'Terps - Review of a LARP. Contains graphic violence

During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq the US army employed a few thousand combat interpreters to assist them in negotiating with the local people. The combat interpreters were people who lived in the country, often with families, and were promised visas on the US's exit. They needed visas on the US's exit. By working with American troops they had been considered by the Taliban and ISIS to be the enemy. They were threatened. Their families were threatened. But it would be OK because once the war was over they could leave the country for safety and a better life.

It didn't happen like that

Although some were given visas, some were left in their country, no longer protected and facing retaliation. In November 14 Junid Herean in Afghanistan, was captured and killed by the Taliban, a reprisal for his role as an interpreter. He was 26 years old.

A man who gave his name as Nader, also in Afghanistan, said that he struggled against two Taliban troops who were attempting to execute him. They shot him in the leg, he lay down and they thankfully left. He believes that had he not struggled he would have been killed.

In Iraq Malak (name changed) is currently on the run from ISIS, family in tow, after seeing a video of his fellow interpreter and close friend be beheaded.

The life's of these men and the life's of their families are currently in danger. Some are waiting for the US visa they were promised, a process they were told that could take up to 5 years, others were fired by the US military, often they claim towards the end of the US's involvement in the war and over minor issues. Nadar claimed he was fired for refusing to shout at an Afghan woman.

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When Jason Morningstar wrote 'Terps it was to tell this story. Combat interpreters trying to improve the war torn place where they lived and the lives of them and their families. A science fiction lens has been placed over the true events. The Combine, an interstellar peace keeping operation has despatched troops, known as COMPROFOR to the planet Sirai where law and safety have been threatened by the PFLS.

COMPROFOR, not familiar with the language or customs of the planet have employed combat interpreters to communicate with the people of Sirai. The combat interpreters will earn a good wage and at the end of the war they will get a Combine visa for themselves and their families. Everyone involved knew that leaving them behind unprotected would result in their death or worse at the hands of the PFLS who would now view them as traitors.

There were interpretation scenes, family scenes and process scenes where the interpreters were attempting to get their visas. The game I played was run by Graham Warmsley and Karolina Soltys.

I played Karijan. My character sheet said that I used to be a taxi driver in the capital of Sirai. The PFLS killed my husband and I sent my salary home to support my mother and child (when I explained this in the first scene it was clear that the COMPROFOR officer had no respect for the interpreters "You don't think about them having families, do you?") It also said on my character sheet that if COMPROFOR pulled out and left us behind PFLS would shoot me at the grave of my husband and make my child watch.

We each had 3 scenes and the majority were disturbing. Until my last scene I thought I'd got off lightly. After someone had experienced something horrible, the death of their wife or being shown the chopped off hand of their brother or after someone would refer to the Sarai people as 'us' after a mission Njel, a retired army officer would always say, "not us, them. We are Combine now." It was something he held onto even after his daughter had acid thrown in her face.

My first two scenes were an awkward one where I was trying to apply for a visa and an officer was interrogating me, finding something wrong with every one of my answers. My second scene was a relief, meeting my daughter in a safe house but lying to her about how she just had to wait a little longer and everything would be wonderful. I also lied in my third scene when I was brought into see a suspected PFLS member who had been badly beaten. She said that she knew where the base was and I told the officer that she didn't know. He dismissed it as her lying and said as an officer he couldn't been seen to be involved in anything unpleasant, but if he left the room for 5 minutes then maybe I could get something out of her. I refused until he said 'do you want a visa or not?'

I sat with her for a few minutes begging her to give something up. I didn't hit her until she threatened my child. 

When I came back to the barracks area and collapsed Njel reminded me that they weren't us any more.

Then, the last scene - they had done the job apparently and were just leaving a few local forces behind to clear things up a bit. They were sure our visas would be sorted eventually. We would just have to wait.

And they left.

We talked about another plan, rushed and panicked although we knew this was coming. We would take our families and go underground. We would hide for as long as we had to. We weren't Sirai citizens, we weren't part of The Combine. "we are us" Njel said - although of course that wasn't, never would be enough.

I want to believe in the 4 characters making their way to somewhere safe with their families, maybe even finding their way off the planet and on to a safer one. I can believe that if I want. I can believe that because it was a game. I can believe that because we were pretending. If only the combat interpreters left in Afghanistan and Iraq could be so lucky.

