A couple of gaming buddies of mine are running a Vampire (or as they refer to, a "Waaaah-mpire") group and when they complete their terms of service as storytellers they're done with it. They came to me and said they'd like to kick-start a Shadowrun LARP group that they can have better control over and they want me to develop how it would work. I said I'd be happy to take on the challenge. But, I have no experience with Live-Action Role-Playing and I'm a little terrified to start. It's a bit of a blank page but here are the criteria that have been set before me:
1. There needs to be a minimum of conversion from tabletop SR4 rules to LARP rules.
2. There needs to be a dice mechanic for people on the move.
3. It needs to be simple enough for the average moron.
4. It can't use PDAs or any other electronic devices, so it would probably need to utilize index cards or something like that.
So, Dumpshockers, what advice do you have for me? How did the SR LARP at this year's GenCon work? How do you LARP SR without, say, renting a warehouse or cordoning off a city block?
I'm sure I'll have more questions as they come to me. Thank you in advance for your advice.
Full Version: Shadowrun LARPing: How is it done?
Every time i see a spy gears commercial all i can think is Shadowrun Larp.
I wouldn't go the route of "simple" as vampire larps tend to be. The best thing to do is keep it small; 5 -10 shadowrunners. huge games would require a lot of "Mr. johnsons".
For spells use spell packs +incantations: this consist of bird seed warped inside a small square of fabric, and the incantation would signal to the possible targets what spell was being cast.
For melee combat: boffer weapons work better than rock, paper, scissors.
For range combat: bows/arrows can be done in two ways. With boffer arrows and 10-15 pound pull bows, or with a string-less bow and a arrow packet made exactly like a spell pack but with string/ribbon tied to the end to simulate the arrow shaft.
For guns i would use laser tag gears for the more fun.
Each player would have tickets that would track their armor points and hit points. The hit point system couldn't be easily tracked in a larp, it would be a logistical nightmare.
The other thing that you need are people to act as referees. These people would play NPCs or invisible persons in the game, but would at the end of combat check to make sure that the pc had marked of their total hits and any thing else, plus be there for rule calls.
A way to simulate magic fatigue, is for the awakened characters to carry around cards/ or stones. If using stone the color would be important, if cards the number/suite would be important. They would spend these cards/stones to cast spells. the greater the suite/ color/ number the more powerful the spell. Or you could just use the mana point system.
Anything seen as astral, would be wearing a colored headband (blue maybe) and only those with the astral perception could see/ interact with it.
if i think of anything else i'll post it.
I wouldn't go the route of "simple" as vampire larps tend to be. The best thing to do is keep it small; 5 -10 shadowrunners. huge games would require a lot of "Mr. johnsons".
For spells use spell packs +incantations: this consist of bird seed warped inside a small square of fabric, and the incantation would signal to the possible targets what spell was being cast.
For melee combat: boffer weapons work better than rock, paper, scissors.
For range combat: bows/arrows can be done in two ways. With boffer arrows and 10-15 pound pull bows, or with a string-less bow and a arrow packet made exactly like a spell pack but with string/ribbon tied to the end to simulate the arrow shaft.
For guns i would use laser tag gears for the more fun.
Each player would have tickets that would track their armor points and hit points. The hit point system couldn't be easily tracked in a larp, it would be a logistical nightmare.
The other thing that you need are people to act as referees. These people would play NPCs or invisible persons in the game, but would at the end of combat check to make sure that the pc had marked of their total hits and any thing else, plus be there for rule calls.
A way to simulate magic fatigue, is for the awakened characters to carry around cards/ or stones. If using stone the color would be important, if cards the number/suite would be important. They would spend these cards/stones to cast spells. the greater the suite/ color/ number the more powerful the spell. Or you could just use the mana point system.
Anything seen as astral, would be wearing a colored headband (blue maybe) and only those with the astral perception could see/ interact with it.
if i think of anything else i'll post it.
Great ideas, especially the tickets and hit point/armor tracking. I'm thinking Nerf if people want to carry "firearms" or melee weapons. That would be a fun shopping trip.
