Looking forward to Consequences

Next week, I’m off to Consequences, the freeform larp convention. I went last year, and you can read about that here.

I’ll do a post-con report after Consequences, but I thought I’d start things off with a pre-con preview covering some of my thoughts, hopes and fears. Hopefully, there won’t be spoilers.

Consequences this year in the Lakeside Holiday Park in Chichester. So there’s a bunch of logistics in getting there that I’m not covering here. I’m just talking about the games.

So the games, in order.

Thursday

Spellbound (Bjergtaget)

Written by Maria & Jeppe Bergmann Hamming and run by Mo Holkar, Mike Snowden and Quinn D.

According to the organisers, “Spellbound (Bjergtaget) is a non-verbal black box larp for 10-30 participants. The participants play either humans or creatures of the Underground. Through symbolic gestures and movement to music, a night in the world of the Undergrounders is played out. The humans are lured by and bonded to an Undergrounder, and in a series of scenes, the relation between the human and the Undergrounder is explored. Through workshops the participants learn the symbolic gestures and how to move to the music, before we all enter a world of magic and myth.”

I really have no idea what to expect. It’s a long way outside my comfort zone I have no sense of whether I will love it or hate it. (Tune in next time to find out!)

Happily, there are no costuming requirements, other than comfortable clothing with pockets. They suggest wearing contact lenses rather than spectacles, but given that if I wear contacts, then I need reading glasses to read anything, I suspect I’ll just stick with glasses. Or maybe I won’t – I haven’t decided yet.

Friday

Three games today. There’s a risk that’s too many, but I’m running the first one (and I find running games less tiring than playing them), and the middle game doesn’t need any prep.

The Stars our Destination

Written and run by me!

This is part 5 of my first contact saga (is currently called The Dark Forest). I’ve got everything printed out and ready to go, I just need to remind myself of what’s going on before I get started. (I’ll do that a couple of days beforehand.)

This is its second run – the first was online, back in June. As it’s the second run, that means it’s Timeline 2 (as I think of it), which means some of the things that were true in the first run are not true in this run. (For example, this timeline has vat-grown host bodies for one of the aliens!)

I haven’t really talked about The Stars our Destination here yet. I’m not sure why. I suspect I’ll have more to say after this run.

All You Need is Love

Written and run by Laura Wood and Ruth Trenery-Leach.

I had originally planned to have a break in this session, but this game was struggling to fill, and it didn’t look like it needed a lot of homework (or costuming), so I thought I’d give it a try.

“The larp will explore themes of music, fame, and relationships of all kinds. The setting is an alternative 1960s without sexism or queerphobia. If you have any 60s-inspired accessories, feel free to wear them, but they’re not required.  On the day, you’ll be able to choose from skeleton characters, which we will workshop together before we begin.”

So it’s another larp that’s outside my usual comfort zone (skeleton characters and workshops), but it does involve singing Beatles songs, so that’s a plus.

The Koenig Dead

Written and run by AJ Smith and Tony Mitton.

Phew – a “regular” freeform with 20 pages of detailed background and character stuff and 13 other characters with their own agendas.

This is part of a series of games set aboard a spaceship in a universe that seems suspiciously similar to Joss Whedon’s Firefly. I’m playing Alix Orban, the captain of the freighter Kestrel. I fought on the losing side in the war, which makes me Mal from Firefly. Except I’m not, there’s more to it than that.

In The Koenig Dead, we’re taking the Kestrel to the Koenig base where, hopefully, I can get my uncle the medical attention he desperately needs. What could go wrong?

Interestingly, I haven’t been given character objectives/goals – instead, I have a list of suggestions to roleplay my character, help others have fun, have fun myself (and then two game-specific suggestions – one a GM note and the other a reminder that I need to get my uncle the medical attention he needs). Was that a spoiler? I don’t think so, as my uncle’s condition is not a game secret.

The Koenig Dead follows The Linfarn Run, which is the first in the series featuring the Kestrel and many of the same characters. I’ve not played The Linfarn Run, and the character pack (character background, recent events, basic history) felt a little disjointed as it referred to events in that game before explaining them properly. I’m sure if I had played in the previous game, it would make more sense.

I notice this sort of thing because I’m taking a similar approach with my first contact series (such as The Stars our Destination, above). Hopefully, my character sheets flow – but I’m not the best person to judge. (Nobody has mentioned it as an issue, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got it right.)

