Article:
Interview with fantasy novelist and Alliance LARP founder Michael A. Ventrella - Part 1

Author and experienced LARP organizer Michael A. Ventrella offers insight into the world of running a LARP. Ventrella has more experience with organizational difficulties than most—he was one of the key players in the controversial NERO/Alliance LARP split. The disagreement is primarily over rights, territory and contracts. Ventrella has since moved past this legal battle to co-invest in Faire Play, a Pennsylvania-based medieval faire-style ground perfect for Alliance LARP. The camp is also rented out to other LARPs and organizations.

Having authored multiple rule books for his game system, Ventrella decided to author a novel called Arch Enemies set in Ashbury, the fantasy setting of Alliance LARP. When he isn’t working on a world of fancy and fantasy, Ventrella runs a successful legal business in Tannersville, Pennsylvania. He also appears at many East Coast conventions and authors his blog—there, readers can find his interviews with other authors of interest.

Alltern8.com contributor Tara M. Clapper questioned Mr. Ventrella about the success of Alliance LARP, the split with NERO, Arch Enemies and future publications and projects.

Tara M. Clapper: Why did you choose to put all of the legal information about the NERO/Alliance LARP split on the Alliance Web site?

Michael A. Ventrella: Because there was a lot of misinformation out there. Joe Valenti, who owns NERO International, posted all sorts of lies about what the suit was about and what had happened, and I wanted to get the truth out there. And I thought it was important to tell the entire story from the beginning and not just deal with the lawsuit.

TMC: Being a lawyer probably came in handy. Were you a lawyer prior to the legal activities with NERO?

MAV: Yes, in fact I was already a lawyer when we started NERO. (I'm older than I look, apparently).

TMC: Putting your legal expertise aside, where did you learn all of the successful business strategies employed in promoting and expanding your LARP, especially after such a potentially detrimental controversy?

MAV: I had been with NERO since its start in 1989, and in 1993 I moved to NYC, thinking that the time was right to make this a full time business. I figured if I couldn't make it in the most populated part of the country, it couldn't be done. I posted flyers everywhere, had a web page (in those early days it was just an AOL web page and a section on AOL), went to conventions and promoted it the best I could. We had good turn out but the fact is that there's really only so much of an audience out there, and while I paid my bills, I was living in poverty.

While the Alliance still makes a profit (which goes right back into the game), money is no longer my main concern. I do quite well as a lawyer and don't need the income. Admittedly, I have not put as much of an effort into promotion as before, although the individual chapters are doing all sorts of things. My job now is more of a coordinator of all the chapters.

TMC: At what point did you realize that NERO/Alliance LARP was going to be a huge cultural phenomenon?

MAV: I'm still not sure it is! LARPing certainly has but the average person still has never heard of NERO or the Alliance, I'd say. Some things have helped (like the movie Monster Camp which is about one of my chapters in Seattle) and the recent G4 TV documentary which was about my own "Headquarters" chapter in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Back in 1991 or so I wrote an article for Dragon Magazine about NERO that I believe really was the starting point for almost every fantasy medieval LARP out there. By the next year we had an event with almost 400 people! However, all those people bought our rule book and said "Hey, I can do this in my area" and within a few years there were similar LARPs all over the country. So if anything was the turning point, I guess that's it. You can all blame me for my Dragon article.

TMC: What's the biggest falsehood out there about Alliance LARP?

MAV: I don't know! What are people saying about it?

Seriously, I am not a vengeful or petty guy. Sometimes people come to me and say "You must be really mad about what they're saying about you on the NERO boards" and I have no idea what they're talking about. Seriously, I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff. Grudges are heavy and weigh you down, and life's too short for crap like that.

TMC: How many regular players attend Alliance LARP?

MAV: Depends on the chapter of course. Our regular events at our site in northeastern Pennsylvania usually have about 60 to 70 players right now, and maybe 20 to 30 NPCs. That's a far cry from the old days when we'd have about 150 PCs per event. But most LARPs are like that, especially on the East Coast where there are quite a few LARPs in each state.

TMC: What is the balance of role play to combat in a typically Alliance LARP event?

MAV: One thing that always separated the Alliance from a lot of other LARPs (in my opinion) is our huge emphasis on role playing and the atmosphere of the game. Battles are fun but they are not always the best way to solve the problem at hand. You really need to end each event with a big climactic battle (just like in an action movie) but that shouldn't be the point of the game. Our games are about telling a story.

In that same sense we really emphasize costumes and make up and decorations. We now own our own site which has allowed us to build a medieval looking tavern and guilds and store props and costumes on the site instead of renting some Boy Scout camp and having to deal with whatever they have. Our players are prohibited from wearing shorts or white tennis shoes or other anachronisms that I tend to see when I go to certain other LARP websites that shall remain nameless. All of this helps players to get into the feel of the game and keep in character, which promotes role playing tremendously.

We also have (in my opinion) the biggest and best rule book of any LARP, which is full of advice for players and NPCs, examples of plotlines that have worked, guides for writing plots and lots of pictures to show what we expect of our players. This has helped because if you buy the book and read it first, you know what we expect.
 

Part 2 is avaiable by clicking here

To learn more about Michael A. Ventrella, Alliance LARP and the Faire Play site, visit:
Author site: www.MichaelAVentrella.com
Alliance LARP: www.AllianceLARP.com
Faire Play: www.FairePlay.org