Article:
LARP Plot Tips: Adding Flair

This is yet another post about alternative treasure that you can add on your modules. Most of the time when we talk about adding atmosphere to the treasure, plot teams simply add jewelry of some sort with an in-game value attached to it. While this is a nice step in the right direction, the point I can't stress enough is that treasure does not need to have a monetary value.

This is where pieces of flair come in. Just like in the movie Office Space, flair are little knick-knacks that you may find on a module that add atmosphere to the game. While a lot of times they are just used to enhance stories and, well, add flair to the game, you can use these as points of information for other plotlines you may be running at this event or even an event later in the year.

When using flair, you want to train your players to hold on to the items in case they are valuable. If you haven't used flair before, then almost every piece should have some minor impact on one of your plotlines. It should be enough to make something easier to piece together, but not necessary to the plot. Once your players are used to the idea of valuable flair, I would make at least half of all the flair you put out to be useful in some way or another.

Here are some ways you can implement flair into your game.

Maps
The easiest way to implement flair is to add a map or part of a map to the treasure. The map might have a stock of something valuable or it might give the players an idea of where a certain NPC will be going. Either way, when players see a map, they automatically assume it's valuable and will hold onto that item. This is a good way to start implementing flair into the game.

Journals
If you have the time to write them and have them look in-period, excerpts from journals are exteremely valuable as pieces of flair. You can use these to give more information on a historic character, insight into what actions you can expect someone or something to make, or even passwords or secret passages to get into laires. If you've cultivated the roleplaying portion of your game, you might find players will hold on to journal entries long after their usefullness is expended.