There are some nice ideas in the background – I particularly like the idea of warp sinks, which affect FTL and make it harder to travel away from some stars. I have no idea if it’s inspired by anything, but I like it. (I’m pretty sure it’s not in Firefly, although it has been many years since I’ve watched that.)

I haven’t worked out costuming yet. I think I just need to look different, and captain-y.

Saturday

Two games today – I can have a lie in! (As if; I bet I’m awake at 6 am as usual.)

Do You Hear The People Sing?

Written and run by Alex Helm.

Remarkably, I think this will be the first time I’ve played in one of Alex’s games – and I’m playing in two of them this year. Alex often writes games set in the Warhammer 40K universe, and while I gather they are splendid games, I don’t know anything about 40K, and it doesn’t really appeal.

Do You Hear The People Sing is not a 40K game. Far from it – it’s a mashup of Noises Off and Les Miserables (and inspired, I gather, by this year’s West End Lullaby, where Alex played Javert.) It sounds fabulous.

I’m playing Frankie Jackson, who plays Monsieur Thenardier in Les Miserables. So I get to perform some great songs as Thenardier – but I’m also playing several minor characters and get to perform other songs as well.

The game takes place both backstage (where the character stuff happens) and on stage (where the performances happen – miming or karaoke or whatever). I’m not sure how the balance is maintained between the two (if, indeed, balance is the right word), but I’m looking forward to finding out.

Do You Hear The People Sing has the best advice on gender, race and age I’ve seen. In short, none of the actor characters are gendered – everyone chooses their gender. And the in-game amateur dramatic society’s casting policy means that anybody can play any role regardless of gender, race or age. So that means we will have a crazy range of people just playing the parts – and that will be great.

Batukh Hungers!

Written and run by Alex Helm. 

Two Alex Helm larps in one day! In Batukh Hungers, devoted followers of Batukh the Hungering God gather to conduct the holy rites and ensure their deity is appeased for another year. But times are hard for this dark cult – membership is falling, willing sacrifices are ever harder to come by, and internal plotting and divisions could spell the end. And if Batukh is not satisfied, the current age of humanity will end in blood and flame.

I’m playing “Coyote” (we all have code names), and from what I can see, it’s going to be interesting choosing a sacrifice.

Sunday

And two games to finish off. The closing ceremony happens shortly before my second game – and Sunday evening is spent unwinding.

Hillfolk

I’m running a game of DramaSystem – it could be Hillfolk, it could be Hazelwood Abbey or even Success2Soon. I’ll let the players decide.

Hopefully I’ll remember my revelation about dramatic poles!

The Roswell Incident

And finally, I’m running The Roswell Incident. This will be its third outing and will be the start of Timeline 3. (So if all goes well, next year I will run All Flesh is Grass, and the year after that, Children of the Stars, and so on. So that’s me committed to Consequences for the foreseeable future!)

Interestingly, a couple of players who have signed up for Roswell have played in later games (in Timeline 2 last year). I suspect there has been enough of a gap for it not to matter, but I am looking forward to finding out how that worked for them.

Monday

And on Monday I drive home.

All Flesh is Grass - on Itch.io

All Flesh is Grass is now available to download for free on Itch.io.

All Flesh is Grass? What’s that?

All Flesh is Grass is a short freeform-larp for 13 players set in 1965 Wisconsin. It takes around two hours to play. 

It is August 1965. Yesterday, the residents of Millville in Grant County, Wisconsin (pop. 164) woke to discover a mysterious barrier around their village. Through trial and error, they found that the barrier lets no life pass through it – only inanimate objects.

Yesterday evening, a short story about the barrier appeared on page 3 of the Fennimore Herald.

Today, at lunchtime, Senator Wilson and representatives of the federal government meet with the mayor of Millville in a large tent erected across the barrier on the road to Bridgeport.

The barrier itself is invisible but stretchy. Trying to walk through it is like trying to walk while being pulled back by elastic bands. Eventually, the force is too great and throws you back.

That sounds vaguely familiar

All Flesh is Grass is based on the 1965 science fiction first-contact novel of the same name by Clifford D Simak. There are a few differences, but if you’ve read the novel, you’ll know what’s going on.

That doesn’t mean you know what to do about it, of course…

Didn’t you write another alien larp recently?