Need to figure out locations. We do have an "underground city" paintball facility in Indianapolis, which would be ideal. Don't know if it could be rented for non-paintball events. Any warehouse space would be good.
Need to figure out locations. We do have an "underground city" paintball facility in Indianapolis, which would be ideal. Don't know if it could be rented for non-paintball events. Any warehouse space would be good.
I LARP and I used to run lots of Cyberounk LARPs, so I have some pretty solid ideas.
Unfortunately I am off to pre-Christmas party which is starting in five minutes, but I'll come back later tonight and give you some answers.
First of all come up with ways of sataving off boredom. You also have to decide is this going to be set in an enclosed space or not.
Unfortunately I am off to pre-Christmas party which is starting in five minutes, but I'll come back later tonight and give you some answers.
First of all come up with ways of sataving off boredom. You also have to decide is this going to be set in an enclosed space or not.
QUOTE (Chrysalis @ Dec 3 2008, 11:55 AM) 
You also have to decide is this going to be set in an enclosed space or not.
I think that's a guarantee. I would lose control of the game if it were outside.
I once proposed using a MILES (essentially a laser scoring system that uses real firearms loaded with blanks) system to resolve ranged combat for the most realistic LARP possible.
It is expensive, perhaps impractically so, but it has the advantage of functioning with vehicles and vehicle-mounted weapons in addition to small arms.
I would suggest using dice tumblers or dice cups (with a shaking mandated motion defined and codified in the rules for fairness, along with a mandated number of shakes). This has the advantage of avoiding rolls that could scatter dice everywhere. Dice tumblers have the disadvantage of making it difficult to adjust the number of dice rolled, so dice cups are probably better for SR4
It is expensive, perhaps impractically so, but it has the advantage of functioning with vehicles and vehicle-mounted weapons in addition to small arms.
I would suggest using dice tumblers or dice cups (with a shaking mandated motion defined and codified in the rules for fairness, along with a mandated number of shakes). This has the advantage of avoiding rolls that could scatter dice everywhere. Dice tumblers have the disadvantage of making it difficult to adjust the number of dice rolled, so dice cups are probably better for SR4
Quick and dirty ideas off the top of my head:
Opposed Tests
Long Version: both players start with a number of hits equal to 1/4 their dice pool (round down, just like buying hits). Then, the opponents play good ol' RPS. A win in RPS adds one hit to the player that won, and you do another round of RPS. Repeat until there's an RPS tie, then compare hits.
Short Version: both players start with a number of hits equal to 1/4 their dice pool (round down, just like buying hits). The player with the lower number (or the attacker in the case of a tie) becomes the active player. The two players play RPS, and every time the active player gets an RPS win, he adds one to his hits and plays another round of RPS. When the active player loses or ties in RPS, stop and compare hits.
Short Short Version: Play RPS once, winner wins the Test. Ties go to the one with the biggest dice pool. Ties with a tied dice pool go to the defender, as normal.
Success Tests
Player starts with a number of hits equal to 1/4 her dice pool (round to screw, just like buying hits). Then, player and somebody else plays RPS. A win or tie for the player adds one hit and grants another round of RPS, loss means stop.
Extended Test
Player gets hits equal to 1/3 his dice pool (round to the nearest integer) every interval.
Edge
Edge used at the beginning of a test adds one hit. Edge used after a test allows you to continue the RPSing.
Damage
Every character has five damage states: Healthy, Lightly Wounded, Moderately Wounded, Severely Wounded, Mortally Wounded ("Deadlyly Wounded" doesn't quite work). It's a LARP, so actual death should be story-based rather than mechanics-based. You can have a Stun track too, if you like (you probably should, for spellcasters and technomancers). Figure out the Damage Value of the attack, and if that beats the target's (Body + Armor)/3, that target's wound state takes a step toward bad. If the DV does not beat the target's (Body + Armor)/3, then the target is "Stressed;" if the target is already Stressed, she takes the wound level instead and loses the "Stressed" descriptor. If you're using a Stun track, too, there is only one Stressed toggle, not two separate ones for each track.
Like I said, this was cobbled together off the top of my head, although for what it's worth I've been running LARPs for close to twenty years now. Anything I missed?
