Gaming Philosophy: On the Economy of Story

So a good friend of mine made the following post on social media concerning his org LARP of choice:

Still glad to see that the really cool shit still happens to the very few who can make it to the events. And the rest of us can just read about it on Facebook.

One person chimes in with what looks to be an earnestly helpful response (I suspect they’re a Storyteller of some sort, either at the local or national level):

I have been taking many steps, for (game genre) obviously, for people to never be able to say I cannot get involved in national plots.

What’s up?

Note: This isn’t me saying you’re wrong. It’s me genuinely asking how I can help you if you want it.

I don’t think I’ve met the person who posted this, but this guy is a gem. Whoever’s in charge here, listen to him and do what it takes to keep him on board. He’s good folk. He knows how to respond when a player is venting about an issue (at least in this case…. to be fair, he could be horrible otherwise, but in this context, he’s awesome).

So you’ve got a couple of ‘this is the way it has to be’ responses that aren’t really negative, but aren’t all that positive either… more a defense of the status quo. A ‘suck it up, this is the best way’ sorta perspective. I’m picking this response as a summation of this approach:

Events are also held at lots of places to give different people a chance to go. They can’t hold national events all of the time at each chapter. Even if they did, people that have the spare time and money to go can hit all of them and then it’s back to that main point. Having these events all over is about the best that can be done. If you have suggestions, I am sure the staff is listening.

As a corollary, there’s the capitalistic approach to defending the status quo… if you’re paying extra, you should get extra in-game rewards (bear with me, I’ll define ‘rewards’ shortly):

I mean, the people going to the events *are* shelling out a lot of cash and time to go to them. It’s only fair that they be given a good show for it.

and

I just legit don’t see the point of conventions if you’re not gonna have special stuff happen there.

and

I think that it is more disappointing if you do shell out the money and go for one of these Cons, which is kinda going above and beyond; however, you do not get to at least bear witness to something kinda badass.

Then there’s the outright dismissive, negative and cruel responses, apparently intended to silence dissent rather than examine the issue being raised.

So….what i gather is some cool stuff happened and you couldn’t go so you’re going to whine about it?

and rewording the initial complaint into something that’s easier to argue with (while still being cruel and dismissive):

For the folks who might see this and not understand it’s clearly PTSD from experiencing (previous LARP in the area, name redacted)…

and your usual round of pseudo-intellectual strawmanning:

Fun additional fact:

Enjoying yourself doesn’t have to equate to game/character advantage.

Sometimes you can just enjoy yourself.

and

Come to a game that’s just like your home game; but fly or drive 9+ hours!

And at least one person commiserating with the initial post and re-translating it because folks weren’t (intentionally or not) getting the point…

I think the main complaint is that the only way to see the end of all of these big things (especially in werewolf where they tend to end in big ass epic fights) we do is to Shell out money, take time off, time away from families, to go to these events and that’s simply not feasible for some people, even those that want to extremely badly.

And then there’s folks who understand what’s going on, seen it themselves and are making snarky comments because they don’t believe that it’ll ever change:

Soooooo no change then.

That snark, by the way, that’s my response. Which garnered a response from a defender of the status quo:

…everything that has happened as far as getting positions and things like that has happened at local level or when people try to get involved on the larger than local scene even online. It’s actively encouraged. Conventions have cool things that happen there but hey have them all over. If they go to someone’s local game and do it, then people will bitch that that game is getting favoritism. So what is the solution to that then? Don’t have anything larger than local? Or only do it online. Then people will complain that they have other things they need to do outside of game so now *thats* not fair. I mean with all of the National games being held all over the place, they have made it as accessible as possible.

I respect the author of this here and he responded to my snarky comment with much more depth than it deserved, so I’m writing out my response here. In part because its easier to write potentially long ramblings in my blog, in part because I’m going to delve a little into my own philosophy of gaming and in part because I want to preserve the initial discussion (or parts of it, at least) in ways that social media doesn’t always allow for.

One quick comment before I delve into this: I’m not playing in the LARP the initial poster is referencing. But I did play for a year or so in a cousin LARP to that one. Both LARPs are part of the same Org and I left that Org a year or two ago. So I may be assuming some things I shouldn’t… but I suspect I’m not.

Rewards in LARP

So every game has rewards for play. In some games, the reward is getting to play in a final game against someone else who succeeded the same way and… you get a cup. Or a ring. Or a multi-million dollar sneaker advertising contract. Some games the reward is the challenge… there’s a win scenario, but you have to compete within a certain set of rules to reach the ‘end’ of the game and satisfy the victory conditions.

The reward in LARP isn’t any of those.

Well, it shouldn’t be (though often that’s part of it… the folks who proclaim ‘there is no winning in LARP’ are often the most competitive of LARPers). If you want to play in that sort of game, one that has a win scenario, play something designed for such a thing.