Yes, I’m writing a series of first-contact freeform larps, all in the same universe and featuring some of the same characters.

The first was The Roswell Incident, and that has been published by Freeform Games.

Coming up after All Flesh is Grass is Children of the Stars (set in 1983), Messages from Callisto (1993) and The Stars our Destination (1999) – and more planned, but at this point are little more than twinkles in my eye.

Sounds great! Who do the players play?

The players play either villagers or members of the government who are here to help.

Millville folk

• Morris: Retired carpet sales rep and Millville’s head council member
• Constable Martin: A police constable
• Carter: A real-estate/insurance business owner
• Sherwood: A gadget manufacturer
• Preston: Local reporter and council member
• Flanagan: Retired school principal and council member

Out-of-towners

• Senator Wilson: Senator for Wisconsin
• General Billings: US Army general.
• Shaw: Aide to the senator
• Dr Blake: Government scientist
• Captain Yip: USAF officer
• Agent Franz: FBI agent
• Jamie Flanagan: Chicago doctor

One player gets to play two characters – Jamie Flanagan and Captain Yip.

Huh? Why make give two characters to one player?

This occurred during the writing process and was an accident. 

When I started the project, I was talking about my ideas with a friend who suggested I should write the games for the same number of players. I thought this was a good idea, and as The Roswell Incident was for 13 players, so was All Flesh is Grass (and all the games since).

As I started writing, my original plan was that all the characters would be played by one player, and The Voice (the mysterious character not in the list above) would be an NPC or played by me. But as I wrote, I realised it would be better if The Voice were played by a player.

Ahah – that means you have 14 characters and 13 players!

Exactly.

I looked at merging characters, but I realised that two characters could easily be played by one person. I’ve played two characters in the same freeform before, and it has been a lot of fun. (It’s also a design space I think we can do more with.)

So I decided to keep all 14 characters and have one player take two.

I’ve run the game twice so far, and in each run, the players adapted to the situation without batting an eyelid. Feedback suggested that my approach worked well – and so I didn’t feel the need to change anything.

How did you decide who gets to play the split character?

I made it clear in the signup and casting forms that one player would play two characters (and which ones they would play), helping the players decide whether they wanted to play two characters or not. More on that here.

Sounds great! Where can I get it?

You can get All Flesh is Grass over on Itch.io.

Reflections on a campaign larp

So from what I could tell and what the players told me (and others afterwards), the players enjoyed my two freeforms at Consequences. Several players want to find out what’s coming next, and other players (who missed one or both episodes) want me to run them again.

Which has me in a bit of a quandary.

The big idea

So a recap.

I’m writing a series of connected freeform larps set in the same universe. The freeforms are based on the science fiction first-contact novels and movies (and other media) that I have always adored.

Some characters appear in multiple episodes. Some characters appear only once. The games are always written for 13 players (although I’ve managed when Life has interfered). The games are also designed to be independent – you need not play in the previous episodes, but I hope you’ll get more out of them if you do.

The games so far are:

The Roswell Incident: Kind of a prequel. Sets the scene and introduces some of the main themes. This is now published by Freeform Games.

All Flesh is Grass: Based on the 1965 Clifford D Simak novel of the same name.

Children of the Stars: The players grapple with another alien race. Friendly or not?

Messages from Callisto: A mission to Callisto has unsettling news.

The Stars our Destination: The next game, which I’ve started, is set on Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

So far, I have run each game twice – so I have two alternate “timelines” taking place.

Timeline 1 is is an online-only game, started in February 2022. It’s suffered from occasional technical difficulties.

Timeline 2 is a face-to-face series that started at Retcon in February 2023 and continued at Consequences in 2023.

There are a few differences between the two – aside from the differences the players have created. I have changed some character names and alien details (one alien has completely changed from my original ideas).

But I’m keen to carry on with them. The two timelines are diverging, which is both scary and exciting.

(I should also note that while I have a vague sense of where I’m heading with the overall arc, I don’t know how I’ll get there…)

Multiple runs

At a convention like Consequences, it’s common to have multiple runs of popular games. This year, The Ashlight Labyrinth and Incense and Insensibility both ran twice. 

While that’s an easy thing to do for a one-shot, that’s a little trickier for ongoing games.

One easy answer is to start each episode with a summary that basically says, “Forget what happened last time; this is the real history.” As I understand it, that’s what Tony Mitton’s Linfarn Run series does.

