AustinvilleStorylineLarpPatrol

"A Fine Day in Austinville"

Storyline #5: LARP Patrol

LARP Patrol: A local live-action roleplaying group takes on the duties of a neighborhood watch.

Status: This one needs by far the most work; we need to flesh out the characters and sort out the details: what gets stolen? by whom? how do they fight crime?

Protagonist

(Why is it immediately apparent that this character is different from all other characters?)

• Chris1, the president of a local LARP group.
• Kind of like Dogberry.
• A natural leader, but very disconnected from reality.

Other Characters

• We need two -- possibly three (though more casting = more people who can fail to show up to the shoot on time) -- other LARPers to go along with the idea.
• A LARPing cop (for the last scene).

• The thief that they're tracking down.

  • Various other thieves and wrongdoers.

Scenes

1. Someone steals an important piece of equipment from Chris's car.

   • The thief is related to one of the LARPers...

     • ... and thinks it would make a good prank.

2. Chris convinces the others they should patrol the neighborhood.

   • Just until they get the thing back.
   • He suspects it's the same guy that has been stealing from the neighborhood frequently.

   • Only one of them agrees to go along with it at first.

     • (Just to stop Chris from doing anything stupid.)

3. The LARPers stop somebody from breaking into a car.

   • The culprit flees the scene.

     • Chris is convinced it was the same guy.
   • The other LARPer realizes Chris may be on to something.
4. The LARPers hassle some college kids who are plastering Hangul transliterations over some of the roadsigns.

5. The LARPers try & fail to stop a home break-in.

   • This could involve the thieves from Ted's office break-in.

6. The LARPers catch a random guy with another item of Chris's.

   • It turns out he's innocent...
   • ... but knows who stole The Object.
7. They catch the thief and get their thing back.

8. They accidentally accost a real cop.

   • The cop commends them...

     • ... and uses a LARP-ish argument (say, casting a spell on them) to get them to quit their brand of anachronistic vigilante justice.

Little Questions

• Could we do just one LARPer patrolling the neighborhood?
• How in god's name do the LARPers ever succeed?2

• What gets stolen from the LARPers?

  • What single piece of equipment would they find useful & irreplaceable?
  • It should be the one item they need for that day's session.

• Could we just have the LARPers encounter the cop in the neighborhood?

  • I'm trying to minimize having to shoot in/simulate a police station.
  • Generally, it could give us a smaller, simpler scene.

Big Question #1: What's their motivation?

If we work out why the LARPers are fighting crime in their neighborhood, it'll be much easier to write this storyline.

Right now I've assumed that they're trying to recover some stolen item. I don't think this works. Any non-crazy person would assume that the thief has left the scene, and accosting further criminals would accomplish nothing. Plus, I can't think of any one item that would matter that much. Nor can I figure out how they'd end up recovering it.

Can we come up with any other motivation?

Please?

Footnotes

1 I suspect this should instead be a girl, to balance the 3:1 gender ratio of the other protagonists. I'm just using "Chris" at the moment because I have such an easy time imagining Chris Allen in the role.

2 I do think it's more funny if they succeed, or at least think they succeed.