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labcats2006-02-19 11:40 pm
drcpunk.livejournal.com) wrote in labcats2006-02-19 11:40 pm
Larp prep
Another day of larp prep. I think the Baths characters are in good shape, so long as they can print out readably -- Baths will be played in the pool, so we want things to fit on the back of laminated cards. If a character sheet won't fit legibly on one laminated card, then it will be on two laminated cards.
Hm, we may need to tweak the horde characters a bit, just to make sure that the actual names of the hordlings are on the cards.
We expanded the number of characters for both games. All of the Jamais Vue characters are now viable, I think. And the old sheets have been updated with the new information. Of course, the players start with blank sheets, because it's an amnesia game.
We're not yet ready to print the character sheets -- there's still a bit of cross checking to be done. But, we are hoping to get the bulk of the item cards done, and perhaps the combat envelopes. There doesn't have to be combat at all in the game. One run had hardly any, while the other had a bit more. The system requires a lot of pregame prep, but is really simple in play -- both sides rip open an envelope and compare the number inside. High value wins. Simple is good.
Spreadsheets are also good. Baths is basically all on a spreadsheet. Jamais Vue isn't quite. It probably will be by the end of this run of game prep. Well, perhaps on several sheets. There's a separate spreadsheet for item cards, and I think that has to be the case.
It's been interesting adding characters to both games. For Baths, the characters were all there from the time we tweaked it for the Columbia University Games Club run. The only difference is that then, we didn't know how many people we'd have, and we didn't get a huge number, whereas now, we have 23 sign ups. So, I looked over the characters, and picked out the ones that seemed most viable -- that is, had the most stuff to do. It's a two hour game, and we had a lot more done than I'd feared.
Then, we jiggled things a bit. One bit character got bumped up based on one person's character questionnaire. I think we tweaked a second, but would have to go back and check. No one is cast as horde, which means that anyone with nothing to do at Intercon F during the time we're running the game can drop by and have a good chance of getting a horde roll.
If not, well, the gms can be horde characters, if needed. Or, if not, that's fine too.
It's interesting planning for different variables, and it's been interesting adding characters to Jamais Vue.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crash_mccormick had explained the theory to me some years ago, when we first started working on the first run of JV. Ignoring the fact that it's an amnesia game, you decide on your basic plotlines, factions, groups, whatever. You get your core minimum. Then, you keep adding, like petals around a flower, building out.
At first, you get a bare sketch of a new addition, but a bit of work makes it click. Of course, then, you need to go back and tweak the rest, or at least, some of the rest, to incorporate the new material.
But, what if you have fewer characters? This has come up before. For the first run of JV, we had exactly as many players as we had full characters. That worked. Actually, we had one more player, but she could only play for an hour. As we knew this ahead of time, we wrote a character designed for that.
For the second run, we added four more characters. And, we got half as many players. This called for some creative casting. Plus, we didn't have questionnaires, I believe, so we did a lot of snap decision making that worked out quite well. It was a good run, but a very different one from the first.
And, we had discussed what to do if only two players showed up, or only one. We have taken JV apart and put it back together a couple of times. It gives me a good perspective on the type of larp I tend to play and tend to want to write.
Hm, we may need to tweak the horde characters a bit, just to make sure that the actual names of the hordlings are on the cards.
We expanded the number of characters for both games. All of the Jamais Vue characters are now viable, I think. And the old sheets have been updated with the new information. Of course, the players start with blank sheets, because it's an amnesia game.
We're not yet ready to print the character sheets -- there's still a bit of cross checking to be done. But, we are hoping to get the bulk of the item cards done, and perhaps the combat envelopes. There doesn't have to be combat at all in the game. One run had hardly any, while the other had a bit more. The system requires a lot of pregame prep, but is really simple in play -- both sides rip open an envelope and compare the number inside. High value wins. Simple is good.
Spreadsheets are also good. Baths is basically all on a spreadsheet. Jamais Vue isn't quite. It probably will be by the end of this run of game prep. Well, perhaps on several sheets. There's a separate spreadsheet for item cards, and I think that has to be the case.
It's been interesting adding characters to both games. For Baths, the characters were all there from the time we tweaked it for the Columbia University Games Club run. The only difference is that then, we didn't know how many people we'd have, and we didn't get a huge number, whereas now, we have 23 sign ups. So, I looked over the characters, and picked out the ones that seemed most viable -- that is, had the most stuff to do. It's a two hour game, and we had a lot more done than I'd feared.
Then, we jiggled things a bit. One bit character got bumped up based on one person's character questionnaire. I think we tweaked a second, but would have to go back and check. No one is cast as horde, which means that anyone with nothing to do at Intercon F during the time we're running the game can drop by and have a good chance of getting a horde roll.
If not, well, the gms can be horde characters, if needed. Or, if not, that's fine too.
It's interesting planning for different variables, and it's been interesting adding characters to Jamais Vue.
crash_mccormick had explained the theory to me some years ago, when we first started working on the first run of JV. Ignoring the fact that it's an amnesia game, you decide on your basic plotlines, factions, groups, whatever. You get your core minimum. Then, you keep adding, like petals around a flower, building out.At first, you get a bare sketch of a new addition, but a bit of work makes it click. Of course, then, you need to go back and tweak the rest, or at least, some of the rest, to incorporate the new material.
But, what if you have fewer characters? This has come up before. For the first run of JV, we had exactly as many players as we had full characters. That worked. Actually, we had one more player, but she could only play for an hour. As we knew this ahead of time, we wrote a character designed for that.
For the second run, we added four more characters. And, we got half as many players. This called for some creative casting. Plus, we didn't have questionnaires, I believe, so we did a lot of snap decision making that worked out quite well. It was a good run, but a very different one from the first.
And, we had discussed what to do if only two players showed up, or only one. We have taken JV apart and put it back together a couple of times. It gives me a good perspective on the type of larp I tend to play and tend to want to write.