Getting Lucky at LARP

It's mid-March, and that means people are thinking about wearing green, drinking beer, and touting their 1/32nd Irish ancestry :) And when people think Irish, they think of luck, right?

Lucky characters pop up in various media all the time - either because they actually do have luck above and beyond the norm, or just because they happen to be in the right place at the right time. But it's harder to represent in any kind of game, at least in a way that's fair and not cumbersome. Dice games have it easier, since you can simply add or subtract modifiers or re-roll your results.

But what about at a LARP? Is there any way to make a lucky hobling or fate-favored son?

I asked my favorite game mechanic guru, Mr. Bill Tobin, about luck mechanics at different games. And you know what, he didn't really know of any. In Exiles we used to have a "Cheat" ability that allowed a particular persona to be able to manipulate luck so they could basically win at cards, but we changed it to Staff discretion because it was kind of not fun. So back to the drawing board. Maybe these things are out there, and I'd love to see some comments about how your game handles luck! But for the post, I'll have to speculate on how it could be done.

First, obviously if a game has any sort of randomized component, there could be a skill or ability that allows the character to add or subtract a modifier to it. For example, I've seen some staff who roll a percentage when deciding what the PCs stumble upon (such as when trying to find a particular good or person, tracking, or searching for knowledge), and at Exiles we use card draws for a few things (because you use cards in the wild west!). So a lucky character could act in a way similar to a table-top game and get a re-roll/re-draw, or they could add or subtract a certain percentage from the result.

So that's the easy one, and something that can be done while oog, setting up for a mod, and in that way it wouldn't interrupt the flow of the game. But what about trying to create a more dynamic mechanic that you can use while in-game, or even in combat?

Well, per Bill's suggestion, in Accelerant (you know you love it!), you can create a flavor and add it to any game effect. So it could be as simple as changing the call phrase on existing ability. If you want your lucky effect to represent a blow missing their lucky target, it could be a protective (“Grant 2 protection by luck” or “Imbue Dodge by Luck”). In the case of an attack ("Lucky Strike" anyone?), you could do the same thing with a slay ability or other attack. This would keep the important parts of the call (like "grant" and "imbue") but the flavor text just allows you to add that concept into the game without making an entirely new mechanic.

I think most games probably decide it's not worth the trouble of a new call to portray something that doesn't actually give you a new ability, it just gives you more of the same ability (dodges, resists, slays, etc). But it could be interesting to games that might want to play with a new type of class or who want to add some new flavor to the game (like having a luck deity).

What do you think? Do you feel lucky, readers? Do ya?

Keep It Simple

I'm sure we've beaten this dead horse far long enough, but I find it's useful to come back to this topic again and again.

The more stuff people have to remember, the more likely they are to mess it up.

In game design, we often try to add interesting elements to a game without thinking of the most basic consequence - that it's something else people have to be aware of.

The WAR Rules council is finalizing the local policy for 2012 at this moment. While some of the policies they've used in the past have added options to the game, those options were rarely, if ever, utilized by the players.

Since these are extra rules to remember, particularly for traveling players, I'm always in favor of dropping anything that isn't amazing and useful to the game. Is the Archery Modification playtest going to stay in effect? Of course, because florentine with a bow is crazy awesome and really should be a part of the core rules (as it is in that other game). On the other hand, do we really need a policy indicating how a smith can make a weapon out of bone or build a portcullis? I think not.

Here's an idea - you can be a smith and bring a portcullis to game, or make your weapon look like bone and you can tell people you made them. Done.

What do you think?

I've Been Hiding Something From You

I have to say, I've been keeping secrets from you, blog. I didn't want to. I really long to be true to you. But the truth is, I didn't know how legit the information was. I didn't know if I was supposed to keep it under wraps, and I didn't know if there was some shadowy figure that could swoop down at any time to take me out of the picture.

But at this point, I think I can finally come clean. You see, I'm one of the new members of NERO International staff, holding a position on the National Rules committee.

It took a lot of thought on whether I would become part of the rules committee. My main worry was that my buddy Mickey was done wrong by the position. Since I podcast with him, I felt like I was betraying him by taking the position. But I've decided to learn from his experiences.

You see, I now know how bad it can get. And if I brace for impact, I can lessen the damage. I mean, worst case, I drop out of the rules committee. But the fact is, NERO has been a major part of my LARPing career, and this is my opportunity to make things better, to make things fresh. And I had to take it.

I'm looking forward to working with the team to improve the game. My personal goal for national rules is to streamline (read: create) a system for playtest submittals and to fix formal magic. If I can help implement those two things, I'll consider it a success.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I'm expecting an influx of email. You know what? Bring it on. One of the problems I've felt have existed in the national level of NERO is that the staff members aren't really in touch with what the players think. I think I can bring that to the table.

So tell me what you think. My email is larp.plot.tips@gmail.com.