But I don’t want to do that. I want the players' decisions in an episode to affect later episodes. If the players decide to multilaterally disarm and dismantle the world’s nuclear stockpile, then that should be part of the history going into later episodes.

I guess I could run (say) Children of the Stars twice at the same convention. They could have a common background (let’s say Timeline 2), but I would then end up with Timeline 2A and 2B (or is that Timeline 3 and 4?).

But that’s not what I want to do. I’d rather start Timeline 3 with The Roswell Incident and start afresh.

Playing previous episodes

The other issue is whether players who join the game at episode 4 (say), would like to play an earlier episode. They already know some of what happened in those episodes (because it’s part of the background) – but would playing in an earlier episode appeal?

I don’t know.

I’d like to think that my games are enjoyable enough that they would have a good time playing even if they already knew some details. 

And freeforms are often re-run, and players often play them again. At the recent Retcons, I played in two freeforms that I had played previously – in one case, I even played the same character. It didn’t affect my enjoyment – I had either forgotten the details, or deliberately overlooked them.

So, I hope that players will enjoy playing in earlier episodes. (And if it were me, I’d be tempted to push the game in different directions.) I guess I’ll find out in due course.

2-3 monthly campaign

I guess my ideal approach for the campaign would be to run them at 2-3 monthly intervals with a stable of players.

If anyone is in the Leeds/Harrogate/York region and wants to organise such a thing, let me know!

Available for others

A final constraint is that I plan to make the games available for others to play.

So far, The Roswell Incident is available via Freeform Games as one of their murder mystery games (although the main mystery isn’t a murder…)

Next to get into shape is All Flesh is Grass, which I hope to start work on shortly. When that’s done, I’ll make it available on my itch.io page. With a fair wind, I hope to get that up in early 2024.

However, making a game where earlier games affect later games presents a few challenges. For Children of the Stars, I anticipated one big outcome and several little outcomes. (And there was another outcome I hadn’t predicted!)

So for Messages from Callisto, I prepared a set of notes for each character based on the big outcome and briefings for the little outcomes. And between the games, I hurriedly stuffed character packets accordingly.

However, as the timeline goes on, that’s likely to become more complicated.

So I will probably provide the game as MS Word documents (rather than a pdf as I might normally do), and highlight the areas that need changing. (It’s that or provide different files for each option – along with really complicated instructions for assembling character packets.)

I am already taking the highlighter approach for The Stars our Destination as I am already writing different sections of the text changes for different outcomes.

To sum up

So:

• I want to keep the games in their own timelines. I want the in-game decisions to matter. So I’m unlikely to run them more than once at the same convention.
• I will make them available for others to run.
• The next game will be The Stars our Destination and is set on Rapa Nui. The title may change (but it’s unlikely). I hope to run that online in the first half of 2024 (Timeline 1), and then in person at Consequences (Timeline 2).
• I will probably run another game at Consequences, but whether that is episode 6 or something else, at this point I have no idea.
• I’m not sure when I’m going to start Timeline 3.

Retcon B (Retford Moot B 2023)

I spent a recent weekend in Retford in a follow-up to November’s hugely enjoyable Retcon A. It’s barely two months since Retcon A. Is this going to be too much of a good thing? (Spoiler: no.)

Warning – some game spoilers ahead. Look away now!

Friday

Originally I planned to have a lazy start, walk the dog and potter down to Retford in due course to start my weekend on Friday afternoon. However, I realised that with effort, I could get to Retford in time for the 9 am game. So that’s what I did.

Incense and Insensibility (mildly spoilery)

Written by Nathan Richards and Richard Salmon.  I played academic tutor Dr Charles Ward, a classicist with a distinctly Lovecraftian background. The detailed character sheet suggested a “classic” freeform with lots of plot to keep me busy.

The game was set at a ball at the Pemberly estate. The ball was interspersed with numerous dances – and if you wanted to do anything outside the ballroom (search the library, dig up Potter’s Field, carry out a satanic ritual), then you had to do it during a dance when you wouldn’t be noticed.

The dances: I liked the dances. You took your partner to the dancefloor and stood opposite them in rows. Then the couple at the head of the row said what was on their mind before casting out and walking to the bottom of the row (which moved up). Then the next couple said what was on their mind… It was a lovely chance to reveal your inner thoughts or secrets, letting the other players know what you were thinking without telling their characters. (It’s not the first time I’ve come across that – I remember Shakespeare’s Lost Play doing something similar with soliloquies.)

