It could be a problem of scale, plain and simple. It seems to work with 6 players but not with 20. Let’s say that those 20 are approximately broken into 4 groups with concurrent goals, though – maybe each of those sub-groups could have their own medallion? Then it’s more like 4 regular-sized player groups, and the Fan Mail effect can…be in effect.

When I played in the Camarillla, more than a decade ago, they actually had this. After game time, all the players gathered for a few minutes. Anyone coiled nominate anyone else for a prestige award, and explain what awesomeness, helpfulness, or other good things made the deserving. It took, if I recall, just one second and no opposition for the recipient to get their bonus. Most disagreements could be quickly resolved, one way or another, and officers would meet later to handle the rare exceptions.

Many players used that time to learn about neat things they’d missed that time, end to plan to get in on/meet up with in future sessions.

Unsurprisingly, you bring up good points. And if the point of Fan Mail is the giving, hell yes. (In fact, I give you fan mail for that comment.)

I’ve just now realized[1] that part of my “this won’t work” gut reaction is also about being big on the gaming group-mind phenomenon. I see Fan Mail as a group-mind catalyst (based on experience, not just theory), with the giving and the receiving elements, with the publicness of it, etc. When Fan Mail flows, the four or five of us are all sync’ed. I can’t see *that* element happening in a large-form LARP. But that isn’t about reward mechanics in general as it is about a specific sort of effect from a specific reward mechanic.

Clearly, when I hear “Fan Mail” something more specific comes to mind. But I can see all of what you said happening in a LARP with various reward systems.

- Ryan
[1] What do you know, talking ideas out makes me articulate them better! (Hopefully)

The recipient is still getting acknowledgment and respect, as well as mechanical advantage, but they are no longer getting public recognition. So the question is, how much of the value of the fanmail comes from the acknowledgment (“Dave, who I think well of, has concretely demonstrated he like my thing! Woo!”) and how much of it comes from the recognition (“and now everyone knows it! Woo!”).

From my perspective, the recognition is a small amount of cream, But is also something that makes me more than a little bit uncomfortable as any popularity contest would. I prioritize the table as a collection of individual relationships forming a whole, and from that perspective, the recognition is a trivial bonus at best.

To a performer, there is an element where the rest of the table is, among their other roles, audience. From this perspective, the recognition is important because it feeds that particular engine. Possibly even the _most_ important, in which case removing the element of recognition would greatly diminish the value of fan mail. I maybe way off base, but I think this is a fair reflection of your angle of approach.

(This ignores the element of group feedback because, to be frank, it’s fickle and inconsistent. Trying to draw signal from the table rather than from individual players is most likely to just reaffirm whatever biases you’re already carrying).

The problem is, if a big part of the importance of fan mail is based on the importance of recognition (I don’t think it is, but let’s roll with it) the objection to using it in a LARP really brings out all the _bad_ elements of that idea. It’s a cynical interpretation, but the objection is not far removed from “Not enough people are seeing me be awesome, so reward from the people who do see me is pointless” and that is absolutely uncomfortable to me. Recognition is nice, but we should not _need_ it.

So let me reframe the question for you: Is fanmail really about getting it, or is it about _giving_ it? Look at how we use it, with wiggled fingers, even in games that DON’T HAVE IT. We want a way to be able to acknowledge people. Fanmail is not earned, it is given. And with that in mind, how would a LARPer _not_ benefit from some ability to say to his friend “Man, that rocked. Have a cookie.”

-Rob D.

PS – None of which is to say there aren’t lots of interesting ways to change the mechanical implementation of fan mail in different circumstances, including LARPs, but that’s a whole other thing.

That depends on what social problems a “good roleplaying” system is meant to resolve, if any. But you’re right that I’m boiling down Fan Mail’s effects to only one part — mainly because that’s the part that continues to fascinate me.

Could you say more about how I’m being “blinded by [my] instincts as a performer”? I’m not groking that, and I’d like to.

