Tag: Vampire

LARP REVIEW: The Night in Question 2019 Review

By Alison Smaalders, player of Christina Davies, The Scream Queen of the Film Crew. For questions, comments, or corrections, please comment below or email me at alisonsmaalders@gmail.com

Basic Information

LARP Website: http://the-night-in-question.jackalope-larp.com/

Player’s Guide: http://the-night-in-question.jackalope-larp.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/11/TheNightInQuestionPlayersGuide-31102019.pdf

Game Description

“Several years ago, at an illegal party outside of Austin, in the dark woods far from phone coverage or passersby, something terrible happened. For most, it was a tragedy, a fire that trapped and killed over a hundred people. But a few have always felt something else happened that night, more than just a fire.

The Night In Question is a fully-immersive rules-light LARP experience, taking the lessons and inspirations of the new Nordic-style games such as Enlightenment in Blood and End of the Line, then adding a horrific splatterpunk twist. Other games have focused on the Camarilla and Anarch aspects of the setting – the Masquerade, moving among the mortals in secrets and the politics of the undead. The Night in Question is different.

But The Night in Question is a frightening and engulfing story, focusing on the monstrosity of the Sabbat, the visceral horror of their dark rites and a blood and guts feel inspired by films like From Dusk Til Dawn and Near Dark. It is a unique World of Darkness event using intense visual effects, high quality props, set design and costuming; a “retro” Sabbat event, reflecting a classic monstrous Sabbat mythos.” 

-Night in Question Website, accessed 11/19/2019

Introduction

I was interested in attending this game last year, but it overlapped with Salvation, which I had already purchased tickets for. When they announced a second run, I bought tickets immediately, fresh off of my experience with Salvation and looking for something very different. I was immediately hooked by the description of the game and the idea of a horror LARP like this. I have been an avid Vampire: The Masquerade fan for many years, and I enjoy a lot of different takes on the game and setting. 

Besides, a change to dress as the late 90’s/early 00’s goth I always wanted to be as a preteeen? Sign me up. I explicitly wanted to be a human, and had no particular interest in being a vampire. 

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Regarding Plot and Dropped Information

This post is primarily discussing long-running games that have strong staff-directed plot components. Think most ongoing vampire games like MES, NERO/Alliance/etc, that sort of thing. This doesn’t apply as strongly to short run games, let alone one-shots.

Introduction: The Core Problem

Every single game I have been in has run into the problem of plot threads being dropped or information lost by players, except one, which I’ll talk about later. This wouldn’t be too big an issue if it didn’t result in players feeling helpless, lost, or ineffectual. 

It is also frustrating for staff running plots. They drop all these hints, that go… nowhere. The players don’t put the picture together. They don’t register that they just got a juicy, plot-defining piece of information, or they do understand it and then hoard it. It’s frustrating and often leads staff to continue the plot as originally written, letting consequences pile up. 

This in turn can frustrate players more, since they are suddenly punished for things that they feel are outside their control. It’s rarely possible for players to discourage plot-hoarding. Staff often attempts to by directing information (often referred to generally as “plot” in many games) towards players who spread it around. However, this requires that staff do more work figuring out exactly who is sharing what with who, and is fallible. 

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