Something I always worry about before every LARP is if I have enough for the players to do, especially if it’s a convention scenario where people don’t start with investment in the characters and plot. So how do you know when you’ve written enough to keep people entertained for a stretch of a few hours?



Character goals

In my experience, giving each character 3 goals they want to accomplish seems like the sweet spot. They might achieve some of them straight away, they might stray from what you’ve given them and follow another plot that piqued their interest. And that’s okay! What you’re doing is giving them a starting point. What does their character care enough about to devote time to? Giving them goals is a great way to point them in the right direction.



It’s important to strike the right balance between trivially easy and impossible to achieve. While a player might not complete all the goals on their sheet, it should ideally be possible for them to reach a conclusion in some way for all of them. Maybe they don’t reach an ideal outcome, but closure should be possible. You can even vary the difficulty of the goals, although be aware that you’re the only one who is intimately familiar with the plot and characters. What seems trivial may take some digging on the player’s part. On the flip side, players will always surprise you with their ingenuity and something you thought would take up most of the game has been resolved in an hour. Don’t panic!



Tying characters together

One method I’ve used in the past is to write all the characters names down, arranged in a circle. Beside that, assign each subplot a colour. Once you have that done, go around the circle and put a dot beside a character’s name if they are directly involved in that plot. Take a look at those dots? Is there anyone with an overwhelming number? Perhaps give a plot thread to someone with fewer dots. Do you look at this and realise that while someone may have several goals stated on their character sheet, they’re only involved in one subplot? Consider getting them involved in something else so the player isn’t left to flounder if things get resolved earlier than you had anticipated.



Once you’ve allocated the dots to your liking, connect them! Keeping same colours, connect up those who are involved in the same plots and you’ll see who needs to interact with who. Obviously the players won’t be privy to this information, but it’s a good way to see if there’s anyone who isn’t very connected to the others. Ideally, the players will all interact with each other and through roleplay, will clash and complement each other. However, it can be disheartening to see everyone else hare off to do something special together while you’re left on the sidelines.



Keeping players busy with roleplay

Encouraging roleplay merits its own post, but here are some suggestions as how you can give players greater roleplay opportunities.



Give them something they care about. Ever heard someone talk about something they’re passionate about? People can talk about the things they love or hate.



Give characters conflicting opinions. So you’ve given your players something to care about. Now make them clash. There’s no fun in a circle of people sitting around, politely agreeing with one another. Give the characters opposing views and that will breed conflict. It’s even better if these conflicting characters need to work together to achieve their goals.



I ran a social LARP once set at a fancy ball and one of the players utterly delighted me when he came over and asked if he could use the servants to spread false rumours. Characters were accusing each other left, right, and center, and it really helped showcase the various conflicts and feuds.



How do YOU make sure you’ve given people enough to play with?

I’m always learning and I’d love to hear from others on how you personally make sure there’s enough plot to go around. Do you keep backup plots to be deployed in case of a slump in the action?



And players – what sparks your imagination in games? What makes you take an idea and run with it, creating delicious drama? Do you like seeing goals written down on your character sheets? Let me know in the comments below!