The Key Manifesto The discovery of larp has led to a great surge of creative energy, and active participation of people in a society ridden by a passive consumer-ideology. Larp is swimming upstream, in a trend of passivity and ironic resignation. We are social animals, and the active interaction between us, wether in reality or in a fiction, is all we have to unveil our true potential as human beings. Interaction is growth! There is a great potential for growth and development in larps, but the potential has to be realeased, in each of us. Larpers need to mature as much as the form they practise. In the current situation people are using their energy on this form, without the full benefit of it. Larp is an activity with almost endless possibilities for learning about human beings, yourself and others. The better way to release this potential, is by knowing the principles by wich a larp functions, and use them to the better for each participant. The art of larp need to escape the selfinduced shackles of fictional detailism. The way organizers preplan a larp, the settings they create, the roles, the interaction that results from it, and the theories they develop around it; it all suffers under a detailed and rigid conservatism. The traditional larp is burdened with compendiums of dubios literary quality, stuffed with details no normal human may remember when the interaction starts. To deal with this problem they arrange prologues, and leave the misconception of highly detailed backgrounds to linger in the minds of would-be organizers. The players are left with bad conscience because they are not able to adhere to rigid demands of detailism created by fanatics. Professional organizers are highly needed in the development of larp, and must be supported by all larpers, even if they work in unpopular genres. But they must adhere to the principles of this form, if they are to be a considered a boon to the development of live action roleplaying. The use of professional players are contrary to the potential of larp, and to be avoided at all costs. No advanced interaction is possible within a context close to that of professional actors manipulating their public. Professional players only hinder the true participants from expressing themselves. The long term effect of this is to create advanced theater, and to render larp as a form impotent. This manifesto is the key to knowledge on the principles of larps, and as such the key to a future with larps of greater diversity than today, and closer to the true potential of the form. It is the key, but should not be treated as THE FORM itself. Those adhering to this manifesto are daring, possibly stupid, and certainly on their way to a better world!
The Principles
The Keys, first set
The Keys, second set
The Keys, third set
The Keys, fourth set
The Keys, fifth set
These keys are tools. They must be used until they break!These principles are holy. They must never be broken!None shall sign this manifesto. It shall stand alone. It is written by a role. It is not the product of a real man. Anyone may use it, translate it, or develop it, as long as the keys are used and the principles are kept holy.Thus is The Key Manifesto!
|