Shadowrun & Larping Options

[Kaladhan]

This is my first post here, so let's begin by officially presenting myself. I'm a late-20s programmer from Montreal who enjoy RPG in general and looking forward for a steady Shadowrun campaign (which should happen next year when my current campaign ends). I've played every edition of Shadowrun, although it has been a lot of years since I played my last SR game.

I want to discuss Shadowrun and larping. There use to be a Shadowrun/Cyberpunk larp in Montreal named Over-Drive. It had it's flaws, but it was still very enjoyable.

In my spare time, I dream of creating a Shadowrun larp. Does anyone ever did this? What rules did you use? Was it fun?

[hyzmarca]

The first thing you have to do when staging a Shadowrun LARP is make sure that fully automatic weapons are legal to possess in your jurisdiction. I'm not to sure about Canadian gun laws but you can certain smuggle some in from the States if they aren't.

I recomend AK varients for the runners and M16 varients for corpsec.

Next, you need a MILES system and several thousand rounds of blanks. The MILES system is the most important because you can't actually go around shooting each other.

Information on the MILES system

Third, you'll need a large area that can provide you with come privacy. A warehouse is nice and can be customized to fit the run. A large outdoor area works well for certain types of runes if you own a ranch or something but renting a warehouse is porbably the best way to go.

For armor, you can easily buy NIJ III vests online. You won't actually need armor but it helps with the feel. Walkie Talkies and other basic equipment is also important. I'd recomend having multi-channel walkie talkies so that you can have seperate channels for the runners and the corpsec forces and a shared OOC channel. Make sure someone has a cell phone so that you can call an ambulance if something goes wrong. Safety is important.

I don't recomend vehicle combat. It is just too dangerous and likely to spill out onto public streets. Also, getting vehicle mounted weapons and Antivehicular weapons will be a pain in the rear. If you do want to incorporate vehicle combat there is this very nice SUV with a pop up machine gun turret that I once saw. Unfortunatly, I am unable to find it again. It should be able to take a MILES system. If you can get it it would be less conspicious than other options.

Cyberware is, of course, impossible to work out. Most cyber can't be replicated today and what can would require some messy surgery that no ethical doctor will willingly perform. Magic presents similar problems unless you know some actual wizards. It would probably be best to run a 'ware free magic free street level game to avoid these complications.

And, since the game is going to be so street level, you could probably just modify some legal semiautomatic handguns and sport rifles to use MILES but that would lose too much of the feel IMHO. Street level characters should have access to AKs.

If you are on a budget, sticking to more common semiautomatic weapons is probably the way to go too. Getting fully automatic weapons through legal channels can be costly.

[Fix-it]

You're a riot, hyzmarca.


:rotfl:

[Kaladhan]

hyzmarca... you do realise that larping doesn't include real prop for weapons?

[hyzmarca]

Maybe not the way you LARP, but I find superior tactical realism is the greatest advantage of the live action enviroment. Laser tag systems or paintball guns can be substituted for the MILES system in a pinch but you need some sort of functional weapon. If you don't use fuctional prop weapons than how can you count kills?

[Kaladhan]

I didn't post here to find how to do glorified paintball games.

[SL James]

[Brahm]

[Mister Juan]

I would suggest airsoft.
If memory serve, there's a store somewhere in Sherbrook.

[Arethusa]

Airsoft is far more practicable than MILES. In that it is not basically impossible, and it would actually be affordable. If LARP's what you want, it's really the only way to go.

[Platinum]

I was actually looking at trying to run one of these in the Toronto area, but no one was interested.

We would have been using airsoft weapons, and a few people I know have quite a bit of land that we can use with a few buildings on them. Setting up a few laptops, in weapon restricted areas (so the laptops do not take any damage) but the decker, (what ever would have to retrieve a combination from the computer, unlock a combolock, load info to a usb drive ... etc. cyberware - like dermal plating/limbs would buy you a few extra hits before you die of lead poisoning, mages would use silly string/ or hold up cards with symbols explaining what spells they were using. ie... there might be a ladder on a barn, but it would require a levitation card to use it. The mage only gets so many cards (not really like shadowrun, but it adds some element of magic to it. it also depends on the people playing with you)

I think the first scenario we would have ran would either be to recover a hostage, or a corp extraction. If everyone is willing to use a little creativity to get around all of the game mechanic short comings ... it could be a really fun time. Also everyone needs a head set to talk to a gm co-ordinating the event. there really needs to be staff that run this for others.

