Playing with Joe Public? Good or Bad?

Coming from the re-enctment end of things I find it odd not having an audience!

However as my group tends to provide quite a bit of interaction some thoughts:-

Have a group that does LH (Living History) like we do near the entrance- we encourage visitors to pass through our camp- we speak to the kids (if old enough to understand!)

'Ahoy there, we will demonstrate some pirate weapons for you and tell you a little about piracy! At the end if you want you can give us some of yer coin as a reward- we'll leave that to you to decide depending on how well we do!'

This is followed (in a roped off area) by a demonstration of sword, pike, axe dagger, pistol, spoon shovel etc. combat with the losers being hauled across to path to our barber surgeon who takes over at the end!

In addition it would be easy for any group doing similar to add a quick guide to the town...

in fact, writing this, it gets better- 3 stages- intro, demo of something, meet new character, in character cautioning + if desired- pirates could offer a bodyguard/ tourguide service?

On the matter of involving the public I did realise there was a reluctance of certain players to be exposed to the public and this will have restricted their play. I haven't seen any posts which are opposed to it generally and reckon that public involvement is a part of the whole game plan for this event - they are a source for coin for the game and if we get decidedly more punters in as I think the economics will require the game to incorporate more numbers. As the person doing the processing of photos for identification and then "wanted" I'll make these suggestions:
1. I think the public do need a clear idea of their role in the plot - would it be possible to print a page of what actually happens as it will affect them? - who the players and factions are; the militia, the guards, the monks, the revenue and the likelihood that they (the public) will be robbed. Explain that their recompense is to identify the miscreant and they get satisfaction of some kind when they are caught. It would be useful to have this info as a poster at the entrance as well.
2. When we do the photos we could present the pictures as faction groups to emphasise the loyalty of who is doing the robbing - the victim remembers the person and their group. It will help the public to appreciate why there are players in different types of costume. On a separate point we could get the photos done as soon as players arrive with the hope of getting the bulk of this out of the way by midday Saturday - having this ready and done helps us concentrate on the next part. I think we should photograph all players as Militia can "turn bad" as part of the game. Players who get photographed late on don't really become a part of the game until that has been done - can we emphasise this? Some commented that names were spelt wrong and some characters misidentified - this happens in real life and even more so if you take a look at old census listings - I see this as a note of realism.
3. We want to get the "wanted" element going as soon as we can - I think this was fairly successful last time, but needs tidying up. A lot of people wanted to have their pics on those posters or pics of their kids, dogs and so on. I would like to think that this could be a possible sideline for a memento for people to take away (we could sell special ones) but players should realise that any wanted poster which goes out will mean the portraitee will get pursued, so it is important to bear that in mind. Generally I think the posters should ONLY be authorised by the town guard (for normal policing) or the Monks (for moral rectitude, as they represent the Inquisition) - this avoids players just wanting posters to stitch up their mates. This means that we have to have Town Guards around and alive at all times. The posters could be done in a specific number and distributed around the town after that they are out of our hands and in the game. The only ones we want left alone are those in the OOC area in front of where we are working - this will keep the pursuit dynamic going.
4. I suggest the public have a different game plan - remember they are mainly family groups - they get robbed and come to us to identify their robbers - we do this and put out a wanted poster. The victim is given an unfranked certificate with the robber's name on and they go off and find them. All that then happens is the robber is brought back to us (they are obliged to do this) and we frank the certificate - no more cost to the robber who sneaks off again. (For this reason the area we are in might be sited a little away from the bank where the militia and Town Guards are). The public then has a "catch" on the certificate and we give them their coin back so that they can go off and be robbed again. When the public has a certificate with five franks on it, they are given a voucher, worth say a fiver, which they can spend in a shop. I don't envisage many will get as far as this, and, if they don't they still have a certificate saying what they achieved. This plan was not my idea originally I have just refined it - it gives a mode of operation for the public and my experience was that the kids were absolutely thrilled with pursuing pirates. This part of the game is entirely separate from the main aspect of groups getting coins and doesn't involved players being arrested.
5. A lot of the public went away with their coin which is absolutely worthless, but is a loss to the game. I suggest we have a collection box for each pirate band as the public leave and they give their coin to their favourite. This means an enhancement of how the players interact with the public and the latter is likely to reward those who have put on the best show one way or another. These collection boxes are OOC and not to be robbed and could provide a way of counting up some of the coin before the final day.
6. I would suggest modifying the scale of rewards for arrest downwards as we want to encourgae more robbery and subterfuge - "wanted for robbery" at 100 coin is a bit steep and I would bring it down to say, 25. Rewards could be increased as the weeknd progresses but the ratio of money from robbing to the amount in rewards is a way of influencing where the most activity is going on, i.e. is it more profitable to steal from the public or to set up your mates for arrest?

Just some ideas. Also can we tighten up on the rules for Mortalis?

Mick

A thought:-

http://wightpirates.wetpaint.com/page/Meet+the+Crew%21

If these could be used in game would look great!
One of our guys makes these- might be worth seeing if he could do this at shows!
much better for mementos too!

re the public catching pirates

for a small fee, could not a certificate with a posed photo of said pirate and their captors be arranged? I could be something of a draw and a nice souvenir for the public?

I'd go one better on the wanted posters and the public interaction.

Why not let them ID the robber and then give them the poster to sell to another pirate faction.

Gets around the issue of posters being taken down and the members of the public potentially make more money back than they lost. Room for proper bounty hunters too.