We don’t run a lot pre game. We give a setting, ask people to create characters, and then expect them to turn up at the game. They will get a briefing before they go IC. That’s about it. That’s how we like it.
We tried running an IC forum, a lot of our players weren’t interested, and neither were the organisers. As a result it didn’t work, and we left it. We have a lot of players that don’t like this. They’re Our players. They play our games, and they would like us to do something we’re not currently doing. We’re not that likely to start either. The months immediately before an event tend to be consumed by attempts to get the kit that bit closer to finished and the ridiculous thing a bit more built. We’re typically making masks, corralling crew and programming up to (and beyond) time in. It’s not that we’re disorganised, it’s that there’s always something else we can do to make the game better, and for us that isn’t running an IC board.
It either adds something to the game, in which case it’s a problem for the people that aren’t interested in being part of it, or it doesn’t, in which case you can roleplay among yourselves without our assistance.
I participate in stuff on the slenderlrp boards. That’s something of a special case for me. It’s very much based in the real world, and the character I play isn’t too much removed from myself. I will typically come back from an event still thinking about it, and processing things. So I do talk on the forums, update the wiki and write another pamphlet. That’s a reaction to an event, not prep for an event. We don’t encourage continuity of characters. Especially with Alone. Wookie maintains that if you survived you were probably doing it wrong. For him the aim was a cinematic death in the last 3 hours. For me, I didn’t really care as long as I had the same number of monsters at the end as at the beginning (It haunted me for days that we’d failed to count everyone out of the tunnels and could easily have left someone behind. We think we left a computer in there, and it’s almost definitely full of slides and little plastic key cards).
I get IC forums. I can see why people would like them, and people are welcome to roleplay online before our games if they want to. We’re just not going to get involved in it. We’ll answer questions (the answer may be ‘I don’t know, make it up’). It’s not something that adds to the game we want to run. It’s something that adds to the game you want to play.
For us, the game starts on site. We try and tell you enough that you can decide how you got there. The rest is up to you.
(Via: Mandala’s Minion)
Image Courtesy of Mandala LRP
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