Insurrection: Finale

Report

Many people consider it unreasonable to expect refs to hand you vast amounts of plot, much of it tailored to you, on a plate. It is, but the Insurrection design team do it anyway and this is why they are awesome. It has been one of the best games to play because they make everyone feel special and rewarded, not just the loud people whose contributions are easiest to notice. Having such a PVP-encouraged game where some PCs are baddies gives a really good atmosphere, brutal murder is all part of the fun between friends rather than something which can turn OOC nasty. This is the game where I've seen second least OOC bad feeling (and played enough to comment), and the other game was a lot smaller so well done. My favourite plots in LARP are supernatural threats, moral dilemmas with lots of shades of grey and having a mystical history of the world to untangle. Insurrection did those extremely well. The design team have always been wonderfully helpful with answering silly questions and aiding with character design. After having one of the most awesome endings any of my characters have had, I joined the crew and had just as much fun. It was a very friendly atmosphere and the social contract of Insurrection of killing player characters being fine makes crewing especially fun because you can fight and dastardly plot to the genuine best of your ability and enjoy the challenge almost like a player in a fight. It was also a very friendly bunch and I am seriously tempted to crew the next game despite promising myself NO MORE NEW LARP SYSTEMS. As for what you can learn... not much really. Except "more of the same please!". I think the rules are far too complicated but that's a lesson the design team have already identified. Systems where you have to read a long rules document the night before to avoid accidentally cheating (I know someone who did accidentally cheat because a rule was too obscure for him to have noticed but he tried to put that right ASAP) feels too much like revising for an exam! I genuinely can't think of anything else which wasn't my cup of tea right now. Nat said he would like to keep the depth but reduce the complexity for the next game, which is actually the best thing anyone could have said to sell it to me. Or maybe mookin.