Levi
05-20-2006, 04:22 PM
Okay, having reviewed a few of the threads where we've talked about staging already, I think I have some clear thoughts on the very beginnings; the broad strokes, so to speak.
Tell me what I'm missing...
The Base Set
When preparing a LARP stage, the "base" is the fundamental environment that play will be occuring in. It's the whole of the stage itself. You can manage the base set according to a number of differing methods:
Blank Slate: through control of lighting, by renting a "black box" theatre, or other basic controls over the space itself, it's possible to make the basic stage a "blank", drawing player attention to players and details of staging smaller than the stage itself - this facilitates focus on the actual events of the game itself rather than any other details. As an example of this, I've played in a Wraith LARP where every surface was covered with white sheeting, and a fog machine was used to fill the air. The stage itself was almost perfectly blank in this game, and it was highly effective.
Perfect Site: By finding a location for your event that matches the theme, setting, and content of the game almost perfectly, it's possible to create a heightened sense of "being there" that's almost unnatainable any other way. As an example of this, a recurring game in the city I'm living in is set in the Victorian era, and is played at a local historical site called Fort Edmonton. Playing a "street game" is often an example of this method as well.
Familiar Invisibility: A group that makes use of a game space that is so intimately familiar to them as to be almost utter habit can manage to pull the little mental trick of "vanishing the site" from their own perceptions. This is especially true of small LARP groups that consistently use the same house, apartment, or flat for play. I've played with a group in Vancouver that played Vampire every single week at the same (relatively poor) site. After a few months, the site itself became utterly ignorable, and ceased to be an issue.
The Juxta: Groups can also choose to play their games or scenes in locations that "don't fit" the game, for deliberate effect. I've only seen this once, myself - I've played through a dungeon-crawl held, on purpose, on an open field in broad daylight, where the "dungeon" itself was, in the fiction of the game, an artifact of character insanity - and the players knew it. Actors as staff each held a single, flimsy "wall", made of clear plastic, and would run these "walls" around into the correct positions as you went through the maze.
...Remember, just the big stuff. Let's hammer on this a bit, and then drag it over and look at little things.
Tell me what I'm missing...
The Base Set
When preparing a LARP stage, the "base" is the fundamental environment that play will be occuring in. It's the whole of the stage itself. You can manage the base set according to a number of differing methods:
Blank Slate: through control of lighting, by renting a "black box" theatre, or other basic controls over the space itself, it's possible to make the basic stage a "blank", drawing player attention to players and details of staging smaller than the stage itself - this facilitates focus on the actual events of the game itself rather than any other details. As an example of this, I've played in a Wraith LARP where every surface was covered with white sheeting, and a fog machine was used to fill the air. The stage itself was almost perfectly blank in this game, and it was highly effective.
Perfect Site: By finding a location for your event that matches the theme, setting, and content of the game almost perfectly, it's possible to create a heightened sense of "being there" that's almost unnatainable any other way. As an example of this, a recurring game in the city I'm living in is set in the Victorian era, and is played at a local historical site called Fort Edmonton. Playing a "street game" is often an example of this method as well.
Familiar Invisibility: A group that makes use of a game space that is so intimately familiar to them as to be almost utter habit can manage to pull the little mental trick of "vanishing the site" from their own perceptions. This is especially true of small LARP groups that consistently use the same house, apartment, or flat for play. I've played with a group in Vancouver that played Vampire every single week at the same (relatively poor) site. After a few months, the site itself became utterly ignorable, and ceased to be an issue.
The Juxta: Groups can also choose to play their games or scenes in locations that "don't fit" the game, for deliberate effect. I've only seen this once, myself - I've played through a dungeon-crawl held, on purpose, on an open field in broad daylight, where the "dungeon" itself was, in the fiction of the game, an artifact of character insanity - and the players knew it. Actors as staff each held a single, flimsy "wall", made of clear plastic, and would run these "walls" around into the correct positions as you went through the maze.
...Remember, just the big stuff. Let's hammer on this a bit, and then drag it over and look at little things.