Airsoft LARP

[grimworks]

Anyone have experience with an airsoft LARP? We are looking to start one and would love some insight from people who have played or run one before. We are career LARPers and avid airsofters but are looking to cheat the test of time rules development method and ask for the advice of others. Thanks.

[thorgrim29]

Tried it once in the winter, bad idea because we couldn't feel the hits through the layers of clothing and coats. What we did is set it post-apocalypse with rare ammo so we had our usual sword-LARP rules (though with much less healing since it wasn't fantasy anymore) for melee and guns would just take out whatever limb they hit and a torso shot took you down.

[grimworks]

We are in the deep southeast so the clothing isn't a problem.we are planning a rise of the machines thing. I do a lot of special effects and vacuum formed armor and horror props. We are planning a game with large mech types and terminator like stuff and most players will be on the resistance. We also plan to incorporate stuff from COD, Destiny etc. Thanks for the insight and we welcome any advice or ideas

[Lost Demiurge]

I used to run a post-apocalyptic airsoft LARP in my local area. It was a pretty fun experience, but I ended up burning out and handing the reins on to other people. It's still going on, years later, so I count it a success.

Asking about "things to watch out for" is a pretty broad question. Want to narrow it down?

I could talk about the following topics:

-Running LARPs

-Airsoft in LARPs

-The Postapocalyptic genre in LARPs

[grimworks]

What I am really looking for are things that worked or didn't work with airsoft in a LARP environment. Wound/ death rules, types of "ammunition", Armor, Magic/ non-physical effects and such. I have run many LARPS of the traditional variety and with this one I am trying to circumvent the months to years long beta testing in an effort to open the game sooner. We will be fielding many "monsters" not seen in most American LARPs and few European games. We have backgrounds in special effects and prop making and the building of 10' mechs and vacuum formed suits of futuristic armor eats up a great amount of time and money that would otherwise be spent on rules testing. If we could find a workable system that incorporates airsoft and modern body armors, and allows Milsim and Sci/fi players to enjoy the same game it would save time, money and headaches. I know this is kind of a lazy way to go about it but we don't have years to work on it so we turn to others who have gone before.

[Lost Demiurge]

Well, if you don't want to put too much into the rules, then I'd recommend keeping it simple. Use hit points. Every time someone gets shot, have them lose hit points. Armor adds hit points until it's gone. Explosives do more hit points than bullets. Gas effects or some traps bypass armor.

For the bigger monsters, have a marshal on hand and out-of-game, estimating the damage they take.

That's how I'd do it if I were using your strengths and weaknesses. Keeping it simple lets you focus on the special effects without getting bogged down in rules arguments and troubles.

Um... Give PC's a bleed out time. Once they hit zero hit points they can't lose any more, and have five minutes before they're permanently dead and it's time for a new PC. Have a medic class that can't use anything heavier than pistols, but can basically spend a minute "operating" on a fallen PC to bring them up to minimal hit points. Have further healing require surgery, combat drugs, or psychic powers, and 5-10 minutes of game time, so it's not something you can do mid-fight. (I don't know how weird you want to get here. My game had magic, some games have psychic stuff, others just go "realistic".)

One thing we did that worked was make noisemaker grenades. We got ahold of some cheap baking soda/vinegar bomb bags, and duct taped nerf footballs to look like explosives. When you wanted to throw a grenade you'd rubber band a bomb bag to it, squeeze the bag to get the chemicals going, and throw the grenade. Anyone within a certain radius when the bomb bag popped took damage or a gas effect.

Only downside was that the only way to keep it legit was to call a hold, and have the marshal go look at where the grenade landed, and eyeball the radius. Not a problem when you're only dealing with one grenade, or it's out in the open, but a bit of a problem when it lands under something, or there's multiple grenades cooking off and a hold means more might detonate. Gotta keep those holds short, and hope that people play honestly.

Hm... Economy. Economy is something to consider going in. Does starting gear have value? Is it easy to get guns and bullets? How much is a bottle cap (or whatever you're using... we used poker chips,) worth? Some people will hoard or steal loot like ravens just because they can. LARPs give you a perspective of just how greedy your fellow man can get...

If you want to use modern body armors, then have people listen for hits. You won't feel the pellets, but you can usually hear them. Especially if people aren't shouting damage and effects all the time.

