What Goes Into Running an Ongoing LARP

It takes a lot of time, planning, effort and bureaucracy to run an Ongoing LARP.  Over the years, I have seen many LARPs wither and die for various reasons, some of my own LARPs have died noble or ignoble deaths for various reasons.  In my experience, there are five general categories of labor necessary to run an Ongoing LARP.  Not all of these have to be done in the same way or by a single person, but missing any of these can be a problem.

Logistics
One of the most evident aspects of running a LARP involves the management of the logistics of game.  While the most evident, this can be complicated, depending on the context of running the game.  The most important aspect of this is creating a sustainable bureaucracy.  Making sure that all the materials for game are prepared properly and that there is a workflow that means the work always gets done.

Site Management and Liaison. All games require locations.  Sometimes, this is as simple as the basement of the Storyteller's house, but regardless, all locations require some degree of arrangement.  This can mean the arrangement of payment for using the site, the reservation of the site in advance, regular communication with site managers, walking the space before and afterwards to make sure the site is not damaged, arranging payment if the site is damaged.  A LARP without a site quickly stops being tenable.

Budget. It is the responsibility of the Storytellers to make sure the budget of the game is workable.  Games have expenses.  Site fees, printing, sets and props, food and drink, etc.  Most Storytellers are not compensated for their work, even though they put in a lot of time for every game.  Storytellers who do not make their budget generally have to pay for things out of pocket, which can really sink a game.

Setup. Storytellers are responsible for all of the elements of setup in gamespace.  I usually arrive to the gamespace at least an hour before players are told to arrive so that I can put together the set and set up food and drink and check-in before they arrive.  At the end of game, I have to pack up everything and transport it home.

Materials. Most games have some sort of required materials, whether it's character sheets, nametags, arm bands, beads and safety pins, etc.  As the Storyteller, it is your responsibility to make sure those are there and available.  This often requires printing things ahead of time, purchasing materials from stores,and at the very least, transporting materials to the gamesite.  This can mean creating props that need to be present, or arranging for food if a game includes it.

Teamwork
One of the major responsibilities as a Head Storyteller is arranging for the collaborative work of the Storytelling staff.  A storytelling staff that does not have a good collaborative relationship can end up creating additional work for the Head Storyteller and disrupt the workflow of the game.  While there are methods of smoothing these processes, all of them require additional work at the outset.

Staff Selection.  One of the biggest responsibilities as a Head Storyteller is choosing a staff to work with.  My personal belief is that it is important to create a culture of collaboration, finding a staff whose methods of creative collaboration match yours.  If you want people filling very different roles with absolute authority over their territory, then choose staff accordingly.  If you want a collaborative group that meets and follows a 'yes, and...' strategy of idea development, then choose staff accordingly.  One of the big obstacles that can obstruct a game is a mismatch of collaborative styles and it can make more work for all involved rather than less.  This is one of the most important aspects of running a game and one of the easiest ways to make the game harder to run.

Staff Meetings.  All staffs need to meet in some way.  It is very important for information sharing, so that every member of the storytelling staff knows about every character and every potential plot development.  My personal philosophy is broadly shared narrative responsibility, where everyone is familiar with every narrative thread, which requires work at a meeting to share information.  Overall, I would not say that there is a prescribed number of meetings between games, but establishing a regular meeting schedule that works for collaboration is more or less required and is the responsibility of the Storytelling staff.  Staff meetings allow for discussion of game topics in a way that gets everyone on the same page and prevents contradictions.

Collaborative Materials Management.  A Storytelling staff needs shared materials.  There are all sorts of materials that are important for collaboration, from plot outlines to character sheets to metaphysical notes.  Most television shows have something called a show bible, it outlines the different aspects of the world as they have been defined.  Collaborative materials can be the equivalent of a show bible, allowing easy reference and discussion.  I've seen Storytelling staffs use wikis for this purpose, but I love google drive, myself.  It allows a lot of selective permissions, so information can be selectively shared with players.  For instance, if there were a secret document, writing it ahead of time for planning purposes is useful, so the Storytellers can refer back if necessary, but then a player who found a copy could get access to the document itself.  This is also important for sharing general information with players.  You can write 10,000 pages of backstory, but if nobody has access to it, it won't influence their play.