Opposed Tests
Long Version: both players start with a number of hits equal to 1/4 their dice pool (round down, just like buying hits). Then, the opponents play good ol' RPS. A win in RPS adds one hit to the player that won, and you do another round of RPS. Repeat until there's an RPS tie, then compare hits.
Short Version: both players start with a number of hits equal to 1/4 their dice pool (round down, just like buying hits). The player with the lower number (or the attacker in the case of a tie) becomes the active player. The two players play RPS, and every time the active player gets an RPS win, he adds one to his hits and plays another round of RPS. When the active player loses or ties in RPS, stop and compare hits.
Short Short Version: Play RPS once, winner wins the Test. Ties go to the one with the biggest dice pool. Ties with a tied dice pool go to the defender, as normal.
Success Tests
Player starts with a number of hits equal to 1/4 her dice pool (round to screw, just like buying hits). Then, player and somebody else plays RPS. A win or tie for the player adds one hit and grants another round of RPS, loss means stop.
Extended Test
Player gets hits equal to 1/3 his dice pool (round to the nearest integer) every interval.
Edge
Edge used at the beginning of a test adds one hit. Edge used after a test allows you to continue the RPSing.
Damage
Every character has five damage states: Healthy, Lightly Wounded, Moderately Wounded, Severely Wounded, Mortally Wounded ("Deadlyly Wounded" doesn't quite work). It's a LARP, so actual death should be story-based rather than mechanics-based. You can have a Stun track too, if you like (you probably should, for spellcasters and technomancers). Figure out the Damage Value of the attack, and if that beats the target's (Body + Armor)/3, that target's wound state takes a step toward bad. If the DV does not beat the target's (Body + Armor)/3, then the target is "Stressed;" if the target is already Stressed, she takes the wound level instead and loses the "Stressed" descriptor. If you're using a Stun track, too, there is only one Stressed toggle, not two separate ones for each track.
Like I said, this was cobbled together off the top of my head, although for what it's worth I've been running LARPs for close to twenty years now. Anything I missed?
Keep it Simple Stupid.
I think this has been my guiding rule. Shadowrun like most technology oriented games has the challenge that you get distracted by the shiny bits. If you have a choice of creating an immerssive matrix that is going to take 12 months and 4 guys to do, compared with a dark room with a GM. Go with the dark room with a GM.
Avoid dice. Also avoid extended tests. If a player has a character who is a physical adept martial artist, he should make the judgment can he scale that wall and not the GM.
Combat
Make combat realistic and brutal. Avoid using RPS for every hit. We did that once. It took 2 FREAKING HOURS and two GMs to figure out the mess.
You may want to implement a cut down character sheet or maybe not. We don't use character sheets at all. The reason is that they make little sense, take up immense amount of time by the GMs to develop (congrats your task is to come up with a character sheet model that fits on a card with the rules on the back), and ruin the game world with the shuffling of paper. We have found that it is more fun on playing bigger and meaner wins. It also means that there is more theater in the fights.
Fire-arms
No-one brings real guns to LARPs. We had that once happen. He thought it was unloaded. Luckily he never fired a shot in-game, but it turned at the end of the game when he pulled out his sidearm and look no rounds in the gun, showed the magazine. Cocked the gun and a round came out of the chamber.
Airsoft pistols unloaded are fantastic props for LARPs. They work really well as props, are made of plastic and you can modify them to your hearts content. Slap on three laser sights and it looks the business. Just understand that if you do airsoft loaded then you have to demand that everyone wear goggles and that ruins the game. The cheap airsofts have an effective range of 5 meters. They also demand further rules about safety. Yes you can and should make firing sounds.
Off-game time
Allow plenty of time for your players to arrive on-site. Some GMs even put down as their official game time from noon to 8PM, while in reality the game actually starts at 2PM.
Game time
I recommend that you keep the in-game time down. 4-6 hours with 6 hours being max. The reason for this is that if you have sparcely plotlined characters they have a tendency on getting bored. Bored means that they have a tendency of going out and killing other characters. As the whole world in LARP is character driven. This is a bit like shooting your main character halfway through the play.
