most larps i've been involved with have encouraged/required a 'dark secret' and/or 'fatal(ish) character flaw' ... but short of putting it on a badge, they rarely ever get revealed - since players think it's awfully clever of them to have this secret motivation.
but, as you suggest, a larp is *theatre*; a live-action, ad-libbed movie. i come back to by earlier comment: i prefer to play cooperatively rather than competitively with others.
and i've tended to find that more in table top than live action roleplaying. tt games tend to be party-centric, so players tend to see the point of cooperation. larps have come to be viewed as everyone-for-themselves scrambles...
the two times i've broken open the 'seal of my secrets' in larps*, to further the game and to try to encourage roleplaying, others have reacted so badly (ic and ooc) that within weeks i've actually left the game entirely. people forget that they can actually *talk* to other players in both ic and ooc modes.
* both times were entangled with plots surrounding my character and the princedom of the current vampire game. months invested in political manoeuvring dashed against the wall of ooc jealousies** (the first time, that my lowly character kept upstaging an st's girlfriend's character; the second time, that my lowly character was not only out-counter-manoeuvring theirs and their whole clan *and* covenant but also, again, jealousy - this time between a bf and gf over ic interactions between my character and her character.)
** if anyone had bothered to talk to me, instead of just about everyone else, the ooc situations could have been resolved, and their ic entanglements likewise. instead, i was forced to reveal ic secrets in response to the way players acted ic over their ooc jealousies. having done so, *other players* then reacted badly (in the roleplaying and personal ethics senses) ... and i chose to leave the games rather than try to salvage what little trust was left between us.
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most larps i've been involved with have encouraged/required a 'dark secret' and/or 'fatal(ish) character flaw' ... but short of putting it on a badge, they rarely ever get revealed - since players think it's awfully clever of them to have this secret motivation.
but, as you suggest, a larp is *theatre*; a live-action, ad-libbed movie. i come back to by earlier comment: i prefer to play cooperatively rather than competitively with others.
and i've tended to find that more in table top than live action roleplaying. tt games tend to be party-centric, so players tend to see the point of cooperation. larps have come to be viewed as everyone-for-themselves scrambles...
the two times i've broken open the 'seal of my secrets' in larps*, to further the game and to try to encourage roleplaying, others have reacted so badly (ic and ooc) that within weeks i've actually left the game entirely. people forget that they can actually *talk* to other players in both ic and ooc modes.
* both times were entangled with plots surrounding my character and the princedom of the current vampire game. months invested in political manoeuvring dashed against the wall of ooc jealousies** (the first time, that my lowly character kept upstaging an st's girlfriend's character; the second time, that my lowly character was not only out-counter-manoeuvring theirs and their whole clan *and* covenant but also, again, jealousy - this time between a bf and gf over ic interactions between my character and her character.)
** if anyone had bothered to talk to me, instead of just about everyone else, the ooc situations could have been resolved, and their ic entanglements likewise. instead, i was forced to reveal ic secrets in response to the way players acted ic over their ooc jealousies. having done so, *other players* then reacted badly (in the roleplaying and personal ethics senses) ... and i chose to leave the games rather than try to salvage what little trust was left between us.