A couple years ago, I was asked to produce a guide for new authors writing LARP events for conventions. The specifications were to hit the high points in under three pages. I did that, and while it is not an inclusive document, I do think it provides a good overview and a good start. Most of the suggestions and guidelines here apply to other types of LARP as well.
The Short Guide
by Gordon Olmstead-Dean
1. What you are setting out to do
You want to create a cool and detailed story for people to be part of. Your big challenge will be this. You need to put it in few enough words that there is time to read it and still play the game in four hours. You need to make it memorable enough that it doesn't require three re-readings. And you still need to convey tone and detail.
2. What you need to establish
Genre - people need to know "what kind of game" this is. It isn't enough to say "it's about the Wild West." Blazing Saddles and The Unforgiven aren't very much alike, and what is fine in one would be out of place in the other. Is the game comic or dramatic? Is set in an existing world like Star Wars, or "present day America" or a fantasy world that requires some explaining like "Steampunk London," or "The Empire of Xegu."
Tone/Mood - this is similar to genre, but a bit finer. You need to get across the proper mood for the game. A 1940s spy thriller set in the film noir world doesn't feel the same as a modern explosion filled spy-adventure movie. You need to telegraph, or say outright, how you want the players to take the material. You can't be too demanding about this and you have to leave some room for interpretation. You can give illustrative examples, or just say outright "this is very realistic," or "this should be wacky and whimsical."
A picture is worth a thousand words. Graphics and pictures can help set the tone of the game, leaving you less to write.
Setting - the players need to get oriented quickly and find out where they are in space and time. You need to give them just enough information not to be full of questions, and little enough not to confuse them. Complex made-up fantasy worlds with lots of moving parts are tough to explain in four hours. If there is a reason for the game background to be complex in a certain place, introduce the necessary depth. But in many cases, clichés and archetypes work better. Fleshing in some background with easily recognized stereotypes allows players to focus on details that they need to absorb. Focus on the setting details that actually matter for the game plot, or that are critical to Tone/Mood. Fluff everything else, or at the very least demote it to some auxiliary material that players can look up during runtime..
Conflict - what challenges will the players face. These are the same as in Drama and Literature. Players may face each other (Man v. Man), GM created hazards (Man v. Nature/Environment), or may deal with roleplaying issues (Man v. Self). In general it is hard to convey the action of a Man v. Self plot, so this sort of plot - often called "angst plots" are usually secondary to the main action. In Live Roleplay, Man v. Environment tends to be "Adventure" style gaming, where players must figure out traps, fight monsters, or solve puzzles. Man v. Man tends to be "Theatre Style" gaming, where players must deal with each other socially and may have conflicting goals.
3. What your Players Want
To be important - A game is like a story, but one where everyone will be a main character. Not everyone needs to carry all the action, but unlike a written story or movie, there is no one protagonist.
To feel accomplishment - Everyone wants to feel some sense of accomplishment when they walk away from the game. The more you can hand that to every player, the more they will like your game. It's okay to write a game where they have to earn accomplishment, but remember four guidelines:
a) Don't make it too hard to succeed. Players will resent a game where the GM explains that if they had managed to choose one of dozens of options, with very little to go on, and solved the puzzle perfectly, they would have won. Your players won't feel they failed. The more experienced ones will feel you failed, even if they don't say it to your face. Look at your scenarios and see if the players have a "fair chance" of success.
b) Set up small successes. Walking away having accomplished nothing sucks. However, if a player wants to score three successes, and blows the main one, but manages two easier successes, he or she may still walk away feeling pleased. Think about putting a few "gimmies" into your game. An example might be a player who wants to acquire three items. At least one is up for sale without too much rivalry, and the player starts with enough money to buy it. If they are at all quick on the uptake, they'll secure that one easily, and go into the next, more difficult problem with more confidence.
c) Think through Win/Lose Situations. Avoid too many situations where one player "winning" means another player must "lose." There are times to draw direct conflict in a game. But "win/win" scenarios are also possible. You need to balance having enough real conflict to drive plots with having so much conflict that many of your players walk away heavily disappointed.
Most people try to be good sports, but most people don't really enjoy losing. The more they feel the odds are stacked against them, the more they will feel they lost unfairly and the more they'll resent the game, or feel that they didn't have a good time.
Think about alternatives where Win/Win options or compromises may be possible. And if you are depending on a Win/Lose conflict to drive your plot, be aware that players will instinctively try to subvert your game to create a Win/Win situation, because most players don't like to hurt other players' feelings.
