Hello Former LARPers - NPC With Us

By Beren Olean | Friday, March 15, 2024

Hello former LARPers - Crestfallen LARP needs NPCs - Please let us sell it to you!

There are a number of reasons why people quit LARPing such as cost, changes in family life, and altercations at different games. Some people swear off LARP forever, while others just quit playing certain chapters or games.

The LARP community has grown very small and there have been few reasons for it to grow. Local games have been stagnant and maintaining toxic practices.

We are here today to ask to give Crestfallen LARP a chance.

Have things changed?

While a number of games and systems have not changed their practices, a number of more modern games and styles have caused drastic updates to player safety rules, focuses on physical and mental health, and better understanding of how to protect players.

Crestfallen LARP uses a number of safety mechanics such as affirmative consent, assumed consent, look down, negotiated roleplay, and ok check in to give players options to deal with emotionally difficult roleplay and have clarity on consent.

We have an established code of conduct and game mechanics that focus on our content, taboo subjects, mental health, sportsmanship and more.

We also maintain a focus on professionalism and transparency. All of our rules, safety mechanics, policies, and blog posts are publicly available.

While we may not be perfect, we are constantly trying our best to maintain a positive and safe environment for those attending.

Why NPC?

There are a number of reasons why we are asking for NPCs. We will be transparent…. Some of these reasons are self serving, while others are mutually beneficial.

NPCs are asked to take part in acting, simulated combat, and interacting with player characters in a number of different ways. Crestfallen asks NPCs to bring basic clothing in browns, greys, or blacks as a base layer for supplied costuming and props. Additionally we ask NPCs to have a belt with a sealable pouch for carrying treasure such as leaves, resource cards, and item cards. NPCs may bring their own additional flair costume pieces and props if they would like for the chance at bonus Character Points.

While the basics of NPCing may be like other games, our preparation, organization, and requests may be very different. How?

NPC Scheduling

Crestfallen LARP events are scheduled differently than many games. Friday night is based around gathering supplies, crafting items, trading, gambling, bartering, and planning adventures for the following day. Saturday is the primary time for going on adventures, finding pioneer cards, and having random encounters. Sunday is the slow winding down of the event with more gathering, crafting, and trading.

This format means that a fully staffed group of NPCs is only required for Saturday. Full time NPCs are needed all day, roughly from 8AM until 10PM or later. NPC Shifts are 8AM until Noon, 1PM until 5PM and 6PM until 10PM. Meal breaks are planned from 12 until 1PM and 5PM until 6PM respectively. With a focus on self care, meal and sleep times are respected. A sleeping or eating player is an occupied player and we don’t want to deprive players of these vital needs for life.

Crestfallen has established a number of ways to interact with plot.

Jobs are listed in a number of folders that players may have access to based on skills or lineage. These are timed adventures that players can sign up for.
Pioneer cards are physical items found in the woods that have a combat and non-combat option that they players may choose from. These cards are brought back to our plot staff in order to set up the module and bring it to life.
Random encounters are run by faction leads. These are random monsters that will be attempting to complete missions for their faction in order to power themselves up for the next event. These are often run by shift npcs so they do not learn vital plot information.
Requested interactions are when a player or group requests an adventure to advance their own person or group story line or if they are unsure how to interact with plot and would like some assistance. These can occur at any time and require time and resources to set up and can be affected by scheduled interactions. Patience is appreciated.
Scheduled interactions are world events that are planned for specific times of the day and are usually tied with the overarching story of the event. These are the core interactions of the event.
Stockpile cards are physical items found during an event where harvesters and gatherers can find more resources than the normal use of their skill. This requires timed acting out of gathering these resources for later use and bringing the card to plot staff for rewards.

Benefits Of NPCing

There are a number of benefits to NPCing at Crestfallen LARP. We hope that a majority of these points are appealing to players, but understand that they may not be for everyone.

Cost - Full time NPCs play for free for the entire weekend, but are only required to NPC for Saturday. This means a full time NPC may play a character on Friday night and Sunday morning to meet players, learn about the game world, and build a report with the players. Full time NPCs will always get their benefits, even if they skip playing on Friday and Sunday and only NPC on Saturday.
CP Benefits - Full time NPCs gain 8 character points towards their character for attending and NPCing a weekend event. This is the maximum one character can receive for a weekend. Players who wish to NPC a shift will gain 1 character point towards their character. Both types of NPCs can gain additional character points towards their primary or secondary character based on other items such as registering for the event, bringing a prop in game space, bringing additional costuming/gear to make their NPCs more impactful, and more.
Resources - Full time NPCs will currently gain 20 leaves and 10 basic resources to the bank of one character.
Reduced Cost Events - Full time NPCs will receive $10 off of a future event. This can be added up for free events or donated to players that may need additional help affording events.
Early Plot Access - Crestfallen LARP uses an NPC website that gives NPCs access to the story, adventures, monster cards, and available NPC roles before the event. Players that enjoy acting can apply for named NPC character roles ahead of time via registration or email. Additionally this allows NPCs to see if there is any particular content that they wish to take part in or avoid.
Additional - We may add in thank you prizes for NPCs showing exceptional acting, sportsmanship, or other positive actions during the course of events.

Ideal NPC Numbers

As with all LARPs, the number of NPCs is directly proportional to the amount of content we can run without causing an undue burdon on ourselves. At a minimum we wish to have 50% of the PC numbers or a maximim of 100%. This is very important as each NPC can be helpful in different ways.

At our core, we would love to have 14 to 20 NPCs available to run a great event. This would give us 2 faction leads with an additional monster per group for a total of 4 random encounter monsters. The remaining 10 to 16 would be cut down the middle to have half running scheduled adventures and the other half available for cards and other style adventures.

Building Fun For All

We are trying our best to make all aspects of LARPing at Crestfallen enjoyable to have a happy and healthy game system. NPCs should feel rewarded, accepted, and get all of the credit for showing fellow players a great time. Often, this is not the case. We need people to believe in this system and give it a try. What can we do to help this game grow and make it enjoyable for all. We want your thoughts.

CrestfallenLARP@gmail.com to share with us.