I want to start this post off by saying that whether you are a Player or a LARP facilitator this blog post is for you. I don’t want the concept of ‘resource management’ to sound too corporate and stuffy that it makes those of you reading this who are strictly those that play LARPs feel that this post won’t help you. In fact you are the focus of my intentions.
If you remove the corporate tagline from ‘resource management’ what you really have is “how to address things in a way that makes sense using what you’ve got.”
This idea is used across the world to increase revenues, effectiveness, efficiency, and overall anything-ness that is a challenge that needs to be overcome. There is no reason that this method can’t help you achieve a better LARP game as well.
The theory is a simple formula but I’m not going to try and trick you into thinking this is a piece of cake. It’s not hard… but it is harder than it sounds. Still, how hard can it be? After all it’s only a 4 step process.
- Determine that there is a challenge or problem that needs to be overcome.
- Review the resources (people, props, costuming, time remaining, etc) that you have to help you overcome this challenge.
- Think of the simplest way to resolve your challenge using the resources that you have.
- Implement that thought in the best way that you know how.
Of course if you are having problems with the implementation there is always that elusive ‘Step 5′ that could creep up – acquire help in resolving your challenge. Personally I have always sought out help as soon as possible because I feel that there is more merit to many minds looking at any problem than simply my own.
Of course this also provides more opportunities to sip on some soda and check my email while listening to the ideas of those other minds.
I can hear you in my mind right now and you’re thinking “Yes Kevin, but how can this help ME?” And if you are not thinking that then I need a new mind reading device. In the event that you are thinking what I think you’re thinking than the answer is simple.
Whether or not you are running a game or participating as a player you will have challenges set in front of you regarding your LARP. Whether this challenge is brought upon you by Out of Game aspects of your LARP or In Game challenges set before you by your LARP facilitator makes no difference in how it can be approached.
Take, for example, a little problem that I have been having at a LARP that I run. Typically we have a lot more participants who want to play their Characters than we do wanting to play townsfolk, guards, villains, and any other character directed by the Story Team (or Plot Team).
In short this means that our PC’s (players who play their characters) vastly out number our NPC’s (players not playing their characters).
Having your PC’s outnumber your NPC’s makes it hard to recreate certain scenes such as an army of zombies invading the town – especially when the heros can easily circle around this ‘army’ of undead and beat them to a pulp in a hurry.
So what do you do?
Seeing this as a challenge within my game because not only was I running my NPC’s ragged trying to represent an army of zombies but I was also not providing that feeling of danger that a zombie army should impress upon any self respecting mall rat. I followed the 4 step formula and came up with the following:
- Challenge: a handful of NPC’s cannot possibly engage the Player Characters while constantly being stopped and searched (thus having to wait to give out treasure before becoming another zombie)
- Resources: NPC’s, foam swords, bean bag spell packets, lots of duct tape, and… the dollar store.
- The simplest way to fix the problem: More NPC’s. Since I can’t force people to NPC … replace the NPC’s with something else.
- Implementation: When the NPC’s role is killed they should move to their next role as quickly as possible. This will create a faster paced environment more like a constant thrall of undead, or something similar. So, instead of having the NPC wait to be looted I have them drop a treasure bag pre-packed with their monster loot.
Yes it’s straight out of most of the Massive Multiplayer Online Games that so many of us play – so what? It’s simple and it works.
My NPC’s are free to play another role quickly and the players still have the opportunity to get their reward for being a hero (or trying to survive in the mall). Everybody wins and all of my objectives are reached.
This type of thinking doesn’t only have to be applied to running a game either. You can easily apply it to resolving costuming problems, character creation problems, or even resolving storylines in your LARP game. It’s simple, straight forward, and brilliant. The only downside is that I can’t really take the credit.
In fact this is the basic model to all resource management that I am aware of. So, hats off to those brilliant guys and gals who thought of a systematic and straightforward approach to resolving our LARP needs. Because I’m sure that’s what they had in mind.
Just to clarify, I am not saying that these 4 steps are always easy. There are many different elements, factors, and principals that govern every different situation and I can’t possibly cover them all but these 4 basic steps can be applied to every challenge that you come across.
All the best in your future LARP endeavours,
Kevin Tjia
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