- Ryan

I’ve also toyed with the idea of there being a second bennie when the medallion is given away, for the giver, of possibly a different resource, but wouldn’t start with this kind of additional complication.

I stupidly missed the Burning LARP, to hang out with podcasters, at last Gen Con. I ended up isolated talking to a guy who wasn’t interested in talking, but nerd-dropping a bunch of info about some game I could care less about. I won’t make that mistake again.

Fair enough. The thing about how I see Fan Mail working in games in that it’s a message to everyone that X Dude did a thing someone else likes to see, which is why I don’t believe that you can translate Fan Mail’s effects into a LARP. Which means I took you more literally than intended.

(I also loathe status symbol things like what you’re talking about, but that’s personal baggage I’m copping to.)

I think the “getting the medallion blocks getting another” in an interesting way, if you pace the spending of it. That said, seeing it in action would be fascinating. Depending on the group and its alphas, you’ll either see a vicious cycle or a form of moderation…if it’s awarded obviously and overtly. The hat-vote MVP idea Karen mentioned is interesting, as would turning that from a vote into a lottery (as to diffuse the popularity contest element — more votes means more chances to win, but no guarantee).

This is making me think back to the game Luke & Thor ran at the last Dreamation, regarding the scaling of group dynamics and manipulation thereof.

- Ryan

Let me lay out the more than 140 character thought, and then go into why I’m not sure you’re right.

The whole idea would be to have a good roleplayer “medallion.” This essentially is a status symbol. It shows someone else in the community saw that person’s play as above average. The person with the medallion, who we’ll call… Clyde, gets one XP, bennie, whatever, on turning in the medallion at the end of a session. This would be a one time reward. The medallion blocks getting another medallion, so if you ever want to get the extra XP again you need to give it away. If my contention that it’s a status symbol proves to be true then I think you can count on most people awarding it with some discrimination, and taking the awarding responsibility seriously.

I think my mentioning of fan mail gave you an impression of a currency constantly in flux, whereas I used Fan mail as an example due to the fact that it is given from player to player. I’ve used this kind of instant feedback to good effect in smaller larps, as the gamemaster, but as the size increases it becomes difficult to even know everything that is going on in a LARP, let alone keep track of everyone. The instant-ness does indeed make number 2 occur, but due to the fact that the reward is kept in the hands of power (GM and narrators) it becomes meaningless in it’s rareness and the size of group that can see it given.

Could you unpack that? I don’t think that it is, because Style is given to achieve an effect, not merely to reward. But then I never bought John’s “Style is a reward mechanic for the players to the GM” explanation either, for similar reasons.

Or, rather, it’s not a reward mechanic explicitly the way Fan Mail is. I would buy Style as “Here’s us rewarding each other for this interaction” sort of mechanic, but that’s really about commerce than it is commendation.

- Ryan

- Ryan

There’s a Fan Mail mechanic in Houses? Style is not that mechanic — it’s not given to reward, but spent to do (in a more or less closed economy where someone else gets said Style).

That said, I think I’m getting what you’re driving at, and here’s the thing: there’s no explicit “good roleplaying” award in Houses. However, for said roleplaying, you involve yourself in more interesting shit that other players can do with and to you. So, yes, there’s a little bit of this going on in Houses, but not as Clyde’s initial (albeit limited by 140 characters) thought proposes. I would go farther as to say the system rewards you semi-publicly for being interesting rather than very publicly for “good roleplaying.”

And that’s how I’d probably go about it if I designed an American-style courtly LARP. Which is why right now I don’t feel the need to do one, since I like how Houses works.

- Ryan

What LARP was this?

(Also, I could be bribed into seconding your nomination…)

- Ryan

Of course, the game required people to cross paths, so by the end everyone had talked to one another at least once. If you played damn well but only interacted with 3 people, it won’t be acknowledged, as opposed to the one guy who did one cool thing but it was witnessed by 10.

In a perfect world, there would be an all-seeing, all-knowing being who would reward the good and punish the wicked. I nominate myself to be omnipotent!

- Ryan