Wyrd con c Ompan 2 01 iON Edited by Sarah Lynne2 Bowman, Ph.D. and Aaron Vanek Tips for interacting with the Wyrd Con Companion Book: Use the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader Text in red (unless a name) will link to a webpage if you are connected to the Internet Text in dark blue will link to other articles in the document You will need to "trust" the document This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 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. The views, opinions, and statements expressed in the Wyrd Con Companion Book are solely those of the contributors and not necessarily those of Wyrd Con, its affiliates, or the editors. Join the discussion about The Wyrd Con Companion Book on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/390244477724076/ WyrdCon 4: September 19-22, 2013 in the City of Orange, California: http://wyrdcon.com/ Help Wyrd Con: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wyrdcon/wyrd-con-4-interactive-storytelling-convention (expires January 1, 2013) 4 Table of Contents Aaron Vanek J Li Lizzie Stark Sarah Lynne Bowman Introduction................................................6 Gaming the Players: Mad About the Techniques: Introduction to the Four meditations on the physics Stealing Nordic Methods for Academic Section .................................. 86 of building games out of humans .......37 Larp Design .............................................67 Ethan Gilsdorf A Lament for John Kim Aaron Vanek Whitney “Strix” Beltrán .......... Gaming’s Lost Days ................................. 7 Revisiting the Threefold Model 41 Inside The Box, the United States Yearning for the Hero Within: Army’s Taxpayer Funded Larp .......... 75 Gord Sellar Jason Morningstar Live Action Role-Playing as Engagement ......... ................... Thinking Big: RPGs, Teaching in Korea, Good Play for Game Designers 45 with Mythical Archetypes 89 and the Subversive Idea of Agency .....9 Emily Care Boss Evan Torner Skin Deep ................................................. Futurity and Larp ................................... 49 79 Rafael Bienia Epidiah Ravachol Why Do They Larp? Eddo Stern Five Fates of Fiction.................................51 Motivations for Larping Warcrack for the Hordes: in Germany .............................................. Why Warcraft 97 Pwns the World ....................................... 15 An Interview with Ford Ivey John Tynes about Larp Design ................................ 55 Nathan Hook Prismatic Play: A Social Psychology Study Nat Budin Games as Windows of Immersion Among Over Time: Intercon on the Real World ................................... Live Action Role-players ................... 19 and the evolution of theatre-style 104 Maria Alexander larp in the Northeast ..........................61 The Greatest Story Yaraslau I. Kot Ever Interacted With ............................. 27 Educational Larp: Topics for Consideration ....................116 Neal McDonald & Alan Kreizenbeck Larp in an Interdisciplinary Journal section editing by Aaron Vanek University Course................................126 Academic section editing by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Ph.D. Layout and design by Kirsten Hageleit Published by Wyrd Con under Creative Commons License December 21, 2012 Cover: Insurgent NPCs at Fort Irwin's National Training Center Photo by Aaron Vanek, art design by Kirsten Hageleit Font: The Battle Continuez 6 The Wyrd Con Companion Book Introduction Our Mission yrd Con is an Interactive Storytelling At Wyrd Con our mission is two fold: he content you have before you would not exist if I believe that interactive storytelling, larp, Convention located in the United States. 1) To increase exposure to multiple forms of Live not for the following: Ira for indulging us, Sarah transmedia and role-playing games are in a golden era Interactive Storytelling is the concept Interactive Storytelling by providing entertaining and for being my co-pilot, Kirsten for confining her of creativity, a renaissance akin to the 1960’s in music. where the audience and actors are both immersive events. overworked rage to mere swearing, all the These streams of artistic culture are closely parallel. Wpart of the performance. Participatory events are 2) To create an educational experience that fosters TKnutepunkt books (past, present, and future), the Nordic With some bridge spans and digging in the mud that run throughout the conference to encourage both dialogue between Live Interactive Storytelling and Larp book, Amber Eagar’s editing of the first two Wyrd separates them, we can create a delta of amazing works. exploration and immersive play, including but not other forms of media entertainment, providing an Con books, and all the contributors for putting their This book, I hope, will serve as a shovel, and that it gets limited to Live Action Role Playing (larp), Alternate opportunity for participants and creative producers of writing shoulder to the plow without pay (and only the well worn. Reality Games (ARG), Live Simulations and other