Clear about Motivations and Goals
Motivations - a character acts in a certain way because of their motivations. Some genres assume motivation - in an Espionage Genre "you are a fanatic agent of the KGB," is enough motive. Players usually need to know what their motives are, so that if their Goals become inaccessible, they can figure out how they should change, or react. Motivations are the reason the Player acts as he or she does.
Goals - are what the character wants to accomplish. If a character's goals are impossible, or very unlikely, it is often better to make it clear that this is the case. Goals are the reason the Character acts as he or she does.
e.g. "You want to get the crystal orb" is a Goal. "To give to your mother for her birthday" is one motivation. "To rule the Universe" is another. Both suggest things about the character, and about what reactions would be to a change in plans that are probably very different.
Don't confuse Goals and Motivations - have a clear idea of each and how they differ and your game will be clearer and run better..
Enough to Do
Players want to have things to do. That means actually being occupied with things that are fun.
a) Spinning your wheels isn't fun. Doing things is pro-active. Not being finished with the game because you can't accomplish your goals is not having enough to do, it's being frustrated. Don't think that throwing out one or two insanely difficult goals will make a player have enough to do. It is a good idea to make sure that if you give a player a goal, there is a way to accomplish it, or that they are clear that it is a Goal they are unlikely to achieve - Goals that players can't achieve and know it become more like motivations.
b) Giving players hints as to their options is a good idea. A player might spin their wheels forever on "get the crystal orb" but might have a good game with "get the crystal orb any way you can - stealing it or seducing the person who has it seem like good options."
c) Having more to do than you can possibly do can be problematic. If you give players a lot of goals to keep them busy, be sure to give them some idea of the relative importance "You want to get the crystal orb...if there's time left, you'd also like to get the stone banana."
d) In a minute we'll look at "Events" which are a good way to entertain players without putting more and more plot into a game.
Roles that Don't Suck
If you need a really difficult character played, consider making that character an NPC, and playing it yourself, or getting a friend to play it, with the understanding that they are acting the role, and that their reward is making the other players get the portrayal and helping the game to run.
Be careful of pathetic characters - this may seem obvious, but be careful about roles that seem pathetic or degrading, doomed or hopeless. It is true that in great drama there are doomed characters, and pathetic characters, like Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. But it takes a special kind of player to enjoy that kind of character, and the odds that they will walk into an open cast game, and that you'll be able to identify and correctly cast them are pretty low. Most players don't want to play somebody who is pathetic. Be aware that in most players' book, such roles "suck" especially if they are not the same sort of role that most other players will get. For example, while there are players who would really enjoy playing Gollum in a game set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth, most would feel slighted and unhappy to be cast as a powerless, hopeless, villain
Be careful of low status characters - make sure that each character has some dignity, some hope of accomplishing something, and is reasonably balanced against the others. Characters don't need to be of the same status, but they need strong balances. In a game where the King is a Character, the swineherd may fall pretty flat without a really good counterbalance.
Be careful of villains - some players may have a ball playing a blackhearted villain that gets it in the end. Others may hate being ganged up on. It is vital that you have some way to let players know this when you cast, and let them choose accordingly. If you have set up a character to be the bad guy and know he'll probably fail (and a character that most of the game opposes will fail unless you simply make him succeed), then you need to find a player who will go down in style.
Be careful of Sidekicks - one of the most common amateur mistakes is to write a core set of strong roles, then write redundant roles that are assistants or other sidekicks. Remember that making use of an assistant requires real-world management skills that most players do not have. Most players will ignore their assistants, and their assistants will have less to do. Try to write partnerships or spread resources around groups to avoid situations where one player is distinctly "low man on the totem pole." One little quirk or resource usually won't offset an obvious inferiority in game.
4. The Elements of the Game
GM plot Guide - it is a good idea to put together a GM guide that contains a summary of the game, its plot points, any secret mechanics, etc. You can later use this so that other people can run the same game.
Characters - if your game has pre-written characters they should have a short sheet explaining what they know. If your game does not, you'll still need blanks so that players can "generate" a character in whatever system you are using. There may be special cases - for example in Pawn you choose to be a famous person.
Background - information that everybody knows. In a short game remember that a page is plenty and that three to four pages is more than most players will absorb. If you need more background, try to organize it logically for reference during game, with a summary at the front, and topic headers that players can refer to at need.
Specialized Information - sometimes called "bluesheets." This is secret information that only some players get. Most often this will be:
a) Information about a group that not everyone knows. For example in an espionage game, the CIA and KGB might have separate bluesheets, because they know different secrets.
b) Information about an event. For example everyone who was present when a murder took place might get a sheet describing the details.
c) Information about a skill or game mechanic that is more complicated than the main set of rules. For example, a player who could work magic might have a special sheet explaining how magic works and what most people who work magic know about it.
