Flik of Wear Sunscreen for larpers. Draft version, needs timing updates
(I'll get around to updating and rerecording this advice one day. Or maybe not)
Larpers of the events of 2017:
If I could offer you only one tip for the event, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your character. Or never mind. You may not understand how much game you provided until they’ve faded, but trust me, in 20 years when the game’s over you’ll see from froth posts you can’t grasp now about how much people saw what you were doing, and how great your costume really looked. You are not as ignored as you imagine.
Don’t worry about your next character. Or worry, but know that until you gen them up you won’t know which members of your prospective group happen to be dead at the same time.
The real troubles for your character are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind. The kind that blindside you at ten to time-out on some idle Sunday.
Do one thing every event that risks character death.
Be reckless with your ballgowning, but check in with your targets. Don’t put up with people who are causing you OOC distress.
Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive; forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old lammies.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your character. If you’re having fun playing them, keep doing so. If you’re not, retire them. You are not obliged to keep going to things that aren’t fun, even if it will make group infrastructure harder, your group will understand.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll ballgown, maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll battle, maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll die at your first event.
Maybe you’ll see the final time out when the system ends.
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance; so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your hard skills. Use them every way you can. Don’t be afraid of them, or what other people think of them.
Play, even if your own system consumes much of your weekends.
Read the rules. Follow them.
Do not read feedback threads for your own events until two weeks have past.
Get to know your group’s characters; you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your event crew; they are your best link to great event drama and the people most likely to stick it to you in the future.
Understand that props come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and larp-style, because the larp that is far away. or the larp that may not be entirely your jam, may provide you with the best stories in years to come.
Go to major fest larp once, but leave before it makes you resent everybody who got the plot.
Go to intense parlour larp once, but leave before you forget how to hit things properly.
Vary character archetypes.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Players will dislike each other, Campaign plot will fudge things. and when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young everyone was reasonable, Campaign plot was consistent, and people pulled their blows.
Don’t expect everyone else to automatically follow your perfect arc.
Maybe you have a plot-line, maybe you have a writer fan, but you never know when either might get derailed.
Don’t mess too much with snaz, or when you get as far as time in, all your friends will have been murdered.
Be careful whose weapons you buy, but be patient with those who you hit with it.
Tales about past larps are a form of nostalgia. Dispensing them is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen
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