live games and cross-media properties to learn from occasional lash). While editing, I noticed connections in nearly innovative Transmedia experiences. The conference one another. every essay: John Tynes references Emily Care Boss’s provides a fun opportunity to engage in all aspects of This two-fold objective of providing entertainment The essays in the non-academic section are roughly Breaking the Ice, Evan Torner references John Tynes’s the cross-platform storytelling within and beyond the and education ensures that we focus on a variety of ordered and grouped as follows: Unknown Armies, Emily references Lizzie Stark’s run live role-playing realm. experiences that vary from year to year, as well as of Mad About the Boy, and so on. It is striking to me that Wyrd Con strives to not only entertain, but also ensures an unbiased perspective on the evolving forms • Personal reflection on the power of role-playing we interactors operate in the same ballpark, dealing educate others in Interactive Storytelling. This of live interactive theater and transmedia entertainment games with the same playbook: agency, meaning, psyche, knowledge can be applied to both professional that exist our world. • RPGs in the real world archetypes, story, and how everyone is going to be fed development and daily life in a variety of ways; As such, we become talent coordinators and agents, • Design and play advice, tips, and approaches for the weekend. Interactive story is such a vigorous, through socially immersive gaming, we can evolve our growing the game players into designers, and the • History of larp thrilling medium full of so many uniquely creatives that understanding of different social roles and entertain designers into creative content producers. • Documentation of larps I think we only need to poke our heads out of left field ourselves while gaining confidence to grow as a leader. We are invested in the success of every attendee – the • The future of interactive storytelling to see amazing work occurring in the next city, county, We learn much from participation and the observation players, the designers and those in the entertainment state, or even country. Work we can use and re-tool. of immersive play that enhances the development of industry, providing them a playspace and a cutting There is a theme to this third Wyrd Con academic Thus I encourage you to discuss and distribute this our own interactive story worlds. edge learning experience. book, which is “Eulogies During an Accouchement”, Companion, which can also keep you company until Much of our panel and educational programming or laments for the deceased while something is being September 19-22, 2013, the dates of Wyrd Con 4. If provides presentations and discussions on how born in the same room. The idea was to look at what you read this before January 1, 2013, please consider different social scenarios and storytelling environments has gone before, what is here now, and what is coming donating to the Kickstarter campaign. have multiple psychological effects on the participants, on the horizon. I think we conjured a quite stalwart and giving insight on how to expand a storyline to other perspicacious vision into all three temporal zones. Lay on! media and market these concepts to generate new opportunities. Education is central to us and allows Aaron Vanek attendees the ability to better understand, build, and December 20, 2012 convey their story in the most interactive way possible. If you have ever had a desire to build a complex story worlds that involve extensions into live participatory gaming environments, solve a mystery, fight the enemy, or experience an event that mixes theater, costuming, and dialogue about the changing face of the entertainment industry, Wyrd Con is the place to be. Fans and producers of Anime, History, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and other genres are all a part of the Wyrd Con experience. All are welcome to attend. 8 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A dungeon map played A Lament for Gaming’s Lost Days by the author and his gaming group back in the 1980s; One of the author’s world maps, from a time in the 1980s when, as a teenager, he was the DM of his gaming group; A sampling by Ethan Gilsdorf of D&D gear from the author’s personal collection: TSR rule books, modules and dice, from the 1970s and 1980s. played Dungeons & Dragons back in what my Geneva, Wisconsin. Both worlds were equally as distant, collect my role-playing mojo. Never tried it? Role- nostalgia-tinged mind likes to call the “Golden foreign, and inaccessible to me. playing and storytelling is easy. We all do it everyday, Age.” Or perhaps it’s better described as the Sepia At home, our venues for continual and episodic we just don’t know it. Job interviews, first dates and Age. Or the Aqua Graph Paper age. escape and immersion were limited. Sure, I was a Star Facebook posts are easy examples of role-playing in the I Whatever the moniker, those early gaming Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark fan, but if I wanted to great RPG of life.