to see if it connects with anything anyone else is thinking, because I don't know what to do with it.

A tabletop group has a playstyle - a way of approaching their game. They have the benefit of being able to apply controls and personal tastes to it that affect the whole group at any moment, so they can balance that style more capably.

A LARP group doesn't have that. What they have, instead, is a micro-culture. Playstyle stuff goes out to the group, bounces around, sticks, grows, changes, in ways that can't be tracked over time.

Is that true, or close to true?

And does it matter?

I think it is true, and it does matter, because something that can happen in a LARP is that the gaming culture can go septic. It can be very difficult to flush out self-perpetuating elements that poison the whole game. OTOH, a good group can keep itself entertained indefinitely, with or without a game master.

[Levi]

Okay, so, two things of special note others have said, abstracted:

1. A LARP is big enough to encompass multiple styles of play, but these styles all have to relate to a central style. The central style is often created by the organizers. It is possible for a group of organizers to deliberately serve multiple styles, by having characters arranged accordingly.

2. Elements of play - little techniques players use - can self-perpetuate over a LARP game, sometimes partly outside of organizer awareness. They can improve or worsen play for different styles, and some can simply make the game worse overall.

True? Important?

[Eggwhite]

2. Elements of play - little techniques players use - can self-perpetuate over a LARP game, sometimes partly outside of organizer awareness. They can improve or worsen play for different styles, and some can simply make the game worse overall.

It all seems pretty spot on to me, although I'd suggest that the little techniques players use can simply make the game better overall as well. It might be less obvious when it happens, or it might be noticed less often, but it happens.