What are directed characters

Not all characters in a story are main characters. That is why many LARP's employ people that play "background characters" and "antagonists". These characters are there to flesh out the world, provided challenges and the occasional helping hand.

These characters are written by the organization and are usually only played for only a part of the event. Usually people that play directed characters play 6 of these per day. But some roles take a longer or shorter time to complete. Playing directed characters will give participants a more varied experience when compare to playing just 1 character, but on the flip side there is less time for character growth and depth.

Costumes, props, weapons and armour for these characters are provided for by the organization which makes these roles perfect for players that want to invest less time and money into the LARP.

Different from other LARPs

Where our directed characters differ greatly from most other LARPs is in the fact that we do not ask our "directed character" participants to sacrifice their own immersion, story or gameplay for the players. Where most LARPs will ask participants that play such roles to mainly facilitate for the other players, we won't ask you to "lose on purpose" or make decisions that are better for the story if they would be illogical for your given character.

This could in theory lead to situations where you as a directed character "solve the plot" with little to no interaction with the players or mainly play with other directed characters. That is perfectly fine.

Signing up as a directed character

You can use the general "sign up" form to sign up as a directed character.

You can sign up as a directed character even if this is your first time LARPing but please mention this to us during signing in then we will prepare some characters for you to get into the hang of things.

After signing up as directed character we might send you information about some of the characters you can play so you can prepare yourself by reading some information ahead of the event and possibly help us with some costume or prop pieces. But all of this is optional. Also note that you can always refuse a specific role if you don't want to play it, without having to explain to us why you refuse if you don't want to explain.

The characters

At the event itself there will be envelops filled with directed characters. The envelop mentions the concept of the character (see below) and 1 to 5 stars. These stars denote how much lore you should know to play this character. 1 star characters are not less important, strong or easier to play then 5 star characters. In fact playing characters that base their concept on very little of the lore of the world tend to have roles and situations that revolve more around raw emotion and might be harder to roleplay then some other characters.

These envelopes will contain the following information:

Name

Unless the character is pregnant or in a plot specifically involving sexism (which are both very rare) all characters can be played in any form of gender and always comes with 2 names or 1 unisex name. If we have to mention character names upfront (in a letter or something) before the directed character is played we will try and use a unisex name.

Race

Which of the 15 races?

Concept

A small 1 or 2 sentence description of the character and their main goal. This will also usually be mentioned on the envelop itself.

Goals

A list of the things this character wants to achieve or prevent. This list is ordered to place the most important goals at the top and the more optional goals at the bottom and are categorized in four categories of importance. Don't be surprised if the top of the list looks the same for many directed characters. Most people have survival set high on their list for example.

The four categories and some examples are:

Goals critical for survival

• Don't get tortured (fates worse then death).
• Don't get killed.
• Save a loved one.

Important goals (usually the reason you come to greet the player fleet)

• Secure your place in the afterlife.
• Find a loved one.
• Finish your masterpiece.
• Murder an enemy.

Incidental goals (sometimes important enough to greet the player fleet)

• Start a business.
• Steal a specific relic.
• Organize an excursion.
• Represent an organization.

Leisure goals examples (while you are here anyway)

• Sell or buy some items.
• Get laid.
• Find or spread some rumors.
• Get an autograph of one of the disciples.

Reason for being (and staying) at the docking point of the player fleet

This will detail why you are on the LARP. This usually has a lot to do with your goals.

Moral boundaries

This will detail some boundaries you are not willing to break to reach most of your goals. This might be principles, values or moral codes (either religious, philosophical or political) and might detail in what extreme situations you would break them. If you do end up breaking them your character will probably be intensely remorseful and feel really guilty when the adrenaline subsides.

Personality

This will give some details about the personality traits of your character.

Background and knowledge

This will detail your characters background history and might detail knowledge they have about the world or situation. This will probably explain how your character gained their skills, moral boundaries, personality and some of their more long term goals.

Recent history

This will detail your characters more immediate history leading up to the current events and short term goals you want to achieve or prevent during the event.

Skills conditions and items

Lastly we will detail some skills, conditions and items that might be needed to interact with some of the game systems. As a directed character you will probably not need these most of the time. During battle your HP determines how much damage you can take before getting injured and Willpower which determines how many times you can perform your skills (possibly battle skills in combat) and keeping this high will typically keep your character in a good mood and lowers the chance your character will die while being operated on when wounded.