Supervising the Narrative
You might think to yourself, what trouble can an unsupervised narrative get up to?  And the answer is "none" and that's the problem.  One of the most important roles of the Storyteller is the holistic approach to the game narrative, finding ways to make sure the narrative stays coherent, that things mesh in some way, that there is a reason for being.  In my experience, this is best achievable by setting the context for interaction before people create characters.  It's hard to run a comedy of manners when everyone has created hard-bitten police detectives.  Setting up the narrative context at the beginning allows for easier narrative supervision in the long run, because it sets up straightforward boundaries.

Interweaving Stories. So, the main aspect of this is interweaving stories.  Players will come up with all manner of ideas, and it's part of the job of the Storyteller to find ways to fit those ideas into a single world.  Part of the responsibility is finding ways that the suggestions and ideas of players can fit into the larger context.  Sometimes, this means adding specifics to general ideas.  When someone says they want to have a corrupt mentor, the Storyteller can say, "Yes, Lord Refa was your mentor!" and add the specific.  Sometimes, this means changing details to fit the game world.  When someone says they want to live on the Upper East Side of Chicago, you say "There isn't actually a North East side of Chicago, but the Gold Coast is probably the equivalent in terms of income."  Some of the best examples involve tying two unrelated characters together, or say, noting that two people spying on the bus station might run into each other as well as into their quarry.  Regardless, interwoven stories are some of the best kind of stories.

Pacing a Story. Stories don't pace themselves and having just the right amount of story for a given session/season/game is an art form.  It's very possible to have too much story in a session, where everything is happening and things are so chaotic nobody knows what's going on.  It's also possible to have too little, where the narrative stakes for a given session are resolved so quickly that the rest of the game is idle.  Or that there simply isn't enough to engage the number of people present.  I personally use two main tools for this.  I have an overarching spreadsheet that tracks plots over time, making sure that things happen in order but not too quickly or slowly, and I have a beat sheet that I write up for every game, which details the events of the evening in 30 minute chunks.  Overall, pacing a story is a way of maintaining stable momentum.  A game must always have movement or it will stagnate, but too much movement and it can shake itself to pieces.

Information Sharing.  One of the important specific aspects of running a game is sharing information in game.  On the one hand, this can be a matter of setting up the world.  Making sure that everyone is on the same page regarding things can be as easy as setting up a basic website to share basic information.  But this also involves introducing new information to game.  Clues or hints have to come from somewhere, and it can be hard to work in information without being too obvious or too obtuse.  One of the rules of thumb I personally follow is to share information in at least two places, rather than giving it to only one person.  Overall, making sure that information makes its way into game is a Storyteller responsibility, because generally speaking, the Storyteller should know all the game's secrets better than the players.

Player Management
So, the ideas that players need management may seem odd, and I want to be clear, this is primarily a matter of working with channels of information.  Being a Storyteller isn't being some sort of puppet master, manipulating everyone, but the Storyteller is often the only person who is in contact with absolutely everybody in game.  For larger games, this is often a matter of several people sharing the role, but generally, every player should have at least one contact point within the staff.

Sustaining Communication.  This is useful just to maintain lines of communication.  Whether it's creating and maintaining a mailing list, a message board, facebook group or just a list of email addresses for contacting people, it is the role of the Storyteller to maintain communications with all participants, making sure they know when and where game is and details like game fee.

Player Encouragement.  Sometimes, players might become disengaged from game, not feel like their efforts are being noted.  Communication between game can help re-engage a player with the game.  It is part of the Storyteller job to do that encouragement.  I like to do emails leading up to game with some players, to give them a sense of motion coming into game.  This can be a good way of encouraging participation and giving them some energy to bring into game.

Walking the Space. One of the key skills for running a LARP is being able to influence the session on the fly.  Adding or subtracting narrative momentum by giving emotional feedback or adding new information can make a better game.  During game, it's important to walk the space, see what's going on, know who is involved in things and who isn't. That way, nudges can be made, players can be given hooks to follow.

Community Support
Being a Storyteller makes you a community leader, whether you intend to become one or not.  It's not the only community where the ability to tell a good story and organize a bunch of people serves as qualification for leadership, but it's more direct than most in that way.