Here Comes a Candle - a playtest of the first larp I've written

Maybe you began trying to fight back alone, passing out subversive literature because you couldn't bear seeing the eager young eyes that shone up at you look defeated and broken in just a few short years. 

Or maybe you began alone because one day your brother vanished, your younger brother who you promised to look out for but who you could never teach to keep his thoughts and opinions to himself. The regime were pretending he hadn't existed so you found the biggest, blankest wall you could and spray painted a memorial to him. "Murdered - gone too soon"

And maybe, as you were about to be caught, as a leaflet was about to slip into the wrong hands, someone took it and winked. Or perhaps as you were running and dodging bullets that you knew would hit you soon, someone took your hand and pulled you to safety.

The 4 of you had similar stories, of wanting to fight, of needing to fight. This was the first time in your life you realised that you weren't alone.

So, perhaps you became bolder, or perhaps you became more cautious, feeling that the 3 other people, standing defiant beside you, were your family and without them you would be lost forever. 

Did it come as a surprise when you got caught, or did you know that someday this would happen? You had all seen cruelty by this point, real cruelty. Families tortured, houses burnt and worse. All in the name of public safety. 

So why did you not expect this? When the 4 of you were pushed lost and beaten into a cell and told that you had a chance to live? That despite your activities against the state the ruler had decided to be merciful. Only one of you had to die at dawn. The 4 of you had an hour to decide who it would be, which of your family, as they had now become, would be killed.

This was playtest 1b (playtest 1a consisted of 2 people and scribbled scraps of paper).
This one I tried to present the way the finished larp would be. All the characters had a reason to live, with questions challenging it, reasons to die, with questions challenging it and a memory that bonded them to the rest of the group. They created characters from this and then the game began. 

My favourite moments were:

- About halfway through the game characters switched from arguing for their lives to arguing about why all the others in the group had better reasons to live.

- My utter frustration that one of the characters that was in love with another character was just hinting at it and not saying it outright.

- The character playing an academic started arguing rationally and then admitted that she considered the rest of the group her family and couldn't bear to lose them.

- Everyone saying goodbye to the person who was going to be executed made me feel really emotional. 

- The anger of the character who was going to die as he read the statement confessing to committing the crimes and the look of powerlessness and despair on the faces of the other characters (which was what I was trying to evoke.)

I also got some brilliant feedback after the game:

- At one point I had asked the players to announce which reason to live they had picked (although not the attendant questions). I had told them to pick out their reason to die secretly and not share it out of character. I wanted it role played and I wanted it to come as a shock within the game. Some players said that they were reluctant to mention them in game as they were unsure if they still had to be kept secret. This is something that I have to correct when I write it up.

- I emphasised in the description of the game that the characters had been engaged in civil disobedience and peaceful protest. One of the players suggested that it would be interesting if they didn't fight peacefully. 

I agree it would be an interesting exploration of when and if it is necessary to fight violence with violence but I was afraid that it would add an extra issue when the players only had an hour to make a decision. I was also afraid it would add an extra layer of complexity at the cost of some of the emotional impact. I may add some suggestions on the finished document of how the game can be altered to allow this though.

- Another suggested question for the character sheet was 'what has the regime done to you?' I'm debating adding it because:

a) Sometimes when you've lived with something all your life it's difficult to see all the wrongs that have been committed against you clearly, particularly in the context of a regime that regularly lies to people.

b)It implies one big thing had to have happened which is probably true in the case of some of the characters. However, I would also like to leave room for someone to be fighting because 'it's the right thing to do' or because they've suffered millions of 'paper cuts' and can't take it any more. Or for someone to fight as an outlet for their anger.

I'd love to play test this again. Actually, I'd love to be a player in it at some point too but I think I'll have difficulty finding the players, time and a venue,

I'm entering it for the Golden Cobra Challenge which means I can't publish it at the moment. I will put up a link to it early - mid November though so that other people can download it and play it if they wish.

I am really excited about this game, not only because it's the first larp I've written but also because of the reactions of the play testers. It works! I'm not sure I expected that!

