Doug Millington-Smith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
magicaddict) wrote2006-01-30 12:07 pm
magicaddict) wrote2006-01-30 12:07 pm
The Program Has Gone To Print...
...after too much work, too many "little requests" and not remotely enough design-brief, the program masters have gone to the print unit and can no longer be changed.
It's out of my hands. The proof will be with me in forty-eight hours, the run by a week on Tuesday.
I feel very light and floaty, as though something heavy has just been lifted from my shoulders. All the little tweaks and additions that drew out the "I've nearly finished" stage into something like two weeks of faffing is finally over and I get to relax and concentrate on...the other mountains of crap surrounding me.
Yesterday, it was revealed that the dresses our wardrobe mistress had made from scratch for the girls to wear for Big Spender left them feeling decidedly unsexy, and were not what the choreographer was expecting. In a set of discussions culminating in a member of the production committee once again displaying a level of professionalism commonly found in steaming turd, Kim walked out of her position just over a week before openeing night, leaving the work she was doing to everyone else to complete.
While I feel a kindred spirit has flared into existence here, I am decidedly unimpressed with her decision to leave the production in the lurch like that - finish the job and then complain, you village-green git. That said, I'm not sure whether I think she is more stupid for walking out, or whether the committee is to blame for not giving her a design brief that had been agreed upon by everyone first. So what else is new...
Helen's wonderfully egotistical quote, "the cast have no input - they wear what we give them" (said in a manner somewhere between a little-girl strop and a schoolmistress being talked back to) is fine in a professional production - the cast are being paid and so are obliged to do as they are told. As the committee keeps forgetting at times convenient to them, however, we are an amateur society, with members ranging from the 'so keen, will turn up whenever, wherever, and will wear whatever' joy to work with, to the 'just want to have a laugh and aren't interested in putting myself out' waste of time and effort. Assuming you have all of one or the other is a sure-fire way to alienate half of your demographics. The production committee don't realise this, and I have lost all interest in helping them out by telling them. Just fourteen more days...
The presentation for Dow's visit on Friday is forming itself in my head, though I need to find out how much Keiran actually wants. He mentioned a full slide show job with all the bells and whistles. I can do that, but I really would appreciate several nights in order to produce it rather than his walking in on Thursday after being equivocal all week and saying, "we want you to present the way you would to a conference. Tomorrow morning at nine alright?"
I have neither the time nor ability to do something like that, so in between trying to carry on work as normal while rehearsing on an ostensibly full-time basis, I need to go and try to extract a decision out of my supervisor. Any ideas on making stones bleed, anyone?
Dave's second Narnia larp involved as many good moshes as the first, at least it did once I got there. We hurt the party no end, and got very close to killing everyone, indeed in the final fight it appeared that all but three of party were either dropped or paralysed. In a good example of how fights should progress, however, none of the party actually died, the evil nasties got done over, good (well, the Barony) prevailed and everyone went home to for cakes and tea to celebrate a good, successful mission (Attn: RRL). The Crown seems to have taken to our turning up and buying both beer and food really very well - the tablecloths have gone, they take slightly less care (time) over the food but it's still fine and there are no strange stares from the regular patrons. I think we've found a new local.
Right. Back to rehearsing at two, looking to get away in time to shop for food at a reasonable hour before I collapse...and possibly start the presentation.
It's out of my hands. The proof will be with me in forty-eight hours, the run by a week on Tuesday.
I feel very light and floaty, as though something heavy has just been lifted from my shoulders. All the little tweaks and additions that drew out the "I've nearly finished" stage into something like two weeks of faffing is finally over and I get to relax and concentrate on...the other mountains of crap surrounding me.
Yesterday, it was revealed that the dresses our wardrobe mistress had made from scratch for the girls to wear for Big Spender left them feeling decidedly unsexy, and were not what the choreographer was expecting. In a set of discussions culminating in a member of the production committee once again displaying a level of professionalism commonly found in steaming turd, Kim walked out of her position just over a week before openeing night, leaving the work she was doing to everyone else to complete.
While I feel a kindred spirit has flared into existence here, I am decidedly unimpressed with her decision to leave the production in the lurch like that - finish the job and then complain, you village-green git. That said, I'm not sure whether I think she is more stupid for walking out, or whether the committee is to blame for not giving her a design brief that had been agreed upon by everyone first. So what else is new...