Location
Make it fulll of small rooms with loud music. In most games the bar is the place to hang out. Or the club room or something similar. Make sure that you don't place the two gangs that absolutely hate each other, next to each other or even in the same room. LARP is also about backstabbing. Nothing is worse than being in a club where you can join the conversation from your own table in one corner with that in the other corner.
Setting
Use a short introduction to the Shadowrun world. Have it be about 2-3 pages long with a specific focus on the location for the LARP. Is it the Inferno club, a medical facility in the barrens, or a bar in what used to be Chicago.
Characters
The optimal length of a character background is 1-3 pages. Keep to it. No-one can remember 10 pages of character, I also find it very restrictive for me to play as well.
Cybernetics and simulation
Avoid giving people cybernetics which are hard to duplicate in real life. Also avoid having plot lines that are dependent on those cybernetics. You will have to come up with interesting ways to indicate when cybernetics are in use.
The only one I think that is the hardest to pull off is cyber hearing. Since this demands coming next to people and listening in. Most people off-game stop talking when in in-game they can.
While phermones are easy, you can just have a perfume bottle marked with off-game tape as the indicator that phermones are in use and everyone should feeling more persuaded than they normally would.
Sex can be simulated with back rubs with porn sounds. People can go farther. You have to decide what is the limit.
Off-game stuff
Decide on a color which is meant to be off-game. Orange or white tape is a good choice, bad lighting covers a multitde of sins so make sure the tape also fluoresces. Anything off-game have it marked with that. This would include medication, cameras, etc.
Words of power
Have three safe words.
Someone shouts HOLD!, everyone shouts HOLD! The game now is on pause.
Someone shouts HELP! HELP!, everyone else shouts HOLD! The GM is taken to the situation. This meant for life threatening situations. If you shout it once then add something to it. It happens. Reserve it being shouted twice for life threatening events.
GM shouts CONTINUES!, everyone shouts CONTINUES! The game continues as if nothing off.game had happened.
Two other words:
GAME BEGINS! shouted by the GMs. Everyone has two minutes to get into character.
GAME ENDS! The game is over.
Safety
Contact the local police and inform them of the type of event you are arranging and where you are arranging it. Sometimes this is anyways demanded from the police, but makes your life easier.
If alcohol is served, make sure you don't sell to minors. When people get bored they start to drink, so make sure there is enough to do. Also make sure everyone is sober enough after the game that they can drive home safely.
As the GM you are legally responsible for your players.
---
That's off the top of my head.
I think this has been my guiding rule. Shadowrun like most technology oriented games has the challenge that you get distracted by the shiny bits. If you have a choice of creating an immerssive matrix that is going to take 12 months and 4 guys to do, compared with a dark room with a GM. Go with the dark room with a GM.
Avoid dice. Also avoid extended tests. If a player has a character who is a physical adept martial artist, he should make the judgment can he scale that wall and not the GM.
Combat
Make combat realistic and brutal. Avoid using RPS for every hit. We did that once. It took 2 FREAKING HOURS and two GMs to figure out the mess.
You may want to implement a cut down character sheet or maybe not. We don't use character sheets at all. The reason is that they make little sense, take up immense amount of time by the GMs to develop (congrats your task is to come up with a character sheet model that fits on a card with the rules on the back), and ruin the game world with the shuffling of paper. We have found that it is more fun on playing bigger and meaner wins. It also means that there is more theater in the fights.
Fire-arms
No-one brings real guns to LARPs. We had that once happen. He thought it was unloaded. Luckily he never fired a shot in-game, but it turned at the end of the game when he pulled out his sidearm and look no rounds in the gun, showed the magazine. Cocked the gun and a round came out of the chamber.
Airsoft pistols unloaded are fantastic props for LARPs. They work really well as props, are made of plastic and you can modify them to your hearts content. Slap on three laser sights and it looks the business. Just understand that if you do airsoft loaded then you have to demand that everyone wear goggles and that ruins the game. The cheap airsofts have an effective range of 5 meters. They also demand further rules about safety. Yes you can and should make firing sounds.
