Some metaphysical things
Sometimes, when looking at a larp design, we miss some logic or further explanations that will allow us to understand what’s the plan, should we need more details or logic.
Where are the tales being told: The Bard’s House
The Bard’s House is a physical representation of the world where the characters have been living since they were first conceived by their author. It doesn’t have an obvious connective place to the “real” world, like a visible portal, so it can be assumed that it is in another alternate plane of existence, where not all rules of the real world apply. The exact nature of this space, or why only the characters are present is a fact that it is interiorized as correct.
The palace where the larp takes place, becomes The Bard’s House, and you’ve been living and playing your characters for… forever, noone has stopped being their Roles as Shakespeare has been universally read since it was first written and published, although your personalities can and will differ from the Role you’ve been playing since… forever.
As conceptual as it is, some of you might remember feeling your Author moulding you, in a sort of benevolent or malevolent hand (Caliban most probably wouldn’t have a kind memory of their conception), but that was ages ago, for all that matter, your Author is long gone, as the play has not changed.
Thespians vs Roles
For the long and short of it, your whole “character sheet”, comprises an off-play personality is the Thespian (or larper’s Character), and the in-play personality is the role as written, the Role, however, there is no duality or multiple personality disorder, it’s just one mental entity, knowing how to perform their in-play character, although, as stated before, your character might not like another character, but in-play, you’ll have to make your love shine or your hatred real (if you want)
Time in The Bard’s House
The passing of time is quite irrelevant, especially for those living in The Bard’s House. You’ve been playing yourselves forever, but as you might imagine, your time flows as your readers make it happen, hence, you can be read very fast or slow, but time is very different than in the “real” world. This is important as it also clarifies the feeling of “about to be read” that you have during the larp.
Why can the larp even happen?
Given what has been described in the preceding paragraphs, one may argue that it is impossible for any kind of unscripted interaction to happen between characters of the same or different plays. However, for some completely ineffable reason, Shakespeare has stopped being read. For the first time in… forever, the Roles are freed of the weight of the script, and they can become Thespians, instead of just stuck to their Role, allowing their ideas, hitherto silenced, to be fully freely expressed.
On Characters and their personalities
To understand the potential lack of parallelism between a character as perceived in-play (Character) and off-play (Thespian) personalities, we have to understand: How are characters conceived?. In The Bard’s Tale, the author considers the characters existence and begins thinking about them, gives them a personality that might be modified through the writing of the play, through different drafts previous to the first publication of the book. These changes of personality leave a distinct imprint that starts to diverge the in-play and off-play personalities of a character.
Furthermore, there are other elements that are affecting the Thespian, for instance, when being read, characters portray their parts in the reader’s mind, hence, a connection is made between the character and the reader. This happens in a subconscious way and it’s completely irrelevant to the casual reader – character connection. However, if a reader reads over and over a particular character or play, the connection becomes intense, as the reader starts also flowing back on the character’s personality.
Being universally read, Shakespeare’s Characters tend to be averaged to the intended play by the author, as all the deviations caused by the imaginations of readers can actually “cancel” each other, so if a reader imagines some character to be portrayed shyly and another reader portrays the same character as bold, the influence of both readers cancel each other, leaving the original trait intact.
However, being read several times (hundreds) with a specific mental image or interpretation can result in the Thespian personality to diverge from the in-play personality with the trait that has been imagined before, and furthermore, their readings in the future would represent this change. This also can be considered as the way society re-interprets plays and characters as the society culture evolves and changes.
Therefore, as described above, that your character’s personality might not align with what the play states about your personality, hence, Hamlet can be a happy-go-lucky character that has to play his role as the saddened Prince of Denmark.