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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 find fruitful when using this framework.
==Fader 1: Playing Communication style==
''Physical vs. verbal''
What kind of playing communication style is does your larp making your players playencourage? Is the natural way to interact in the game through talking, or through physical action and body language? There are many ways to adjust the playing Communication style in your game – can be adjusted through the characters, through workshops, through scenography design , or through simply telling the players what style you want. A physical playing communication style might be more thrilling, letting the players immerse more through using all of their senses, but a more verbal game might be easier to involve new players in, as well as being more realistic in many settings. What kind of playing style are you aiming for?
 ==Fader 2: Representationof theme==
''Abstraction vs. realism''
How do does your larp represent the reality in of the setting? Do Is realism your goal? Or do you use abstract or even surrealistic elements to focus on the feeling and atmosphere of the setting, or is realism your goalto highlight a particular aspect of the game? If the goal of the game is to create the atmosphere of a prison camp, you might do this in two ways: By by trying to recreate simulate an actual prison camp, or by using abstract, surrealist or surreal elements to re-create the paranoid feeling of not knowing if it’s day or night or what will happen next that some prisoners have reported after months in a campone. What will fit for your larp?
 ==Fader 3: Scenography==
''360-degree illusion vs. modeling''
How does your larp look? Do you aim for a 360° illusion, 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 objects that have a function in the game? Do you accept that an object represents something else than what it really is?
==Fader 4: Openness==
''Transparency vs. secrecy''
Is information about the game – such as character descriptions or events that are going to happen – secret for the players or can anyone read it? Is it actively facilitated that you share secrets be- fore before the game start? Transparency can make it easier for players to help each other play and create a stronger drama, but it will ruin any surprises for the players. There are also intermediate possibilities where there are secrets for some of the players, but not all, or where the players themselves choose what to reveal.
==Fader 5: Character creation responsibility==
''Organizer vs. player''
Who creates the characters? Do the organizers write them? Do the players? Or maybe they are created together during a pre- game workshop? Combinations of these are also possible; for ex- ampleexample, where the organizers create the characters, but the players develop them during a workshop before the larp. Player-created characters might make the players more attached to the char- acters characters and relieves the organizers of some of the work. On the other hand, organizer-created characters might make it easier to create a setting and fiction coherent with your vision.
==Fader 6: Player motivationStory engine==
''Competitive vs. collaborative''
What is the goal of motivates the players in your game? Fulfilling some plot described in their character description? Winning? Immerse as much as possible into his or her character? Or creating the most interesting story together with the other players? Having the players motivated by obtaining some goal something to win or winning is often considered a “gamist” approachgoal to obtain, while “immersionist” be it individually or “narrativist” approaches is found on the other end of the scalecollectively, where the story or the characters are most important. There are many tools that you can use be an easy way to introduce any of these player motivations in your gamemotivate players, especially for example clear plots for beginners. This is the characters or different sorts of competitive elementscompetition approach. These will influence On the players´ motivation other hand, you often get more interesting stories and feelings of achievement stronger player experiences when taking part in your larp. What should motivate the players in your game?collaborate – for example, by deliberately getting their characters into trouble, i.e. [[Playing to lose|playing to lose]].
==Fader 7: Meta-techniques==
''Intrusive vs. discrete''
[[Meta-technique|Metatechniques]] are techniques for giving information to the players, but not the characters, during the game. Examples will be given during the summer school, but can for example be secret “inner” [[monologues ]] that are held played out during the larp. The players can hear these, the characters cannot, but nonetheless, they can be an aid for creating stronger drama. Metatechniques may of course be turned completely off (although this is rare). If they’re metatechniques are used in a game, they might be intrusive or discreetdiscrete. Examples of intrusive metatechniques are techniques that forces force all other play players to stop while it takes parthappens, while a more discrete techniques technique might be, for example be , having access to a special room where players can go to act out scenes from the past or the future. Will metatechniques fit with your larp? If so, will you use discrete or intrusive ones?This fader illustrates the combination of the amount of meta-techniques used and their degree of intrusiveness.
==Fader 8: PlausibilityLoyalty to setting==
''Playability vs. plausibility''
Often in larp design, you’ll encounter Larpwrights often have to consider the trade off tradeoff between playability and plausibility. When making a historical game, for example, having a female factory owner is might be highly implausible. However, it might be very playable – creating lots of interesting drama and intrigues for the players to use in the larp. In most games, you leave out the characters that have nothing to contribute to the drama, even though it would be plausible to have them there. Sometimes, you make unlikely twists to make the outcome of a story unpredictable. How true will you trade off playability versus plausibilitybe to your setting?A plausible story might be a requirement for players to believe and immerse into the fiction. But, the players also need drama and often the least plausible setups create the most drama.
==Fader 9: Game master style==
''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? 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.
==Fader 10: Bleed-in==
''Designing close to home vs. differentiation''
Do you use elements from the players´ 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 players’ own experiences or background might create a stronger emotional experience, but also has its downsides: Making making the larp 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? Or might it just do more harm to your game when you don’t have the cushion of this divide?* [[Bleed]]
==Fader 11: Player pressure==
''Pressure on players (hardcore) vs. pressure on characters (pretense)''
There are some things in larp that might be hard are difficult to play out. HungerHun- ger, violence, sleep deprivation, drinking, sex and drug abuse 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, or do ? Do you put shelter the players from the pressure on the characters only by using replacements like boffer swords, padded 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 roleplay role-play and enjoy other aspects of the game might be hampered. Where will you put the pressure in your game?
==Fader 12: Player freedom==
''Sandbox vs. railroading''
==The cost of complexity and the restrictions of the faders==
 
The Mixing Desk of Larp is a work in progress. 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.
Getting to know about all of this, you might be eager to try out it all, manipulating and adjusting all the faders to your heart’s content. This might be a bad idea – and it might not even be possible. If you push all the faders on a sound equalizer all the way to the top, the only thing that happens is that the sound quality gets worse. The same thing might happen when you over-adjust the faders of the Mixing Desk of Larp. When all the faders are adjusted, you might dilute the effect of the most important parts of your larp. Think about when to adjust a fader, and when to leave in a more neutral position.
Also, fader adjustment might place restrictions on other fader choices. Making a larp with only player created characters might force you to use minimalist scenography, simply because you have no idea what characters the players will create. Pushing the metatechniques-fader all the way to intrusive might make it impossible to have a goal of 360-degree illusion, since the metatechniques will breach the illusion, and so forth.
 
==Open framework==
 
The Mixing Desk of Larp is a work in progress. 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.
==Video presentation==

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