Strategy, Tactic, and Violence in One World by Night, World of Darkness, Live- Action Role-Play Games Laya Liebeseller University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2017 Rules of the House: Strategy, Tactic, and Violence in One World By Night, World of Darkness, Live- Action Role-Play Games Laya Liebeseller University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Liebeseller, Laya, "Rules of the House: Strategy, Tactic, and Violence in One World By Night, World of Darkness, Live-Action Role- Play Games" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 1504. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1504 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RULES OF THE HOUSE STRATEGY, TACTIC, AND VIOLENCE IN ONE WORLD BY NIGHT, WORLD OF DARKNESS, LIVE-ACTION ROLE-PLAY GAMES by Laya Liebeseller A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2017 ABSTRACT RULES OF THE HOUSE: STRATEGY, TACTIC, AND VIOLENCE IN ONE WORLD BY NIGHT, WORLD OF DARKNESS, LIVE-ACTION ROLE-PLAY GAMES by Laya Liebeseller The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017 Under the Supervision of Professor Thomas Malaby The following thesis focuses on governance of institutionalized play in three World of Darkness live-action role-play (larp) games (ethnographic field work conducted between May and August of 2016), whose players have willingly allowed the international organization of One World by Night – an organization made up of their peers – to unify them in such a way as to create connection, community, and shared story across the world. I analyze four locii within these games (the book, the organization, the storyteller, and the player) using Michel de Certeau’s, The Practice of Everyday Life, translated by Steven Rendall, specifically focusing on the roles of the tactician and the strategist, to illustrate how the varying levels of power within these games work with, and pull against, each other. As the field work was originally conducted to investigate violence within these physical role-play games, the heart of this thesis, and one of the threads that connects each chapter, is a discussion of violence, used to confirm the serious attitude these games can sometimes engender. Though Michele de Certeau may not be a name generally associated with the discussion of gaming, it is my hope to show that gaming communities can be analyzed using the same theories anthropologists might use to examine any other community or society, as gaming communities are not separate from the rest of the world, but an integral part of the system. ii I dedicate this thesis to the gamers of the world, each and every one. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ ii Dedication............................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Table of Contents............................................................................................................................. iv List of Nomenclature ....................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... xii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Introducing the World of Darkness ......................................................................................................... 11 Game Death and Dark Styles .................................................................................................................. 13 The Other Road ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Michele de Certeau – Strategist and Tactician ........................................................................................ 24 Larp Governance – A Summary ............................................................................................................. 27 History and Literature – A Review ......................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 1: The Book – The Strategist ............................................................................................. 42 “Laws of the Night” ................................................................................................................................ 43 The Creators and History: Larp and the World of Darkness System ...................................................... 52 Chapter 1.5 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 62 Iowa: The Odd Man Out ......................................................................................................................... 63 Crow County Vampire: The Masquerade ............................................................................................... 64 IC Vampire: The Masquerade ................................................................................................................. 70 Werewolf: The Apocalypse .................................................................................................................... 72 Game Night ............................................................................................................................................. 75 Downtime ................................................................................................................................................ 77 Chapter 2 – A Strategist in Training ................................................................................................... 78 Discipline and Difference ........................................................................................................................ 82 Showing-up Strategy through Tactic ....................................................................................................... 84 Org Plot ................................................................................................................................................... 86 iv Game Involvement with the OWbN ....................................................................................................... 90 An Aside – The “Real” World ................................................................................................................ 94 Chapter 3 – The Storyteller: A Strategic Tactician ......................................................................... 97 Building the World – Storyteller as Strategist ........................................................................................ 99 The Strategic Tactician ......................................................................................................................... 102 The Storyteller and the Power of the Org ............................................................................................. 108 Chapter 4 – Player as Tactician .................................................................................................... 115 Character Creation Revised .................................................................................................................. 118 Combat Violence, Bleed, and Distance ................................................................................................ 123 Conclusion and Future Research .................................................................................................. 136 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 149 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 152 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 153 Example Vampire Character Sheet ....................................................................................................... 153 My own Character Raegan .................................................................................................................... 158 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................... 165 Appendix D ................................................................................................................................... 167 Appendix E ................................................................................................................................... 170 Appendix F ................................................................................................................................... 184 Appendix G .................................................................................................................................. 185