Off-game time
Allow plenty of time for your players to arrive on-site. Some GMs even put down as their official game time from noon to 8PM, while in reality the game actually starts at 2PM.
Game time
I recommend that you keep the in-game time down. 4-6 hours with 6 hours being max. The reason for this is that if you have sparcely plotlined characters they have a tendency on getting bored. Bored means that they have a tendency of going out and killing other characters. As the whole world in LARP is character driven. This is a bit like shooting your main character halfway through the play.
Location
Make it fulll of small rooms with loud music. In most games the bar is the place to hang out. Or the club room or something similar. Make sure that you don't place the two gangs that absolutely hate each other, next to each other or even in the same room. LARP is also about backstabbing. Nothing is worse than being in a club where you can join the conversation from your own table in one corner with that in the other corner.
Setting
Use a short introduction to the Shadowrun world. Have it be about 2-3 pages long with a specific focus on the location for the LARP. Is it the Inferno club, a medical facility in the barrens, or a bar in what used to be Chicago.
Characters
The optimal length of a character background is 1-3 pages. Keep to it. No-one can remember 10 pages of character, I also find it very restrictive for me to play as well.
Cybernetics and simulation
Avoid giving people cybernetics which are hard to duplicate in real life. Also avoid having plot lines that are dependent on those cybernetics. You will have to come up with interesting ways to indicate when cybernetics are in use.
The only one I think that is the hardest to pull off is cyber hearing. Since this demands coming next to people and listening in. Most people off-game stop talking when in in-game they can.
While phermones are easy, you can just have a perfume bottle marked with off-game tape as the indicator that phermones are in use and everyone should feeling more persuaded than they normally would.
Sex can be simulated with back rubs with porn sounds. People can go farther. You have to decide what is the limit.
Off-game stuff
Decide on a color which is meant to be off-game. Orange or white tape is a good choice, bad lighting covers a multitde of sins so make sure the tape also fluoresces. Anything off-game have it marked with that. This would include medication, cameras, etc.
Words of power
Have three safe words.
Someone shouts HOLD!, everyone shouts HOLD! The game now is on pause.
Someone shouts HELP! HELP!, everyone else shouts HOLD! The GM is taken to the situation. This meant for life threatening situations. If you shout it once then add something to it. It happens. Reserve it being shouted twice for life threatening events.
GM shouts CONTINUES!, everyone shouts CONTINUES! The game continues as if nothing off.game had happened.
Two other words:
GAME BEGINS! shouted by the GMs. Everyone has two minutes to get into character.
GAME ENDS! The game is over.
Safety
Contact the local police and inform them of the type of event you are arranging and where you are arranging it. Sometimes this is anyways demanded from the police, but makes your life easier.
If alcohol is served, make sure you don't sell to minors. When people get bored they start to drink, so make sure there is enough to do. Also make sure everyone is sober enough after the game that they can drive home safely.
As the GM you are legally responsible for your players.
---
That's off the top of my head.
Wear a trench coat. Smoke. Wear really big sunglasses. Lots of makeup. Take yourself far too seriously.
QUOTE (Hagga @ Dec 3 2008, 04:52 PM)
Wear a trench coat. Smoke. Wear really big sunglasses. Lots of makeup. Take yourself far too seriously.
That's Vampire. Different game.
Hmmm... as for firearms, there's always the nerf guns. They sold one that had a clip for some assault rifle looking one. plus side, no one will mistake them for real weapons, very safe, etc... down side... range. that would bypass the need for goggles... mostly. There's always the miniscule chance of getting an eye put out by one.
QUOTE (Wesley Street @ Dec 3 2008, 10:12 PM)
That's Vampire. Different game.
No. For Vampire, you need to cry a great deal about your eternal damnation and talk about your status as a Lord of the Night, and how the bigger kids should not make you drink motor oil for they will be taken revenge upon by a powerful force.
Matrix hair falls with neonglow mixed in.
Makeup: black eyeliner, bright colored eyeshadow and metalic lipstick, shiny stuff you know.
Cybertek LED wings
PVC outfit with high impact clasps, straps, and locks.
Ripped black fishnets
New Rock shoes.
Silver nailed black vinyl gloves.
