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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9648054" data-attributes="member: 7026594">Along the lines of Braunsteins, though, back in the 90s I did used to LARP.  And one of the distinguishing features of LARP games was usually that there was a huge number of players to a small fraction of that number of staff/referees and NPCs.  Say, 20-50 players for a Vampire: The Masquerade parlor-style game played on a college campus in an ongoing campaign or in a hotel for a weekend, along with 3-5 referees and full-time NPCs, so the players get divided into factions and are primarily each other's antagonists.  Or 50-200 players for a fantasy boffer LARP at a Boy Scout camp in the woods played in an ongoing campaign (sometimes for years) held once a month during all the warm months, with 5-10 referees/"plot marshals" and another 20-40 NPC volunteers to play monsters.When you have those sorts of games, the referees/game masters can write overarching plots, and have antagonist and patron NPCs, but a lot of the players have to entertain themselves and each other for a ton of the game time.  There just aren't enough GMs and NPC staff to entertain you all the time.  As a player you try to join an adventuring group or faction, and get hooked into whatever plot's going on and get to RP with NPCs and hopefully go on some kind of quests/adventures within the framework of the larger session, but a lot of the time you need to RP with fellow players, create your own internecine rivalries and dynamics, and play outside of scenarios the GMs have come up with.  It was also common at some of the fantasy LARPs for experienced "teams" of players to take the occasional event off PCing, to volunteer and NPC, so the ranks of the NPCs would be bolstered by a bunch of experienced players (often the bulk of the NPCs were younger or less experienced players learning the ropes and getting to play for free by playing the baddies).  For folks who played a lot, it would often be a recruitment deal that organizers of separate fantasy LARPS (or campaigns using the same system, running on different weekends) would recruit experienced players and offer trade deals where you'd get compensated partially in XP for your PC while NPCing another game).  Anyway, all this is to say that I HAVE seen something like what you're saying Jeffro is pitching, but more in the LARP realm than in the wargaming realm.</blockquote>

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