[Macbeth]

(Absinth_Minded @ May 24 2005, 11:15 PM)
Macbeth: You've turned modern, rainy Seattle into medieval Prague? May I ask how one goes about doing that?

Absinth_Minded is quite right: Seattle is a very young and aggressively modern city, even for a relatively young nation like the United States, so recreating the Dark Medieval here poses somethng of a challenge. Here are the basic steps our troupe takes to set our stage for the time period.

First, we cut ourselves some slack. An exact recreation of the early 13th century, or even the WoD version thereof, isn't possible on our budget and time schedule, so we don't try. Instead we attempt to suggest the Dark Medieval in many ways, and to emphasize some important aspects of the age.

Costuming: Our players' costumes run the gamut from highly accurate, hand-sewn 13th century garb to off-the-rack early Renaissance doublets and gowns. And that's okay, because we're just trying to suggest the age, so we're prepared to accept some anachronistic or even fanciful clothing for the sake of ensuring that everyone is wearing some kind of costume. We also keep some spare simple costumes (and a stack of NPC character sheets!) handy for the occasional friend or spouse who wishes to join us just for one game.

Stage Dressing: We try hard to eliminate as much of the modern era as possible from our game site. It's not possible to hide every aspect of the current time, but we get very close. Our current playing space is almost devoid of decoration, and that makes it easy to cover modern objects like lamps and pianos with squares of fabric. We hang decorative fabrics on the walls and cover tables with dark cloth. The Prince character sits on a "throne" constructed from a folding camping chair hidden under a luxurious faux fur "skin," flanked by a pair of tall black plastic pillars. We turn the lights as dim as we can and play by candlelight, and for background music we have CDs of Gregorian chants and CDs of tunes played on authentic medieval instruments, and even some recorded sounds of horses hooves clopping on cobblestones to simulate "the world outside."

Little Touches: We set aside a section of the game space as a designated Out-of-Character area, and encourage players to go talk there OOC if they must rather than breaking character in the middle of a scene; that helps us preserve our illusion. And we keep a large map of medieval Prague handy so that characters can refer to it when discussing events of the night, the better to suggest that they are residing in a medieval city.

~Macbeth

[Valentine]

We rent something medieval... (Ah, one of the benefits of Europe!)

Lacking castles, like Macbeth said. It takes some props and an as empty as possible room. If you have a buddy who can handle a brush, its an idea to paint your decorating cloth. A stone wall ain't to hard. If a van or something is around you can even make some basic pieces like grave stones, gothic arches etc from board. The benefit of a good number of portable props is that you can change the look of the room now and then by moving the items.

I once did a basic wall by washing the cloth with paint to give it the basic color, then washed it again manually with a second color. Then took a fairly large brush to outline the stones, and finally used a few colors of spray paint for shades and highlights. I used a thin cloth type, cause that many layers of paint make it stiff enough.

When trying a headstone, use structure paint (like latex with a sand grain in it). Gives you an instant stone structure.

[Macbeth]

We rent something medieval...    (Ah, one of the benefits of Europe!)

Oh, sure, rub it in!

Those are great suggestions, Valentine, thank you! It occurs to me that old white bed sheets, which can often be had inexpensively at second-hand stores and in clearance sales, would make good canvases for creating stone walls in the manner you're suggesting. We've used large pieces of cardboard for this purpose, paining stone patterns on the surface with water-soluable paint, but cloth would be easier to transport and hang. One of our players has constructed a big clan symbol out of cloth, which we hang on the wall to signify that the Prince's royal court is in session.

Another trick we have is to ask players to remove modern accoutrements like wristwatches, cellular phones, and the like, during play so that the modern world intrudes less on our game sessions.

~Macbeth

[Valentine]

Ah yes, the cellphone is a classic, even in a modern game!

Prince: So your childe is ready to be presented?

Ventrue: yes my lord

Prince: well...

cellphone: play Mozarts requiem ringtone

ventrue: oh, excuse me, one sec

Prince: Ah yes, you are excused. Permanently.

[Macbeth]

Prince: Ah yes, you are excused. Permanently.

Yeah! Oh, if only it were so easy in my troupe! I've had more success banning cell phones in the Dark Ages LARP for obvious reasons, but they remain the bane of our modern games. Perhaps I should start docking 1 XP from a player for each time his or her cell phone rings during a game, hey?

~Macbeth

[zenten]

Yeah! Oh, if only it were so easy in my troupe! I've had more success banning cell phones in the Dark Ages LARP for obvious reasons, but they remain the bane of our modern games. Perhaps I should start docking 1 XP from a player for each time his or her cell phone rings during a game, hey?

It's simple, declare all cell phones to be in game. So if someone gets a call in the middle of a session, everyone should act appropriatly.

[Valentine]

It's simple, declare all cell phones to be in game.  So if someone gets a call in the middle of a session, everyone should act appropriatly.

Toreador: fuck, the ventrue has a newer model then i have
Ventrue: mine comes with the following add ons, blah blah blah
Malkav: *busy with a pigeon*
Tremere: "I cast..."
Nosferate: *hides in obfuscate to listen in*
Gangrel: what's that?
Brujah: goes through all the stolen phones to see which one is rining
Caitiff: is ignored

[JadeMage]

It's simple, declare all cell phones to be in game.  So if someone gets a call in the middle of a session, everyone should act appropriatly.

Hee hee! The LARP I played in, it was taken a step farther than that. Characters would call each other on their phones. Furthermore, with the exception of one character EVERYONE had a phone (even the Anachronistic Tremere).

And the one that didn't? Had a phobia of cell phones. Needless to say, when he was in a moving car and someone's phone rang, he had to make a willpower test every five minutes.

He succeeded the first three times, and then jumped out the window after failing the next.

But back on the subject, I played in a LARP that had a one shot game, and mostly what we did was use our imaginations....

But we had decorations and costumes too....