01 Development: Larp Ritual

So this is my very first post on Patreon, and certainly the first time I've ever used a blog in a concerted way in my entire life. I have a lot of thoughts, but I almost never write them down. I'm going to be using this space for thoughts about creating roleplaying games, and what interesting things I think can be done with that. Maybe I'll also use it for other things? We'll find out!

A big focus in my work at the current moment is the idea of secret rituals. I was in a delightful and very productive video call with a Danish Larper who, at one point, was surprised at my casual mention that I view Larp as a ritual process. This sparked a greater conversation about what exactly ritual is, and something I've noticed in a lot of published Larps online is the lack of formal rules surrounding entering game. For me at Wayfinder, entering game has always been a huge ordeal - twenty minutes of standing around in a circle, preparing yourselves to engage in a Larp. I can't imagine just, jumping in! 

But I think further than that I'm interested in the idea of the Larp itself being a sacred, magical space. At Wayfinder, this space is clearly and elegantly defined - we all have a collective understanding of what that Larp space is and how it's used. But while working on these House Larps, I find myself much more interested in the ways Larp can be used on a personal level. It's actually an issue I'm having - I have yet to write a non-Wayfinder Larp for more than 10 people. Anything more than 7 or 8 feels so impersonal that I can't imagine how you'd play it and still get the intimacy that makes the American Freeform scene (still at this moment a beautiful world to imagine, and not something I'm a part of) appealing to me.

In The Rake, which I posted earlier, I feel like I tackled ritual from one angle, in that the game itself is invoked by ritual and defined by ritual that is intrinsically very scary to us. Other games I've been working on, which I'll show in bits and pieces over the next several weeks and in the House Larps book, also explore interesting forms of ritual. In Queer Messes, a game I'm playtesting soon (tonight!) Hot Seat becomes a ritual space. I think, growing up as a teenager who went from having no friends to many friends very quickly, party games have a special place in my heart as magical spots where things happen that don't happen anywhere else.

The ultimate form of that is a game I wrote recently called Esoteric, which I'm waiting to show off until significantly more is done of it (but I think I'll post just the rules at some point soon, because I'm interested in feedback). The game is itself a secret ritual, with a Microscope-like planning session at the beginning and the rest of it being unable to be spoken of. This is kinda the ultimate magic space for me - a world which by definition only exists in the experiences of the players, and will never step outside of that. 

I think one of the things that makes Larps so cool is that they're immersive in a way other forms of roleplaying fail to be. I appreciate tabletop because you're able to work it in ways you simply can't with Larpwriting, but also Larps are able to transform the ordinary into the unknowable and a simple moment - like, in the case of a beautiful Larp JJ wrote, lovers cuddling in bed - into a transformative experience. I think that that's a fundamental separation between Larp and Tabletop - the constant expectation of in-character experience and the way that binds us into a ritual world.

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!