Looking For Input

I can't agree more with your Kal'vas statement. I experienced the same thing after saving Sonja. While main mod was still wrapping up a small group of us carried Sonja back to town and began treating her for the black sap disease. For months Sonja had been battling the black sap before finally giving in and becoming the big bad at a mod that has been teased for almost a year and a half. We spent about an hour handling her infection while simultaneously fighting off spirits that kept possessing us. After a lengthy and complicated surgical procedure to return her to health, Sonja woke crying and grief stricken over what she had done. We reassured her that everyone would be happy to see that she was well, and walked her over to the bonfire where most of town was gathered. We presented Sonja to the town prepared for possible anger, rejection, and resentment, but were instead greeted with something far worse: abject indifference.

I am very much in favor of stories that are not world-ending crisis, and a big reason or this is that I favor consequences. Currently there is no reason for players to respond to encounters because there is neither fallout for failure nor reward for victory. Sure there’s loot drops or whatever, but so what? Heck, properly employed time units will get you more loot than you could possibly spend. I’d like to see results that alter the flow of the game. Saved the merchant caravan? All clutter sells for maximum value for one moon. Failed to save it? The cost of components rises. Let a disease ravage the land? Harvest is now no longer available with TUs until the problem is handled. Stop a rampaging horde of lizardmen? A magic item salesman comes to town offering his wares? Fail to stop it? All paydays become risky paydays. You get the idea.

Consequences also don’t have to be mechanical. Generally after main mod the NPC hook fades into the mists never to be heard from again. Instead consider keeping them around as a contact for the players, and then use those contacts both to feed stories and to leverage against the town. Nobody is going to care if some random person has a demand for the town, but if Harmony or Jezebel or another established character comes calling, we care more. Use this to get us interested in storylines, or if we fail have the quest giver change their attitude towards town.

One thing I will caution on this is to make the goals achievable and to make the rewards/consequences balanced. I know this is a difficult task, but seriously consider things from the player perspective. For instance, last event the NPCs were able to achieve their goal Friday night before players even knew who the NPCs were or what those goals were. This is not a failing of the PCs. This is a design problem. The goals were too easily achieved and now you have been painted into a narrative corner. Likewise the initial dispel requirements for main mod were literally impossible to accomplish, but thankfully a GM was willing to alter them on the spot when the futility of the task was demonstrated.

To speak more on the specifics of last moon, I will reference an OOG conversation we had Friday night. You were shocked that the PCs were just letting dangerous looking armed people wander about their town willy nilly, but honestly considering the hazards of the island I am more suspicious of those who show up unarmed. Did these strangers have suspicious requests? Sure, but that’s no reason to kill them. Were townsfolk foolish to make deals with these people? Absolutely. But honestly we have put up with worse for longer, so I’m sort of confused about why this is surprising. I was disappointed by how many people went along with their requests, but that’s for them to do.

Part of the conflict here is also an OOG concern. Everyone is coming to larp to have fun, and people have different ideas of what is fun at larp. For some people it is uncovering the evil plot and defeating the baddies. For some it is having an emotionally powerful scene. For others it’s essentially saying yes to the dress, and just going along with whatever comes down the pike. I try very hard to balance the ambitions of my own gameplay with the fun of other players. Sure when I see players making what I consider to be dumb decisions I’m disappointed, but I also want to mitigate how much I interfere with their fun. Many times as a character I would vociferously object to a player’s actions, but as a real life person I don’t want to be a jerk and ruin somebody else’s game. Try to keep this dissonance in mind when adjudicating player actions.

One thing I will caution against is thinking about the players as a group. Player is a category of people that describes how they interact with the game. This does not inherently indicate that they are a team working together for a common goal. This is one of the things that separates PCs from NPCs. The NPCs are both a category and a team, whereas players are simply a category. As such I would encourage any consequences to be personally focused as much as possible unless they are the result of main mod or a long running story arc. What I mean by this is avoid whole game punishments for actions that individuals take. We are not a cohesive unit and should not be treated as one. In the real world if someone were a danger to their community they might be imprisoned or Exisled or placed under probation, but these are not feasible actions in a larp. Everyone is coming to play a game, and so a certain amount of freedom to be a mess has to be allowed so that people get from the experience what it is they are seeking, though I would encourage players to seriously consider how their actions are impacting the fun of other PCs and balance that with their character’s aims.

I think at the heart of the matter is the nature of the larp itself. Exisle started as a beer and pretzels larp, and a lot of that still directs the attitude of the game. This is not meant as a criticism. Exisle is a place people come to relax, and yes, a lot of characters have flippant attitudes because the game itself is laid back. I enjoy the informal, goofy atmosphere of Exisle. I often tell people it isn’t so much a larp as going over to my friend’s house to play. If you want to change this and make Exisle a more serious game, then know that you are messing with the nature of the experience and be prepared for grumbling.

OK, so this post is a long rambling mess, but if you’d like me to elaborate or clarify anything I have said here then know that I am welcoming of this discourse. I understand the difficulty you are having with balancing the legitimacy of threats with the need to provide an enjoyable game experience for all and I am very interested in assisting with this endeavor. If you are interested in getting a wider feedback to this post, I would also encourage you to link it to the FB group. The forums have only recently been reinstated and only a few people check in here. I myself would never have seen this post had I not been directed to it by another player. Also know that if you are ever in need of feedback from a player’s perspective I almost always have something to say and am always eager to assist.