One of the Good Guys

[sdelmonte]

So yesterday was the Jamais Vue LARP, the game wherein the players are given nothing in advance, and where the characters begin the game with no memory of anything. Before very long, of course, we are given a good deal of information about what the situation is, and slowly get all the missing pieces resolved.

A fun game. Turned out we were on a space station, either crew members or ambassadors or experts investigating a newly discovered derelict alien spacecraft. kimpire was the captain. (See his LJ for his take on the game). batyatoon was the ship's military officer, a tough-as-nails hardcase. exampleusername mnemex was the ship's overstressed political officer. nightstalker was a very cunning and conniving ambassador from the Belt, and probably the most pivotal character. bigscary was a pompous Nobel Prize winning scientist (or is he?). Other people I don't know that well were the other players.

And I was the ship's counselor. Sort of. As it turns out, I was secretly an alien. Oh, I was the counselor, and my skills with hypnosis helps restore a lot of the lost memories. And I tried to keep an eye on the ever-more dysfunctional crew. But when the last memories came back, I was actually an amabassador from an alien government, there to make sure humanity wasn't up to no good, and to perhaps initiate first contact. In the end, I decided to tell my military attache not to blow up the space station, and opened a dialogue with both the captain and the Belt Amabassador. (And if I had known all the facts that came out in the game wrap, I may have not been quite so quick to make this choice.)

The funny thing is that I was one of the good guys. I was there to serve as the voice of reason, and to then to offer peace and the universe to mankind. Why was I a good guy? Because that's how I filled in my questionnaire.  Which is to say, because I like being a good guy.

Some people like to play against their usual selves in RPs and LARPs. Others like to get the big starring role. Me, I like to be a good guy, the kind of person I strive to be. Here in the big bad world, I don't get to be a good guy. Oh, I get to be good, and get to strive for greater ideals. But I don't get to be a force for good or reason or just being nice nearly often enough. I like being this way. I don't want to connive and scheme. I certainly don't want to be the villain. I am not sure how much I want to be the big hero either. This kind of role, one with authority but not power, with confidence but not cockiness, it suits me just fine.

Which begs the question, "why the Shadow?" Why did I choose the Shadow, of all the 1930s heroes, for the LoEG 1936 game? I'm not entirely sure. I guess in a game where everyone is a big hero, I feel free to look elsewhere. Or maybe I just felt like paying homage to one of the great pulp heroes of the past. But he's certainly a long way form my usual flavor of RP. And I noted last summer, he's tough to play when I am nothing like him. I guess it's good to slip out of comfortable clothes sometimes.

But it's also good to know that sometimes you can slip into them and be the kind of good guy you really think you are. And if anyone asks me why I've grown fond of LARPing, this is why.

Comments

[batyatoon]

batyatoon was the ship's military officer, a tough-as-nails hardcase.

I believe the phrase I used was "cast-iron bitch." :) Not a bad guy exactly, but definitely not a nice person. Career military, Earth-and-human-race supremacist, pushy as all hell, not overly burdened with scruples, kept secrets from her commanding officer, tended to assume anything going on in her vicinity was her business.

In other words, had just enough in common with me that I could play her believably, while being significantly different enough that playing her was fun.


Oh, and just to mess with my head and that of anyone else who knows me and my clones: my character's name was Sean.
Ah heh.

[kimpire.livejournal.com]

kept secrets from her commanding officer

Not after you showed me that disk you didn't ;)

[batyatoon]

So far as you know. :)

[nightstalker.livejournal.com]

I don't think there were many bad guys in this game. My character may have been a schemer, and willing to break a few heads if he needed too, but he was a patriotic belter, wanted to avoid war, and was for equal treatment for mutants and genies, etc. When he got his hands on the mega-weapon, he sent it back to his government so they could defend themselves against Earth - he didn't try to use it to take over the galaxy.

The only truly amoral character seemed to be BSD's - the only "evil" character was the serial killer.

[sdelmonte]

Point taken. It's a matter of degrees. But that's what makes a good LARP.

But there is a difference, I would say, between your character and mine. I wouldn't feel comfortable as a schemer. I doubt you'd feel comfortable as a fairly uncomplicated enabling-type person.

In the end, of course, we did agree to negotiate a treaty. Now if I had known about your superweapon, I might not have been so quick to agree... :)

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Dr. Tracey Zorgo was simply doing what he believed correct -- elevating himself in order to elevate Mutants and Genies. It's not like Pat was being harmed, after all, he was getting the second-author spot on a multitude of major papers, and access to top-flight resources. I even offered him, of my own volition, the opportunity to do his dissertation on the alien plant samples I had recovered. And mutating Carol was simply her well-deserved comeuppance for a career of slaving and bigotry.

[batyatoon]

See, I think this was done deliberately - there weren't any characters who thought of themselves as bad guys. Just about everybody who could be called a bad guy had A Cause that reached beyond his/her own personal advancement or gratification. Including the serial killer.

[sdelmonte]

Kind of like real life.