Why do we play LARP, and why is Vampire Live our chosen niche? What do we get out of spending our nights and being correspondingly tired the next day? In short, what is the aim of the game?
A certain soft spot for vampires is always there, of course. But in particular, the game focus of our chronicle allows us to really dive intensively into our own character for several hours, to triumph with him and (much more often) to suffer.
And that is precisely the aim of the game: the most intense immersion possible in our character and the game world, and the intense experience of the horrors of a bestial society in which human decency is only a façade.
Downfall is certain
We know from the start that we cannot win this game. Certainly, there are successes that character can have, be it a special position, power and influence, or surviving a breach of tradition. But all these successes come at a price, and it’s rarely pretty. But it is precisely because this is established from the start that we can fully engage with it.
It is similar to the Cthulhu role-playing game: Here it is certain from the beginning that the character will not survive the adventure. This frees you from the pressure of trying to solve all the problems as a hero and win, because you know that this will not happen. So, you can fully commit to the path to certain doom.
Character death as the goal of the game?
No, don’t worry. It is not the aim of the game that every character will die after x months or years. Final deaths are possible and part of our game world, but not the “end goal” that everyone is working towards.
Some characters go through a short period of time where, like a supernova, they bring incredible intensity, but end up burnt out. But most characters don’t go through those last months of their existence directly, but are somewhere along the way.
So, you can play your character for a very long time and not feel bad if they survive. Some characters in the chronicle, for example, have been around for 20 years. The aim of the game is to experience the path of doom intensively, not necessarily to reach the absolute end.