Sometimes you may want to put this sort of information into a paragraph printed at the end of a character sheet, even if it is the same for several players. Beware of cascading bluesheets where players end up with too much to read in a short time.
5. Mechanical Aspects
Keep Rules Mechanics Simple
The game rules should be very simple, and anything that isn't simple should be something the players don't need to understand. Don't include any mechanics you don't need. For example, if there are only two people in your game who are likely to fight and they both have guns, don't write a detailed system for hand to hand combat that will probably not get used. It is fine to say that the GMs have systems for resolving conflicts that exceed the norms of the game.
Some good simple resolution systems are:
a) Rock, paper, scissors. The real problem with this system is that it is hard to reflect major discrepancies in skill without a lot of complexity like "best 6 out of 9"
b) Dice, where players each have some "stat" reflecting skill and add that number to a die roll
c) Cards, where playing cards or preprinted cards are selected, giving a result which can be biased by the number of cards.
GMs can run mechanics that are more complex than the players are expected to understand, but they still have to be things that run quickly. Don't introduce a bulky tabletop system that is "more rules than the game needs" unless you are positive your players understand it or it is really necessary.
Flexibility - The more flexible your game can be, the better it will go. The more rigid it is, the harder it will be to get off easily. Having the game able to run with variable number of players is a good idea. It is better to do this by having overlapping plot circles than by having some characters clearly "superior" to others, because in a full run the "secondary" characters may end up being fairly boring. For a little flexibility, you can risk one or two characters that are "mostly color" but it is better to have characters in knots of plot with some strands going between the groups which can be handled in a less than full run by the GM. Likewise, having some characters that can be played male or female (even if this means writing slightly different versions of the character) is a good idea.
Quick Casting System - you may need to be able to cast your game "on the fly." Generally you will want to have a short description of several characters that doesn't give too much away. For example you can ask a player if they are interested in a "big villain" without telling them which character that is. One successful method of quick casting is to write a few descriptive words on an envelope, without the Character name, and tuck the character inside, then let the players come up one by one and pick up a description that suits them.
Timed Events - once a game starts running it can easily get boring. Stuck players may find little to do while other players have a lot to do. One way to mix things up and keep the pace of the game up is to introduce timed events. These are things that happen during the game at various times, either specifically decided in advance, or when the GM decides that the game needs a little livening up. A monster attack, a visit from an NPC, a formal event such as a reception, a recital, or a competition might all be Timed Events.
Side Stations - these are small entertainments that operate through the course of the game, where players who are bored, or stuck, can go to stir up some fun. A gambling table or a bar with an NPC bartender would be examples of Side Stations.
Planned Conclusion - It is a good idea to have some idea how the game is going to end. A game that simply fizzles out is often less satisfying than one that ends with a dramatic event. There is a tradeoff though - a forced drama can exclude players and feel "artificial." The more integral to the game the conclusion is, the better it will be. Often conclusions are conflicts, competitions, or formal events. There are many innovative ideas for dramatic endings that a clever writer can exploit.
6. Things to be Cautious About:
Coincidence - in comedies, we expect coincidence, and accept it. From Midsummer Night's Dream to a modern sitcom, everything works out neatly in the end. In drama, Coincidence may seem hokey or even bizarre. Be aware when there is no thread other than coincidence to tie together elements of your game.
Require specialized knowledge - remember that many players won't know the same things you do. Be careful of assuming players will bring a specific skill set to a character. In particular, remember that investigators spend years learning their trade, and that few players will happen to be competent investigators, even presented with a simplified mystery.
Romance - remember that Romance can be tricky when you don't know who your players are going to be. A character who has little to do other than romance may fall flat if they are paired with someone who is not romantic, or who they simply don't "click" with.
Money is not a Panacea - economies in games are very tricky. Money is really just another item - it is as valuable as it is useful. Goals of "make money" are often very difficult unless you have thought out careful ways for this to happen. Or "make money" can be too easy if nobody cares much about money. If you want a real, working, economy, you'll need to put a good amount of work into play balancing it, and may want to try a playtest or two to get the balance right.
Violating your Premise - once you've established your Genre, Tone, and Setting, it's up to you not to violate them. If you tell people the game is a serious SF game, and throw in a character like "Marvin the Depressed Robot," then the players will be confused. Remember they don't have very long to pick up cues as to how to play the game.