There’s this idea in text-based adventure design that you have to figure out what verbs are available to your characters. Can they walk, run, jump, crawl, or look in cupboards? Is this a game where Shoot is more important than Talk To, or the other way around? By looking at what players can do in the game, you can find out what the game is about, and vice versa.
You can port this theory over to LARP even though technically anything that is physically possible may theoretically occur. Sure, your regency romance LARP can theoretically involve players choosing to crawl — but is it likely, incentivised, or encouraged? Probably not. So you wouldn’t consider it a verb of your game.
In the average boffer LARP, you would have Walk, Run, Fight, Throw, and Shoot. You might also have Read, Collect and Talk as there may be the odd note, chatty NPC, conversation between PCs and herbs to collect. But you might not if talking isn’t really a part of how the game works, even if it does occur.
Continue reading “LARP Design: The Verbs”