The constraint of doing anything outside the ball during a dance started as an interesting resource mechanic but became more challenging towards the end when players had lots to do outside the game. I like the constraint, but it needs thinking about.

Highlights:

• Talking with Kirstine and Ray, fellow chapel members. It’s a shame we couldn’t encourage young Miss Angelina (Clare) to join us.
• Major Hampton (Dave) had a lovely proposal – he would vote for me if I agreed to say I’d had an affair with his wife so he could divorce her. How could I refuse?
• Graham and I agreed to split the disputed inheritance 65/35 (in his favour) early on. I wanted it done and dusted so I could worry about other things. (And my case was dodgy at best.)

Suggestions

• The ending became rather frantic and turned into a (failed) widget hunt. I know that was a little frustrating for some. I think the end of the game needs thinking about.
• I did wonder if a few abilities would help. Among freeformers, abilities seem to have fallen out of favour (particularly for shorter games). But they have their place, and if it were me, I’d consider them.

Overall: Recommended – particularly a second run, when the kinks will have been ironed out.

A Sisterly Soiree (not at all spoilery)

Written by James Goodman, who GM-ed with Nick and Tony (playing a very intimidating Lady Catherine). I played Stephen Collins, a dragoon lieutenant. This light, structured larp is based on the works of Jane Austen and the Marrying Mr Darcy board game and is all about promotion and marriage. 

So, two regency games in a row. Both with dances.

A Sisterly Soiree had lots of party game activities – unscrambling words, fox hunting (blindfold hunting finger puppets), judging tapestry and music. And lots of dances. Between the dances, the men went and did men things (war and politics), and the women did whatever they did (I wasn’t there).

Highlights

• The dances and activities were lots of fun. They were good ways to mix with all the other players.
• Thanks to a lucky series of dice rolls, I was promoted from a lowly lieutenant to field marshall!
• I married Miss Heidi Bonnet, only revealing that I was gay at the end of the game. (Discovering my sexuality was a random thing that happened during the game – it wasn’t part of my original character sheet.)

Suggestions

• I think we wrong-footed James when we all lined up for the first dance. We were expecting a called dance, and he gamely gave us one. The game had three or four dances, and he called them all. If it were me, I would use the same (called) dance each time. The players will slowly learn the dance, making it easy for everyone. (The actual dance moves aren’t important, after all.) Maybe we should have a standard Regency freeform dance?

Overall: Highly recommended, especially if you don’t mind simple activities and games in your freeform.

The Roswell Incident (slightly spoilery)

This was the first face-to-face run of my 1947 Roswell alien game. I first hosted it online about a year ago. I made some tweaks – such as adding abilities. (And at least I didn’t have to worry about a power cut.)

The game took about two hours to play, which was about the same as the online game. It was a very different run, though, and all the aliens were revealed. That’s partly because it was face-to-face rather than online, partly because freeformers are generous and like to share, partly because this episode felt self-contained (rather than episode 1 of a campaign), and partly thanks to the abilities. It went well, and I was pleased.

Sheriff Jackson, Professor Kraushaar, Mayor Weinrib and junkyard owner Karns

Highlights

• All the players were fabulous, but I particularly enjoyed Hanbury’s over-the-top Major Marcel.

Suggestions

• I have lots of typos and corrections to work through.
• I think an optional flying saucer rescue option might be useful. It wouldn’t have been needed for this game, but it might be fun to include next time.

Overall: I was happy with how The Roswell Incident went. I will rerun it and work it up for Freeform Games.

Saturday

After an atrocious night’s sleep, my energy flagged towards the end of Saturday. Mrs H told me (when I got home) that I always have a terrible first night at Retford. How come I haven’t realised?

Fiasco (unspoilerable)

I played a wonderful five-player game of Fiasco with Heidi, Graham, David and Joanne. I wasn’t sure whether I should pitch it or not, but I’m glad I did and as a few people talked to me afterwards about how they almost signed up for it (and that they have the game but have never got it to the table), I probably will again.

This was the first face-to-face game of Fiasco I’ve played. The others have all been online with my regular gaming group between longer campaigns. It was also my first five-player game of Fiasco, and it ran much smoother with five than with three or four.

