{"id":214,"date":"2009-11-02T02:15:25","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T01:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larpwright.efatland.com\/?p=214"},"modified":"2017-09-14T09:31:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T07:31:00","slug":"the-pre-emptive-character-love-in-the-age-of-debasement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larpwright.efatland.com\/?p=214","title":{"rendered":"The pre-emptive character – Love in the Age of Debasement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six couples. A caf\u00e8. 3 hours. No orcs, goblins, mystical orders, spies, asassins, or any kind of extraordinary characters. No magic, combat, violence, mystique, politics, or any kind of extraordinary drama. Just regular people, struggling to save or sever their\u00a0relationships.<\/p>\n

\"Scene<\/a>
Scene from "Love in the Age of Debasement". Copyright 2009 Li Xin. Used with permission. Click for more.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was, of course, a larp – more precisely: Erlend Eidsems “Love in the Age of Debasement”. And the most interesting part of the larp was the innovative way it used written characters to construct the drama.<\/p>\n

Most larps that have pre-written characters use some kind of life-story narration to define who the character was, and any past events that might motivate the character to act in certain ways during the larp. For example, Zorro might have killed your father three years ago, giving you a motivation to comitt revenge during the larp.<\/p>\n

Half of the characters at “Love in the Age of Debasement”, the ones written by co-author Geir Tore Brenne, were done in this style. It’s a functional style of character writing – players usually “get it”, understand what the larpwright wants with the character. And if the writer manages to restrain himself from excessive decoration and unfocused narration – which Geir Tore certainly did – they can be eminently role-playable.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing, however, are the characters written by Erlend Eidsem. Here’s a sample:<\/p>\n

\n

Not everything at once.
\n\tBit by bit. Maybe
\n\tHave to pinch in.
\n\tNot so easy to hold it back.
\n\tNot anymore.
\n\tEverything changing.
\n\tAll the time.
\n\tLeakages. In the panties.
\n\tHourglass dripping. Sand hitting the bottom.
\n\tTime is running out. Bottom gets big and bigger.
\n\tThe Blood! All this blood. Where does it come from?
\n\tThe color? Brown?
\n\tWhy always so brown?
\n\tNever thought of that. Ending. Beginnings. All ends are new beginnings.
\n\tWhat am I going to do?
\n\tWill it ever come? It always does..
\n\tMight go to examine it.
\n\tJust not alone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What’s going on here? This is poetic form, reflecting not what the character did, but how she feels, what she is thinking, in the disjointed style of actual thought. But there’s more.<\/p>\n

\n

Something growing innside of me. THAT feeling. I never have felt it before.
\n\tBody is melting, floating. Life. Magic. Universe. Who could have known?
\n\tMe and HIM..
\n\t..and one more! I do know that this is not really the time.
\n\tDo I dare? Do I have the will?
\n\tCan I ever do anything?
\n\t\u201dMeltdown towards another life?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bye, bye party
\n\tBye bye Me.
\n\tFrom now on : We.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The stage is set: An unexpectedly pregnant woman, sitting in front of her boyfriend, wondering what to do about the pregnancy, what to tell him. Except this is not something that happened pre-larp. This, per the organisers instructions, are things she will think during the larp. It is a an attempt at filling the players mind with the same thoughts and images that are meant to be in the characters mind. They just happen to be written down beforehand.<\/p>\n

\n

Do I have the courage to remove it? Shit, fuck, forever \u2013 rest of my life? And longer?
\n\tDo I have to courgage to keep it?
\n\tAm I mature enough – is it actually mature to keep it?<\/p>\n

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Babycarriages. Eternal rows of baby carriages. Lines. Mothers. Standstill.
\n\tYou are in that queue. Right now, but you thought you were free of the whole system.
\n\tYour age. My education. My opportunities.Will this splinter the thin threads woven in between us.
\n\tThis is not Circus Merano. This is life.
\n\tThe masquerade is over. Cannot find the right mask. Finding no mask.
\n\tTonight it is only children. Rubbernipples. Curtains of Winnie the Pooh.<\/p>\n

After the mask there is the wound. Aching. Reality bites.
\n\tAm I really ready to take that much sunlight.
\n\tI am an angel of the night. I hate Maria Magdalena. I hate virgin Mary.
\n\tGOD! \u2013 go back were you came from.<\/p>\n

Christening, Baptising?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Meandering thoughts – one moment detesting the pregnancy, the next moment taking it for granted. These are not clear, indisputable instructions to the player. They follow the path of the characters thought, and allow the player to determine whether and how to express those thoughts in words and actions. <\/p>\n

Which decision will she take? One ending is suggested by the final paragraph:<\/p>\n

\n

Cries. Tears that drip. Leakage in the panties. Blood. Small drops of blood. Everywhere
\n\t.Will it hurt? Oh, stay with me! Someone.. Anyone.. I need everybody. More than ever.
\n\tI need him. You have become WE. I am WE. US three.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another ending, and a completely different narrative, is suggested by the character of her partner:<\/p>\n

\n

Looking her straight into the eyes.
\n\tTotal penetration. Taking off.Riding the highway.
\n\tShe is so horny. She is so hot.You and her. The forever party.
\n\tForever dancing. Forever young.
\n\tKnocking off \u2013 HARD. Harder than ever before.<\/p>\n

(…)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the rule of the game: No relationship, no commitment, maximum passion. Until it dies..
\n\tBye, bye honey… and hello, again.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(No happy families here – this was a larp about love going wrong)<\/p>\n\"Scene<\/a>\n

How did these characters work in play? The players who received them generally loved them. Since the setting was highly structured (you’re a couple in difficulties, at the caf\u00e8, reach the climax of argument when the DJ plays your song) the texts were easily interpreted and easy to draw inspiration from. <\/p>\n

Character style as influencing player style<\/h4>\n

Since the larp both contained Erlends “pre-emptive” poetic flow-of-consciousness characters and Geir Tores ordinary retrospective characters, it serves as an interesting test bed of writing styles. <\/p>\n

And, at the run I attended, the difference was visible in role-playing: the retrospective characters tended to end up more rational, more verbal, more argumentative than the pre-emptive ones. The players of the pre-emptive characters, by contrast, were more likely to express emotion, more likely to use body language, more physically present<\/strong> than those of pre-emptive characters. Their characters were simply less rational than the retrospectively written characters.<\/p>\n

Obviously, 12 players at a cafe are not enough data to draw this kind of conclusion with anything close to certainty. But since Erlend and Geir Tore plan to re-run the larp in the future, and perhaps publish it on-line, we’ll probably be able to test and re-test this hypothesis several times in the future.<\/p>\n

Love in the age of debasement<\/h5>\n

Concept by Erlend Eidsem. Originally done as a Dogma<\/a> larp at Sydcon, 2001.
\nSecond edition by Erlend Eidsem and Geir-Tore Brenne. Held in the Laivfabrikken (“larp factory”) network, autumn 2009, Sagene Lunchbar, Oslo.
\n2.5 hours of play. 12-14 players, 2 organisers, one photographer.