The economy of a LARP is story… how much story content you get to participate in. Positions for characters, special mystical items, increased contacts, increased resources, even XP awarded and spent on character advancement are all methods towards this reward, not rewards themselves. This is what the initial poster is calling “the really cool shit.”

The more story you have access to, the higher your story income.

And there’s two sources of reward income here… character actions and player actions.

Minting Story

So put it in economic terms, Story is the currency of LARP.  Story is “minted” in two major ways:

• Players Playing: Players on the field generate story. Even if they show up in character, hang out with their faction and do very little, they’re generating some story (even if its just something like ‘Wow, Clan Ventrue has a lot of members here, we need to take them down a peg’). Characters working towards goals, maintaining contacts and allies, interacting with the world and so on generate story in their wake.
• Deus Ex Machina: Game Masters (I hate the term ‘Storytellers’ for reasons that’ll become apparent shortly) also generate story. This can be relatively light and open, for example creating a setting with proverbial buttons to push and gears that spin for players to interact with and build story upon. Or it can be relatively heavy-handed and closed, a true ‘God From the Machine’, with major events that occur for players to spectate at, often without any real ability to alter the stories generated in any significant way. Most Deus Ex Machina falls somewhere along that spectrum.

Generally, stories created and maintained by players tend to last longer and are usually much more fulfilling than stories minted by Game Masters. And different types of roleplay lend themselves better to one mint or the other. In video games, Deus Ex Machina is all but required. In a LARP, however, with the setting’s movers and shakers performed by players, Deus Ex Machina tends to get in the way of each player telling a good story.

Its worth mentioning here that not all story is minted equally. There is both quantity and quality to consider. Some players want to be involved, even if its superficially, in every story they can touch while others are happier with access to fewer, but deeper, stories. There’s nothing wrong with either approach… or both!

Earning Story

Once Story is minted, it enters the reward economics of the game field as players unlock access. There are a variety of means by which access to story becomes available. Something as simple as choosing a faction or race can unlock access to story (“Welcome, new Get of Fenris… here is what’s going on in Get territory!”). Interacting with other players can unlock access, as can poking at the buttons and gears in the setting or just attending game, being present.  Your character holding a position gives them wider access to story, as does higher attributes or more powerful powers (once your character dies, their access to story is rather abruptly gone). And, unfortunately, becoming friends with your GM can also get you access to story, particularly those dreaded heavy-handed stories so many GMs are so very proud of.

And, depending on the game, you can pay “real world” resources for access to story.

A Balanced Economy

The ideal for a LARP is that everyone has equal potential access to quantity and quality of story based on the actions of the characters.  Attending games regularly, playing smart, staying involved are all important to maintaining that balance as a player. GMs need to ensure the setting has enough buttons and gears to entertain folks or at least until the players start making their own buttons and gears. Ideally for a LARP, every aspect of the setting should involve a player in some capacity, so story generation becomes a mostly player-driven thing.

The most important thing about a balanced reward economy is that characters have more or less equal access to story. Over time, you’ll see a variety of players have a variety of different roles in the story, with their characters’ significance waxing and waning. Because access to story is based primarily on the actions of characters, you’ll see different players from game to game or even session to session becoming prominent.

Mind you can never actually have a perfectly balanced reward economy. Its important as a goal, something to aim for, but in the end, you will have some things from outside of game that just end up impacting access to story. For example, if George can only make one out of every four LARP sessions, chances are his character will never be King because he’s often making excuses as to why he can’t be present.

That’s understandable and unavoidable. Its the avoidable unfair access to story rewards we need to be wary of.

The Skewed Economy

Unfortunately, a Balanced Economy is often not the goal of gamerunners, particularly when they feel their primary role is to Tell a Story, rather than facilitate, referee and adjudicate the players’ stories (this is why I despise the term ‘Storyteller’ for a Game Master).

In a skewed story reward economy, players have more or less access to the story. Maybe a particular player attends every session, so the Storyteller drops a hint to his character that’s meant to lead the game towards a story the Storyteller has minted. Or a player has figured out what buttons to push on another Storyteller, so they keep pushing that button to make story candy fall out into their hand. Or, as in the case of the situation the original poster is illuminating, the prevailing opinion is that large conventions are where the Organization Storyteller takes opportunity to advance the over-arching story they’ve designed for the organization.

Because a skewed economy relies on specific actions of players, you’ll often see the same players having greater rewards and, hence, greater access to story. Perhaps they have the resources to travel often, so they get access to org-wide positions over and over again, regardless of what character they’re playing. Or they’ve figured out how to press the right buttons on the Storytellers to get access to story locally. Or they’ve formed an out-of-character group of friends that allows them to repeatedly collectively push out others from access to story. Or, y’know, all of the above.

