The Wyrd Con Companion Book 2015
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The Wyrd Con Companion Book 2015 Edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Ph.D. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Tips for interacting with the Wyrd Con Companion Book: To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. Use the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader The views, opinions, and statements expressed in the Wyrd Con Companion Book are solely those of the Red text (except names) links to the web if you are connected to the Internet contributors and not necessarily those of Wyrd Con, its affiliates, or the editors. You will need to trust the document for the links to work Join the discussion about The Wyrd Con Companion Book on Facebook: Text in blue will link to other articles in the document http://www.facebook.com/groups/390244477724076/ Clicking on will bring you to the Table of Contents Wyrd Con 6: September 24-27, 2015 in Costa Mesa, California Wyrd2016 is Sept 29-Oct 2nd 2016 Costa Mesa, California: http://wyrdcon.com/ 5 Table of Contents Introduction to the Journalistic Section Cultivating Responsible Masculinity in Introduction to the Academic Section Character Creation: Sarah Lynne Bowman .........................6 Gaming Communities Sarah Lynne Bowman .....................100 The Symbolic Annihilation of Tayler Stokes ....................................46 Race in Dungeons & Dragons Love, Sex, Death, and Liminality: Breaking the Alibi: Fostering Empathy by TiMar Long .....................................129 Ritual in Just a Little Lovin’ Crossgender Role-playing in Russian Reuniting the Player and Character Sarah Lynne Bowman ............................ 8 Larps Maury Brown and Player Choices in Tabletop RPGs: Olga Vorobyeva ................................60 Benjamin A. Morrow .......................102 The Greek Connection Decoding the Default: Dimitra Nikolaidou .........................145 Secrets and Powers Larp Imagining the Future with Planetfall: Trickster Remembers: Negotiating Nat Budin ..........................................20 Mobile Technology and Hard Science Morality and Identity in Tabletop Bodies and Time in Tabletop in Science Fiction Larping Gaming Through Trickster Mythology Role-Playing Game Combat Systems How I Became an Accidental Artist Matthew Webb .................................70 Janelle Davis ...................................117 Evan Torner ....................................160 Through Larp Quinn D ............................................26 “Actual Play” and the Forge Tradition William J. White ................................84 Writing Game Economies for Larp Rob McDiarmid ...............................34 Editing by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Ph.D. Layout and design by Kirsten Hageleit Published by Wyrd Con under Creative Commons License December 20, 2015 Cover photo by Petter Karlsson, CC-BY-NC: In the larp Just a Little Lovin’, the rock band Urban Renaissance closed the drag/variety show every night with an energetic performance. Although Rain (right) died in Act II, the show went on in Act III. 7 Introduction to the Journalistic Section Sarah Lynne Bowman elcome to a new year for the Wyrd Con Com- Next, Quinn D explains her process of learning how Shifting our focus to improving the health of role- resources, mobile apps, and QR code technology. These panion Book and another batch of fascinating to create art in order to faithfully portray a campaign larp playing groups, Taylor Stokes’ contribution, “Cultivating tools streamline character creation; in-game actions; the Warticles. This year, the Journalistic Section character in “How I Became an Accidental Artist through Responsible Masculinity in Gaming Communities,” offers management of character sheets and inventories; and the features a diverse set of pieces about multiple facets Larp.” While the author did not self-identify as an artist advice for cis-gendered men who wish to improve their analysis of diegetic objects, flora, and fauna. Webb also of role-playing: documentation of Nordic, Russian, and at the start of the long-term game, she learned how to empathy and communication skills. This article offers a explains the ways in which Planetfall has motivated some American games; explorations of game systems, such create wire sculptures for both economic and emotional detailed list of potential problems associated with tra- players to seek plausible scientific solutions to game- as campaign larp economies and theatre-style design; reasons over the course of the game in order to enact ditionally masculine communication styles and ways in related problems, prompting independent research. examinations of play practices, including transgressing her artist character. These sculptures were cherished which individuals can work to promote a more inclusive Planetfall offers an interesting case study for the ways gender/sexuality norms; descriptions of supplemental by her fellow players in- and out-of-game, leading to a atmosphere as members of the community, in leader- in which a leisure game can integrate easily accessible works of art created from the perspective of a larp char- transformative experience for Quinn, who was awakened ship roles, and as a group. Stokes’ list of suggestions is technology while also potentially serving a secondary acter; and analysis of the dynamics in larp communities. into a new form of her own creative expression through comprehensive, citing relevant literature and discourse educational function. I hope you find the depth and plurality of these topics the process. This article demonstrates that larp has the about important situations that gaming communities typi- Finally, William J. White’s “‘Actual Play’ and the as interesting as I do. potential to unlock within players abilities and strengths cally face. He advocates for a progressive approach to Forge Tradition” offers a first step at a larger project of Our first article is Sarah Lynne Bowman’s “Love, thay they previously were not aware they possessed. self-improvement, while acknowledging that mistakes documenting the Forge tabletop community’s influential Sex, Death, and Liminality: Ritual in Just a Little Lovin’,” a Additionally, this article is a great example of documenta- do happen and that change is an ongoing process. history. Applying both discourse and content analysis, reprint of a piece I wrote for Nordiclarp.org analyzing the tion of ephemera: the lasting artifacts a game produces Taking the discussion of gender in a different direc- White examines the various “seasons” of the Forge use of in- and out-of-game rituals in the 2015 Danish run even after the temporary enactment of the larp is done. tion, larp scholar Olga Vorobyeva explores “Crossgen- online discussion forum, which each emphasized differ- of the Nordic larp Just a Little Lovin’. This larp explores Our next piece arises from Wyrd Con and Companion der Role-playing in Russian Larps.” Using participant- ent discursive priorities, mainly as established by the desire, fear of death, and friendship during the begin- Book veteran Rob McDiarmid, who writes on “Writ- observation of Russian larps and discourse analysis of forum’s moderator, Ron Edwards. White discusses how ning of the AIDS crisis. Many articles detail the fact that ing Game Economies for Larp.” This piece explores discussion forum posts, Vorobyeva describes the ways the focus for the Forge primarily involved the analysis larp is a ritual process, but I wanted to apply this theory in great depth various economic theories, applying in which the phenomenon of women portraying men of game systems through a process called Actual Play, to a specific game in order to serve both an academic them to several types of campaign style larp games and has developed in the larp community and some of the where participants offered reports from game sessions and documentation function. The structure of Just a Little explaining how certain mechanics facilitate specific backlash incurred by such enactments. The author further for the community to dissect in order to better understand Lovin’ creates several larp-within-a-larp experiences that, economic outcomes. This article is an excellent addition compares attitudes toward the enactment of crossplay how design and subcultural expectations motivate play. in my view, deepen immersion and created profound to the literature, as an extensive examination of the eco- in the Russian and Nordic larp communities, groups A polarizing figure, Edwards emphasized the application emotional experiences for many of the players. This nomics of larp worlds is long overdue. Larp designers that have until recently developed in relative isolation of his GNS theory – which featured elements originally structure is intensified by the content of the larp, which often spend countless hours attempting to balance their from one another.1 She suggests that while such gender developed by members of an earlier online commu- deals with societal transgression, subcultures, intimacy, economic systems; this article offers an application of transgressions in larp are often tolerated, many mem- nity, while often solely attributed to Edwards -- to these sexuality, and coming to terms with mortality in the face various economic principles to larp worlds, including bers of the Russian larp community are uncomfortable actual play sessions in an attempt to demonstrate how of tragedy. My hope is that this