Further Proof That I Am, Indeed, Bonkers.
Aug. 2nd, 2008 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangrrl_squeesThis should go on the gamers and gaming filter on my regular journal (and I'll no-doubt crosspost) but given the nature of the idea, I want to discuss it here.
Bit O'Context
Years and years ago - at this point, something like ten of 'em, in fact - my hubby and I looked at each other and said "Let's run a Doctor Who LARP1". To be fair to the husband, it was largely my idea, but he humors me in all sorts of ways. The idea was largely inspired by the live-action RP/scavenger hunts that a friend of mine hosted once a year so, the final premise that Alex and I bashed out was that the participants are all final-year students at "The Time Academy" on Gallifrey (keeping it simple) and they had been sent forth in a slightly wheezy Type 60 TARDIS to do their final exam in the field. Things, of course, would go wrong, with the upshot that the half-a-dozen players would spend a pleasant afternoon dashing around central San Francisco collecting clues from various NPCs, solving little riddles and, y'know, saving the world. Simple enough, so to speak, and much like the highly-enjoyable events a pal of mine used to run, albeit set in another gaming world entirely.
Naturally, Alex and I called our little idea I Left My Hearts In San Francisco.
The idea was abandoned when I realized that the logistics were way out of hand - I was looking at needing at least half a dozen assistants, scattered across downtown SF and possibly even in to Berkeley (cellphone connectivity mandatory!) in order to support half a dozen participants and, even then, there was going to be lot of unseemly scrambling as the helpers doing a turn as NPCs2 Zed and Vee would have to rush off and get ready to be NPCs Gee and Aitch at another location because when you realize you've written something like twelve NPCs, none of which encounter the players more than once, you're going to ask your volunteers to double-up on NPC duty. Potentially fun for the players, yes, but also a potential nervous breakdown for the GMs - namely me and Alex.
Later on, I devised a second idea for a much smaller "locked room" event, focused more on The Doctor, himself - and assorted nemesii, of course. This idea is in a constant state of 'in development' but hasn't been abandoned. In fact, I'd write the whole damn thing up in a moment - certain outstanding plot issues notwithstanding - if I knew I could get the players together. The one huge-and-unfixable disadvantage of the plot is that it must have exactly X number of players and if one of them flakes out on the event, the entire thing croaks. "Tightly knit" barely describes how the PCs and plots are woven together, although I will admit that X keeps wobbling between eight and eleven people, depending on how I'm feeling about a particular plot line on any given day, so that's still to be fixed. I'm not going to share any more details about that one, because, as I say, it might yet happen - and it'll remain untitled until I can think of one that wouldn't give the game away in half a dozen words.
So, it's established that I've got a history of wanting to do something gamer-ish and Whovian - a history of being bonkers, yes.
***
This morning, I woke up with the shreds of some dream fading from my head and, without any bloody prompting from me, the following permutations for a complete revamp of I Left My Hearts In San Francisco fell into my head. Of course, they're still ludicrously ambitious.
Permutation The First
Not too unchanged from the original premise - stranded would-be Time Lords mucking about on Earth - but using pre-recorded video segments to reduce the need for actual NPCs at various sites. The participants would still be solving riddles to identify clues, collecting those clues and solving the overall mystery, but there would be a fair bit less in the way of dashing about. Pros: it's still an event which could occur in a single day, with a gang of like-minded maniacal gamers. Cons: still a bit heavy on the on-site NPCs, however I slice it.
Permutation The Second
Much like the first, but with another layer of complexity to the clue-hunting. Have you ever heard of letterboxing? It's like geocaching, but you don't need a GPS instrument to do it3 - just some specific directions and a few well-hidden locations. I would create a short video (or multiple videos) which will lead participants to the initial letterbox. Along with the traditional journal/shiny-things within the box, there would be a clue pointing to the next part of the story, all done with a DW-theme. Whether or not the letterboxer wants to follow it up is, of course, up to them. How many are there? Who knows, but if I did more than one box, they would be connected - and possibly more than one video clue would have to be created and one must be wary of participants getting ping-ponged about between their net 'connection and the great outdoors . Pros: once set up, I can leave it alone aside from checking on the box(es) occasionally. Cons: could fall flat completely, gotta think up said clever clues, shoot the video (not too hard, really) and, as mentioned, make sure no-one pinches the letterbox, itself.
