Adelaide Roleplaying Community Inc.
We run tabletop games, murder mysteries and LARPs (Live Action Roleplaying) games in Adelaide, South Australia.
The more complicated the tech, the more it hates LARP. I have a CD player. It’s an old CD player. Other than a few scratched CDs making it repeat itself creepily and unexpectedly, it works. I also have a Bluetooth Speaker with a USB plug. Sometimes it’ll let me switch between the two USBs. It requires a little fiddling around with. It will always eventually play from at least one USB (so long as the sound formats are correct). It’s not as quick, easy and safe to use as the CD player.
However if I decide to go even higher tech and try to use it through Bluetooth, it can be as snarly at the start as using a USB, but even once you get it running it will occasionally stop even though the mobile phone controlling it sitting on top of it.
So what’s the moral of the story?
Continue reading “Tech Hates LARP”In a Viking-inspired nation, five clans who have been united under the same banner meet at monthly moots to discuss the issues that arise. Right now the issues include the mysterious storms surrounding the island suddenly vanishing, allowing orcs, dwarves and another human civilisation to finally visit them, bringing their own intrigues and issues with them. The elves, an ancient race, step forward from their swamp dwellings to weigh in on the discourse with unknown reasons behind their actions. This is a political LARP but it does have some boffer combat elements where people who wish to can duel with (latex) swords.
Previous to this session: Nothing. This is the first session.
Session Begins: The hall is set up with five tables in a U-shape surrounding a central table. Each of the five is for a different clan and is decorated accordingly. The orcs are brought in chains to answer for their attacks on the Boar Clan and they are sat in the corner of the room until it’s their turn to speak (though they can listen and call out during other speeches). The elves come in as guests of the Elk Clan, the dwar as guests of the raven clan, and the other human society, the Ersellians, as guests of the Horse Clan.
Continue reading “LARP SPOTLIGHT: Dervin”There’s this idea in text-based adventure design that you have to figure out what verbs are available to your characters. Can they walk, run, jump, crawl, or look in cupboards? Is this a game where Shoot is more important than Talk To, or the other way around? By looking at what players can do in the game, you can find out what the game is about, and vice versa.
You can port this theory over to LARP even though technically anything that is physically possible may theoretically occur. Sure, your regency romance LARP can theoretically involve players choosing to crawl — but is it likely, incentivised, or encouraged? Probably not. So you wouldn’t consider it a verb of your game.
In the average boffer LARP, you would have Walk, Run, Fight, Throw, and Shoot. You might also have Read, Collect and Talk as there may be the odd note, chatty NPC, conversation between PCs and herbs to collect. But you might not if talking isn’t really a part of how the game works, even if it does occur.
Continue reading “LARP Design: The Verbs”Generally people build characters based on something that interests them — a skill that captures their attention, a costume, a bit of history, a snippet of personality they want to explore! They think about who they will play with and what that will be like. Very rarely do players truly sit down and think about what would help them access the parts of the game that interests them.
Factions and skill mechanics help somewhat with this as joining the thuggish bravados will probably tie you into combat or getting several engineering / hacking skills will get you closer to the techie side of the game.
But aside from that, it can be hard to know what connects to where or to think about how character choices might push you away from what you’re after. You may have joined the Diplomat’s Guild and have a full set of negotiation skills, but if you play someone always spoiling for a fight and trying to declare war, your character might not be invited to the gently-gently diplomatic soiree off in a back room. Instead you might find yourself with frequent invites to bar room brawls and war room planning, which might be just what you’re after. Or it might not be.
Continue reading “Build your Character to fit your play style”Have you ever been running a game and realised that your beloved clues have been overlooked, mislaid and forgotten? In a tabletop game you can at least draw attention to them through prolonged description or by providing them with a physical handout. But in a LARP, it’s a lot harder to guide attention (though a fancy prop will help) and even if they are seen, remembered and analysed, they may only be seen by maybe half of the players, if you’re lucky. And in an average group of twenty plus player characters, you’ll want more chances to reach people.
So consider the Rule of Three.
For every piece of vital information you put into the game, you give three possible encounters with it. Ideally each encounter will give a slightly different spin on it, or provide slightly more (and different) information on it, so that those who manage to find all three clues don’t feel gypped. In a tabletop game, you might choose to drop the third clue if the players well and truly have it (so they don’t feel hit over the head with it) while in a LARP you’ll just have to hope for the best.
Continue reading “The Rule of Three”