Attending to Player Problems.  Sometimes players present problems.  They may be interacting with other players in a way that makes them uncomfortable.  They may be bullies or they may be constantly complaining in a way that makes the game not fun for other participants.  As a Storyteller, it is your job to deal with these problems.  Ideally, it is your job to notice potential problems and try to prevent them from becoming game breaking.  I have seen games fall apart over a single player unknowingly acting in a way that offended others.  Additionally, sometimes this is a matter of identifying potential problems such as inappropriate narrative actions.  For instance, I don't allow rape in games that I run.  Period.  As a narrative theme it always causes problems.  If someone indicates that their character would do such a thing, I would tell them no before it could possibly become the massive problem that it would become.

Keeping Lines of Communication Open.  One of the keys to community support is making sure that the lines of communication are open and known to be open.  Players should always be free to let Storytellers know if they are having problems.  Any situation where a player is having issues and doesn't speak to a Storyteller because they don't feel they can is a failure in my mind.

Being the Bigger Person. Along with that, however, is the responsibility to be fair, to be calm and to listen.  Being in a position of authority within a community means being the bigger person sometimes, not letting your own feelings or reactions cloud your actions.  Don't play favorites.  Don't take issues too personally.  Don't let your own relationships with players get in the way of running the game in front of you.  I'm not saying to ignore your own feelings or reactions, but the power of Storytelling comes with strings attached.  With power comes responsibility and within a game, the power of an ST can be nigh absolute, with few checks and balances.

What to Take Away?
So, what do I want people to take away from this article.  Ultimately, I want you to know that Storytelling is a lot of work.  There are a lot of aspects of the job that I didn't know about until I started doing it myself and there are aspects of it that I learn as i continue to run games.  This isn't meant to be the sum total of all responsibilities.  I've done things like buy event insurance and get people medical attention as a Storyteller.  I've been a relationship counselor, a social skills educator and an electronics repairman all as part of the general role of Storyteller. But do keep in mind that your Storytellers do all of these things, generally on a volunteer basis.

The Relationship Between Storyteller and Player(s)

In response to my earlier post about Long Form Storytelling, is was suggested by a reader that I talk about my opinions on the role of the Storyteller in crafting player stories. This overall ties into my thoughts about the general relationship between Storyteller and Players, both on the individual and group levels, and furthermore into some of my opinions about the nature of planning PC stories out ahead of time.

Generally speaking, I think that the role of the Storyteller is very similar to that of a combination Writer/ Producer/ Director in a theatrical production.  Within the context of the performance, they don't play the characters, they don't appear on stage, but they help elicit performances from actors, they help set the stage for scenes, they create scenarios that allow characters to reach apotheosis.  It is the role of the Storyteller to work behind the scenes to provide what players need to make the story of game.  When it is done right, it is virtually invisible.  But it's still a vital part of game.  

The Relationship between Storyteller and Players

One way of looking at the relationship between Storytellers and Players is looking at the collective relationship.  In the collective, the role of the Storyteller is kind of like the role of the shepherd, keeping the group together and providing for the safety of the flock.  This collective role is at its basic level merely encouraging mixing.  It can be a matter of creating a safe and supportive environment, maintaining the liminoid ritual structure of the game event(check-in, game, wrap is a ritual structure that defines appropriate actions within the context in a way that creates a Turnerian theatrical play space that breaks down barriers), adjudicating disputes that arise using any agreed upon systems.  On an advanced level, it is context creation.  Many of the efforts of a Storyteller are devoted to crafting a context in which players can play characters that interact with each other.  That context needs to have stakes, so that the actions of characters matter in relation to each other.  That context needs to be mutable, so that the actions of characters matter in relation to the context.  That context needs to be understandable, so that the players can understand how their characters fit in the context.  A big part of the work of the Storyteller in relation to the players is simply creating a context that allows for player action to be meaningful and encourages players as a group to engage with the context together.  

The Relationship between Storyteller and a Player

There is a different relationship in some ways between Storytellers and individual players.  My favorite way of phrasing it is creating conditions for apotheosis.  Within the context of a story, every protagonist should reach a moment of apotheosis, a moment of the purest expression of the characters essence.  This generally happens at the climax of a story, but it effectively boils down to all of the events of the story leading to a single moment.  This can be a glorious moment, running through the field to embrace your long lost love.  This can be a terrible moment, standing in the ruins of your life as your villainous plans finally catch up with you.  This can be a moment full of existential dread, the dire realization that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. It can even be a moment of hubris, "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances." But every character should have a chance in some way to reach apotheosis.  

