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PolyCon XXIII
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PolyCon XXIII for $25:
(18 and over only
Minors must use minor form)
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The Apocalypse LARP
A Social Experiment With Somewhat Predictable Results
by Dr. Edward Ville, a.k.a.
Kurt Horner -
Apocalypse LARP GM
Abstract:
PolyCon XVII's Apocalyptic Live-Action Roleplaying (LARP) Adventure can
only be described as a fully interactive science experiment. It was
discovered that violent, secretive people should never be given guns and
locked in a confined space against their will. As could have been
predicted, they killed one another maliciously and sometimes without
reason. The suddenness with which the formerly civilized individuals were
reduced to savagery is however, striking.
Procedure:
Send 20+ characters, each a member of a secret society or other unseen
conspiratorial power to the Antarctic.
Place the characters inside a mysterious complex of unknown origin
that one month previously rose out the ice of its own motive power.
Lock them in. (The complex responds to possible attack.)
Give the complex immense powers, capable of destroying entire star
systems.
Make it difficult to find out how to wield this power.
Watch carnage.
Record results.
Hypothesis:
Many of the individuals will discover that other individuals block their
path to raise Atlantis, realign the Earth's poles, resurrect Cthulhu,
capture the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or start an interplanetary
war, etc. These individuals (the former) will outsmart and/or kill the
others.
It was expected that it would take several hours before the first instance
of violence, escalating from there until power blocks formed or someone's
goals were completed.
Results:
Of the 21 original characters:
13 were killed.
1 was rendered non-corporeal.
7 survived.
his is a 64% fatality rate, the highest ever in a PolyCon LARP.
The first death occurred at 01:39 after LARP start. Most of the violence
occurred at the midpoint of the LARP. Decreasing returns to violence set
in, as the number of possible enemies decreased. The experiment reached
equilibrium late in the LARP at 7.5 individuals - as few of the remaining
characters were in conflict with one another.
For Further Study:
Some individuals experienced perverse pleasure in dispatching their
victims, often uttering witty lines before executing offending parties.
Some samples:
"Is that so? - BLAM!"
"Bates was not the Head of the Illuminati, I am the Head of the
Illuminati - BLAM!"
"Out of my way! _ BA-BLAM!"
"Stop! BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!" (Multiple occurrences)
Other strange phenomena included a bemused detachment that set in as
long-term survivors accepted the perceived inevitability of their demise.
Conclusions:
The Apocalypse LARP GMs would like to thank all those who helped design
this experiment and participated in this study, with special thanks to Mr.
Bates for providing Death Beverage (still legal in 46 states!).
We believe that the experiment shows that LARP characters are prone to
violence in extreme situations. Especially adverse conditions can bring
out the worst in these personalities. However, even in the worst of
environments, characters can still come together in the end for mutual
problem solving. Unfortunately, this behavior is not actually social in
nature but derives only from a shared sense of underlying fear. In short,
the PolyCon XVII Apocalypse LARP was a bloodbath - but it was a fun
bloodbath.
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