Permutation The Third
This is really a combination of my original LARP idea and Permutation The Second. Maniac-gal (that would be me) comes up with a scavenger-hunt-with-a-plot event. Unlike the first Permutation, all of "NPCs" are handled via recorded clues - video and audio. The participants have to hunt down these video clues (stored at various video-sharing type places online) determine what they mean and find the physical items. Pros: can be managed as a one-shot, single day event (and later shared online, if desired) and keeps the flavor of the original idea for I Left My Hearts.... The participants can even be encouraged to create personas for the event, if they wish, but they could just be themselves. Granted, I know my friends and the odds are, if I said "Gosh, I just happen to have these dozen characters all written up and ready to go..." they'd just happen to have costuming to match.... Cons: as above and requires a lot more A/V work. Come the event, the PCs must have a reasonable-speed Internet connection close to hand - or a GM with all of the clues on CD-ROM/DVD and a means to share them - although I was thinking that part of the puzzle-solving would be finding the clues in the first place. YouTube is an awfully big place, you know - but that means a 'net connection is indispensable.
As you have no-doubt already guessed, dear reader, the entire project could be seen as a big ol' homage to certain aspects of Blink. Contraiwise, keep in mind that I'm a former film-maker and an ongoing addict of the interwebz, why not use all that to create an interesting event?
It's all very loose in my head right now - given that I woke up about half an hour ago with this in my head, but I'm thinking that the video-bits of the plot (however it shakes out) would feature nubbins of information from DW-canon characters, which means imposing on the local cosplay contingent - but if I handled the script properly, they could still play, as they'd only know a tiny bit of the plot.
As for the actual mystery of the plot... it could be one of several things. I could still use the original "Time Academy Field Trip" plot that Alex and I hashed out - although that could turn into a sort-of Choose Your Own Adventure scenario and I'm sure us Gen X folks remember how many of those stories ended with "You're wrong! And, by the way, you're dead!". That's no fun! It would be tricky... Then there's always the good ol' Key to Time. Or half a dozen things I could name, but won't, as I've babbled on for far too long, already and, besides, why spoil the surprise?
Logistically: the almost-certain need for a 'net connection could be managed by renting a hotel-room in the city, to be used as HQ/chillout space after the game, which would almost certainly take care of Internet needs, but would drive the cost up. My friend who ran the event by which this is inspired routinely required at least 20 participants paying $20 each into the kitty, to cover materials and the rental of meeting space - admittedly, rather nice meeting space - but there's no such thing as cheap in San Francisco - but that's logistics and I'm getting distracted...
I rather like the notion of creating a series of (short) videos, tied in with several letterboxes hidden in the city. Put the videos online, resolve to check on the letterboxes every six months and just let things go - if people pick up on it, great, if they don't... well, that's letterboxing for you. It's a voluntary hobby. I know, I know, if the "game" caught on, the clues wouldn't be all that 'hidden' any more, as spoilsports abound, but that can be countered, up to a point... Besides, I doubt I'm creating the next viral phenomenon, y'know?
From the POV of my enjoyment as a GM/control freak/sillyfan, Permutation The Second would be thefunnest most fun. Also the most complicated and costly, but I'm not terribly surprised to realized that.
What the hell, ideas are cheap. I'm going to start doodling ideas for the mystery and the clues required. If/when the plot gets nailed down, then I'll have an idea of the actual feasibility.
Now I'm all tired again and I've got to go play with power tools. It should be an interesting morning.
Postscript:Oh. Bloody hell. What if I create characters for the players far in advance of the event, giving them some room for collaboration with me, rather than just having a character handed to them from on high? Players have much more fun with characters they've had at least some say in. Then, seed a couple of clues with each participant and let them find most, if not all, of the A/V clues during the run-up to the event. Whilst there'd inevitably be some discussion pre-Big Day - I doubt I'd be able to stop it, and if it's going to occur, I'd let it happen in some pre-created online venue - the point of The Big Day would be for the participants to come together, share the information they've found and go off on the hunt/have their RP silliness. Now, this hearkens back to a Wouldn't It Be Cool...? idea I had for a Sherlock Holmes LARP which featured a play by mail (postal service, not email) prelude during which most of the plot-information would be seeded, but that's another entry...
Naturally, in all of these scenarios, the GM would have a full set of clues up their sleeve and be ready to patch up as needed.
1 - for the non-gamer: LARP = Live action roleplaying game. I've been playing 'em and running 'em for a while. Why not check out my page of handy LARP advice?
2 - as above: an NPC is a Non Player Character, a role that exists entirely under the game-master's control, solely to advance the plot/provide information to the participants, aka PCs or Player Characters.
3- re: GPS and need thereof: Hell, with everyone buying iPhones, it's not as unreasonable as it once was to assume that a person has GPS capability and an iPhone could be a useful tool for the game. But it would be a bit unfriendly-like to say "Here's something fun to do! But you need a $300 tool to do it with!" Granted, folks with an apt device could no-doubt find all the vids - if there's more than one - and carry them around as they hunt for the letterboxes. It would be convenient, certes, but not mandatory to the playing of the game.