It's a Fiasco!

Hope Springs Eternal (not very spoilery)

Written by Nickey Barnard, Sue Jolly, Helen Jones, Tym Norris and Traci Whitehead at Peaky, many years ago. Set in the 1952 Hope Brothers department store, Hope Springs Eternal is inspired (to an extent) by the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? So camp BBC sitcom and a dash of horror. I played apprentice Tim Porter – and I think I played Tim when I played it the first time.

Hope Springs Eternal is a classic Peaky game – lots of stereotypes to play off, lots of dark or embarrassing or guilty secrets, a mystery, lots of things missing, some silliness and a twist in the tale. I had a great time.

Highlights

• Interacting with the department heads, trying to figure out which department I should be apprenticed into next
• A “dust” item card, which I found in an old locker. It pleased me deeply to find an item card for dust. Completely useless, of course, but lovely.
• David taking me under his wing and giving me swigs from his hipflask.

Overall: Recommended.

Marlowe 2020 (not very spoilery)

Written by Kirt Dankmyer and Jon Lemich, Marlowe 2020 reconfigures Shakespeare’s tragedies for a cyberpunk future. I have no idea what that means, and my initial reaction to Dr Puzzo, my character was, “huh?” It’s a short character sheet with little sense of why I’m present or what the game is about. 

Marlowe 2020 was never going to be my best game at Retford, for several reasons:

• Marlowe 2020 wasn’t my first choice. I signed up to play a different game, but that didn’t run, so I switched.
• I was tired. It was my third game of the day (my sixth of the weekend), and I had had an abysmal night.
• It was late. We started at 8 pm, and as most games had run for two or three hours, I expected that would happen this time. So my heart sank when the GMs said they expected the game to take about four hours…

So while I probably didn’t go into Marlowe 2020 with a healthy mindset, I’m not sure it was my kind of game in the first place. Warning signs:

• My character, Dr Puzzo, felt like a bit part. I was playing the apothecary from Romeo and Juliet. My job was to sell poison and patch people up. (In short, I was the healing rules.) I had a fragment of plot about an android underground, but it required me to develop it fully. While I don’t mind collaborative, improvisational games (see Fiasco above), I find it hard to do in a large larp with a semi-detailed background (even when I’m not half-asleep). A half-in, half-out approach doesn’t work for me – although it seems to work fine for others.
• Dr Puzzo was a loner and I don’t enjoy playing loners. While I knew of a few characters, I wasn’t part of a group, and other than my healing skills, I had nothing to offer.

My fatigue was partly a blessing. I was so tired that I didn’t mind sitting on the sidelines with my eyes half-closed, watching everyone else. It was easy roleplaying.

The other thing that should have lifted my game was the violence. There’s a doctor in the game for a reason. Shakespearean tragedies are supposed to have a healthy body count. This time, however, the reasonableness of today’s freeformers overcame Marlowe 2020’s rivalries and jealousies. So, in this run, at least, a doctor wasn’t necessary. I did one detox and healed one poisoning (the same character, oddly).

The GMs saw I was struggling (they were also surprised at the lack of bodies) and offered me one of the spare characters, but I was too tired to consider another character.

Highlights

Even though this was my least favourite game of the weekend, it wasn’t without highlights.

• The marshall (Nathan) warning me about paying my taxes. Very intimidating. And then helping him try and figure out who was targetting him with a weird cyberweapon.
• Selling poison to an android (Elina) and then curing her victim (David) a minute later.
• Dave’s wonderful Italian hand gestures.
• Roderick’s roleplaying at being awkward around humans. I (and others) thought he might be an android who didn’t know he was an android.

Suggestions

The first suggestions are for me:

• Programme some breaks for myself. And remember that I always sleep badly on my first night at a freeform convention.
• Figure out how to spot these games, so I don’t sign up for them. They’re not my cup of tea!

Marlowe 2020 feels like a first-draft Peaky game. That’s fine at Peaky, where everyone knows what it’s like to write a game in 24 hours, but after Peaky, we have time to patch the holes. So I would add stronger links between characters and include some programmed deaths to set the game’s tone (one at ten minutes in and another at 30 minutes). 

Overall: Not recommended (although I gather it’s been run more successfully before, so I may not be the right one to judge).

