You are interested in seeing the game through your character's eyes. A whole session of talk without any dice will suit you perfectly. You'll take your character down the road to a sad ending because it's true. You check in with yourself and the table, so everyone can go deep and come back.
Your GM match: The Immersionist. Both enter the role of the character, with safety mechanisms in place for when feelings cross over.
Immersion is the ultimate goal in Nordic LARP, and mechanics like a tension tower or a dying candle create that immersive feeling directly. Good players stay committed to their character and steer openly when they or another player needs it.
What you bring
- You figure out what your character won't say, and then you play that silence.
- If losing would be believable for your character, you help direct the scene toward it, so the tragedy hits hard.
- You notice the quiet player and steer aspects of the scene toward them.
Where your style trips
Bleed. Your character's grief or anger follows you out of the game, or yours leaks into the scene, with no transition plan in place.
The fix: Before play, agree on safety tools and rehearse a pause once, so calling one is cheap. Debrief after each heavy session, even if only briefly.
Things to try
- Steer out loud once, saying 'I'm walking her away from this,' and notice how cheap it was.
- Play a game where objects hold the tension, such as Dread's tower or Ten Candles' candles.
- Share your character's secret with the other players out of character, so they can play into it.
Player types you lean toward
You'll probably recognize yourself in Method Actor, Storyteller, from Robin D. Laws's player types. Most players fall into more than one category.
GMs who'll suit you
- Best match
- The Immersionist
- Also works
- The Catalyst Co-Author
- Talk it through first
- The Systemic Architect. Decide when procedure steps away so a scene can play out for emotional value rather than being resolved by tables.
Bring this to session one
'I want this, and I'm hiding that': one line describing what your character wants, and one describing what they hide.
Point your table at these
- On screen
- Titanic, Les Misérables (2012), Westworld, Atonement, The Remains of the Day
- Actual play
- Fastaval scenarios and Jeepform games: a workshop before playing, hours spent inside one character, and then a debrief all together.
- Games
- Ten Candles, Dread, Montsegur 1244, Fastaval scenarios, Jeepform
A culture of play describes a group sitting around a table playing together, so one 5th edition group could find itself in two separate cultures on two different Tuesdays. The idea comes from John Bell's "Six Cultures of Play". FKR and world simulation are both missing from Bell's list, and sit here alongside it.
Terms on this page: Bleed, Nordic LARP