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Star Wars larp 4 review

The fourth Star Wars larp by Ivo Turk and Matija Mihoković felt fresh. The reason for it was the entire setting reset thing. While the first three larps were played in the post-episode 6 timeline, this one was played in pre-episode 4. The characters were new, as was the in-game location. I played a character from Alderaan called Wones Ann. Unlike my previous Star Wars characters - which were basically social - this one was armed to the teeth, sporting my new NERF gun (which are used to represent blasters in this larp).

The character was mostly pre-generated, with me submitting only a few basics such as character type and faction. This is one of the few larps offering full pre-generated characters, and (apart from the occasional hard to remember name) I found that this option works well enough. It was also interesting to note that other characters I was immediately connected with were also made in the same fashion. Character relationships - as described on the character sheet - were lacking in description a bit, but we got that part sorted out with a GM before the larp started. And the meta-list of paired player and character names released a few days before larp helped immensely in remembering all the names.

Compared to first three Star Wars larps, this one seemed to be more of a personalized story. I had a lot to do and to role-play, but I did not notice a single, overarching plot elements that would encompass the entire larp - like the last three Star Wars larps had. In my opinion, this was an improvement. First two events had closed-off meetings which resulted in some pacing issues (especially for characters not having access to said meetings). Third event didn't have any of that, but it had a strangely chaotic ending where a lot of new characters appeared and there was a lot of shooting. This event had none of that. Apart from some imperial guardsmen questioning people, the rest of the tempo was left to the players.

As a change of pace, instead of the standard socializing / information gathering mode in which most of the players usually slip in, in this larp I was mostly following others - providing support, protection and firepower. As such, I got to shoot four other characters during the larp. Ended up stabbed once, and stunned once. A good ratio, I would say :)

Despite some issues (with character relations, and the fact that it ended rather soon), this larp's pacing worked for me and it ran more smoothly than previous larps from the series. Overall, I had fun on this larp.

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