Twice in one day something I want to have to refer back to has appeared on Facebook. This is good advice from Aquarion of Carcosa Dreams about what to do if you just aren’t getting the fun you were expecting out of a larp event. I’d only add that as a game runner, if you find yourself reassuring a player that they will have fun so they go to your event – even if you believe your own advice…
Do. Not. Do. That.
For their sake. Do not do that. Their instinct will be right. I have done this myself, and it did not improve anyone’s lives one bit.
And now over to Aquarion’s wisdom…
If you’re not having (your kind of) fun at a LARP[1] event, my advice – as player and game runner – is below, in no order.
[1] This advice is also applicable to LRP events, except the bits that involve taking action, clearly.
Bug out.
If there’s a quiet area with tea or something, that’s a good place, but a small diversion into the local countryside, a nearby café, If you’re in the middle of nowhere, this might need a friend or taxi. But take a holiday to the real world, try to step out of the situation and see where you might be able to change direction before going back in.
Talk to the event runners.
They’ll look stressed – they are – but a lot of that stress is trying to get players to have fun by inference. If you present a good-faith conversation about what you/they could be doing – an immediate *solvable* problem – they’re likely to fall over themselves to help. Sometimes the game you are trying to play isn’t the one they’re running. This is not a problem solvable once the game has started, usually, but the faster you come to that conclusion, the more time you have to solve it or quit.
Leave.
Once you have arrived and started playing the game, your costs are sunk. You have spent your money, and so have the game runners, this ball is now rolling. If you can’t get traction in the game, if your OC problems won’t let you IC, if you’ve reached your limit on what you’re *willing* to do today, and it’s not working, quit. Have a nice weekend reading or exploring if you can’t get home.
Seek advice from your fellow players
See if you can get some contact-fun from their game. Try to avoid spinning it into a public bitching session, because a whirlpool of disappointment sinks many ships, and making otherwise content players OC miserable is a bannable offence[2].
([2] Am I kidding? Maybe. Would I like to not be kidding? Absolutely)
Afterpiece
These are situational. They require resources – mental, physical or both – and sometimes you won’t be able to do all you want to. But none of them are “keep digging in the hope you hit gold”, because an engine of misery pollutes the world around it.
LARP experience 