Just a quick one to capture this while it’s still fresh. (I think part of what has made me so out of the habit of writing in this blog is feeling that every post has to be coherent and interesting to read. But maybe it can also work just as more of a record/journal?)
So, today I ran a playtest of a new idea for an online larp, called Alex the Great. The idea is that a TV company are running a programme called Alex the Great, in which people called Alex from all over the world compete to be voted the Great. These Alexes apply for the show, and if picked, they’re put into a series of successive one-on-one conversations with each other via video chat (the setting is the present day, under widespread lockdown), the resultant video from each of which is made into a programme, after which the public vote on how much each Alex comes across as Inspiring, Lovable, and Entertaining. (The larp doesn’t actually make the programme — none of the video chat is actually seen by anyone other than the two people in it. The larp cuts straight from the conversation to the voting.)
This isn’t a larp that’s going to change participants’ lives, most likely: but it’s a bit of Type 1 fun and I think quite a nice way of meeting up with and larping chatting with people.
The main clever bit (if you can dignify it with such a description) is that the participants do their own voting, each deciding what the public vote should be for their own Alex. So they can judge how Great their Alex actually is; how well this came across during the conversation; and how much they, the participant, want their Alex to get a high or a low score.
Anyway, to keep this brief: the playtest seemed to go ok, and there was some great feedback — thank you very much to the kind and generous playtesters! — so hopefully I’ll be able to run it for real in a few weeks. Keep your eyes open, and your Alexes freshly washed!