Or: Method Acting For The Future Methuselah

Much of the fun that comes from participating in a LARP is the fact that you are, literally, an actor on an ever-changing stage. It’s unscripted, chaotic, and fluid. You come in with a character concept, a neat set of powers and abilities, and maybe some classy outfit you’ve cooked-up up for your character…and after that it’s a complete unknown.

Awesome.

But there is as well an aspect to ALL our characters (except perhaps those playing Ghouls…that’s a different essay) that we should keep in mind, because it is the main source of all the stories, drama, and horror we’re likely to find ourselves IC:

We’re all dead.

Open Casket

You’re dead. You don’t need to eat. You don’t need to breathe. Technically you don’t need to blink. But then, we are just playing vampires. But try this as an exercise sometime, when things are a little slow in Elysium:

Hold still.

Just…don’t move. As dead bodies, vampires wouldn’t make the little incidental movements that most of us do as humans: bouncing our knees, sighing heavily, stretching, and thrumming our fingers. Vampires are more naturally in a state of rest.

As in: dead.

I’ve tried this myself over the last couple of weeks. Things are quiet…no real activity around me…

So I just cease moving; pick a spot on the floor and stare at it. Or if in a conversation, I try to only make movements that are necessary to complete the task: speaking, and looking at my ‘audience.’

IC, if a dead body that walks doesn’t need to move, it doesn’t have to. I’ll just stand stock still until something or someone comes along that deserves my character making the effort to act like he’s alive again.

It’s not easy acting like a statue for ten minutes or more, but when you do it while keeping in mind “this is probably how a vampire would really work,” it takes on a bit of a zen-like quality. Plus, I think it’s just dang creepy.

‘Woe Is Me’ In Motion

You’re dead. Even though you may not need to move, as stated above, you still have to if you want to remain walking dead for very long. But how you move will have most likely changed for your character after she’s been a bloodthirsty undead predator for a while.

Whatever your Clan, concept or background, you are a predator by necessity. Taking advantage of others for what you need is a vital survival skill for any Kindred. You’re also dead: your body isn’t as limited physically as it once was while you were alive. Once you have those things in mind, think about translating that mentality into how you carry yourself IC:

- Perhaps you now overcompensate in trying to look like, and pass yourself off as, ‘human.’ Try walking/moving ‘more normal than normal;’ maybe this comes across as…’fluidly robotic,’ is a phrase that comes to mind.

- Perhaps when you’re not having to worry about acting human (i.e. you’re in Elysium) you move more blatantly like a predator: your movements are more serpentine, or feral, or just strange.

- Try sizing-up people with your eyes the first time you meet them, gauging them to see if they’re either a threat or a potential target…or both. In the Camarilla, this might be as ‘simple’ as an Intelligence + Politics test, but that really only helps your sense of ‘social’ security.

A Plastic Smile

You’re dead. Your emotional reactions are no longer based on chemical or hormonal processes, but exist as echoes, as memories. You only really feel an emotion because your body-memory is telling you:

“Oh, yeah…you should really be feeling guilty you hit that guy and shattered his jaw. Right?”

That’s why Humanity exists as essentially a written guideline for Vampires to follow: because it’s no longer instinctual. But, that’s a whole other essay (tags Drake ).

Perhaps your body only remembers emotions in their extremes: that sad is SAD, and that happy edges almost on this side of MANIC.

In any case, when you’re IC, think about adding an inhuman quality to your emotional reactions. For example, if you laugh IC, try and make it seem forced…or regretful…or entirely false. Or even better, try not to laugh when you might be expected to; as if your body forgot what humor was for a minute there.

Because, maybe it did.

Now, anger is a different story. Anger, jealousy, fear; the path to the Dark Si-

I mean…Beast, are they. The “happy” end of the spectrum is a difficult one to be maintained by bloodthirsty undead predators. The “angry” end is much easier, because you all have that Beast within you just dying for an excuse to vent a little. But even when acting “angry” some things should be kept in mind:

Your emotions, as mentioned, have been more than dulled by the Embrace. The little things that might have bugged your character while alive might still mean something, but you might not react the same. It’s no longer a matter of “crying over spilt milk”…your character might literally not be able to.

On the other hand, if your Humanity is particularly low, or you are a Brujah, or it is just a part of your character concept, the little things might be all you need to blow a gasket. Someone bumping into you, or cutting in line at the box office for that new movie…maybe that’s the straw, and you’re the camel with the back problem.

Last Will And Testament

Lastly, some overall things to keep in mind:

Playing in a LARP is supposed to be fun. Being a vampire IC is not supposed to be “fun.” You’re dead. You don’t feel anything like you used to. You’re literally no longer human. You must exist in darkness. As well, you’re cursed to forever drink the blood of the living, and you will most likely degrade into more of a monster as time wears on. And time is something you’ve got a lot of.

If you are acting happy, acting human, or acting like you enjoy being undead, remember that IC, you really are acting.

‘The Masquerade’ is not just a Tradition, it is literally a way of unlife. It’s the truly epic tragedy of this game: striving to maintain a façade of humanity in the face of a deteriorating sense of what it was actually like to be human.

Because, at the same time you are trying to fool the Kine into thinking that you’re one of them…is your character also, perhaps, fooling herself?

Think about that.

The point is, if you keep some of the basic truths about existing as a walking corpse in the back of your mind as you play your character, you can enhance your performance in small ways to fit the situation and, hopefully, as well enhance the role-playing experience for everyone.

Imagine walking into Elysium, and everyone is standing motionless, not talking, unexpressive…because there’s nothing to talk about at present. Do you really want to be the one to give a bunch of immortal monsters a reason to move?

Now that’s scary.

 - Former AST Ross