Sunday

On Sunday morning at breakfast, I complained about the owlish nature of freeformers and their inevitable late nights to Clare and Kirstine. I’m not sure they sympathised. (I’m a lark, alas.) But, at least I slept this time.

All Flesh is Grass

Sunday morning saw me running the second part of my magnificent/epic/doomed (delete according to taste) series of first-contact larps. As with Roswell, I first ran All Flesh is Grass online last year.

As Roswell had gone well, I was slightly nervous about All Flesh is Grass. The two games are very different – Roswell is more of a traditional freeform. All Flesh is Grass has only one plot and ends with a significant decision that needs to be made at the end. Luckily, I need not have worried – the game went well.

The room for All Flesh is Grass, before the players arrived.

Some thoughts: As well as the inevitable typos and glitches that the players found, I had a few thoughts.

• I hadn’t changed All Flesh is Grass from the original run, and I need to make the characters more flexible to allow for a different result in Roswell. I like running two parts of the game at a convention, but I need to prepare better for the second game. I have some ideas about that.
• The room is divided into two parts – inside the barrier (Millville) and outside the barrier (the rest of the world). I divided the room so the Millville side had no exits. I hoped that added to the psychological sense of being trapped.
• Clare had a great idea to start the out-of-towners outside the room so they could bond for a moment. So that’s what I did.

Highlights

• Malk’s senator commanding the space at the start of the game.
• Elyssia’s “To whom am I speaking?” every time she answered the telephone.
• Richard and Jenny’s lovely scene where Jenny berated Richard for not telling her he had been reading to the phones.
• Hanbury’s wonderful military codenames; the only one I remember now is Operation Gobstopper.

Overall: All Flesh is Grass went well. There are a few improvements I can make, which I will address for next time. (There will be a next time, but I don’t know when.)

All Flesh is Grass

All Flesh is Grass is the second episode of a series of first-contact freeform larps with the working title of The Fermi Solution. It was originally meant to be a prologue to the series, and I started writing it first. That’s until I realised that I wanted an even earlier prologue, set in Roswell in 1948.

So despite having All Flesh is Grass mostly written, I wrote The Roswell Incident and ran that first.

All Flesh is Grass is set in Millville Wisconsin in 1965. The locals have woken up to find a strange barrier surrounding the village. Solving that mystery is the heart of the game.

The game itself is closely based on Clifford D Simak’s 1965 novel of the same name.

After Roswell

Although it was mostly complete before I ran Roswell, but with Roswell’s completion I realised I wanted to make a few changes to All Flesh is Grass. The main changes were:

• Adding two characters from The Roswell Incident (my original idea for The Fermi Solution is that episodes will feature some continuing characters—not always the same ones).
• Adding a paragraph about what the characters knew of Roswell and what happened there.
• Improvements to how I managed/explained the Discord bot.

Adding two characters solved a problem I had with two of the weaker characters—it meant I could give them to a single player to play. That presented the slightly different problem of finding someone happy to play two characters, but I covered this in the casting form (see previous post) and it wasn’t a problem.

Running All Flesh is Grass

From where I sat, in the GM desk and flitting around, listening in, the game seemed to go well. Some notes:

• My original estimate of how long the game would take was too short. I pessimistically thought we would be done in two hours, but I wrapped the game after about 2.5 hours. I think that’s my brilliant players making the most of the characters I gave them.
• The Discord bot behaved itself and didn’t cause any problems this time—although not everyone had read the instructions.
• The returning players (those who had played The Roswell Incident) seemed happy, and the new players dived right in and embraced the daftness.
• I forgot to take any screenshots of play—so I’m afraid these are from Roswell. 

This is Roswell...

Epilogues

After the game, I sent out a feedback form to capture feedback and allow players to tell me some of their highlights and what their characters would be doing in five years. I used this to create an epilogue sheet (which I enjoyed creating—I hope the players enjoyed reading it).

I based the epilogues mostly on the player’s description, with some curating as I have an idea of what is coming up. My favourite epilogues are where the player ran with an idea and did crazy stuff to their character. My favourite:

After reporting on the events in Millville, Preston quits her job as a journalist and writes a tell-all book: Millville: Village Under the Dome. Preston passes it in instalments through the barrier, and when the FBI finds her manuscript, she is arrested. Nevertheless, her manuscript is published and becomes conspiracy fodder for cranks everywhere.