Bit O'Context
Years and years ago - at this point, something like ten of 'em, in fact - my hubby and I looked at each other and said "Let's run a Doctor Who LARP1". To be fair to the husband, it was largely my idea, but he humors me in all sorts of ways. The idea was largely inspired by the live-action RP/scavenger hunts that a friend of mine hosted once a year so, the final premise that Alex and I bashed out was that the participants are all final-year students at "The Time Academy" on Gallifrey (keeping it simple) and they had been sent forth in a slightly wheezy Type 60 TARDIS to do their final exam in the field. Things, of course, would go wrong, with the upshot that the half-a-dozen players would spend a pleasant afternoon dashing around central San Francisco collecting clues from various NPCs, solving little riddles and, y'know, saving the world. Simple enough, so to speak, and much like the highly-enjoyable events a pal of mine used to run, albeit set in another gaming world entirely.
Naturally, Alex and I called our little idea I Left My Hearts In San Francisco.
The idea was abandoned when I realized that the logistics were way out of hand - I was looking at needing at least half a dozen assistants, scattered across downtown SF and possibly even in to Berkeley (cellphone connectivity mandatory!) in order to support half a dozen participants and, even then, there was going to be lot of unseemly scrambling as the helpers doing a turn as NPCs2 Zed and Vee would have to rush off and get ready to be NPCs Gee and Aitch at another location because when you realize you've written something like twelve NPCs, none of which encounter the players more than once, you're going to ask your volunteers to double-up on NPC duty. Potentially fun for the players, yes, but also a potential nervous breakdown for the GMs - namely me and Alex.
Later on, I devised a second idea for a much smaller "locked room" event, focused more on The Doctor, himself - and assorted nemesii, of course. This idea is in a constant state of 'in development' but hasn't been abandoned. In fact, I'd write the whole damn thing up in a moment - certain outstanding plot issues notwithstanding - if I knew I could get the players together. The one huge-and-unfixable disadvantage of the plot is that it must have exactly X number of players and if one of them flakes out on the event, the entire thing croaks. "Tightly knit" barely describes how the PCs and plots are woven together, although I will admit that X keeps wobbling between eight and eleven people, depending on how I'm feeling about a particular plot line on any given day, so that's still to be fixed. I'm not going to share any more details about that one, because, as I say, it might yet happen - and it'll remain untitled until I can think of one that wouldn't give the game away in half a dozen words.
So, it's established that I've got a history of wanting to do something gamer-ish and Whovian - a history of being bonkers, yes.
***
This morning, I woke up with the shreds of some dream fading from my head and, without any bloody prompting from me, the following permutations for a complete revamp of I Left My Hearts In San Francisco fell into my head. Of course, they're still ludicrously ambitious.
Permutation The First
Not too unchanged from the original premise - stranded would-be Time Lords mucking about on Earth - but using pre-recorded video segments to reduce the need for actual NPCs at various sites. The participants would still be solving riddles to identify clues, collecting those clues and solving the overall mystery, but there would be a fair bit less in the way of dashing about. Pros: it's still an event which could occur in a single day, with a gang of like-minded maniacal gamers. Cons: still a bit heavy on the on-site NPCs, however I slice it.
Permutation The Second
Much like the first, but with another layer of complexity to the clue-hunting. Have you ever heard of letterboxing? It's like geocaching, but you don't need a GPS instrument to do it3 - just some specific directions and a few well-hidden locations. I would create a short video (or multiple videos) which will lead participants to the initial letterbox. Along with the traditional journal/shiny-things within the box, there would be a clue pointing to the next part of the story, all done with a DW-theme. Whether or not the letterboxer wants to follow it up is, of course, up to them. How many are there? Who knows, but if I did more than one box, they would be connected - and possibly more than one video clue would have to be created and one must be wary of participants getting ping-ponged about between their net 'connection and the great outdoors . Pros: once set up, I can leave it alone aside from checking on the box(es) occasionally. Cons: could fall flat completely, gotta think up said clever clues, shoot the video (not too hard, really) and, as mentioned, make sure no-one pinches the letterbox, itself.