Because in the Role Playing Game all characters are to a certain degree the protagonist, there is a balancing act that must occur in a game to allow for multiple apotheoses.  This involves storytellers working with individual players to understand their desires, their play styles, what represents satisfaction for that player.  Storytellers can help craft contextual events that help a character move towards narrative resolution.  

Too Much Planning! A Word to Players

If I had one piece of advice I'd give to players related to my conception of the relationship between Storytellers and Players(and indirectly between Players and Players) it would be to not plan your character's arc too tightly.  I have been in a number of games, as Player and as Storyteller, where a Player had a very tight conception of where their character's arc was going and would not accept any alteration or doubt in that path.  And I have seen situations like that get in the way of collaborative storytelling, because the players' iron clad plans don't have room to connect with other characters' journeys.  It becomes a lonely road if you have to walk it alone.  I'm not saying don't plan, but incorporate some narrative doubt.  Saying I am destined to be a divine champion leaves open a number of possibilities that can make a more fulfilling story for you and others.

If I had a second piece of advice to players, it would be simple.  Engage the context.  Most contextual aspects of a game are there for a reason.  If there is a system of noble rank and privilege, buy in to it, engage with your place in the system and be part of the world.  Engaging the context allows the Storytellers to use it to help you tell your character's story, so treat the stakes of the narrative as serious.  

Final Note

One thing that is important to understand is that being the Storyteller is resigning yourself to a supporting role.  Storytelling, when done right, is very hard to see.  The art of it is in doing things that are undetectable.  There are a lot of parallels in movie and theater creation.  The work of the director in helping actors find their characters is generally invisible, but if you look at the Star Wars Prequels, you see how bad it can be without that as part of the artistic process.  Storytelling is often a thankless role, because it works best when it's done to put the focus of the story elsewhere.  I'm not saying that everyone should go buy their Storytellers a present, but don't minimize their role in the creation of a game.  The game where you saw the hand of the storyteller the least but still had a good time is probably the game where they worked the hardest behind the scenes for your enjoyment.

Bounded Long Form Storytelling in Games

I've had a bit of radio silence here for personal gaming reasons(I didn't want the situations that I'm dealing with in my ongoing games to appear here and I couldn't quite keep them out of my thoughts).  However, I'm returning with a bit of an examination of meta-narrative philosophies and my own approach to things.  I've recently been revisiting the work of two of my greatest influences, Chris Claremont and J. Michael Straczynski.  Looking at how these two different writers used methods of long form storytelling [one strictly bounded, one hurt by unboundedness] has helped me reflect on my own approach to writing games and my philosophy of stories.
First off, this is going to contain spoilers, admittedly, they are for a television series that went off the air when I was in college and a run of comics that I first picked up in middle school, but spoilers nonetheless.  Especially for Babylon 5.  If you haven't watched it, go do so.  I'll wait.  No.  Go back, the first season is a little light and the special effects budget for the entire season was less than one episode of NextGen, go finish the series.  Great, I'll continue.

Long Form Story
Reflecting on these naratives, I see exactly where I get a lot of my preferences for stories.  My love of ensemble casts, my enjoyment of material being teased before being introduced, my occasional love of overblown monologues.  But I especially see my own love for serial storytelling.  The reason that I love ongoing games and ongoing media is that there are certain types of stories that tell much better in that form.  If you look at the development of a character like Storm, from naive 'goddess' to team conscience to team leader to hard edged pragmatist to hero struggling to retain identity without powers to ultimate redemption/restoration, you can't fit that into a non-serialized story.  It's impossible to tell that story without time passing and single episode stories are generally very bad at portraying the passage of time.  The same is true for nearly every character in Babylon 5.  The character arc of G'Kar from sleazy warmonger to reluctant prophet, the journey of Franklin through his addiction and recovery, the change between Lennier's humble beginnings and tragic ending.  All of these can only occur in a story that includes time.
In long form storytelling, there is a chance to stretch out, to allow character aspects to mature, to age, to settle before being shaken up again.  That freedom to stretch out and develop characters means that as you get to the climax of the story, the characters are more fully realized and thus the stakes of the narrative are much higher.

