Post originally by Eric Johnson at 2003-11-12 09:57:46
Converted from Phorums BB System

Since I've run most, if not all, of the games in The Book of LARP, I wanted to add my thoughts on how they run. Let me say upfront, however, that I am an Official Interactivities Ink. Evil Minion and therefore am loosely affiliated with the company.

First, all of the games run pretty well, despite not being plot intensive. This is, in my opinion, because characters are well written and have some set of goals. When the characters are allowed to mix and then put into a stressful situation (such as being stuck in an elevator), everything slowly starts to come to the surface.

That being said, two games have emerged as being truly exceptional really-short form games. The first is "All The Presidents Zombies," which seems fairly average upon the first reading, but plays VERY well. I've been involved in many runs of it with some very diverse casts, but it has run well each time. It can be serious or silly, satire or parody without changing a word. It's all in the interpretation of the game by the players. The second is "Humans vs. Monsters: Diplomacy," which is, simply put, a riot. It's a chance to play an unabashedly silly larp, which makes fun of a number of fantasy cliches. It has brought out over-the-top roleplaying (intentionally) from some of the least likely sources.

In general, I think it's easy to write off these really-short form games (my own term, as far as I know), but they run surprisingly well, especially considering that they require almost no setup or preparation. If you get a chance I'd strongly suggest running some for your friends, or, if you're smart, convincing one of your friends to run them for you.