I thought I would start offering a little advice to people out of character on various topics. Feel free to take or leave the advice, or to vehemently disagree or adorn me with praise. Anyway, I have made several characters recently for people visiting the game, and it's given me some ideas for ways to keep up with your character at games. I thought I would share what I've come up with and see if it helps anyone.

One of the problems I, and I presume others, come up against in the LARP is remembering everything that's going on in the game. We are currently around 25 active players both online and that attend game sessions, and it's hard to keep track of people, plots, goals, etc. To help with this, I have started taking notes on my character sheet to remind myself of actions I need to take during downtimes. To save time, I usually only write down anything that I didn't work on in my last downtime, or that is particularly important and then refer to my last downtime to help refresh my memory on what I accomplished at the game to help with that item (for example, if I was trying to gain a title within my covenant in my last downtime, I use that to remind myself of what I did during the game (if anything) to work towards that, and then use that to fuel my actions for that downtime).

All of that helps me with my downtimes, but what do I do at a game session? It's difficult, at best, to remember all of the people I was planning to meet with, the goals I was trying to accomplish, and what I know in game. One of the things I do for people trying out the game is to create characters for them that tie in to plots and create their own. I then write down a short summary of the character, some hints on how to roleplay them, a list of people they know and how they know them, and a list of goals for the night. Of course, players are free to play the character how they like, and to interpret my notes, but it gives them a good place to start.

As I was making one of these sheets up recently, I realized that this could be helpful for normal players as well. Start by writing down all of the people in the game you interact with regularly (this may be a daunting task for some of the more social characters), and what you think of them, what you owe them or they owe you, what you know about them, and what you want from them, as it applies. Basically, give yourself as much information about the character as you can. For example, you might write:
Remy Leveaux: Played by Nick, the Head ST. Is fucking awesome. Has great hair. Dreamy eyes. Knows voodoo. Claims he can see the future. I want to talk to him about how looking into his eyes make me feel like I am diving into a bottomless pool of emerald water.

Referring to your notes at the game when Remy walks up, you can remind yourself that you need to talk to him about his eyes. This is kind of a silly example, but writing down details about a character might be helpful for some players. You can reference a lot of this information from the website's Who's Who section (character names, who plays them, etc.)

The same is true for goals. Even more than who you know, I highly recommend thinking about your character's goals for the session before you head to the game, so you know what you're trying to accomplish. I also recommend having at least three goals for every game session. Write them down, and then refer to them if you can't remember what you want to be doing. If you aren't sure what your goals should be, or would like some help fleshing them out, talk to me or one of the other STs.

One way to come up with three goals is to think about your Clan, Covenant, and the Corporation. What do you want to get out of each? Are you trying to become Priscus? Is there a new ritual you want to learn? Do you need to do some work on a project for the corporation? Once you have finalized your goals, write them down in as much detail as possible, including what you are trying to achieve, how you are planning to achieve it, and who the plan involves.

For example, I might write down:
Be the prettiest: Remy is one of the most attractive characters in the game, but he wants to make sure he is the prettiest. To achieve this goal, Remy is going to steal some acid from the labs, and then rig up a door so the acid falls on the person passing under it as the open it. He hopes to disfigure John Smith Face, because the bastard is so eerily beautiful. During my last downtime, Remy successfully stole the acid without being detected (at least he believes no one saw him), and set up the trap. Now all he has to do is get Face to walk through the door he's rigged and keep everyone else away until then. Oh, and make sure he's unconnected to the crime. Hopefully he can make this work.

Obviously, I'm stretching a little here, there's no way even Face is as pretty as Remy, but it sets up what Remy has done so far to damage Face, and what he hopes to accomplish during the game. I doubt I could forget this goal, but if I have 2 or more other ones, I might want it written down so I don't forget anything.