The Art of Conversation (at LARP)
Written by Trace Moriarty originally on the Alliance LARP Denver forums, reposted on Medium with her permission.
Alliance Denver has a culture of being very good at staying in-character as much as possible. This is harder to do, I’ve noticed, for players who are outgoing and very social and want to talk to other people — but may lack the context for what to talk about in-character. They sometimes end up dropping character, and potentially disrupting the game atmosphere, which may ironically drive away the folks that want to roleplay at that moment rather than just drum up any out-of-character chat at all.
If you don’t know what’s going on with the story, what is there to talk about other than the weather, after all? For people who are more shy, or find conversation with people they don’t know challenging even in a comfortable environment, adding the unfamiliar environment of game can present some real obstacles.
Persons who are very outgoing don’t always find that conversation comes naturally to us on-the-spot, either. One trick is to have a couple of “go to” topics or questions that you think up in advance, and can later introduce while chatting. Here are some samples:
- “Have you heard any interesting rumors lately?”
- “What did you think of Death’s Isles?”
- “What do you know about _________?” and here you can fill in a headline from the latest Acarthia Times, something you heard in pre-game rumors, or any name or story element you might’ve picked up somewhere
If all else fails, pick an aspect of the other person’s costume and ask about it. Alliance Denver players really go all out on our costuming and make-up. Is that person wearing some heraldry? An interesting looking trinket? Cool armor? Inquire as to how it was made, or the story behind its acquisition, if the jewel or sigil or something has meaning — it probably does! And that person probably loves telling the story.
Finally, this phrase, friends, is my gift to you — The magic words that open all conversations both in-character for you, and in real life. Use this with the NPC who just sat down to breakfast across from you. The weird voodoo witch with the creepy teeth who keeps following you around and won’t go away. Your mother-in-law. During that overly nervous job interview:
“Tell me more about that.”
This magical phrase expresses your interest in a polite way. It takes you off the hook to figure out what to talk about next. It asks your conversation partner to expand a topic and get more from your chat time. It compliments the other person through your expression of interest. This phrase is magical!
Most people at LARP come here because we want to meet new friends, and engage with them in conversation and shared adventure. I find that people rarely make the conscious attempt to seem unapproachable. Someone can look very confident, or involved, or even of authority in some way (IG or OOG) — and yet still be a little shy, and a loss for topics of conversation themselves. It’s pretty normal to find it difficult to walk up to a new person and start a conversation out of the blue. When you have these “go to” phrases, you may it easier on the both of you by getting the ball rolling. Then everybody has more fun at the game!
