NERO 9th Edition

Like fabled beasts of yore, this mythic creature has been haunting the edges of the NERO world since before the year 2000. Originally called NERO Revised and then NERO millennium, it now enters the realm of the real with the working title of NERO 9th edition. The reviews thus far have been mixed but I am going to pick out a couple of the changes and tell you why I like or do not like them, and then open the floor up for some discussion.

A lot of things have changed most of them are not to major but some of them have been hotly debated. The one that is nearest and dearest to my heart is the lowering of weapon proficiency costs overall for the Templar class. The cost was a graduated one in the past topping out at 25, it is now a flat 18 all the way up. This reduces the cost for a templar to swing 10 points of damage by almost 40 build and reduces the cost to swing 20s by almost 90 build. For the mid level player this will not seem like a huge deal, templars will still have to choose between doing damage and having a lot of spell power. For the higher level player it allows for a more balanced approach to the character class, swinging for lots of damage while having an appreciable number of spells. I believe that this better captures the intent of the class as a sort of caster/fighter hybrid. It allows a high level templar to act as a fighter with an appropriate healer buddy and also act as a healer with an appropriate fighter buddy.

A change was added to making production items that allows for up to 4 times the characters level in the skill to be created. This has allowed for the addition of another treasure type, production components that allow you to produce more goods if you collect enough of them. Anything that adds to the in game economy is a plus in my mind. This should allow for some cool role play moments between creation based characters and adventuring based characters, trading goods for production components, which allow the creation of more goods.

The really cool thing about this new addition is how neat and tidy it is. The old book was filled with inconsistencies and errors. Most of the metagame data was organized nonsensically. The new book has corrected almost all of this. The pages are well laid out and the photographs are much better. The playtests that were deemed succesful were included in the book and the errata were as well. All in all I believe that this book, once everyone has converted, will make the game simpler and easier to play, and most importantly easier to teach to new players.

This rule set has been a long time coming. Many were hoping for less, many were hoping for more. All in all though, it gives us a good starting point for adding some new content and it corrects a lot of the issues that were found in the old game. The system should be faster and simpler than the old system. Hopefully the new formal concepts and cantrip changes will allow for easier scaling by plot teams. The lay out of the magic pages alone is worth the adoption of the new system. I urge everyone to at least try it out, playtest it, and give it an honest chance. Learning new rules can be arduous but the payoff is uniformity and better play.

The Week In LARP - January 31st

This Week In LARP

Though the weather outside is rough, it could always be worse. Trust me, as I just got back from the Horn of Africa.

NERO

WAR will be hosting a 2-day event this weekend starting Friday, February 4th and ending Sunday, February 6th. The game will be held at Camp Oyo at the IG location of Ashton. It's $50 to PC ($30 with a good PC ratio) and is free to NPC. This event will be using NERO 8th Edition rules.

If you've got a game running this week and we didn't mention you, either drop a comment here or shoot an email to larp.plot.tips@gmail.com, and we'll add you as soon as possible!

Mind Mapping and Larp Plot

Mind mapping is a relatively new phenomenon in the tech world. Basically it involves the collaborative creation of a webbing surrounding a particular event or idea. Generally 4 or 5 people work on a webbing and flesh out all of the details of a project before production work begins. I was messing around with the idea the other day and thought, "How great would this be for my NERO plot team". So I set up a mapping for the Lumberton plot season and started working on it.

The site that I am using is http://www.mindmeister.com , there are many sites that have mind mapping whiteboards but this one comes with a bunch of neat tools like pointers, highlighters and grids. Plus it is free to use, though each member can only have three webbings at a time. I started out by laying down the basic framework of a season, plot arcs, villains, recurring modules and concepts. Then I invited the rest of the team to make contributions. The concept works remarkably well.

In addition to allowing collaboration on the whiteboard, Mindmeister has an instant contact feature which can be linked to Skype. This allows for plot teams to have video conferences while working on the webbing for the events in question, it is really a great idea.

I am pretty impressed with this technology and think that it could have some very positive effects on event planning. Everyone should check it out and let me know what you think.

Craftsman Skills: Mandatory, Beneficial, or Fluff?

This is a guest post by Andrew Mills.

