Mike Pohjola posed a question on the Facebook group “Edu-larp – sharing is caring.”, and it’s adjacent to my interests with Game of Roses, so I was interested in an excellent answer by Charles Bo Nielsen
Mike said “I’ve test-run my new edularp a couple of times at schools and either the topic or the method seems quite difficult for 16-year-olds. There seems to always be a couple people who just don’t get it. “Like am I supposed to pretend to be this person?”
And then, rather than playing the game, they stay silent, browse their phones, or go to the bathroom.
I think in most cases this arises out of genuine confusion, but at the same time others are perfectly happy to roleplay along. How do you deal with such cases?”
Charles answered… and this is verbatim…
Great question.
First off I wanna start out by saying, that it is a really difficult age to do anything that can grab everyone. They have a lot of stuff going on in their heads in that age and they are likely exhausted of going through a system of “one size fits all” education system. So there is no fool proof solutions and even the best educaters struggle to keep the focus in that age group. And many of them have become experts at pretending to listen, so it can be hard to know when they actually get it.
One of the classic issues that leads to this exact problem, is that some of them was distracted in the start and didn’t really listen to your instructions and when they started to pay attention, you move on from the basics and they struggle to catch up on what is going on and partly just give up.
One of the main things is to not only repeat instructions, but have the students repeat the instructions back to you in their own words. This way you create better understanding and more options to catch up for those who lost attention for a bit.
I think there is some very different ways to go about this and there is always tradeoffs. And often changing your method up, will lead to other students falling out of it.
Just be charming:
– You can “just” be more funny/charismatic/flashy opening to get them more invested from the start. This is obviously easier said then done and is still far from foolproof, but confidence, charisma and charm can get you far in life with anyone. Practising your intro and delivery infront of the mirror and other people, improves your material to a point, where more people will listen.
Simplify:
– You can make stuff simple enough for everyone to get it, but then it will be more simple. Basically just keep cutting the content down in size and complexity. But as you make things too simple, you also loose those who figure it out to quickly and then loose interest.
Accepted collateral damage:
– You can accept that not everyone will get it, like with most things. There are likely more in the group who don’t get it, but they just pretend that they do and mimic what others do. But they will leave after the edu-larp the same way. And basically do nothing, but accept it as a sort of collatoral damage or maybe even if you have the authority in the situation let them go somewhere else, do something else, to not waste their time.
More co-creation:
– You can change your approach to be more co-creative, more chaotic, include the students/kids more in the creation of what they are going to be doing. This way you will arrive at stuff they understand (Because they will only get ideas within their own frame of reference) and where they are often more onboard, but it will also be harder to keep it within the educational contraints.
Agents of inclusion:
– You can recruit agents of inclusion among the students/kids to help you reach out to those who are more lost and help explain it to them. This will distract them from being as dedicated, but some kids/students really like to get that responsility of helping others. This is difficult to pull off if you haven’t done it much, but it is a powerful approach once you get the feel for it.
Groups only:
– You can remove the individual roles and have them play more a collective, focus less on them as pretending and more of them as a group exploring or solving a problem together. Then those who are less commited, can just be part the group, instead of struggling to be an actual character within the group.
Early breaks to reinvite:
– You can use breaks as a way to reinvite them into the fold of what you are doing. So let them zone out a bit on their phone and then have breaks, where you can then talk to them individually about how to get them to join.
And finally…
I wary my approach, depending on my own temper, time constraints, the kids and the teachers. The teachers can often get in your way because they would do it differently, try to get them on your side first, so they don’t halfway through try to “help you” by explaining things in a completely different way. Having a varied toolbox and be able to switch things up is something I recommend and rely on.
I added…
In the Game of Roses, an edu-larp for 17-18 yr olds, we consciously don’t use the word roleplay. We just tell them they’re playing a character, which is a tiny difference which I think works?
And they end up roleplaying anyway….
And finally…
Work with teachers who are enthusiastic about this subject, about larp as a teaching method, and also have an inspirational impact on their students – that’s how I’d describe Duncan Rowe, my collaborator on Game of Roses, and if you have that you’re essentially there.
LARP experience 
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