Role -playing, larping and real life issues

‘I don’t know why they don’t just…’  We’ve all heard it. Perhaps from strangers at the bus stop, perhaps from our friends. Explaining the course of action that someone who’s homeless, or having mental health difficulties or living in poverty should take. Or someone who is experiencing racism or sexism or another form of difficulty or discrimination that the speaker has never experienced. It’s sometimes hard not to think like that, however much you try to avoid it.  After all, there are organisations that offer support, people who can help, medications that can help. And why shouldn’t you shout back at a stranger who’s swearing at you in the street if you're a woman surrounded by people. What’s the worse that can happen?

Lately I’ve been struggling with the idea of whether roleplaying games and larps can be tools for social change, whether they can open up others to the experience of being oppressed or frightened or lost in a world that isn’t always designed for them.

And when I try to design a game I always run into the same problem in my head  ‘well, this is what I would do.’ I know from my own experience of mental illness that it isn’t that simple. Even for someone who is informed about their options (and I am privileged in many ways) the gulf between knowing about them and seeking them out can be so wide that it can be impossible to cross. 

How can I play a homeless person struggling when my instinct is to think of solutions? Because of course, I know how to use the internet and how to access it for free, if the worst came to the worst I have a support network who would help me and I am fundamentally not alone. And if I experienced poverty, real poverty, not student poverty, I would know I could go to the job centre, fill out a form in English and advocate for myself eloquently.

If I was playing a game where I was facing these issues, sure I could pretend, but I wouldn’t come away with any new understanding or experience. So how can I make that happen? I’ve spoken before about Zoe Quinn’s twine game Depression Quest which tries to deal with the issue. You play a depressed man and you have a number of options of things you can do to begin to recover. But options are crossed off and the more depressed you get, the less options are available to you. This is a good illustration of living with depression and not being able to talk about it or get help despite knowing, somewhere in your mind that that’s what you should be doing. I don’t think it goes far enough though. If you choose the best option you can each time the main character can begin to recover. And you know what the best option is. You know because the main character isn’t you and you’re not the one who has to face it.

How can we overcome this in games? Counters? Mechanics? Creating as an immersive experience as possible? Giving out character sheets explaining what the character knows and what they are capable of doing that day? But then they are stuck perpetually, not a human being but someone who has stopped learning and stopped growing.  And the player always knows that after the game or the larp they can get up and walk away.

And I want players to experience for a moment, that fear, that helplessness. I want to understand and I want other people to understand why people make decisions which might seem inadvisable but are the best and only option that person has.

I have heard the suggestion from a couple of people for a larp that would be played like Wraith. Each character would be played by two players - the character themselves and the side of them that has a list of their limitations. They’re frightened so they don’t answer men who catcall them in the street, they are depressed so they really can’t force themselves out the door for work even though they should have left half an hour ago, they can’t speak English so they don’t understand why they are getting benefit sanctions.

This was a lot of words to say I don’t have the answers. I would really appreciate any ideas though. Is role-play just a bad tool for social change or is there a solution? Or am I thinking in black and white? Is role-play an imperfect tool to create social acceptance and understanding and if so how can we improve it? I am really interested in your thoughts.

A reminder that you can sign up to my mailing list here.

For people in London - Larpers or those who want to try out a larp

I'm going to make an attempt to push my LARP playtest on people again. Sorry to those who are hearing this for the millionth time.

The LARP is called here comes a candle. At the moment I have 3 people coming and ideally I'd like to test it with it 4 -6 players. 

The premise is:

Some of you have never known any different. Some of you remember what it was like before. All of you have witnessed the horrors of the totalitarian authority after they took power. 
So you resisted. Quietly and subtly at first and then as you found each other you began to make bolder moves. Newsletters, stories, graffiti, memorials for the dead. You became a family.


You got caught. 


In a prison cell together you were offered a deal. If one person confesses to being the leader of the resistance movement they will die. The rest of you will go free. Back to your children. Back to your lives. Back to continue the fight. Only one person needs to die at dawn. You have one hour to decide who.


Players will each have a reason why they should be the one to die and what they want to live for. The question is whether they can agree to the death of one person, one member of a group that has become a family, to save the life of the rest.


Are you willing to die? Are you willing to live? 

The event is on 13th October and you can sign up here: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/826958927402132/

It's the first LARp I've written and the second game I've written so I'm a little nervous.

If you would like to come but are not on Facebook or have any questions, please message me.


A reminder that you can sign up to my mailing list here.