How to Maintain a Balanced Reward Economy

People who fly across country to attend an event have an expectation that they are deserving of greater access to story. That just by expending real-world resources (in time, money, etc) and showing up, they have earned reward.

Folks who create large groups of allies based on the personalities of the players, rather than the characters, believe themselves superior or more intelligent than others on the field, something that’s reinforced by the other people that regularly band together with them.  And woe, woe to the voice that points this out… because that voice is trying to separate friends from one another!

Players who’ve figured out how to press buttons of specific Storytellers to get access to story also often feel they’re just better at LARPing than others. That they deserve the attention they’re getting from that specific Storyteller. Taken far enough, they even come to resent Storytellers who aren’t giving them special attention or allowing buttons to be pushed, preferring to ignore one Storyteller in favor of another.

So what do you do?

There’s some advice often given to fiction authors that’s very, very relevant to Game Masters for LARPs, particularly large Org LARPs:

Kill your darlings.

I know you’re attached to the god-like NPC you designed (or maybe you didn’t even design it, you just make up stats as necessary so they can do what you want them to for your story). You think that Org Story arc you created is awesome and can’t wait to make yourself up as this legendary NPC for the scene you’ve been planning for months. You’re eager to stand in the spotlight and revel as the players (particularly those that ‘get you’ and you’ve included from the beginning) shower accolades on you.

Don’t do it. Get out of the spotlight.

If you want a spotlight, audition for the local amateur theatre.  By making the game about your story instead of the players, you’re skewing the reward economy and creating resentment like the original post at the top of this article. If players have an expectation of you as the awarder of story, it generates unrealistic exceptions about how the players (not the characters) get access to those rewards (like merely showing up to a convention LARP).

Stop being a story thief.

Let the players earn their way to being the god-like NPC. If you’re running at the Org level, let the players generate the larger-than-local stories for the characters. As a Game Master you shouldn’t be earning story rewards! You’ve already got access to all the stories… you don’t need to create more for yourself!

Letting go of that control and making the game (and reward system) about the characters on the field has a cascading effect on the reward economy.

Pressing Storyteller buttons no longer has a significant affect on story access. Since players have greater involvement in what characters are accessing the story, there are a LOT more buttons that need pushing and, bonus!, those buttons will often need pushing in-character. If Storytellers aren’t Telling Stories, players can’t get unfair access from them.

Large groups of players aren’t as effective at fencing in access to story any more. Because any character on the field may have greater or lesser access to story, it tends to break up the power blocks to one degree or another. The LARP becomes less about groups of players competing (or one group dominating) and more about characters and their stories. If any character can carve out its own story on the field, that increases the interactions between characters and increases the potential access to story for everyone.

Convention Org LARPs are no longer about what cool thing the Storytellers want to give out to characters (who are invariably played by the same players who can show up to these events consistently), its about what the characters want to do and how they interact. Org LARPs at conventions become about characters networking with other characters across the country, advancing their storylines, deciding things for themselves and generating story for themselves and others in the LARP.

Perhaps most importantly, when you remove Storytellers as gatekeepers of story access and surrender that to your players, you get rid of a lot of the legitimately hurt feelings of folks who feel left in the dust because Storytellers are handing out story access for “Out of Character” reasons.

Storytellers, make LARP about the characters.

Unmake it about you.

Rejecting the Economic Revolution

There will be players, particularly those who have greater access to story under the current system who will be confused and angry by a Storyteller refusing to give them rails to run on or give them story rewards for traveling to an event. They legitimately don’t see the point of conventions if the Storytellers aren’t going to make special things happen there… they’ve pressed their button and want their reward from the Machine-God who gives out story.

I’m not sure how to bring these folks about. In my years playing and running LARPs, I was spoiled in my formative years by players who not only didn’t expect Storytellers to dole out story, they actively resented the idea of Storytellers interfering with their stories. The Storyteller created a rich and engaging setting, with plenty of ways for characters to interact and even compete, but in the end, the LARP was about the players’ stories, not the Storytellers’.

When I did eventually come to join a group of LARPers who militantly believed Storytellers should be telling stories, I’ve very rarely seen success in getting them to view LARP a different way from at they know. I’ve tried and mostly failed. And, honestly, I’ve seen other Storytellers do it better than me. even if it was for the briefest glimmers of time.

I strongly suspect, though, if more storytellers worked towards this goal, the quality of LARPs would increase. Players would have less reason to be upset that Storytellers were unfairly awarding story to certain players. You’d see more egalitarian participation in stories of various types because you’re spreading out the source of stories. Players caught up in unfair reward cycles would either become more engaged in story creation or drop the game in a huff… which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, because those are the people who’re willing to ‘game the system’ to get more story.

You’re basically letting people mint their own coins.