Sneer.
Makeup: black eyeliner, bright colored eyeshadow and metalic lipstick, shiny stuff you know.
Cybertek LED wings
PVC outfit with high impact clasps, straps, and locks.
Ripped black fishnets
New Rock shoes.
Silver nailed black vinyl gloves.
Sneer.
Checkout the Accelerant Larp System, it's very good. It keeps the game fairly simple and yet also allows for a lot of different skills and headers. I play the Calling, and they use Nerf Weapons for firearms which seem to work out well, spell packets (birdseed wrapped in cloth) and boffer weapons which are basically graphite tubing with pipe foam and kite tape (for ultra light weapons)
The weird thing about most larps is that they use a class character creation system, while shadowrun is a free build system so you may have to write your own rules system for this.
Also while not impossible it will be hard to incorporate the matrix and the astral plane into a shadowrun larp (hard not impossible) most matrix and astral stuff would probably need to be set up by a marshal beforehand.
If you cant find a cyberpunky looking area to run in, get a campsite and write a campaign based around the Salish-Shide wilderness or something, dont let the lack of a run down building ruin your game, adapt!
I would def run it as an invitational mod based one shot first rather than world faire, because world faire is just very hard to pull off well. World Faire larp is where you have a town, tavern and PCs hang out do whatever and then staff usually hooks them for mods, whereas a event driven game, you basically guide a group of PCs through your world and pretty much stay with them most of the time, you can always run an event based game first, and then upgrade to the world faire style as you generate more interest and see how your rules are fairing!
Try to physically represent everything you can. Avoid Three counts at all costs!!! (They are cheesy)
-Josh
The weird thing about most larps is that they use a class character creation system, while shadowrun is a free build system so you may have to write your own rules system for this.
Also while not impossible it will be hard to incorporate the matrix and the astral plane into a shadowrun larp (hard not impossible) most matrix and astral stuff would probably need to be set up by a marshal beforehand.
If you cant find a cyberpunky looking area to run in, get a campsite and write a campaign based around the Salish-Shide wilderness or something, dont let the lack of a run down building ruin your game, adapt!
I would def run it as an invitational mod based one shot first rather than world faire, because world faire is just very hard to pull off well. World Faire larp is where you have a town, tavern and PCs hang out do whatever and then staff usually hooks them for mods, whereas a event driven game, you basically guide a group of PCs through your world and pretty much stay with them most of the time, you can always run an event based game first, and then upgrade to the world faire style as you generate more interest and see how your rules are fairing!
Try to physically represent everything you can. Avoid Three counts at all costs!!! (They are cheesy)
-Josh
Oh and use a live action system. Turn based larp systems are the worst (sorry vampire larpers)!
I would add what evil said. Avoid anything involving cards. It's just funny.
However, I find world fair style of games better than combat oriented A to B games. Personally A to B games I find boring because while things happen they are so heavily scripted that all that is missing is the tracks and the train.
However, I find world fair style of games better than combat oriented A to B games. Personally A to B games I find boring because while things happen they are so heavily scripted that all that is missing is the tracks and the train.
QUOTE (Chrysalis @ Dec 4 2008, 12:17 AM)
I would add what evil said. Avoid anything involving cards. It's just funny.
However, I find world fair style of games better than combat oriented A to B games. Personally A to B games I find boring because while things happen they are so heavily scripted that all that is missing is the tracks and the train.
However, I find world fair style of games better than combat oriented A to B games. Personally A to B games I find boring because while things happen they are so heavily scripted that all that is missing is the tracks and the train.
I would agree with you there. I personally like World Faire better because you don't feel like your getting pushed in a direction by a GM (even though you are anyway) but I was just suggesting an A to B format for starters and see how things go from there.
-Josh
QUOTE (Hagga @ Dec 3 2008, 05:32 PM)
No. For Vampire, you need to cry a great deal about your eternal damnation and talk about your status as a Lord of the Night, and how the bigger kids should not make you drink motor oil for they will be taken revenge upon by a powerful force.
And I thought that Vampire LARPing was mostly cutting each other with razor blades and drinking each other's blood, with the occasional kidnapping and murder of an infant thrown in for good measure.
