Closing down the game
It seems a little counter-intuitive to write a section on winding down a game for a web-site designed to help people set up a LARP group, but the likelihood is that at some point the group will come to an end, and it can be beneficial to have a plan of how you will deal with this when it does.
LARP groups tend to end for a number of reasons. The most common ones I’ve seen are
1) The main person organising it moves away and no-one wants to take over
2) The main person organising it decides that they no longer wish to run the group and retires, and no-one wants to take over
3) The main organiser leaves / retires and the people who take over don’t have the same “popularity”
4) OOC politics causes a rift and the group splits. The resulting loss of numbers and key people causes the group to fold
5) The campaign reaches a natural conclusion and everyone agrees to close the group
6) Loss of facilities - the group loses access to its site / transport etc and cannot find a viable alternative
7) A rival group starts nearby and the resulting clash causes numbers to dwindle etc
8) The group grows to such a size that it becomes impossible to run in its present form. The group closes because it cannot handle the numbers
Some of the above are unavoidable, but some can be remedied or even prevented.
1) If the main organiser moves away, and no-one want to take the role then perhaps there can be a joint effort. The responsibility of running the group can be shared. Its quite rare that no-one takes over, as there’s always someone who is passionate enough about the game to want it to continue
2) As per the above. This is quite a common problem (known as Burnout) where the organisers have literally got fed up with their game or have run out of ideas for things to do. The trick to solving this problem is to prevent it occurring in the first place.
Thinking of new plotlines can become difficult or even tedious after a while. Every organiser wants a break every now and again. Make sure that you do this, either by getting someone else to run games every now and again, or if that would be impractical just “cancel” a game for a little while whilst you have a short break. This isn’t an ideal situation, but your players should understand that you need to take time off, and a short break is better than the group closing completely due to your nervous breakdown
3) There is always a culture of nostalgia with LARP. Everyone who went to Treasure Trap at Peckforton remembers this as being the best LRP ever, when in reality by today’s standards it was fairly “primitive”. Long standing members will say “Do you remember when we first started playing in this group?” and “It was so much better when Whats-his-name was running it”
There’s very little that you can do about this other than to ensure that you make the game the best that it's ever been.. If you’ve been lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view) enough to inherit a group, then the best thing that you can do is to have regular conferences with your players and find out what the like and dislike
4) The OOC politics is another symptom of lack of communication within the group. There will always be OOC politics that causes disruption, the best way to deal with this is to “nip it in the bud” before it gets to the stage the people start leaving
5) This is not a major problem. If everyone agrees to call it a day. It may re-surface at a later stage
6) There’s not a great deal that can be done in this situation. Loss of facilities can close a group without you being able to do anything. Try to find alternative locations, or failing that appeal to the person who has taken your facilities away. If you can manage it, try offering to pay something. Money talks
7) A rival group need not be a rival. It can be an opportunity to exchange players and create 2 well established groups. Get in touch with the people who are running it and meet for a drink. Talk about your groups and what you want to do with it. Get some of your players to go there and tell their players about your game and so on. Work together and exchange information
8) This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes groups develop. If you don’t want to close the group down, the other options are to split the group into two and have two separate games running, or alternatively, say that people can only turn up to a certain number of games per month
EXIT STRATEGIES
When you set up the group, especially if its going to be set up with the intention of it having a limited lifespan then its worth considering an exit strategy right at the start
For instance if you know the group is going to run for a couple of years, but there's likely to be some investment in purchasing props then who gets to keep those once the group comes to an end.
LARP groups tend to end for a number of reasons. The most common ones I’ve seen are
1) The main person organising it moves away and no-one wants to take over
2) The main person organising it decides that they no longer wish to run the group and retires, and no-one wants to take over
3) The main organiser leaves / retires and the people who take over don’t have the same “popularity”
4) OOC politics causes a rift and the group splits. The resulting loss of numbers and key people causes the group to fold
5) The campaign reaches a natural conclusion and everyone agrees to close the group
6) Loss of facilities - the group loses access to its site / transport etc and cannot find a viable alternative
7) A rival group starts nearby and the resulting clash causes numbers to dwindle etc
8) The group grows to such a size that it becomes impossible to run in its present form. The group closes because it cannot handle the numbers
Some of the above are unavoidable, but some can be remedied or even prevented.
1) If the main organiser moves away, and no-one want to take the role then perhaps there can be a joint effort. The responsibility of running the group can be shared. Its quite rare that no-one takes over, as there’s always someone who is passionate enough about the game to want it to continue
2) As per the above. This is quite a common problem (known as Burnout) where the organisers have literally got fed up with their game or have run out of ideas for things to do. The trick to solving this problem is to prevent it occurring in the first place.
Thinking of new plotlines can become difficult or even tedious after a while. Every organiser wants a break every now and again. Make sure that you do this, either by getting someone else to run games every now and again, or if that would be impractical just “cancel” a game for a little while whilst you have a short break. This isn’t an ideal situation, but your players should understand that you need to take time off, and a short break is better than the group closing completely due to your nervous breakdown
3) There is always a culture of nostalgia with LARP. Everyone who went to Treasure Trap at Peckforton remembers this as being the best LRP ever, when in reality by today’s standards it was fairly “primitive”. Long standing members will say “Do you remember when we first started playing in this group?” and “It was so much better when Whats-his-name was running it”
There’s very little that you can do about this other than to ensure that you make the game the best that it's ever been.. If you’ve been lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view) enough to inherit a group, then the best thing that you can do is to have regular conferences with your players and find out what the like and dislike
4) The OOC politics is another symptom of lack of communication within the group. There will always be OOC politics that causes disruption, the best way to deal with this is to “nip it in the bud” before it gets to the stage the people start leaving
5) This is not a major problem. If everyone agrees to call it a day. It may re-surface at a later stage
6) There’s not a great deal that can be done in this situation. Loss of facilities can close a group without you being able to do anything. Try to find alternative locations, or failing that appeal to the person who has taken your facilities away. If you can manage it, try offering to pay something. Money talks
7) A rival group need not be a rival. It can be an opportunity to exchange players and create 2 well established groups. Get in touch with the people who are running it and meet for a drink. Talk about your groups and what you want to do with it. Get some of your players to go there and tell their players about your game and so on. Work together and exchange information
8) This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes groups develop. If you don’t want to close the group down, the other options are to split the group into two and have two separate games running, or alternatively, say that people can only turn up to a certain number of games per month
EXIT STRATEGIES
When you set up the group, especially if its going to be set up with the intention of it having a limited lifespan then its worth considering an exit strategy right at the start
For instance if you know the group is going to run for a couple of years, but there's likely to be some investment in purchasing props then who gets to keep those once the group comes to an end.
