Mike Young (game designer)
Mike Young is a game designer, author, and founder of the first independent professional LARP publishing house, "Interactivities Ink". He is the originator of 'Young's Law', which states "LARPS are sold by word of mouth"(ref: [1]), which has been generalized within small publisher organizations such as the GPA to "games are sold by word of mouth."
Works
Mass Market
His works include co-authorship of [Rules to Live By] (RTLB), one of the few published generic (non-license not from tabletop) LARP system. He has also published several LARPs and several card games. He also contributed many short pieces to the professional LARP journal "Metagame" from 1989 through 1999.(ref: [2])
Within the scope of RTLB publishing, Interactivities Ink produced a Supernatural supplement book and several adventures as well as a general LARP guide, 'The Book of LARP', as well as Jim MacDougal's seminal work of short theatre-style LARP, "Final Voyage of the Mary Celeste." Interactivities Ink folded as a publishing house in 2004 in part due to the collapse of Wizard's Attic. RTLB 2.0 is licensed (2006) by Talisman Studios.
His "The Galactic Emperor is Dead" LARP was sold to Skotos Inc for their online game play (ref: [3]).
Mike's "Tales From the Floating Vagabond 1" (1990), "Tales From the Floating Vagabond 2" 1992, and "Tales From the Floating Vagabond Square Root of Pi" (1997) were officially licensed LARPs run in the Tales from the Floating Vagabond RPG setting originally published by Avalon Hill. The first two were run with the creator of Tales from the Floating Vagabond, Lee Garvin.
He has also authored computer games (from Alien Software), including the PC games "Neophyte" and "Koplio's Story". He is credited on [Legend Entertainment]'s "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" (ref: [4]) and "Blackstone Chronicles" (ref: [5]). He is also credited as a level designer and developer for Icebreaker from Magnet Interactive Studios.
Mike has also published three card games, one of which, Hamlet: A Game In Five Acts, won an award in the Polycon Independent Game Design Contest. (ref: [6])
In addition to designing games and LARP punditry , Mike current works for Biap Systems as a computer programmer. Mike was the lead developer for "NBC Olympics Now," which has been nominated for a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from from the National Television Academy in the category of "Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Synchronous Enhancement of Original Television Content." (ref: [7])
Niche Market
Mike has also had two entries published in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.[1][2]
His first work, Miskatonic Class Reunion (1989) has been run over 20 times from 1989-2000 and has been made available to others to run, but has not yet seen publication. It has two sequels, "Miskatonic Archaeological Expedition" (1994), and "Miskatonic Class Reunion 2000" (2000).
Mike's work, Tempus Frangit, won the 2005 "Iron GM" award at Intercon 20.
His theatre-style Dark Summonings Campaign established the non-boffer campaign model now used for a variety of US larps, including Merseinne Fantasy and Brassy's Men.
Mike and Sandy Antunes ran the Cthulhu Live demos at the 1996 GenCon game convention.
Mike was a playtester in the development of White Wolf's Mind's Eye Theatre.
Influences
He is credited by RPGnet columnist Sandy Antunes as being the progenitor of campaign theatre-style games. Whereas theatre-style typically ran for one-shot events, Dark Summonings ran for two years and spawned several east coast US LARP campaigns (some of which used 'RTLB', others which did not). RTLB is still used in many US theatre-style campaigns, including the 2002-2007 steampunk "Brassy's Men," the 2006- "Threads of Damocles", and the 2006- science fiction "Void Stalkers".
He is a strong evangelist for LARP and has run LARP activities at GenCon, Origins, InterCon, and Arisia conventions, among others. He has served as a guest speaker on panels in those conventions.
Stages of LARP
Originally posted to Usenet and now archived at Shades LARP List (ref: [8]), this presents Mike's view of how LARP groups arise within gaming communities in isolation from each other. It was created as a schema in the pre-web days of history of live action role-playing games but is still quoted (2005, above) as relevant. A summary of the stages follows.
The five phases of LARPer:
- Phase 1: Mine is the only LARP.
- Phase 2: Mine is the best LARP; all others are inferior.
- Phase 3: I recognize the existence and validity of other forms of LARP; they may have their points, but I prefer a specific system.
- Phase 4: I enjoy playing different styles of LARP
- Phase 5: I enjoy playing different styles of LARP and go out of my way
to try different styles and campaigns.
"Phase 1 is usually someone who is new to LARP, and has been introduced by a friend. This phase is borne of naivete, not of deliberate ignorance. It is short lived, as the LARPer discovers other games out there."
"Phase 2 is the most common phase, and one that the huge majority of LARPers never grow out of. This is usually someone who has been playing in a certain LARP for some time and has discovered other LARPs out there".
These two are deemed the most common, and the other phases and examples are covered in the citation above.
Personal Life
Besides playing games of all sorts, Mike enjoys roller coasters and theme parks, and is an improv comedian. He performs regularly with the improv comedy troupe, The Screaming Puppets. Mike married Laura Christina Nold Young on April 9, 2005.
References
- Rice, Scott (1986). Son of "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" (1st ed. ed.). New York, NY: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-008839-3.
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- Rice, Scott (1988). Bride of Dark and Stormy (1st ed. ed.). New York, NY: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-01304-X.
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