I really like the idea of NERF weapons for guns, bean bags for spells and boffer weapons for blades and clubs for LARP realizsm. However, the game we tried them in resulted in a lot of minor injuries; bean bags to the nuts, nerf darts to the eyes and some bruising because some people don't know how to use the appropriate amount of force. I swear some people really shouldn't be told they can hit people with foam wrapped sticks.
It's also extremely unbalanced and relies a lot on the actual skill of the player. It starts out great, but this can really sap a lot of the fun out of a larp once someone realizes Johnny has been taking fencing lessons since he was five and Billy is literally getting his head wacked in. Then you've got the whole issue of unarmed combat. I for one took Tae Kwon Do and Karate from a young age. I respond... poorly when a fist comes my way, and am prone to let training kick in before I'm really thinking about it, particularly in a situation where I may not know every one well. I've only slugged two people in larp games, but this was also after them swinging their fist at me in a combat where I had previously warned them explicitly not to throw a punch my way. Thus I have become a fan of White Wolf's no contact rule for larps.
I do offer a possible solution for skill tests though and it works great for opposed tests. My friends were working on making a Seven Seas larp a few months ago and devised a system using playing cards. I know it's not favored, but it made things really easy. Basically you combined your skill + attribute to get a stat number. Then drew a card from a deck of playing cards and in most cases added the result of the card to your stat number. GM/storyteller/etc would set a target number. Negative modifiers would be applied to the characters stat number prior to drawing a card. Highest combined number won. It's really not to dissimilar from how we roll initiative in SR4. I cannot remember how the cards were set up, I think 2-10 were the basic point value, most face cards had a value of 2-4-6-8 based on suit but certain ones like jokers and "suicide jacks" had negative modifiers. Ace of Spades I think was an "automatic win/success." You may go for Jokers being a glitch and Suicide Jacks being a critical glitch. I'm not really sure how someone would resolve damage and drain tests for sr4 though using our particular card system. But for how they had the mechanics set up for Seven Seas it worked well
Just some alternate suggestions and I can't agree more with the sentiment of no real weapons of any kind be allowed on the gaming grounds. This is as much for practical purposes of keeping life threatening injury down to drawing unwanted attention from passers by and the police.
It's also extremely unbalanced and relies a lot on the actual skill of the player. It starts out great, but this can really sap a lot of the fun out of a larp once someone realizes Johnny has been taking fencing lessons since he was five and Billy is literally getting his head wacked in. Then you've got the whole issue of unarmed combat. I for one took Tae Kwon Do and Karate from a young age. I respond... poorly when a fist comes my way, and am prone to let training kick in before I'm really thinking about it, particularly in a situation where I may not know every one well. I've only slugged two people in larp games, but this was also after them swinging their fist at me in a combat where I had previously warned them explicitly not to throw a punch my way. Thus I have become a fan of White Wolf's no contact rule for larps.
I do offer a possible solution for skill tests though and it works great for opposed tests. My friends were working on making a Seven Seas larp a few months ago and devised a system using playing cards. I know it's not favored, but it made things really easy. Basically you combined your skill + attribute to get a stat number. Then drew a card from a deck of playing cards and in most cases added the result of the card to your stat number. GM/storyteller/etc would set a target number. Negative modifiers would be applied to the characters stat number prior to drawing a card. Highest combined number won. It's really not to dissimilar from how we roll initiative in SR4. I cannot remember how the cards were set up, I think 2-10 were the basic point value, most face cards had a value of 2-4-6-8 based on suit but certain ones like jokers and "suicide jacks" had negative modifiers. Ace of Spades I think was an "automatic win/success." You may go for Jokers being a glitch and Suicide Jacks being a critical glitch. I'm not really sure how someone would resolve damage and drain tests for sr4 though using our particular card system. But for how they had the mechanics set up for Seven Seas it worked well
Just some alternate suggestions and I can't agree more with the sentiment of no real weapons of any kind be allowed on the gaming grounds. This is as much for practical purposes of keeping life threatening injury down to drawing unwanted attention from passers by and the police.
