Our May event, The Reckoning, concludes a plot arc that began in January. We’re very excited about what we have planned, including the final showdown with Jim Jones, and the return of Anton Anastasia. We’re extremely excited to see what our players do when he shows up. But as we prepare for the end of The Reckoning, we have to ask… how do we end a story in a larp?
Make It Big
There’s a conventional wisdom in experience design that applies to larp. People remember two things from an experience: the biggest thing that happened, and the ending. If you watch a Broadway show, they often put the most popular song in the middle (the “showstopper”) and then have a really big finale. In larp, players are co-creators, so while their designers can set-up showstoppers, the most memorable experience is typically different for each individual. As such, the single event they’ll all have in common is the ending. So it’s important to make the ending “big.”
From a story-telling side, that involves making a lot of options available. In The Reckoning, that means you should have the opportunity to kill Jones, or change the regime, or get in a huge fight, or complete your research. From a player perspective, we need you to commit to large, dramatic moments that impact those around you. This is the time to yell, to cry, to give a dramatic speech, or finally enact that betrayal you’ve been setting up for months. This is the end of the arc, so it’s time to put all your cards on the table.
Make It Hurt
An ending should come at some sort of cost. This isn’t a children’s cartoon where the heroes triumph without pain or loss… this is a game of survival horror. As players, we’re not trying to win, we’re trying to tell a story. At the end of the story, if there is victory, it should come with a price and have been hard-fought. If there’s a loss, then all the better in this genre.
As storytellers, our job is to provide you a challenge. We need to give you a chance to use that injectable you made, or spend all your Mind and Resolve, or sit by the morgue waiting for a fallen friend. The challenges we provide aren’t to defeat you, but to make you feel like your character overcame a challenge. For your part, we want to make sure you’re ready to lose, at least a little bit. You’re going to be coming into The Reckoning with full health, full mind, and all the items you can. At the end, we want you to be prepared to have a little less… the cost of victory.
What Comes Next
If this were a movie, or even a one-shot larp, we’d wrap everything up without any concern for a sequel. However, it’s a campaign larp, and we have a game in June (and a really big game in August). After you defeat Jones, after Anton comes back, we have to run a game next month. That game probably won’t have the same stakes as The Reckoning, but it will have to be interesting, and it will have to be recognizably “Requiem.” You probably won’t tie up all the loose plot threads (and if you do, we’ll still have more for you, including the creepy pig-skull thing you met in April).
Regardless, we have a climax coming up in May, and we’re going to end this plot arc with a bang. We can’t wait to see you there, and you better be ready to play.