If I haven’t convinced you yet, ask yourself three important questions:

1. Think of your five favorite memories from LARPs you’ve played in (not as Storyteller/Game Master, but as player). These should be stories you’ve retold with your friends, particularly if you’v retold the story to people who weren’t even involved. Write them down.Now put a minus one (-1) next to those about fighting a big bad or passively participating in a story the Storyteller was telling.  Put a plus one (+1) next to the stories that were mainly interactions with other players, stories you created collectively. Maybe that rivalry with another pack’s Alpha or the Prince you finally took down in a social coup.Add things up. I’m going to guess you’ll have more positives than negatives. Many of you will end up with +5.
2. Now let’s do the reverse: write down five of your most negative moments in LARPs you’ve played in. Times that you really wondered if this was the hobby for you or you were frustrated enough to vaguebook about it or whatever.Those that were about an unfair Storyteller or being left out because players who got rewarded for out-of-character reasons (including auctions using real-world money that sold off in-game items for use on the field), put a minus one next to. Those negative experiences that were the result of a player’s character doing something on the field, put a plus one next to.Add things up… I suspect you’ll end up with a negative number here.
3. Finally, write down the five characters you remember most from past LARPs. Don’t do the LARP you’re currently in (if you’re in one), but LARPs you’ve played in in the past. We’re looking primarily for character names here, but for player characters, its okay to write down a player name and a note as to which character it was.For each character played by a player, put a +1 next to it. For each character played by a Storyteller, -1.Again, I strongly suspect you’ll come up with a positive number here.

My point here is that, particularly in a LARP, your grand Storyteller stories don’t really matter. The memories will be created more between players than by your grand-standing about your magnum opus.

But What About Conventions?!

So, players, what’s the point of going to conventions if its not to watch the Storytellers play out something cool?

Well, the same point as going to any other convention… seeing people, interacting in person with people you wouldn’t normally, socializing with the larger organization, making larger-than-local stories happen yourself!

This isn’t rocket science, folks.

A Personal Example

So I’m going to give an example I ran into myself in a game related to the LARP the original poster is talking about.

I played a character that rather quickly became prominent in his ‘race’, so had greater access to story, particularly the larger-than-local story that dominated the LARP at a national level. The problem was that, despite greater access, only a few people could interact with this story. These were primarily people who could travel to large events and, therefore, received more story rewards. When people outside that group tried to interact, they generally lost their characters as god-like NPCs killed them for their impertinence. Unfortunately, this Org story tended to favor certain races while other races were made out to be foolish or stupid. The race I was in was one of the ones made out to be foolish.

Myself and other prominent leaders of this race requested a meeting with the Org ST and members of the Org leadership. Among the issues discussed was a request by the players to bring the larger-than-local story to a rapid conclusion so that we could get back to, well, not being the foolish rubes our species was made out to be. The request was met with a certain amount of derision… to paraphrase, the main response was ‘If we end this Org story, we’d have to end the Chronicle!’

I was struck, in that moment, that the Org leadership was more about the story they wanted to tell than the story the players were generating. I stayed for a couple more months to see if any changes resulted from this big meeting and when they didn’t dropped the LARP altogether. In the end, I wasn’t willing to play in one of the foolish races so the org leadership could tell the story they wanted to tell. The very idea that they NOT have a huge, over-arching story that we mostly spectated on during major events was a completely alien concept.

The idea that the Chronicle was all about the Org Story wasn’t the only reason I quit, but it was a very prominent one.

Summary

My take on the problem being brought up by the initial poster is that there’s an unfairness in how the reward economy functions in his LARP of choice (to be fair, its extremely common across the board).  The main source of Story is from the Storytellers and at national events, many players who pay to attend expect greater access to that source of Story by dint of their presence. They don’t see anything wrong with players who don’t have the resources not getting the rewards, in part because they see rewards as based primarily on the actions of players, not the actions of characters. And, of course, in part because they’re the beneficiaries of the unfair system, so they’re not willing to see the problems for those who aren’t benefiting.

One major way to mitigate this inherent unfairness is for Storytellers to stop telling stories and instead focus on facilitating the stories of the various characters on the field. If the ‘really cool shit’ at games, even convention games, is all player-generated, there’s a LOT less room for players to feel like they’re being unfairly disadvantaged because they can’t travel as much as other players can.

Disclaimer

Look, I’m not trying to tell you there’s only one way to LARP.

I am saying that, like most forms of entertainment, there’s higher quality and lower quality. There’s award-winning drama and then there’s reality television. Both are things people enjoy, but they’re of varying quality. I firmly believe we should strive towards the highest quality experience we can deliver. And I absolutely believe that the lighter the hand of the Storyteller, the more we make LARP about the stories players want to tell, the higher the quality the experience!