Permutation The Third
This is really a combination of my original LARP idea and Permutation The Second. Maniac-gal (that would be me) comes up with a scavenger-hunt-with-a-plot event. Unlike the first Permutation, all of "NPCs" are handled via recorded clues - video and audio. The participants have to hunt down these video clues (stored at various video-sharing type places online) determine what they mean and find the physical items. Pros: can be managed as a one-shot, single day event (and later shared online, if desired) and keeps the flavor of the original idea for I Left My Hearts.... The participants can even be encouraged to create personas for the event, if they wish, but they could just be themselves. Granted, I know my friends and the odds are, if I said "Gosh, I just happen to have these dozen characters all written up and ready to go..." they'd just happen to have costuming to match.... Cons: as above and requires a lot more A/V work. Come the event, the PCs must have a reasonable-speed Internet connection close to hand - or a GM with all of the clues on CD-ROM/DVD and a means to share them - although I was thinking that part of the puzzle-solving would be finding the clues in the first place. YouTube is an awfully big place, you know - but that means a 'net connection is indispensable.
As you have no-doubt already guessed, dear reader, the entire project could be seen as a big ol' homage to certain aspects of Blink. Contraiwise, keep in mind that I'm a former film-maker and an ongoing addict of the interwebz, why not use all that to create an interesting event?
It's all very loose in my head right now - given that I woke up about half an hour ago with this in my head, but I'm thinking that the video-bits of the plot (however it shakes out) would feature nubbins of information from DW-canon characters, which means imposing on the local cosplay contingent - but if I handled the script properly, they could still play, as they'd only know a tiny bit of the plot.
As for the actual mystery of the plot... it could be one of several things. I could still use the original "Time Academy Field Trip" plot that Alex and I hashed out - although that could turn into a sort-of Choose Your Own Adventure scenario and I'm sure us Gen X folks remember how many of those stories ended with "You're wrong! And, by the way, you're dead!". That's no fun! It would be tricky... Then there's always the good ol' Key to Time. Or half a dozen things I could name, but won't, as I've babbled on for far too long, already and, besides, why spoil the surprise?
Logistically: the almost-certain need for a 'net connection could be managed by renting a hotel-room in the city, to be used as HQ/chillout space after the game, which would almost certainly take care of Internet needs, but would drive the cost up. My friend who ran the event by which this is inspired routinely required at least 20 participants paying $20 each into the kitty, to cover materials and the rental of meeting space - admittedly, rather nice meeting space - but there's no such thing as cheap in San Francisco - but that's logistics and I'm getting distracted...
I rather like the notion of creating a series of (short) videos, tied in with several letterboxes hidden in the city. Put the videos online, resolve to check on the letterboxes every six months and just let things go - if people pick up on it, great, if they don't... well, that's letterboxing for you. It's a voluntary hobby. I know, I know, if the "game" caught on, the clues wouldn't be all that 'hidden' any more, as spoilsports abound, but that can be countered, up to a point... Besides, I doubt I'm creating the next viral phenomenon, y'know?
From the POV of my enjoyment as a GM/control freak/sillyfan, Permutation The Second would be the
What the hell, ideas are cheap. I'm going to start doodling ideas for the mystery and the clues required. If/when the plot gets nailed down, then I'll have an idea of the actual feasibility.
Now I'm all tired again and I've got to go play with power tools. It should be an interesting morning.
Postscript:Oh. Bloody hell. What if I create characters for the players far in advance of the event, giving them some room for collaboration with me, rather than just having a character handed to them from on high? Players have much more fun with characters they've had at least some say in. Then, seed a couple of clues with each participant and let them find most, if not all, of the A/V clues during the run-up to the event. Whilst there'd inevitably be some discussion pre-Big Day - I doubt I'd be able to stop it, and if it's going to occur, I'd let it happen in some pre-created online venue - the point of The Big Day would be for the participants to come together, share the information they've found and go off on the hunt/have their RP silliness. Now, this hearkens back to a Wouldn't It Be Cool...? idea I had for a Sherlock Holmes LARP which featured a play by mail (postal service, not email) prelude during which most of the plot-information would be seeded, but that's another entry...
Naturally, in all of these scenarios, the GM would have a full set of clues up their sleeve and be ready to patch up as needed.
1 - for the non-gamer: LARP = Live action roleplaying game. I've been playing 'em and running 'em for a while. Why not check out my page of handy LARP advice?
2 - as above: an NPC is a Non Player Character, a role that exists entirely under the game-master's control, solely to advance the plot/provide information to the participants, aka PCs or Player Characters.
3- re: GPS and need thereof: Hell, with everyone buying iPhones, it's not as unreasonable as it once was to assume that a person has GPS capability and an iPhone could be a useful tool for the game. But it would be a bit unfriendly-like to say "Here's something fun to do! But you need a $300 tool to do it with!" Granted, folks with an apt device could no-doubt find all the vids - if there's more than one - and carry them around as they hunt for the letterboxes. It would be convenient, certes, but not mandatory to the playing of the game.
