After a year or so of regular LARPing, around that time when you're really feeling settled in your character and plot at your favorite camp, it's time to start thinking about volunteerism. If you enjoy LARP, one of the best possible things you can do is give your time to your game in the form of NPCing or staffing. Nearly all LARPs run on volunteer labor, and it's really crucial to understand that if you want to play an awesome game, you need to make an awesome game. Donations are fantastic and absolutely important, but a camp with a thousand dollars of donated goods and two NPCs might not be as thankful for your bulk order of printer paper as you hope they will.
I
began NPCing during my second year of play, and last year I became a
staff member at a We Are Roleplayers camp. This year I will be filling a
head of staff role there, and I've been thinking a lot about how to
make myself and my team the most valuable group of NPCs we can possibly
be. There are a few principles of NPC/Staffing at LARP events that I
think are important to remember.
No, wait, there's just one, but it covers everything you need to know about volunteering at a LARP.
Are
you ready for this? It's going to get complicated. There will be
sub-points and maybe even bulleted lists (I'm not sure, I'm still
writing it), and lots of explanation, but there is one single, solitary
phrase that will tell you everything you need to know about how to NPC or staff a LARP event.
Here it goes.
Be ready. It's coming up right here. I'm going to put it in bold and even underline it so you don't miss it.
Just play it cool, guys.
Like
I said, this seemingly simple rule requires a surprising amount of
explanation which is coming below, but it really does boil down to
nothing more than the above. Seriously. Take it easy, take a deep
breath, and roll with the punches.
If you're pretty sure that you are already pretty good at playing it
cool, you should probably read this anyway just in case you're wrong. Or
just read it so you can feel good about how relaxed and pleasant you
are. The chances are, if you are like me, you're awesome some of the
time and awful some of the rest, which is why I have broken my one big
important rule down into sub-categories so that you can join me in
thinking a little more carefully about how the things we do and say may
impact other players.
Category 1: In-Game
When you sign up to volunteer in a service-oriented and outward-facing
role like NPCing, you sign up to smile and offer good customer service
even when people do things that suck (which they will). Every time you
put on a tabard and face paint, you are representing your camp and your
chapter. You don't know who's up there taking notes and deciding whether
they will ever come back again, and every PC who leaves a camp or a
whole chapter swearing they'll never come back is taking away not only a
paying player but a contribution to our game atmosphere and community.
It's a loss for everyone.
See what I said up there? Sometimes players are going to do things that
suck. People are going to accuse you of cheating. They might badmouth
you behind your back or trash-talk you to your face. They might totally
screw up that mod you were trying to run for them. It doesn't matter.
Whether they are right or wrong, you are there to make the game feel
real for them and when you stop the game to argue for five minutes about
whether you were or were not shield bashing, you are hurting the game
you love. Be cool. Save your rant for the end of the mod,
when you can vent in the shack and PC's can't see or hear you break
character, and where everyone else is more likely to sympathize. Heated
talk is just heated talk, and if it's something really offensive or
hurtful your responsibility is to report it to an owner or your head of
plot rather than dealing with it yourself.
Note: This does not apply to someone who is breaking physical safety
rules. You have the right to protect yourself from bodily harm and to
call people on behavior that puts you, themselves, or others in danger.
For NPCs and staff, playing it cool in-game also means making sure at
all times to make the game feel immersive for PCs. That means following
the rules about staying in-game at all times. If you are not in the
shack, you should be in costume and in character. That is true whether
you're marching into the weekend's biggest mod or slipping out to grab a
bite and enjoy the manifold luxuries of running water. It means more
than that, though. When you pack for an NPCing weekend, take a look at
what you're wearing. Are there logos on your clothes? Toss 'em. Are you
wearing sweatpants in a color other than black? Try again. Are your
shorts made of denim? Perhaps some wrap pants would work better. Also,
for the love of all that is holy, please avoid white sneakers if at all
possible. When you show pride in your appearance, it shows pride in our
game. I know you may think that little things like that don't matter,
but it is the small details that make or break immersion in an imaginary
fantasy world like ours.
Category 2: In the Shack
Sometimes the easiest place to accidentally be uncool is in the shack.
