Odysseus: Style of play

The first run is just around the corner and before the game kicks off we would like to share a few key points about our vision. A shared vision between the organizers and the players is the key to a successful experience. This blog post describes the style of play we have tried to create for our players and that we wish for our players to aim for. We hope that our players will read it carefully to maximize the chances for a successful experience for all.

​Themes & style of play

The style of the game is a combination of ‘Hollywood drama’ and everyday life. We are not aiming for full realism as there are things happening at breathtaking speed and many near soap opera level plots in the characters. Despite this heightened drama, the overall feel should be characters living their ordinary lives in very extraordinary times. We hope that you can experience epic scenes and get an abundance of drama out of them, but still keep a touch of realism with you to have the scenes feeling relatable and real even though the topics at times might be unbelievable.

The game runs for approximately 48 hours without scheduled breaks. When you are in the ingame areas you live and breathe as your character, please leave out all unnecessary real world discussions and comments. Short out-of-character check-ins on comfort and safety can be had as well as subtly agreeing on details on setting a scene, however longer calibration discussions with someone should be had in the player safety room or some other offgame area. Stepping out of the game for a breather is always allowed and you can visit the player safety space at any time.

We strongly encourage you all to play inclusively! If someone asks if they can help, consider it a request from a player to be included and if at all possible agree to include them. In the world of Odysseus the human race is in a situation where everyone should be useful. If someone doesn’t have any useful skills, they should start learning some.

With a pre-written larp it is important that you play your character as it is written with their history and ambitions, hopes and flaws. However, when the larp starts it is up to you to steer the character’s story and the level of intensity the story takes. Give attention to your character’s specified core connections, but beyond that feel free to focus on the themes that most speak to you! The two days of play are the time to address all old wounds and family troubles, because the world may end at any second and tomorrow may never come.

With the exception of a few characters whose players have already been briefed on it, there aren't any predetermined ends or destinies for your character. Their fate is yours to shape! The fate of characters not your own should also be in the hands of their players, never try to kill off another player’s character without their consent.

This is not a game to be hacked, won or overachieved. There are times when your character cannot win or choose the outcome you would like to - this is part of the design and exploring the themes. You will get the most out of this larp when you are willing to also embrace the failures and tragedies.

There are a lot of heavy themes present in the larp which are unavoidable to some degree. You can always exit a scene that makes you uncomfortable but we cannot guarantee that you won't encounter these during the larp. Such themes include least the following:
​

• violence, death, suicide, murder
• war, war crimes
• substance abuse
• medical gore
• discrimination based on socio-economic background or non-human status
• loud noises (spaceship sounds)
• flashing lights (during certain events)

​Clockwork & larp on rails

Odysseus is not a sandbox larp. There is an abundance of agency and decisions to be made both on a character level and on a larger scale but some aspects of the larp are firmly on rails. Odysseus has a predetermined course which it will follow from the beginning to the end. While we are putting quite a bit of effort into hiding the rails under plausible ingame decisions, it is important to understand that this is not a larp where you can choose your own adventure or drastically change the course of the larger story.

Though the broader narrative of Odysseus is pre-planned, the larp as a whole is still a sum of the individual stories of 104 player characters. Inside Odysseus, there is plenty of player agency and clashing personal goals to be explored.

The core clockwork element of the larp is making a hyperspace jump every 2 hours and 47 minutes for the entire duration of the larp, day and night. In order to do this, the marines must complete land missions to retrieve “beacons”, the scientists must solve puzzles within these beacons leading to the next destination, the bridge crew must calculate the flight path and steer the ship, the engineers must fix the ship and prepare it for the jump, the pilots and sometimes the marines must fight off the enemy until it is safe to jump, and the medics must keep the sickbay running and patch up any wounded.

For the clockwork to function it is important that everyone reports to their shifts on time and if you are unable to do so either sort it out ingame or inform organizers. You can volunteer to work outside your shift to help out but it is always up to the player on shift to decide if help is needed. While a significant part of the larp for these character groups is focused around fulfilling these tasks, there is also a lot of freetime for you to play personal plots. 

For civilians, the larp will be more focused on the emotional side of experiencing a world-ending catastrophe and trying to shape the society amidst the chaos. Characters involved in politics will be rebuilding the government and in charge of making the final decisions after martial law ends. Characters without a shift have an apprenticeship position which gives them the opportunity to participate in some aspects of the clockwork.

Themes of war

Odysseus is a larp about war and the terrible actions taken in the name of survival. During the larp there will be opportunities for thrilling adventure and heroism with celebrations of victories big and small.

But the characters also need to make horrible choices and carry out orders that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. We hope that our players allow themselves to also explore these more difficult themes and to see that even those who are considered “good” are capable of – and will resort to – doing terrible things when desperate enough. Our aim is to give players a chance to experience the stories behind legends and see how easy it is to glorify terrible actions in order to silence a guilty conscience.

The themes for Odysseus can be summarized as the Cycle of Violence. Odysseus is a story of how terrible actions keep causing terrible actions over and over again. And how people become a part of this cycle, repeating and repaying for the mistakes of their ancestors.

Despite war being the central subject of Odysseus, the central message is anti-war. Democracy, human rights, and equality are core values of our team. We do not support any actions against these values anywhere in the world and hope that our players approach the story with this in mind.

Troubleshooting

Finally, what to do if the larp isn’t working for you?

If your core contacts or plots are not working, you can first talk with your co-players. You can ask for a calibration discussion, and if needed involve our crew in player safety. You can also contact our run-time GM through the EOC Datahub to ask about your character and their plots. However, if you have urgent issues needing GM intervention or guidance our player safety is the fastest route. You can always go and talk to player safety if you are not sure what to do, have questions about a plot, or just need to vent.

A character’s additional contacts and as well as their NPC contacts can be connections who can offer more information on past or present matters as well as provide activities to explore. If you find yourself at a loss on what to play on, your character can get involved in their dynasty’s matters, political play or religion:
​

• What happens in their dynasty? 
• What are the most important things to your character when it comes to building a new society?
• What party do they belong to? Are their interests represented in politics?
• Could they seek solace from religion?
• Or question their previous idea of religion?

If you’d rather do something practical, you can explore your character’s wartime apprentice role. While we don’t advise you to abandon your main tasks in the game, there should be plenty of time to approach additional aspects of Odysseus.

To summarize: if you feel like your play isn’t working, ask for help! While the game is running there is plenty to be done to remedy any experience that is not working. Approach player safety sooner rather than later!