Some readers may recall Article 7 in these series, Things I’d like to know when deciding to go to your larp. One of the items on that list is ‘Theme,’ which we’ll be looking at in more detail here.

Theme as a concept in role-playing has been around for a while – all the White Wolf main books discuss it, and list the themes that the particular game is suited to explore. For example, Vampire: The Masquerade (2nd ed) suggests ‘Love, Hate, Chaos, Morality, Leadership, Society.’

Exploring a theme does not mean preaching a particular point of view, but reflecting and setting out different perspectives around that theme.

In the early stages of writing a larp, it can be useful to try to reflect what theme or themes you want to explore, and perhaps think up some questions (not answers) that relate to it. For example, if you are exploring the theme of society, you might ask such questions as:

• ‘How important are social values? Do social rules have value in and of themselves?
• Do they have to be rigid for society to function? What happens when different social codes (such as secular vs. religious) conflict?
• What if anything justifies breaking the rules of society? (Money? Survival? The greater good?) Is it possible to be agent of change and reform without breaking social rules?

Sometimes the nature of the setting will suggest a theme to choose. For example, while doing research for a 1950’s larp, I found conflicting accounts of the period that talked about both strong conservative family values, and accounts of teen rebellions embodied in Rock & Roll and anti-communist propaganda. This then suggested certain themes to reflect on– Society, Loyalty, Order vs. Chaos. Since this was a Cthulhu Mythos larp, this in turn suggested which cosmic horrors we should make use of in the plot – ones which echo and reinforce these particular themes.

Common mistakes here are either:

• Not to reflect on this enough, producing a story that lacks thematic content. Such stories may be entertaining at the time, but tend not to be well remembered. They lack emotive ‘power’ to convey meaning.
• Try to include too many themes. Including more than one is good, especially if you can explore points where they intersect. However, too many will make the story unfocused.

Once you have a theme in mind, it important to think about how you care going to include it. Look at every character in the plot, and try to think how they might include at least one of the themes in some way. This is easier if you are making up new characters for the event, rather than an ongoing campaign. For example, if you are exploring the theme of society in a medieval larp, you might include a poacher who breaks social rules to feed his family, a robber who breaks them for wealth, an outlaw accused of a crime he didn’t commit, lovers caught in an arranged socially expected marriage, a physician priest who performs surgery and breaks the order against shedding blood, and so on.

If you have player created characters, you might ask the players during character creation pointed questions so they consider the theme within respect to their character. You could convey the theme via flavour text and setting material, or you could just tell the players explicitly ‘This larp is aiming to explore this theme. Try to include it in your characterisation.’

In the case of a larp as part of a campaign, you could look at the character’s background and ‘story so far’ and try to weave thematic elements in , perhaps using their ‘downtime’ or ‘briefing’ for the event. Failing that, you can focus on using NPCs and other newly made characters to create thematic situations.

You may need to make sure that your setting is rich enough in the right areas to explore the theme. For example, if you want to explore the theme of love, you need to make sure the romance and marriage customs for cultures within the setting are properly defined. You might also want to include a system such as ‘Ars Armandi’ to handle physical displays of affection. If you want to explore the theme of leadership, you may need to make sure concepts of social status are properly defined, and that symbols of status (be a crown and sceptre, or a toga with a purple border, or a stars on general’s uniform) carry the right meaning to the players.

Exploring a theme then is a matter of building in the right characters and/or setting up the right situations, so that thematic content arises. Making the theme explicit to the players also allows them to think about how to explore it. They might decide to subtly reference it in their acts and spoken comments, or perhaps use as a basis for a speech to prepare to deliver during the larp. Irrespective of your creative agenda, it is possible to carry out meaningful thematic exploration.