[hyzmarca]

[Wounded Ronin]

I think that MILES would make the LARPing worthwhile; the action would be so much more immersive if it were less abstracted.

I actually think that melding the MILES with hand to hand combat would be more difficult since the MILES weapons fire blanks and therefore there's a certain risk of schmutz being discharged from the barrel at very close range.

It would be safe to either use rubber weapons or, say, use international rules kickboxing rules for melee (since apparently t3h gr4ppl3 dosen't exist in SR) but since those would require closing to melee range I'm not sure you could manage the firing of blanks in conjunction with it.

Maybe just do either an all sammie or all melee physad campaign and decide on an either/or basis on the MILES or the international rules kickboxing combat engine. You could alternate so that you traumatize different muscle groups each time. Like, if you are limping after the end of the kickboxing LARP because someone thai kicked you in the thigh too much but we switched to MILES the week after you wouldn't have to deal with the exact same thing happening twice in a row.

This discussion just gave me the mental image of a 40 year old fat man with a gigantic beard and huge thick glasses trying to do a shoulder roll while lugging a M249 and 600 rounds of 5.56 blanks and popping his socket.

[Valentinew]

You could always modify NERO (or some other LARPing group) rules for resolving magic & melee combat. You could also look up info on True Dungeon or True Heroes - both run at GenCon the last few years - for their methods of resolving these things...I've heard they're pretty creative....

[Wounded Ronin]

For the record I think that the sportive aspect (i.e., having actual international rules kickboxing bouts to determine combat outcomes) is really key to a fun activity. You balance out the mental activity of acting with the physical, and it actually becomes good exercise. You do it enough, and you actually get better conditioning and you get stronger. It's like spending karma to boost your attributes. Nothing feels more rewarding than starting out getting tired after 5 minutes of fighting but working up to the point where you can do 15 consecutive rounds after conditioning exercises no problem.

[warrior_allanon]

having now worked through the entire rulebook and also having several years experience playing the 3ed world of darkness: mind's eye theatre LARPs i believe that you can use the MET rules to run a SR game easily. Dont know where you will find one, but i kinda want to start one so i can futz with the vampire wannabe's at game and comic conventions.

[Oracle]

The MET rules really suck. Here in Germany we have a relatively large Vampire LIVE community - but nobody uses MET or a system similar to it.

[jonthecelt]

I disagree with you about the MET system: I think it works well, but I would be interested to hear exactly which parts of it you think 'suck'.

The problem with using a 'real world' model for the combat, be it kickboxing or MILES, is that it presupposes a certain level of skill on the parts of the players, ie: if you're playing a sammie, you have to be a good shot in real life. This moves away from roleplaying, in my mind, and becomes more like a simulation.

I am not the most physically capable guy. I'm ok, but there's no way I could go one-on-one with a sammie or physad. Does that mean I cant' play them in SR? In P&P, I can play anything I want, but why should I be restricted ot my real-world abilities in a LARP environment?

just my thoughts...

jonthecelt

[langolas]

[Kaladhan]

[Edward]

If that’s all you wanted to LARP then you don’t need rules. Pcs can talk without restriction, NPCs are available and provide information based soly on the GMs opinion of what will make the game interesting.

Edward

[Kaladhan]

There is still a need for a system to resolve player conflict. Say a player wants to punch someone. How does he do that? There's still the need for a larp system which doesn't involve tons of d6s.

[Ophis]

Do it all based on buying successes, if using SR4.
Unsure otherwise and it will be a bit predictable, maybe add somesort of contest mechanic for more variation (ie p/s/st whoever win gets half again as amny successes)
sure the wuss boys decker will always get flattened by the troll, but thats about right for in game.

[Arethusa]

Use a deck of cards.

[KarmaInferno]