So recently I have began discussing the use of Craftmen Other skills (or COs
as they are commonly referred to) in NERO.  The skills current use in many
chapters is not what the skill was orignally created to do.  To my understanding
the skill was orginally created for profit back when one gold was making a haul
at an event.  These craftmen skills were orginally simple jobs like baker,
mason, brewer, etc.  Over the years the skill has evolved into a knowledge skill
in many chapters.  One that is used to garner further information from plot;
examples include CO: undead lore, ancient runes, etc.  Some arguement has been
risen over the use of these skills as it seems some plot members in the past
have made them almost manditory to further a plotline.  I hope to express my
views here on the topic and hopefully come to a peaceful concensus on the use of
these skills.

The basis of the arguement against them is a sound one; that knowledge of an
in-game (IG) subject should be learned IG and no other way.  I cannot argue
against this completely.  To make the game world more immersive players need to
learn as much about it as they can.  Note that this does not mean to force feed
them information but make the information available to them with varying levels
of difficulty obtaining it according to subject.  I play with COs as a knowledge
skill and have been told before that I could not take a certain CO due to the
availablity of the information, which was the correct move on the side of plot.
Information is a powerful tool most cannot argue against, from the easiest IG
knowledge to obtain, such as major crop harvests and main travel routes, to the
more difficult to obtain, such as the lore of an ancient civilization or the
magical theories surrounding time or void magic.

The problems with this arguement is the inconsistency between chapters.  How
is one chapter suppose to know the time and investment you have put in learning
the information you know from another.  As plot is written sometimes the
interaction or manor a force is used and manipulated is varied from what it may
be somewhere else.  Having something written like a CO allows plot teams to know
your character's knowledge on a subject and can point out these differences out
to you.  Of course this is just one example.

The fear that the use of these skills in such a manner can lead to a more
tabletop oriented game, where skill checks are needed and such is a valid one.
If plot teams start relaying solely on COs for the information they give out and
making certain COs needed to further plot they only feed this fear and hinder
who and how players can interact with plot.  My feel on this point is that COs
should never be manditory to further plot they could be used to garner clues on
the subject if related.  For example, my character has studied ancient runes,
meaning I know a few runes personally (enough to encode my alchemy recipe
book).  Now in this case if plot wanted they could give me a clue in order to
make the translation easier based on my knowledge they know I have due to my
CO.  Say I have CO: ancient runes with one rank in it they could give me one
letter or one clue if I ask for it.  The plot member could have created the
runes or just wish that no clue be given which is perfectly fine and up to them,
just if the runes are based in no system of real world runes how is my study of
them to yield any worth or merit IG.

My biggest concern for not using COs is the mantainence of character
concept.  I go to event perhaps once a month if I am lucky, while my character
lives in this world 24/7 and it only seems logical that he would know more of
it.  Perhaps some would rather time invested out of game be manditory to learn
of subjects, and I'm not saying that some time between game should not be
invested in study.  Just as we invest time creating our boffers, armor, or reps
or making the money to purchase them.  Though I do not like seeing those that do
not have as much time out of game be hindered for this when they already go out
of their way to find the time and money to come to events.  We do not want our
game to become some collection of elitists that make no accomidations to the
casual gamers, just like many MMOs have done.  If we can have skills that make
me swing harder without lifting weights, or more agile without real world
training, then why not have a skill that makes me smarter or more knowledgable
about a subject.  I play NERO to be someone I'm not, to escape for one weekend a
month. I do not play the soldier, or use alot of military tactics, or always
follow the rules of the IG society.  I play someone who is fun for me, who helps
me escape the troubles of the real world and release my woes for a weekend, and
if I want to play someone smarter then who I am in real life why should I not be
able to.  Perhaps one day a skill will be created in the rules for these
knowledge skills, but until then I am please with the evolution COs have gone
under in many chapters into these knowledge skills.  They should not be needed
to further plot, but clues should be able to be given if wanted.  They should be
more then just gold, because making coin is not why I play this game.

As this is still an open debate I am having with some people I look forward to
any thoughts or feedback on this topic and hope we can keep this as civil as we
have up to this point.

International Fantasy Gaming Society

This game has been in existence for as long as NERO or slightly longer and is based on non conjoined modules run at mod day type events mostly at local parks. They use a hit point based location based damage system and several spell deliveries including verbal and point based. I mentioned them in my article yesterday so I thought I would give everyone a link to their treasure distribution guide so you can see what a truly varied treasure policy looks like. Interestingly nothing ever expires unless it is a single use item in which case it goes away on use, and yet they still manage to scale appropriately for the 20 page magic item lists.

LINK TO BOOK