This past Saturday I had a chance to try out an experience I have never done before and play something called a parlor larp. What is a parlor larp? It is a live action roleplaying game, that takes place in a single location (one's home usually) and has no combat. This is my first time playing a parlor larp and I believe it was the first time for everyone playing, including the director. The premise of this larp is that all of the players in the game, including the director, wake up on a ship after they were drugged and kidnapped. All of the characters have a history or relationship with a character named Marissa who at some point during the story will probably die.
The story then unfolds into a "Murder on the Orient Express" sort of whodunnit. The general premise is pretty straight forward and everyone was able to grasp the general concept easily enough.
General Thoughts and Observations on the game:
- The game is played in someone's home so there is some care needed by the host to make clear what areas are off limits and what are part of the game. Our play group uses some simply cardboard signs to indicate the rooms on the ship.
- The location of the ship did not play a huge part of the game except for creating a space where people could not leave. There were several locations like the helm and engine room which were inspirational but otherwise didn't really serve much purpose in the game. I'll touch on this a bit more below.
- The game appears to really only have one objective, which is to kill or find out who killed Marissa. Our play group ran into a few narrative stalling moments. For example, the players who were inclined to kill Marissa weren't explicitly stated to do so in their character backstories. We had to force this pivotal moment. Once it occurred though, there was a general "what's next" sort of revelation. The handful of characters who wanted Marissa dead had their mission accomplished by someone else, and were not inclined to turn that person in or exact any sort of justice.
- The game overall could use a few more milestone triggers in the story to help push some narrative. As I noted above, the ship we were on was inoperable and the scenario stated there was no way to fix the ship. I think there could've been some more effective storytelling in allowing some environmental events to occur that would force certain characters to be in proximity with each other, or be in a room by themselves to force some story. Having two people forced to work in the engine room to repair the ship for example gives them an opportunity to talk by themselves in an isolated and unusual area of the ship without inherently triggering suspicion.
- Similarly, secondary objectives for the characters could have been very useful to keep the game moving after Marissa's death. In our game, once Marissa died, we all basically sat in one room on the ship and tried to logic our way through what happened. There was no further separation for the social interaction. The character backgrounds allude that certain players may have conflicts, but it doesn't provide anyone and guidance as to an objective. One character for example was a surviving member of a family my character eliminated. Sure, she was upset with me and we had a confrontation out in the open, but at no point was she urged to try and kill me as well. Perhaps experienced larpers would know do this, but with new players and strangers none of us really had the awareness or knowledge that it was ok to eliminated other players.
- The abilities mechanics in this game were sort of confusing and seemed like they were unnecessarily complicated. Abilities had a limited number of uses in most cases, but would cost players a portion of their "life" (FL) when used. It was a challenge mechanic, but if we were reading the rules correctly even if a player won a challenge it was very probable they would take more damage than if they just allowed themselves to lose. Additionally, some of the jumps in life didn't make sense thematically. For example, if I used a non-combat mechanic against someone, let's say "talk down to", the result might bring the character from FL 5 (highest amount) down to an FL 3. That meant that they had broken bone, or bleed or were physically impaired in some way. That didn't seem to make sense. After the game we discussed as a group of perhaps using a separate token mechanic, perhaps each player has 5-10 tokens as a limited resource they could use in those non-combat challenges, and damage to FL would only occur to players during combat or physical encounters.
The story then unfolds into a "Murder on the Orient Express" sort of whodunnit. The general premise is pretty straight forward and everyone was able to grasp the general concept easily enough.
General Thoughts and Observations on the game:
- The game is played in someone's home so there is some care needed by the host to make clear what areas are off limits and what are part of the game. Our play group uses some simply cardboard signs to indicate the rooms on the ship.
- The location of the ship did not play a huge part of the game except for creating a space where people could not leave. There were several locations like the helm and engine room which were inspirational but otherwise didn't really serve much purpose in the game. I'll touch on this a bit more below.
- The game appears to really only have one objective, which is to kill or find out who killed Marissa. Our play group ran into a few narrative stalling moments. For example, the players who were inclined to kill Marissa weren't explicitly stated to do so in their character backstories. We had to force this pivotal moment. Once it occurred though, there was a general "what's next" sort of revelation. The handful of characters who wanted Marissa dead had their mission accomplished by someone else, and were not inclined to turn that person in or exact any sort of justice.
- The game overall could use a few more milestone triggers in the story to help push some narrative. As I noted above, the ship we were on was inoperable and the scenario stated there was no way to fix the ship. I think there could've been some more effective storytelling in allowing some environmental events to occur that would force certain characters to be in proximity with each other, or be in a room by themselves to force some story. Having two people forced to work in the engine room to repair the ship for example gives them an opportunity to talk by themselves in an isolated and unusual area of the ship without inherently triggering suspicion.
- Similarly, secondary objectives for the characters could have been very useful to keep the game moving after Marissa's death. In our game, once Marissa died, we all basically sat in one room on the ship and tried to logic our way through what happened. There was no further separation for the social interaction. The character backgrounds allude that certain players may have conflicts, but it doesn't provide anyone and guidance as to an objective. One character for example was a surviving member of a family my character eliminated. Sure, she was upset with me and we had a confrontation out in the open, but at no point was she urged to try and kill me as well. Perhaps experienced larpers would know do this, but with new players and strangers none of us really had the awareness or knowledge that it was ok to eliminated other players.
- The abilities mechanics in this game were sort of confusing and seemed like they were unnecessarily complicated. Abilities had a limited number of uses in most cases, but would cost players a portion of their "life" (FL) when used. It was a challenge mechanic, but if we were reading the rules correctly even if a player won a challenge it was very probable they would take more damage than if they just allowed themselves to lose. Additionally, some of the jumps in life didn't make sense thematically. For example, if I used a non-combat mechanic against someone, let's say "talk down to", the result might bring the character from FL 5 (highest amount) down to an FL 3. That meant that they had broken bone, or bleed or were physically impaired in some way. That didn't seem to make sense. After the game we discussed as a group of perhaps using a separate token mechanic, perhaps each player has 5-10 tokens as a limited resource they could use in those non-combat challenges, and damage to FL would only occur to players during combat or physical encounters.
Overall, It was an interesting system. Our group wants to play some more, but we feel we would tweak the mechanics a bit more and perhaps pull in some mechanics from "Good Society" where before the game we can establish some secondary character issues and relationships.
