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Prodigal
 
Group: System Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 12:08 AM
Posts: 587,
Visits: 3,960
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Some systems advise that people crew an event before they play. Some advise that you should play first because they think new people will get more involved as a character than as crew. Some don't let people they don't know crew.
Generally I think that, in small club-scale systems, it's worth crewing first if you have a background of table-top roleplaying (and hence know how to get into character) but are new to LARP / have a background in other LARP but don't know the system and setting of this one, and better to character first if you're entirely new to roleplaying because you can settle into one role and get used to the idea of playing a character without having to continually swap roles and never really get into one particular role.
I don't have as much experience of large-scale systems with enough crew needs to let random people crew (I only play Maelstrom out of the big fest systems), so I've no idea what is best for them (the other really big systems seem to have a 'crew some of the event, play some of the event' approach to their major events).
What do people think? What kind of systems and new players are suited to playing first, and which are suited to crewing first?
Maelstrom: Jessily the Wemic, previously Tourmaline of Weaver
CUTT: Kerriville the Ninth, previously Ref 07/08
EOS: Study the Venin
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I do talk a good fight
Group: System Moderators
Last Login: Yesterday @ 11:06 AM
Posts: 1,861,
Visits: 5,740
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I think that at your first ever LRP event, you should play first. That way, when you crew later, you'll have an idea what it's like to play, and have some clue as to how to make the game as good as possible for the players.
http://www.hyboriantales.com
PD: Ghostdance ("The most irritating curse I've ever encountered" -- NPC played by H.)
Riftworld: Rossar Kuug ("Clearly mad, because he thinks he's a Com-Trow Skirmisher" - Aela)
Hyborian Tales: Crew, cook, dogsbody, general labourer, toilet cleaner ("Dangerously overoptimistic ref" -- Tom Nowell)
Otherwise usually crew ("Quite spry & fit, & willing to wear a big costume & run around a lot" -- various event organisers)
"My other oversized foam weapon is THE LORD" -- Questionable Content
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Initiate
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Thursday, October 05, 2006 6:27 PM
Posts: 2,
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| Play first. One, crew tend to find out more bits of plot/background than they'd like, so crewing slightly ruins playing. Two, um... in my experience, the players hit the crew noticeably harder than the crew hit the players. On average. I'd hate to see a new player quit because they'd taken an over-enthusiastic polearm to the nose.
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Heroic Knight
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Monday, August 18, 2008 4:45 PM
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This completely depends on the system.
When I run games, I almost always have a small and experienced crew established for all the roles well before I start inviting any players. I normally have a limited number of crew for site or plot reasons anyhow, so this works fine. I normally share a lot of plot information with the crew, making it then impractical for them to subsequently play the same system. So crewing then playing is not an option.
It's a very different scenario if on one hand you need people you can rely on to perform specific roles at set points in a tight schedule, and on the other you have a two hour slot with the words "waves of orcs" or similar in your plot. Crewing can mean very different things.
I'm quite happy to play or crew first according to what the style of the system is and how complex the rules are. If the rules and background are unfamiliar I would probably prefer to crew to get a handle on them before trying to put together a character. To be honest, if the rules are remotely complex, I would probably prefer just to crew full stop.
_____________________________
Maelstrom - Carl Whitesnake
Scavenger LRP - Organiser
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Champion
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 7:35 PM
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being honets i find it better to crew first that way you have some idea of whats happening
____________________________________As the old robot saying goes "does not compute"
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Wag
Group: System Moderators
Last Login: Thursday, August 21, 2008 11:39 PM
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| I think it depends both on the individual and the event. In fact, it also depends on the organiser and the crew/player base. I have known people who have crewed the event first and enjoyed it immensly to the extent that they booked to play the next one. I have known players who have offered to crew after their first event. While I do tend to have a core crew who tend to play the plot heavy roles with secret plot stuff to deal with (and who are therefore never allowed to play) I also tend to have some lighter roles for those who crew with intention to play or who occasionally crew or play depending on budget.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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