Existential Horror: Live Action Roleplay at Parsons
Monday, November 8th, 2010
We were on a train in 1870. All we remembered is that we were all from a small western town. No one knew how we had gotten on the train, or where we were going.
‘“Ghost Engines in the Sky’ is a live action role-playing (LARP) event designed to create a sense of existential horror,” said the game’s creator, Nick Fortugno, a professional game designer and professor of game design and interactive narrative design at Parsons.
For anybody who has ever watched “The Lord of The Rings” trilogy or any epic film has felt the urge to grab a shield and a sword before rushing through a battlefield, screaming his or her lungs out, LARPing offers catharsis for that urge.
Photo: Carly Roye
Fortugno has been LARPing for 16 years. “LARPs come in lots of different kinds, from silly kids’ games to foam sword representations of D&D epics,” he said. “The fact that it’s a LARP means it’s kind of a machine — you put players in the system and through their own emergent action they should produce the emotion and narrative themselves.” In this mixture of performance theatre and role-playing you are asked to physically interpret your avatar.
“Ghost Engines in the Sky” was hosted by The New School’s games club in a Parsons design studio. Blackboards draped with gray sheets were arranged to give the illusion of being in a train car.
Before it began Fortugno introduced the game, giving the outline of the story but very little explanation of how to play. Players were given envelopes containing a limited biography of their characters and a set of colored pieces of paper (money), and transported back in time. It took a few minutes for people to adjust and get into character but everyone took the game very seriously.
The story unfolded slowly, marking a new chapter at every train stop. Unfortunately, there were no real turns in the plot until the end. There weren’t many liberties left to the players but to roam around the room to figure out what to do. Some played poker, some waited, and those that were able to immerse themselves completely into the game carried on conversations and investigations as their characters.
Players open clues to the Western themed LARP event (Carly Roye)
T Most of the players had never LARPed. “There were a lot of first-time players at this event and I’m impressed by everyone’s willingness to step up and take part,” Fortugno said. As participants, the mixture of beginners and experienced players seemed to make the game unbalanced. Beginners needing clarifications (how to use their abilities, cards, etc.) were left in the fog as the more experienced players carried on.
LARP is about total immersion. “Ghost Engines in the Sky” provided only occasional immersion. Fortugno said, “In each version, players, based on their own intuitions, make a different set of decisions in the system and thus different characters become important and new scenes happen.”
Perhaps it was the lack of decisions that made few of the scenes seem important or memorable. It was a fun experience that had the potential to be much better.
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I would say that from an
Errata in previous post
Incorrect assessment of Ghost Engines in the Sky
If you had interviewed me, I would have said that as a player, I was in a fog at first, although I later realized that the state of not-knowingness was intrinsic to my experience, as I had to try to figure out what to make of the story and, more importantly, my role in it. The more effort I put into fashioning and acting my character, the deeper the experience became. And because I was willing to play full-tilt, I indeed experienced a terrific moment of existential horror when i finally understood the shape of the narrative, but I also felt angry, frustrated, hopeful and completely alone. Not bad for a night of gaming and a far richer experience than I expected.
Too, I was fascinated by the elegance and complexity of the writing that allowed for different experiences for all the players. Nick's work is extraordinary and brilliant, earning him high regard in the gaming community.
Another aspect of the game and of LARPs in general is how they relate to the gaming world, which has become increasingly digital. You might have contextualized Ghost Engines in the Sky for the readers, and I would have enjoyed reading bout the wider perspective that gamers and game designers could have provided.
Barbara Morris
Not the whole picture
To an outside observer, I can see how Ghost Engines might have appeared slow and unengaging -- but if you had followed up by asking players afterward how they felt about the game, I think most would disagree with your assessment that it wasn't balanced, immersive, or memorable. On the contrary, all of the players that I have talked to expressed their excitement and deep engagement with the game, and readily recounted the key moments where their fates were in the balance or their character experienced some kind of interesting narrative crisis. It's two weeks later and some of them are still talking about it. The success of a LARP can be judged by how well it creates these experiences for players, which unfortunately don't necessarily translate into satisfying spectacle for non-participants.
I think you also do a disservice to the players and creator of the game when you represent LARPing with the easy cliche of costumed sword-waving, when clearly Ghost Engines was attempting something rather more subtle and interesting in terms of narrative gameplay. Those of us who played were fortunate to have the chance to experience an innovative, original game by one of the masters of the form, and on the whole we found the experience highly enjoyable and very memorable. To you it may have seemed dull, but I wish you had talked to some more of the players to get their perspective -- you might have heard a different story.
Jess Haskins
President, NSGC