Storytellers, do you ever have notepads with scribbles or long email chains of the storyline. Furthermore, not sure when to schedule it into the event. Trello free version gives us the tools needed to organize an event. I will walk you through a mockup LARP and how to incorporate Trello into your game. You are able to add all your storytellers to your general board. If you have a secret story running (which we all do) then you can make another board and invite the privileged or just keep it to yourself. This type of organization works well with a heavy story based LARP.
Let’s get started with lists
The first thing that we need to do is create some lists. Lists are your headers. As your work goes from concept to practical name your lists in that progression from left to right. In this example made this mockup LARP a Saturday only with 2 separate storylines running six hours. You can easily expand this to a standard weekend.
On this storyboard, we have Concept, Elaborate, Pending Approval, Saturday Crew 1, Saturday Crew 2.
Cards are your content
As your team brainstorms and creates ideas on what could be possible, they create cards. Cards are your files containing all the information of that piece of the story. Your cards can receive labels which will help you balance what kind of module it is. You are able to add more than one label per card. Say you want a break from combat this will visually break that up for you. All your card can be dragged and drop as they progress. Also, double-clicking we drill into that card to the layout what we are planning to happen. Here is an example of card creation and labeling.
Drilling into cards and elaborating
Drilling into your card allow you to create a description of your module. As well, it allows you set who is working on this from your team. The ability to set a due date. You can even create a checklist. In the example below, we wrote on the module. We can print and keep all that information in one spot. Then when your lead story marshal approves it they will schedule it into the event. Lastly, if you have a document that has a writeup separate to Trello you can add that file to the card
Printing and archiving
Once you have your entire event scheduled you will be able to print all the schedule lists. Then print the cards of what is happening. If you are one of the lucky few that are operating their LARP in a place with electricity and internet you will be able to modify as your event progresses.
Archiving cards and lists remove them from the board and it saves them for review. You can’t delete anything. Just FYI because I do get asked.
Conclusion
Give Trello a chance to help you organize your storyline. With the ability to assign team members to individual pieces of plot it allows you to delegate easily. The price is right, free. You can’t go wrong. There are all sorts of additional plugins you can add to enhance your Trello experience for a few dollars. I would suggest trying the basic model first and seeing how your team adapts to it first. Get your LARP on.
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