Author: Kevin Makice

The Enchanted Wood

The Enchanted Wood

Posted by | Jun 18, 2015 | |

I wasn’t sure we were going to LARP for the final week of Geek Camp, but by popular demand we will … even (or especially) if it rains. I spent more time working up the framework for “The Holy Stone of Gheklisk,” but no such luxury exists for our Week Three Day Four adventure. Campers were emailed a request to come prepared to share their characters, by answering the following four questions: In five words, how would you describe your character? What always creates trouble for this character? What aspect of your character is both a blessing and a...

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The Holy Stone of Gheklisk

The Holy Stone of Gheklisk

Posted by | Jun 11, 2015 | |

Our LARP today is a collaborative storytelling activity set in a world inhabited by humans beginning to embrace emerging technology and fantastical creatures entrenched in the old ways. Tensions are high because of a Gheklisk prophecy that predicts a great upheaval before a period of either lasting peace or eternal misery. A sacred artifact, lost for generations, is rumored to have resurfaced. This artifact holds the key who emerges as the power after the upheaval. There are four key locations in our LARP-ing world: Waterdeep—Also known as the City of Splendors, Waterdeep is a port city that is a dominant political power...

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LARP Game Mechanics

LARP Game Mechanics

Posted by | Jun 10, 2015 | |

Yesterday, we started thinking about our LARP-ing characters by answering some questions. Today, the group will shape the environment and run through the game mechanics we will try to use in the LARP on Day 4. In adapting a traditional RPG to a LARP, the first step is to empower the characters to figure out how their actions impact each other in real time. We don’t want every player to carry and rely on dice to dictate outcomes of each decision they make. Rather, we want the game to be freely played as much as possible, challenging only what cannot be resolved...

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LARPs, Fate and Group Storytelling

LARPs, Fate and Group Storytelling

Posted by | Jun 9, 2015 | |

One of the more interesting workshops I’ve attended came at the 2014 Sigma Play conference here in Bloomington, Indiana. My son and I participated in a “parlor” role-playing session about vampires, werewolves and a murder in the woods. I found it compelling because of the process to set up the characters—done as a group—and the use of different locations to allow you to move to part of the story without knowing everything that is transpiring. Before that conference, I thought of LARP-ing (live action role playing) as a cross between CosPlay and beating the crap out of each other...

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Welcome to the Fifth Geek Camp

Welcome to the Fifth Geek Camp

Posted by | May 28, 2015 | |

It has been over a decade since I first installed WordPress. I remember at the time how happy I was to find a free, open-source application that did almost everything I wanted a blog to do, effectively killing my own efforts to create a blogging platform of my own. What impressed me most at the time was the potential for the community of developers that contributed custom web themes and plug-in functionality that could quickly extend WordPress well beyond what I might be able to do on my own. I knew just enough PHP to be dangerous, and that...

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