This might mean failing to respect the camp hierarchy by not listening
to staff or plot members who have been put in charge of you. It might
mean dropping your costume on the floor when you're done instead of
folding it and putting it back where it came from. It might involve
talking loudly out-of-game when PCs are standing by the door waiting to
begin a module or ask a question. Be cool. Respect staff and plot
hierarchy. Put your costumes away when you're done. Keep out-of-game
talk to a low volume.
I am going to share something with you. I hate NPCing, and I love
hanging out in a shady room with chairs and cold drinks. Going out again
and again as a random is just not something I'm good at. I'm terrible
with most weapons, I have a tendency to injure myself while fighting,
and I can get really nasty when I get tired. Plus, I love being behind
the scenes hanging out, running around, and watching the hustle and
bustle that goes into putting on a good event.
Why do I tell you this? I tell you to make it clear that I
understand--almost all of us want to just chill in the shack and hang
out with each other out of game instead of putting on costume after
costume, playing card after card, and getting beaten on by the same PCs
over and over again. I get it. I do. But you signed up to NPC and unless
it is your first event you should know what that means. It means you
don't get to just hang out unless you asked and someone in charge said
you can. You signed up to do a tough, often thankless job for the sake
of the game you love. I'm incredibly proud of you, and incredibly glad
you showed up, but also please get moving because I need another group
of randoms going out like five minutes ago.
Newsflash: When you say you are here to help out and then refuse to go
on mods or play cards that you don't like, you are NOT being cool.
Stahp.
Again,
because it always bears saying, signing up to NPC does not mean signing
up for abuse or for endangerment. If you feel you are being driven too
hard (past the point of physical safety for your personal abilities), or
if you are overheated, dehydrated, ill, injured, or otherwise need to
sit and rest for a while for the sake of health and safety, you have
that right. We are not out to kill you. If you come to me and say "I am
exhausted and my head is killing me and I tripped on the way down the
hill and now my legs are bleeding, my palms are bruised, and I want to
puke," I am going to go into shack-mom mode so fast it will make your
head spin. I want people who NPC at my camp to know that if they get
sick, they can count on me for a tylenol, a glass of water, some
electrolytes, and whatever else it might take to get them feeling okay
again. Nobody wants you to suffer. The game isn't worth it.
Category 3: Out of Game
This one applies to staffers far more than it does to NPCs.
I
like to believe that all staffers are chosen with a careful eye not
just toward their usefulness in the shack but toward their overall
sportsmanship and ability to represent our game in a positive light. I
bet you like to believe that too. It sort of gives you a warm fuzzy
feeling about yourself when you think about being chosen for those
reasons, right?
Well, one of the things that means is... be cool when you are out of
game. This includes during check-in and cleanup, during downtime in the
shack, when you bump into other LARPers on the street (that happens,
right?), and when you post on Facebook or other online forums. When you
sign on to be staff, you are signing up to represent your chapter and
your camp. When you act like a jerk, all of us look like jerks with you,
and we don't feel great about that.
Not sure if you are being a jerk? Here are a few warning behaviors that
might mean you are starting to make other people think about slapping
some duct tape across your mouth:
- Anyone making rape jokes. Do I even have to explain how completely offensive and uncool this is?
- Disrespecting anyone's religion. I don't care what religion it is. You don't know who is overhearing you.
- Disrespecting anyone's sexuality. I don't care what sexuality it is. See above.
- Disrespecting anyone's race. I don't care what race it is. Seriously, I shouldn't even have to say this.
- Disrespecting other volunteers or players.
- Disrespecting someone else's character, camp, chapter, or game.
- Swearing in front of kids.
- Talking out of game politics in a LARP-related setting
- Being a bully
You
have a right to an opinion. I have the right to kick you out of my
shack if you express it in an offensive way. When you are staff,
everything you say represents your game. Be whatever kind of person you
want in your personal life but if you are talking to other LARPers,
remember that when they see your behavior they are seeing your camp,
your game, your fellow staffers. Every time you make us look bad, you
hurt all of us. And every time bad behavior alienates a player, it hurts
the game you love.
I have to bite my tongue a lot because I love to talk and I often say
mean things. I know it can be hard to be nice, especially when you are
sweaty, dirty, footsore, and frustrated. As a representative for a game I
love, I also know that it doesn't take a lot for an unpleasant word of
mine to create a belief that my whole camp is an unpleasant place to be,
and in the end that is my loss more than anyone else's. So be cool,
guys.
In other words... this video serves as a good reminder.
What other words of advice do you have to plot and staff members?
