Practical

Timetable

This is the schedule that will be used on the 5th June 2021 run of Alex the Great. All times are UTC.

You’ll see here that we only post each Week’s briefing notes into the Discord server just before the start of the conversation. That’s for the benefit of those participants who want to be energized by the unexpected — if people would rather know in advance, that’s absolutely fine, and they can find the briefings for all four weeks here on this website.

Pre-larp

22nd April: open signup.
29th April: close signup. Circulate names for flagging.
6th May: inform participants who have got a place. Open character creation form.
20th May: all characters should be created by now. Create Discord server. Invite everyone to it. Ask for Lines. Invite participants to add content to their ‘Facebook’ channel.
5th June, 1345 UTC: everyone should be present on Discord. All test video and audio. Greet friends, etc, before the start.

Week 1

1400: the official start of the larp. In the group video channel, no video, participants muted except for questions etc. Organizers run through safety and the timetable. Post the Week 1 conversation pairings, including which of the video channels each pair is to go to. Post the Week 1 briefing notes.
1410: Week 1 conversation starts.
1430: Week 1 conversation finishes. Each participant submits their votes into an online form. Participants take a break.
1445: everyone should be present in the group video channel, no video, participants muted except for questions etc. Post the results of the Week 1 voting.

Week 2

1450: Post the Week 2 pairings. Post the Week 2 briefing notes, and everyone goes to the indicated channel to start their conversation.
1510: Week 2 conversation finishes. Each participant submits their votes into an online form. Participants take a break.
1525: everyone should be present in the group video channel, no video, participants muted except for questions etc. Post the results of the combined Weeks 1 and 2 voting.

Week 3

1530: Post the Week 3 pairings. Post the Week 3 briefing notes, and everyone goes to the indicated channel to start their conversation.
1550: Week 3 conversation finishes. Each participant submits their votes into an online form. Participants take a break.
1605: everyone should be present in the group video channel, no video, participants muted except for questions etc. Post the results of the combined Weeks 1, 2, and 3 voting.

Week 4

1610: Post the Week 4 pairings. Post the Week 4 briefing notes, and everyone goes to the indicated channel to start their conversation.
1630: Week 4 conversation finishes. Each participant submits their votes into an online form. Participants take a break.
1640: everyone should be present in the group video channel, with video and audio, in character as their Alex. Announce the results of all four Weeks of voting combined, in a ceremony, as if on TV. Each Alex gets the chance to say a few words, and an overall winner is declared. The end of the larp.

Post-larp

1650: debrief, audio only in the group video channel, a round in which each participant can speak for a minute uninterrupted and unquestioned about their thoughts and feelings, if they wish. Speaking is optional, so is listening.
1700: official end of the session. Participants can remain on the server to socialize as they wish.

Safety

All signups are circulated in advance. Each person who has signed up is asked to contact the organizers with any red or yellow flags that they have: and and they can also request not to be paired with a particular person for reasons of preference that aren’t related to safety/comfort. More details on our main site.

The Door is Open at all times. Participants can leave the game without needing to explain why.

A pair can mutually agree to end the conversation early, if they wish: or either of them can leave it at any time, without needing to explain why.

They can also mutually agree to take a short break during the conversation, for any reason.

During play, participants can Cut play, and can either resume afterwards or not, as they prefer, with or without explanation.

Participants can also submit anonymous Lines in advance of play, via a form: and these will be circulated ahead of the session. They will apply to everyone.

Debrief

The debrief is a simple round. Each participant can, if they wish, take up to a minute to express their current thoughts and feelings, without being interrupted or questioned.

Participants can send feedback about the larp or about their experience to the organizers via a separate mechanism. And they can share subsequent reflections with each other on the Discord server, which will remain active after the larp has ended: each run of Alex the Great will have its own private archive area that is only accessible to participants of that run.

Variant — long Alex

One of the limitations of Alex the Great as presented here is that each participant only gets to converse with four others. So, in a session of 10 people, they will meet less than half of their fellow-participants.

If you want, you can expand the larp to include more conversations — just by adding extra weeks to the season. You’ll maybe want to think of new themes, questions, and activities: or just recycle the existing ones.

Make sure that all the participants are happy to have this longer experience, though. A lot of people find online larping tiring, and to commit for more than a few hours may be difficult for some.