YouTube Friday: RDCCDX LARP

Forgive me, because I don't remember who posted this on Facebook, but I dig it. There's really to things about this though.

First, this video, and the rest of the Ronin Dojo Community College DX is hilarious. Second, the guys who made this will shortly be making a show for Cartoon Network called Level Up, which has loose ties to LARPing. In that show, 4 friends are going to have to deal with video game characters that are leaking into the real world.

For more information, you can visit their blog at www.fortaxreasons.com.

I apologize to anyone who is offended by this video ahead of time. For the rest of you, Enjoy!

The Truth About Volunteers

LARPs rely on a lot of volunteer work in order to get things done. But it always seems like people forget an important aspect of volunteer work.

You have to work quickly and efficiently.

See, I have known a couple of instances where people who were volunteers put time and effort into something, just to have it discarded and wasted. This is about the worst thing you could possibly do. Not only was that time wasted, but the volunteer will recognize that their time was wasted and be less likely to donate their time in the future.

When using volunteer labor, you really need to get the most from the time invested by volunteers. And at a certain point, you need to let loose of micromanagement and let them act. Time is the most precious resource, and every minute you keep them from working on the problem at hand is a minute that is wasted.

Just some food for thought.

The Inside Man

I'm surprised I've never talked specifically about this topic, but the last event I was at gave me an idea. I'm going to get a sweet looking book, cut out the insides, and make a mount for my phone. Why?

Because I want to be able to give plot a heads up whenever people are doing things without having to go to monster camp.

I've always given praise to the games that utilize smartphones, but normally those games have a reason to allow the use of them IG. But what about using them in an OOG capacity to reduce logistics?

Now, when I say inside man, I don't mean playing an NPC that's interacting with the PCs. This is strictly a PC who keeps a way to contact plot on his person at any given time. They should only use this whenever they're out of sight of other players or in some other capacity, or go out of their way to make it look IG so texting doesn't break the immersion of others.

What do you think of this plan?

Stepping It Up With Sound Effects

With Exiles coming up, I'm reminded of one of the things that really helps build the atmosphere in that game.

Sound effects and background noise.

You see, we do a lot of steampunk stuff and a lot of vehicle modules (train, riverboat, stagecoach), and it's often very hard to represent that stuff on a shoestring budget. Our buddy Ryan is fully capable of building amazing props using just camp foam, yarn, and duct tape (don't ask me how he does it), but that stuff only gets so far.

But with the addition of sound effects, you make it that much easier for the players to imagine that they're in a factory, or on a boat, or in the middle of a battlefield with explosions going off.

So if you have the capability to do so, I highly suggest the use of Sound effects or background noise to make you modules more immersive.

The Week In LARP - October 3rd

Last Week In LARP

Did you attend a LARP event last weekend? Let us know how it was in the comments!

This Week In LARP

Starting to get cold. Wear warm clothes!

Independent

Exiles will be hosting a 2-day event this weekend starting on Friday, October 7th and ending Sunday, October 9th. The game will be held at Lewis Arboretum at the IG location of Redemption Hills. It's $40 to PC and is free to NPC.

Triumph will start running their haunted trail this weekend in Beavercreek, OH. If you'd like to help out, they'll be running it every weekend until the end of October. For more information, visit their website.

If you've got a game running this week and we didn't mention you, either drop a comment here or shoot an email to larp.plot.tips@gmail.com, and we'll add you as soon as possible!