I know a long running game in my area (Not NERO)that has lost a certain amount of trust from its players because the staff have a habit of talking about the players in insulting ways. Talking about how stupid they are, how clueless, how dumb, etc. Once PCs know you're doing that, faith in you and your game, and PC willingness to invest effort into your game, drops sharply.
ReplyDeleteHey Mickey! If a chapter or a game has run in to that issue and they have developed a reputation for it, how do you think they can repair their image? I know sometimes stuff like that can follow you for years, even if corrected....
ReplyDeleteI NPC mostly because I like running around playing card after card. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt takes all kinds, Tim.
ReplyDeleteAnecdote time.
ReplyDeleteI staff a LARP that has now been running for two years. Our initial player base was largely drawn from the usual suspects within the local NERO community. The game is fairly popular and so far we have enjoyed a generous amount of goodwill coming from the players and mild steady growth.
Tom is one of our players that comes from the fringe of the NERO larping community but he is fairly active in the local Vampire larping circles. Over time he has recruited a good number of people from that scene to play our LARP. One group of those people now form the largest team in our game, and they are wildly enthusiastic about it.
I barely know these people and have had little interaction with them out of game. This past weekend though I ended up eating lunch with some of them. They told the amusing story of how they got recruited to play our game by Tom. He invited them over to his place for dinner, and that is all that they were expecting. However when they arrived Tom started proselytizing to them about this amazing new game, and he even had rules and handouts to show them.
The story was amusing to me, but it got me thinking. I can easily imagine how being presented with such a sales pitch might be off putting. I think we all know how it can be difficult to commit to a new game for which you need to create entirely new costuming and props and weapons and such, especially if you will not know anyone there except one player. And Tom is a great guy, but he isn't any sort of mesmerizing speaker.
So how on the basis of this one awkward sales pitch did Tom convince a group of six people to come try out our game? I reasoned that if I could figure that out it would give me insight on recruitment, and more importantly on retention of players.
The lady who was telling the story said it really boiled down to three things. The first was that she would get to wear a costume. The second was that she would get to sing in game (she is a bard character). But the last point is the one that she said really sold her and the rest of her team.
Tom told them that the staff aren't jerks. She said Tom emphasized over and over again that the staff were cool people and they work hard to make sure you have fun. Whenever they would express doubts or concerns he would just return to that point.
But we won't know anything about the game world and we will look stupid!
No, the staff is cool, and they will not patronize you for not knowing stuff, and will make it fun to learn it.
But we won't know the rules! We'll mess up things and people will get mad!
No, the rules system is tolerant of player mistakes, and besides the staff emphasizes over and over again that no one is give anyone else grief over rules mistakes.
But no will knows us! No one is going to lets us join in their plots, and staff will never run anything for us!
No, the game has a large staff and they go through a great deal of effort to make sure every player gets involved in plots.
But it is a boffer larp and we don't know how to fight! People are going to beat us up!
No, you will be fighting staff members, and they aren't going to be jerks and beat you up. They will be careful to make sure you aren't overwhelmed at first and try to make sure you get presented with monsters appropriate to your ability until you get up to speed.
Continued...
What that conversation (and others I've had elsewhere like it) revealed to me is that the notion that the staff of a particular game is courteous and works hard to make sure you have fun is not a universal given. It may sound silly and obvious to tell people “Make sure your staff are not jerks”. Well, duh. Right? But amazingly enough I very often find that this is really not true, to the point that when players find a game with a staff that aren't jerks they are surprised by this.
DeleteWhich brings things around to the point of all this. If your game staff is cool, and if they present a good customer service face to the players and convince the players they are working hard for them to have fun it can be a huge selling point for your larp. In a lot of cases it won't be that you are doing something better than other larps, it would be a case of you doing something that other larps do not offer.
"Hey Mickey! If a chapter or a game has run in to that issue and they have developed a reputation for it, how do you think they can repair their image? I know sometimes stuff like that can follow you for years, even if corrected...."
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I think they need to 1) Admit that it's actually bad behavior (Lots of staff members likely don't even consider it a problem to badmouth their players). 2) Take steps internally to address it. 3) Find a way to make players aware that they're taking those steps. The problem is that once you know Staff members A, B, and C think you're an idiot because you didn't figure out their complicated backstory even if they don't ever say it again, you know it's what they think and will likely to continue to feel that way until they leave staff.