Musings from Bristol
What I meant by these terms:
- A goal-orientated larp; one focusing on solving puzzles / achieving goal states is generally set in an unresolved situation. The characters be they PCs or NPCs are traveling (literally in the case of the old linear format) to try to get where they want to be. Most of the event is about their journey to get there and the encounters along the route.
- An emotion-orientated larp; Unlike the above, the journey is already done. It’s about what the characters experience when they get there. It might be wrestling with feelings of angst or love or a crisis of faith.
In terms of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey model, goal-orientated larps focus on the beginning of the journey – hearing the call to adventure, meeting a mentor, entering the special world, meeting allies, enemies and tests, entering the innermost cave to face the arch-enemy. Emotion-orientated larps tend to focus on the second half – after overcome the arch-enemy, claiming the prize that causes self-transformation.
However, some emotion-orientated larps do have ‘action’ where ‘stuff happens.’ In one of the early drafts of international larp Dragonbane it was expected the dragontamers would attack the village of dragon worshippers one night, kidnap people from their beds and interrogate them. However, the difference is an emotion-orientated larps tend to be set up with such a massive power imbalance that the result isn’t in doubt. In the case of the Dragonbane this was done by only giving one side a significant number of weapons. It’s not about the goal of trying to avoid being kidnapped, it’s about the sense of fear of being pulled from your bed, marched through a dark wood and interrogated at knife point. The end state is effectively pre-decided, if only to a certain level of detail – who and how many get kidnapped was left to be resolved in play.
Goal-orientated play clearly meshes with gamist larp, but the two are not the same. In goal-orientated, the event is focused on characters trying to achieve goal-states. In gamist play, the players are trying to ‘win.’ These are often the same; e.g. the character want to kill the evil necromancer, the player wants to succeed because his character will get more treasure/xp/power from doing so, but they don’t have to be.
I use to think that emotion-orientated larps appear to mesh with narrativism. These days I’m not so sure. Individual scene-based narrativist play is certainly emotion-orientated, but story arc-based narrativist play less so. Such player is focused on imposing the player goal of ‘create a good story’ above any character goal. It’s still emotion-orientated however, since when you stand back and look at the story as a whole it is intended to stir an emotional response.
Where then does that leave simulationism? As far as I can see it can support either agenda depending on the starting premise. If the premise is an unresolved situation (e.g. a struggle to control the land the event is set on) then it lends itself to goal-orientated play and will likely attract gamist players in the process. If the premise is a resolved situation (e.g. you lost the struggle for control of the area, now experience living under a cruel tyrant) then it lends itself to emotion-orientated and probably attracts narrativist players.
In conclusion then, while every larp will have both goals and emotions to some degree, it must be focused on one or the other as being more important, due to the underlying premise of the setting – whether it’s a journey (a ‘point in flux’) or the destination (in NewWhoSpeak a ‘fixed point in time’). When designing a larp event this point is something to consider. Being aware of this issue, making an active conscious choice, and being upfront with the players about this choice is a good thing to do.
In recent years I’ve being losing interest in mainstream UK larps. Most of them are set around the journey rather than the destination.
