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[[File:Mixing desk of larp.png|right|thumb|The Mixing Desk of Larp version 34, revised after revised after [[Knutepunkt 2013Larpwriter Summer School]]2014]]
'''''The Mixing Desk of Larp''' is a framework for organizing your thoughts about larp design. Look at it as a pedagogical tool more than a theory of larp design – it is an aid in visualizing the most important design choices a larpwright makes.''
When you design a larp, there are plenty of parameters you can adjust. These parameters will obviously have impact on the larp you're designing. The main idea of the Mixing Desk of Larp is that being a larpwright or larp organizer is like being a technician controlling the lights or the sound of a concert or theatre performance. At his disposal, the technician has an array of faders, increasing or decreasing the amount of lights of different colors, the volume of specific sound frequencies or similar. All these faders can be adjusted up or down, adjusting the amount of whatever they're controlling and affecting the performance.
In the same way, a larp designer can adjust the faders of the Mixing Desk of Larp, changing the larp they’re they're designing. You can increase the level of transparency, add a pinch of meta-techniques, change the responsibility for the character creation process or introduce abstract elements to enhance a special atmosphere in the larp. All these adjustments will have effects on the game you’re you're organizing, and adjusting these faders can help you reach your design goal for the larp.
The goal of the Mixing Desk of Larp is to provide a framework for organizing thought about how the changes in these parameters will affect a larp, and what position of the faders are suitable for what larp. An important goal is also to recognize that there are “default positions” for these faders that will influence your larp, even if you don’t don't make any specific choices about them. These default positions can differ depending on larp group, community or traditions. Being aware of ones own default positions is an important goal of the Mixing Desk framework.
=History=
For the [[Knutepunkt-books]] for [[Knutepunkt 2013]] the article ''The Mixing Desk of Larp'' was written by [[Martin Nielsen]] and [[Martin Eckhoff Andresen]] was written with updated names and descriptions.
=The fadersFaders=Of course, there are endless numbers of faders that could possibly have been adjusted on the Mixing Desk of Larp. Here are some of the most important parameters that can be adjusted when making a larp. The ambition is that other larpwriters will add their own faders and remove the ones they don’t don't find fruitful when using this framework.
==Openness==
How does your larp look? Do you aim for a [[360º]], where everything the players see around them is part of the larp? Or do you use a minimalist approach, where you only pay attention to the
*[[360º]] ==Character creation responsibilityCreation Responsibility==
''Organizer vs. player''
==Runtime game masteringGame Mastering==
''Active vs. passive''
Some organizers consider their job done when the larp has started; then, they leave everything in the hands of the players. Others influence the game in different ways as it goes along. Are you an active or a passive game master when the game has started, during ''runtime''? Game mastering might also be of different sorts: the discrete ones, like sending instructed players into the game, or the extremely intrusive ones, like stopping the game and instructing the players to do a scene again differently.
==Story engineEngine==
''Collaborativity vs. competivity''
==Loyalty to settingSetting==
''Playability vs. plausibility''
Do you use elements from the players’ real lives in the game (close to home), or do you deliberately try to create a barrier or distance (differentiation) between the character and player? Using the players’ own experiences or background might create a stronger emotional experience, but also has its downsides: making the game less larp and more reality. It can divert focus from the story and the emotions the story creates to the emotions the players bring with them into the game. Taken to the extreme, you might have the players play themselves, just in an alternative setting. Are you willing to lessen the player-character divide?
* [[Bleed]]
==Communication styleStyle==
''Physical vs. verbal''
==Representation of themeTheme==
''Abstraction vs. simulation''
[[Meta-technique]]s are techniques for giving information to the players, but not the characters, during the game. Examples can be “inner” [[monologues]] that are played out during the larp. The players can hear these, the characters cannot, but nonetheless, they can be an aid for creating stronger drama. If meta-techniques are used in a game, they might be intrusive or discrete. Examples of intrusive meta-techniques are techniques that force all other players to stop while it happens, while a more discrete technique might be, for example, having access to a special room where players can go to act out scenes from the past or the future. This fader illustrates the combination of the amount of meta-techniques used and their degree of intrusiveness.
*[[Meta-technique]] ==Player pressurePressure==
''Hardcore vs. pretense''
There are some things in larp that are difficult to play out. Hunger, violence, sleep deprivation, drinking, sex and drug use might be examples. If you want to include these elements in your game, how do you do it? Do you put the pressure on the players as well as the characters by using with hardcore methods such as real alcohol, real food deprivation, and waking people at night? Do you shelter the players from the pressure on the characters by using replacements like boffer swords, fake alcohol, and telling the players to pretend to be hungry or sleep deprived? Hungry players will, of course, feel what it is like to be hungry, but their ability to role-play and enjoy other aspects of the game might be hampered.
==Open frameworkFramework==
The Mixing Desk of Larp is a work in progress. It’s It's a pedagogical tool aimed for presenting and structuring some of the most important design choices of larp in a convenient form. There are plenty of other faders that could be part of the Mixing Desk, and the framework is open to extensions.
Some possible faders that have been discussed, for example in the Knutepunkt 2013 book article is
*Representation of time (Chronology)*Player freedom (Sand box vs. railroading)*Random elements*Degree of pervasiveness ==Video presentationPresentation==Video presentation about the Mixing Desk of larp with [[Martin Eckhoff Andresen]] from [[Nordic Larp Talks]] [[2013]].
{{#ev:youtube|fprp4bPTbaw}}
==Source== *[http://larpschool.blogspot.no/p/programme.html Programme for Larpwriter Summer School 2012] ==External Links==
[[Category:Concepts|Mixing Desk of Larp]]