PS: I will try to respond to your emails, at least to tell you that I've received it. But that's going to depend on my workload and the number of emails received. But don't automatically assume I've ignored you if you don't get a quick turn-around, and after a while feel free to send another email asking if I got it. I won't mind.

YouTube Friday: 300

300 posts, that is!

I love milestones like this. I get to take the easy way out and thank all our readers instead of giving you some real information.

Maybe we'll do another contest. On the cusp of some delicious discussion about game design (some between our friends, some on a recording of LARPcast soon to be posted, and some on various forums), I though I'd pose a challenge for our readers.

Your quest, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with a LARP rules set for Frank Miller's 300. Here are the guidelines.

- Must be Focused Around Frank Miller's 300.
I'm terrible at history (Jenn covers that pretty well). I only care about stabbing dudes with spears. Historical accuracy be damned.

- Must be Boffer Combat.
I know it goes without saying, but I really don't see Gerard Butler running around rock-paper-scissoring immortals.

- Rule Set Can be No Longer than 10 Pages.
I know you want to make it as complex and intricate as possible, but let's not put more thought into the ruleset than was put into the actual plotline of the movie. This is an action game. Beat ass.

- Make It Look Nice.
If you send me a 10 page wall of text, you won't win. I suggest you make the formatting look nice and include pictures if possible*. If you don't have pictures of your friends in Spartan gear, just draw some shit is MS paint. Mad points for MS paint.

- Deadline: Sept. 12th.
You've got 1 month to put your stuff together. Anything that hasn't been submitted to us by then won't have a chance to win (but we'd gladly look at your work anyways and hit each other by the rules you have dictated!)

To submit your entry to this contest, send an email to larp.ohio@gmail.com with the subject "This is Sparta" including the following:
- Your Name
- What LARPs you currently play
- Your favorite moment in the movie 300
- The rule set (preferred delivery is in Google Docs, but .doc or .txt
- A paragraph, no longer than 100 words, on what makes your ruleset the best and/or what makes it unique.

The winner will get:
- Their ruleset publicly posted on Google Docs and be forever shared throughout the land**.
- Our buddies will play at least one session of a game using your rules, and write a bitchin' review on it.
- Mad bragging rights.
- Maybe some giveaways if we can get some free stuff (this was spur of the moment)

GAME ON.

Finally, for those of you here to see a video, don't worry. Since I couldn't find any good Sparta LARPs, I had two possible choices that fit the 300 theme. The first one was the scene from 300 where he kicks the Persian in the chest. The other option was a campy "This is Sparta remix." Guess which one I chose!



Now that I've offended all our readers with this video, I won't have to worry about what to do at 500 posts.

*Any copyrighted pictures included in rulesets will be removed and won't add value in regards to the contest. You won't be disqualified, but original pictures will get you further.

**You give us the limited right to post the ruleset online and to play the game personally. We will not profit from your work, and should you choose to try and sell it, you will retain full rights (but please send us a copy of your rules!).

Fixing Celestial Damage

I apologize for writing another post specific for NERO, but it's worth being said.

So, for those of you unaware, Celestial magic is one of the two schools of magic. It's known for having a high level of damage and weapon enhancement, as opposed to the earth tree that has curses and healing/necromancy.

The problem, of course, is that with the increase in average player level, melee damage is creeping up with basic swings doing more damage than the first 4 levels of damage. Since damage is supposed to be the big sell, this damage creep is making celestial casters underrepresented.

There have been a couple of things suggested for fixes to celestial damage. All of them are focused around making it more powerful, but none of them are a clear cut improvement (or else they would have been adopted).

I wanted to talk about the various fixes to celestial damage that have been proposed.

Double Damage (or Base 10)

One of the suggestions was to simply increase the damage celestial damage does. Straight forward and easy. The big concern most people have is that it will destabilize PvP, but the fact is that all PvP involves level 9 magic takedowns, so it doesn't make celestial better than everything else.

I originally liked this solution, but it turns out that staff still has a difficult time dealing with the increased damage, and this leads to an increase in returns/resists. Which is bad.

Pros: Definitely more powerful.
Con: Causes increased NPC body, increased resists/returns, possible PvP concerns.

Monsters take Double from Celestial
One of the other solutions is just to have all NPCs take double damage from celestial magic. The benefit of this change is that it doesn't actually change the rules. The downside is that it breaks immersion and causes significantly more math.

I really don't like the added complexity. Math is often too difficult to keep up with as is. The last thing we need is more of this.

Pros: More powerful, no rules change
Con: Increase math (complexity), possible increased NPC body

Monsters cannot Resist Celestial Damage
NERO Cincinnati came up with a solution that involved the NPCs simply not using resists on celestial damage. The benefit is once again that it doesn't change the rules.

Of all the proposed fixes, I think this one is the best. It doesn't break immersion and helps a celestial caster keep its most valuable resource: packets.

Pros: More powerful, more valuable in situations where Celestial shines.
Cons: Cannot handle high body scaling (should plot teams still do it).

What do you all think? Have you got a fix for celestial magic?