Helen's wonderfully egotistical quote, "the cast have no input - they wear what we give them" (said in a manner somewhere between a little-girl strop and a schoolmistress being talked back to) is fine in a professional production - the cast are being paid and so are obliged to do as they are told. As the committee keeps forgetting at times convenient to them, however, we are an amateur society, with members ranging from the 'so keen, will turn up whenever, wherever, and will wear whatever' joy to work with, to the 'just want to have a laugh and aren't interested in putting myself out' waste of time and effort. Assuming you have all of one or the other is a sure-fire way to alienate half of your demographics. The production committee don't realise this, and I have lost all interest in helping them out by telling them. Just fourteen more days...
The presentation for Dow's visit on Friday is forming itself in my head, though I need to find out how much Keiran actually wants. He mentioned a full slide show job with all the bells and whistles. I can do that, but I really would appreciate several nights in order to produce it rather than his walking in on Thursday after being equivocal all week and saying, "we want you to present the way you would to a conference. Tomorrow morning at nine alright?"
I have neither the time nor ability to do something like that, so in between trying to carry on work as normal while rehearsing on an ostensibly full-time basis, I need to go and try to extract a decision out of my supervisor. Any ideas on making stones bleed, anyone?
Dave's second Narnia larp involved as many good moshes as the first, at least it did once I got there. We hurt the party no end, and got very close to killing everyone, indeed in the final fight it appeared that all but three of party were either dropped or paralysed. In a good example of how fights should progress, however, none of the party actually died, the evil nasties got done over, good (well, the Barony) prevailed and everyone went home to for cakes and tea to celebrate a good, successful mission (Attn: RRL). The Crown seems to have taken to our turning up and buying both beer and food really very well - the tablecloths have gone, they take slightly less care (time) over the food but it's still fine and there are no strange stares from the regular patrons. I think we've found a new local.
Right. Back to rehearsing at two, looking to get away in time to shop for food at a reasonable hour before I collapse...and possibly start the presentation.
/kicks soapbox
The important thing in any Larp is the Story.
Some people think its the Plot, but it's not. The Plot is an essntial part of the Story, but so are the Characters, the Pace and the sideplot.
Creativity is where you make it. The trick might be to make small changes per Larp, establish a precedent that everyone doesn't mind, and move forward from there. The club, like most democracies, fears and resists change, and the larger the change, the stronger the knee jerk reaction.
Of course, this _is_ easy for me to say. I've hung around the club for eight years like a bad penny, and we are a cliche club of similarly minded people.
I run Larps (or try to) to the spirit of the rules as I see them. One result is that I rarely have character death. I think I average less than one per Larp. Which might imply (to me) that I am a soft GM. I also rarely stick to the bounds of the Rules. I usually have a 'wibble' effect or two kicking around the Larp to keep things interesting. I would be bored if I went on Larps with only 16 types of Monster... so I don't run them either. Um. Healing encounters. It used to be [old] that we had about one healing encounter to every two fights [/old] partly because player parties rarely hit double figures so you probably had one person with healing. Now they aren't necessary, but they are 'nice.' Anyway. things to do.
[\soapbox kicking]
/borrows soapbox
Oh and I don't think I've ever counted the number and types of monster in a game.
Well done on the statting - I can imagine it must have been hard. That's an inherit problem of trying to keep faithful to someone elses idea - especially one that resolves around characters of immense power. No one likes to feel that they're extras to the NPC's story on a larp, and I think you got the balance mostly about right.
With respect to the ideas
The problem is that if people don't trust you then they'll fight much more strongly against changes you try to make, and in any grouping with as much social history as Blades has trust has to been earned. Something which becomes much harder if your seen to abuse the trust your given - for example ask how many people would have wanted to play anything other than a Tim Steer larp given a choice.
The trick with adding detail and defining the world is putting enough in for people to interact with, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming or defining. No one wants to live in a Tolkien-esque world where we know the history of every blade of grass (exageration), nor does it add to the atmosphere of a game. It's the difference between a world you can roleplay in, and a story your witnessing. You need enough rules and constraints to help focus the creativity of the clubs members, but not so much you stifle and limit their ideas. The key is finding a happy balance that is good for everyone (and not just acceptable for everyone).
One question I've been wondering for a while
You clearly feel the world is too vague for your tastes, so what other detail do want to have (be specific please), and what other detail do you feel you need to have to make the world better for you to roleplay in? How does that level of detail compare to the current one when introducing new people to the club?
Re: /borrows soapbox
Expect an answer soon. Just not for the next couple of days.
Re: /borrows soapbox
Re: /kicks soapbox
Not that I can talk - my Sunday games tend to be low threat, my 36 hours high threat. Ho-hum.