Lessons from 2 Weekends of Larping

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

From the weekend long larp Torch of Freedom:

1. The mass combat system in Torch works for Torch. However, we are not, not, NOT going to even attempt anything approaching that level of complexity for Dark of the Moon! When mnemex tries to convince us we can go more complicated, just say no.

2. The badges in Torch are a lot like what we were thinking of for Dark of the Moon. There is a lot of information encoded in the badges, including such basics as a character's name, gender, and apparent age. In addition, I had a ton of information scattered through various blue sheets, and I even sat down and summarized it into one sheet Friday night, after the game closed for the evening. Despite this, I missed some very basic information, including

a. The age of one character. Fortunately, someone told me that the PC was 12 before I did something silly.

b. I was putting together family trees as the game went on. I'm good at this. It's what I do as a gm. Despite this, I missed realizing that certain people were related, even though their last names were clearly printed on their badges.

This drove home, more than anything zrealm said, just how much players don't absorb.

I expect that we'll still try to encode this information into the badges, and probably into blue sheets as well. I just won't assume that the players will actually put all of the pieces together. I think I'll try to cover for this with a Who's Who sheet, but again, while players really ought to be able to figure out basic, non-secret stuff, we'll need to remember that they won't necessarily actually do this.

zrealm also thinks that badge pictures of the PCs are useless. I'm not convinced, but that's actually a side issue. The game doesn't stand or fall on whether we have these.

From Intercon MidAtlantic:

1. Yes, really, if there's no way to steal or otherwise obtain in-game items from non-consenting PCs, PCs will beat each other up to get items from each other.

2. Even people who've been larping long enough to know better will sometimes agree to let their PC go down a dark alley with another PC.

Comments

[mneme]

The IMA game was all about PCs beating one another up to get items from one another. It wasn't a matter of "if there's no way to steal..." -- the game was all about buying combat items, selling combat items, and using combat items to steal money, info, and items from one another. (more or less the only reason anyone ended up unconscious that game was that knockout gas -- a trap that when used in combat, knocked out the opposing side if you won in addition to the normal effects of the combat -- was relatively common).

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Ah. But, there was no pickpocketing mechanic, apart from the honey trap?

[mneme]

There was--just as there was an interrogation mechanic. It was just all the same mechanic. A conflict was either over information (ask a question, get a true answer), an item (get the item), money (get half the victim's cash), or combat (knock out the victim until the end of the 15 minute period). (But cards played in combat could put extra conditions on the losing side -- more questions answered, knockout, or even wierd effects like amnesia).