Bounded vs. Unbounded
However, not all Long Form Storytelling is quite the same.  One of the aspects of my re-read of Marvel's back catalog has reminded me of are the perils of unbounded long form storytelling.  So, when I call a story bounded, I mean that it has a pre-defined beginning middle and end.  There is a sense of when the story starts being told and when it stops.  In non-serial storytelling, this is generally fairly simple.  The movie goes for 2 hours and then is done, maybe with room for a sequel.  In the case of most Long Form Storytelling, there is no expected end.  This is the soap opera model, the idea that so long as the good will of the network exists, that there should never be an end.  As Gordie says in Stand by Me "Wagon Train's a really cool show, but did you notice they never get anywhere? They just keep wagon training."
This sort of unbounded storytelling, where there is no defined end point to the story almost always breaks down at some point.  It's so common and well known that there is a quick cultural shorthand for it, jumping the shark.  Marvel and D.C. comics are among the worst for this, with characters first introduced in the 1960's still bumming around as if they haven't aged more than a decade.  And every story decision has been undone by the needs of later stories.  Right now, I have to do extensive research to figure out if there are any of the X-men who haven't died and been reborn(I count four out of the thirteen X-Men from the end of Giant-Size X-Men #1's "What are we going to do with thirteen X Men?").  This sort of backtracking is more or less required for unbounded storytelling, because what made sense 3 years ago may not fit with the needs of the present.
Instead, I prefer my stories Bounded.  Part of this comes from my experience in improv theater.  One of the biggest rules we followed in improv was that every scene should have a beginning, middle and end.  By sticking with a Bounded story, one can easily plan towards an end rather than plan for forever.

Retaining Interactivity and Momentum
However, planning a long form game provides some of its own issues.  First, how do you plan a game, where one of the major attractions is interactivity, to have a bounded story?  Second, how do you maintain momentum in a game with a bounded story, not allowing things to happen too slowly or too quickly?  Third, how do you write a story compelling enough to attract Neil Gaiman(Day of the Dead) or Joss Whedon(Astonishing X-Men) to write an episode/run for you?
Well, as to the first, one of the philosophies I tend to write around is "not if, but how".  In games I run, there are events that will happen, elements of change to the status quo that are in motion regardless of how the players act.  The key to writing such stories is to make sure that the players are in a position where their actions influence how the status quo changes.  At the same time, never make a story element completely contingent, as in, if nobody ever tells you they investigate, then nobody influences anything.  Sometimes, this requires literally handing decisions to individuals or groups. Sometimes, it's just about reminding players of the stakes and giving them the necessary information.
As to the second, "The avalanche has already started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote."  Events need to be in motion, but not so quickly that they overtake everything.  Part of this is looking at the arc as a whole.  I use a spreadsheet that has the entire arc written out, every game from beginning to end.  That spreadsheet helps me set the pace and know that I have time remaining and can keep on a pace to finish.  It helps me know when I have time to stretch things out, and when I have to push things forward.  It also allows me to plan when to introduce elements that add to the momentum or create new wrinkles.  However, remember to draw maps but leave gaps.  The spreadsheet should be more or less complete for the session that is coming up next, partially filled in for the next handful, and then more broadly outlined for those beyond.  Allow for the ways that changes will change plans. I will write more about this when I write about memorable antagonists, but villains should make plans of action, not simply have things happen regardless of surrounding events.  Knowing how an antagonist adapts is part of writing a good bounded story/
As to the third, I'm still trying.

The Beginning in the End, the End in the Beginning
The central philosophy of a Bounded Long Form Story is simple.  In retrospect, you should be able to see the End in the Beginning and the Beginning in the End.  There should be elements of what happens right at the outset that set the course for how things proceed and conclude.  And there should be elements of how things conclude that connect back to the beginning of the story.  And in the end, you should be able to point to the places along the way that things were different because the player characters were present.
I return again to Babylon 5.  Londo's entire character arc, from decadent political outcast to secretive warmonger to corrupted emperor is entirely driven by the presence of his nephew on Ragesh III, invaded by the Narns in the first episode of the first season.  His fall from grace all stemmed from that one simple thing.
Stories that fit together and have a clear sense of direction can achieve the best of what serial storytelling has to offer.