Stars

When I wrote about stars and wishes I noted that I’d not used them for a freeform larp. Well, now I have.

As part of the feedback, I asked players to award stars (Give a star to someone and tell them what they did that was so great). This was my favourite bit of the feedback—an outpouring of lovely stories about the game.

I shared this with everyone—I hope they enjoyed reading it as much as I did.

Feedback

Feedback included ideas for arranging the spaces to allow people to talk privately. I feel strongly about not limiting game spaces, having been bitten that way before. But some players didn’t like having other players drop in on them when they were deep in a private conversation. So in future, I will highlight some channels as PRIVATE and encourage players not to disturb anyone in those channels (without limiting them by numbers).

One player wanted more pronouns on the character sheet, which I understand but I’m not going to do. I wrote the characters as gender neutral so anyone could play them—and I don’t want to go through the character sheets adding he/she/they pronouns each time I run it.

A couple of suggestions were made to give those in power more reason to think that aliens (rather than Soviet agents) were behind the events. I agreed and have tweaked some characters so that should be more likely.

Someone suggested that I make the game structure clearer. For example, at the end of the game there’s a big decision to be made, and it’s worth identifying that at the start of the game so the players don’t become distracted by trivial matters. So I think that’s worth trying next time.

Next time

So now I need to write the next one—we’re leaping forward to the 1980s (I think) and will be more international in scope. No title yet, but I have ideas of things I want it to include.

Casting All Flesh is Grass

I find casting freeform larps much more stressful than I suspect they need to be.

Here’s how I did it for All Flesh is Grass.

The questionnaire

I try to keep casting questionnaires fairly simple—I don’t ask many questions. That’s mainly because as a player I find it hard to answer a detailed questionnaire. That’s partly because I rarely know what I want from the game, but also because I don’t know the assumptions behind the questions because I know so little about the game. And so I struggle to answer them.

So my questions for All Flesh is Grass Were:

I am interested in playing:

• A resident of Millville
• A visitor
• Someone in authority
• An alien
• Two characters
• I don’t mind who I play

[These were all Yes, I don’t mind, and No. I stressed that I would consider the “No” answers first to avoid casting anyone in a role they didn’t want.]

Are there any characters in the cast list you really want to play? [Free text—for those who want to play a particular character based on nothing more than their name and occupation]

Are they any characters in the cast list you really DON’T want to play? [free text]

If we become oversubscribed, would you be willing to be a reserve player? [Yes or No]

Is there anything else I should know? [Free text—for anything else]

May I use a photograph of you playing the game in future publicity? [Yes or No]

Characters who needed care

The first thing I needed to consider were the two characters needing the right players:

• The alien character was a disembodied voice. I needed a player who didn’t mind being an alien.
• Captain Yip and Jamie Flanagan would be played by the same player, switching between the roles as required. (These two roles were slightly underdeveloped, and while I’ve enjoyed playing more than one character in the past, it’s not for everyone.)

So I needed to make sure that the person playing those had ticked “yes” or “I don’t mind”.

Questions I should have asked

As All Flesh is Grass is based on the novel of the same name by Clifford D Simak, I really should have asked the players whether they had read it. For some characters, it’s best if they haven’t read the book, while for others it matters less.

Player restrictions

I had a couple of players who put detail into their free-text sections explaining what they like in a game. That was wonderful, although worried me slightly in case All Flesh is Grass wasn’t exactly what they were looking for.

How I did it

I cast the alien and the player playing two characters first, as I was worried about them most of all. One player noted that they had read All Flesh is Grass. As they said they would like to be the alien, that’s how I cast them. Only one person answered ‘Yes’ to two characters, so I cast them as the dual character. (There were several who said they didn’t mind, so I had fallbacks.)

I then cast those players who had given me some detail on what sort of character they wanted to play.

Then cast those who said they wanted a particular character.

Then cast those who were flexible but with one or two requirements.

I cast the most flexible people last—they filled in the gaps. (Thank you, flexible players!)

Emails

I then wrote an email to everyone telling them who they were playing, and sometimes I explained why I had cast them that way (especially where I hadn’t exactly followed their casting sheet).

I also reminded them of the date, and noted that I would send a Discord invite later on.

Then I let the reserve players know they were on the reserve list.

Casting success or failure?

We’ll cover that next time, when I talk about how the game ran.