While action-based LARPs are weighted towards the player's natural abilities, you can negate this to a degree by adding In-Game abilities to compensate.
For example, let's say we have a new player who's a dead shot with a nerf gun, and an experienced player who isn't. To make up for this, the experienced player has put a lot of build points into abilities that increase damage: a smartlink, increased accuracy, and the like. The net result is that the more experienced shooter will be doing more damage per shot, and the newer player will be dishing out a lot of damage as well, because he can land more darts on target.
Now, when the dead shot gets more XP, eventually he will also become a combat monster on the field, assuming that he concentrates on combat abilities. And that's fine, natural skill should count for something. The older players will have gotten better as well, so it should more-or-less even out.
For example, let's say we have a new player who's a dead shot with a nerf gun, and an experienced player who isn't. To make up for this, the experienced player has put a lot of build points into abilities that increase damage: a smartlink, increased accuracy, and the like. The net result is that the more experienced shooter will be doing more damage per shot, and the newer player will be dishing out a lot of damage as well, because he can land more darts on target.
Now, when the dead shot gets more XP, eventually he will also become a combat monster on the field, assuming that he concentrates on combat abilities. And that's fine, natural skill should count for something. The older players will have gotten better as well, so it should more-or-less even out.
QUOTE (evilgoattea @ Dec 4 2008, 03:23 AM)
I would agree with you there. I personally like World Faire better because you don't feel like your getting pushed in a direction by a GM (even though you are anyway) but I was just suggesting an A to B format for starters and see how things go from there.
-Josh
-Josh
Faire enough. I just prefer World Faire also from an organising stand-point as with A to B you have the whole problem of getting your friends to a game where most of them will be playing extras and then have to collect attendance fees from them. O.o
Yeah, thread resurrection, but I saw this and had to post somewhere and I remember this one talking at least a little bit about nerf guns...
Have people seen this?
Battery operated, belt fed nerf gun.
For the wannabe machine gun wielding street sam in all of us. Oh and you'll be able to walk down the street with it and probably just get funny looks. And a necessary hardware in all the wars waged in offices nationwide...
Have people seen this?
Battery operated, belt fed nerf gun.
For the wannabe machine gun wielding street sam in all of us. Oh and you'll be able to walk down the street with it and probably just get funny looks. And a necessary hardware in all the wars waged in offices nationwide...
QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Dec 3 2008, 12:10 PM)
...It [MILES] is expensive, perhaps impractically so, but it has the advantage of functioning with vehicles and vehicle-mounted weapons in addition to small arms...
I had a chuckle thinking that the US Army has been LARPing "Shadowrun Desert Wars" in the California desert for several decades now.
QUOTE (PBTHHHHT @ Feb 23 2009, 09:17 PM)
Have people seen this?
Perfect for when you want to recreate Omaha Beach with your cats or coworkers. One guy in my office building has a set of mini-Nerf rockets on rotating mounts at his desk. If any paper airplanes violate his air space they're toast.
I liked a lot of the ideas mentioned here. Having watched quite a few LARPs go on at my local con (ICON 28, which is coming up), but usually there are bans on anything that looks like a weapon.
But if you're playing privately, I suggest you make sure everyone knows the following rules:
NO HEADSHOTS: Aim for the chest or upper arms.
NO NUTSHOTS: Aim for the upper leg/calf, if you're going for a 'wound'.
NO EXCESSIVE FORCE: Only hit hard enough to register the hit. Do some practice 'combat' to work out the kinks and clarify the rules.
But if you're playing privately, I suggest you make sure everyone knows the following rules:
NO HEADSHOTS: Aim for the chest or upper arms.
NO NUTSHOTS: Aim for the upper leg/calf, if you're going for a 'wound'.
NO EXCESSIVE FORCE: Only hit hard enough to register the hit. Do some practice 'combat' to work out the kinks and clarify the rules.
wow... after reading this i am inspired to try to get a boffer shadowrun larp going in my area. I would love to see some more ideas regarding rules, how to fit a scenario, ideas forscenes and so on. Never ran a boffer larp but ahve years of vampire under my belt and this just sounds far more fun.
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