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Shade's Live Action Role Playing (LARP) List: Forums
Shade's LARP List :: View topic - Ecology for Artifice LARP
Joined: Jul 12, 2002 Posts: 1060 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:56 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Ah I get you and it is a "yes". There is a ritual that dedicates the Cray to a faction meaning only that faction can then use the Cray. Characters can change the dedication or get rid of it or share the dedication with one other faction.
Yes, this is definitely an example of what I mean. The mechanical benefits of dedication may cause a dynamic, role-play intense ongoing struggle between the factions over it.
Here are some more thoughts on "setting levers":
* Secret levers. If the existence of a setting lever is not known to players when they start, it will have an air of mystery as it is discovered by their characters. This increases the sense of it being "more than a game mechanic", making it feel more like a secret of the setting that is being unveiled, one that will have direct effects on the characters rather than just being background flavour. The distribution of the knowledge of the secret lever will become just as important as access to the lever and use of the lever.
* Irreversible levers. If a lever (especially a secret one) cannot be undone once it has been triggered, then it will deliver a profound sense of action and consequence in the setting, of decisions truely mattering. To take a real world example - if the "secret lever" of climate change, which has only recently been discovered (and which some PCs still don't believe in ) is left in the "on" position for too long, it could potentially cause irreparable changes to the world. This makes for a profound decision over what to do about the lever, which some characters may not have heard of or may not believe in.
* Lever-lever interaction. Potentially, throwing a lever may cause a change in the state of the setting that makes new levers available, makes previously available levers unavailable, or is part of a more complex hidden ecosystem of setting changes that the "lever" metaphor doesn't do justice to. For example, a more complex system could be used to simulate the behaviour of "the masses" of the population, based on PC actions. Or to simulate literal ecosystems of endangered creatures, based on depopulation or de-habitation by the PCs.
The point of all of this is to create a sense among the players that there is a world beyond their characters, one that is responsive to their actions in an objective fashion that isn't subject to the whim of a GM, and that can cause their actions to have unexpected flow-on consequences. This sense of a responsive setting will further encourage players to be proactive and interactive, especially if the levers encourage ongoing PC interaction.
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) is left in the "on" position for too long, it could potentially cause irreparable changes to the world. This makes for a profound decision over what to do about the lever, which some characters may not have heard of or may not believe in.