Eye protection's mandatory, of course. Test every bit of it before game, every game.

Um... The power of your guns is going to determine the feasibility of melee. We used mixed melee/birdseed packet/airsoft fighting mechanics. That meant that there would be a lot of times where enemies and PCs were trying to close or maneuver into melee range with a shooter. We got away with it by two measures... One is that we limited the guns to 300 fps or lower, and two is that we forbade shooting within five feet. That still happened now and again, but the rule was those hits didn't count, were a waste of a bullet, and could get you kicked out if you kept doing it or obviously did it deliberately.

I'm guessing since you're going high-quality you're aiming for a higher airsoft fps, which is cool. It means melee will be less effective, or you'll want to pad your zombies or melee monsters or whatnot to prevent injury.

Which leads me to another point... Insurance. Look into it. We managed to avoid it through massive waivers and lots of safety measures. We were bargain bin LARPing, and insurance wouldn't have been worth it, so long as we stayed an LLC. But you? If you've got money to toss around on good props, then you can afford basic insurance. Try going through the companies that handle sporting events, that's what an airsoft game basically is.

Have safe zones where there's no gunfire allowed. Block them off from the play field so random eyeshots don't happen.

Forbid deliberate headshots. It'll happen anyway, but so long as it's an accident, meh.

MMmmm... There's a lot more I could mention, but again, your questions are really broad. What I've given you above are things that worked out well for us. But we went for middling-complex rules, scarce-to-low economy, low-cost airsoft guns, and low special effects. So there's going to be a lot of things you'll want to do differently.

[Mutazoia]

You can get 6mm paint ball pellets that work in an airsoft gun, so "feeling the hit" isn't much of an issue.

I would be very careful selecting your weapons, if you intend to play in a public area such as a park. Cops are notoriously trigger happy in some places, and have been known to shoot first and ask questions later. The gun looking like a obvious toy seems to have little impact on their decision making process. Make sure you have 1 or 2 people on "lookout", who can greet any incoming police and explain what is going on.

That being said. If you want your guns to look as realistic as possible, check out the Japanese made guns. (http://shop.ehobbyasia.com/aeg/tokyo-mauri-japan/index.html).

[Blackhawk748]

I would recommend against NERo style HP, as it didnt work all that well for us, something closer to Belegarth's system would probably work better. If you dont know what that is thats 2 hits to a spot "kills it". So two hits to the arms renders the arm non functional (this is what medics are for) and 2 hits to the chest kill you. Armor simply adds more hits.

[Lost Demiurge]

Oh yeah, good point.

1. Don't play on public land.

2. Use biodegradeable pellets.

3. Sometimes people who own ruins of industrial sites are nice enough to let you play on them, if you ask politely and supply big stacks of waivers. Or offer a token payment.

[grimworks]

Thanks for the feedback. Our plan is to utilize various secure locations similar to the ones used by the large Mil/sim airsoft companies, MOUT sites, vacant industrial complexes and such. A game in New England just used a decommissioned nuclear power facility! Due to the storyline, we really can't play at a fixed site. If any of you are in the Southeast and would like to help with development let me know. The idea behind the game is sort of an Illuminati meets Robocop meets Terminator with a bit of Red Dawn. Group of mega rich folks take over. They use robots and human armies/ police. Players can be on either side but bad guy slots are limited and have uniform and gear requirements. We have a decommissioned Air Force base available with 750 acres, a small town and lots of demolished structures as well, and a 250 acre paintball park for forest based games. Both facilities are airsoft friendly and we have started negotiating with a few industrial facilities in Auburn/ Opelika Alabama. Please keep the ideas coming and thanks. Anyone interested in contacting me directly to join or play should IM me for my email.

[Lost Demiurge]

Okay, Grimworks?

With so much and so many resources at hand, and such a large budget for effects...

You need a fun ruleset. Period. You're playing big leagues as LARPs go, and you gotta have rules that match your dreams.

Take some of that money, and pay a freelancer to write a ruleset for you. Or hire someone to do it full-time. It doesn't cost much, in the grand scheme of things. A couple of thousand or even a couple of hundred to the right freelancer will get you a solid, simple ruleset that matches your dreams and that your customers will enjoy.

Soliciting ideas off of message boards is better than nothing, but there's no reason to stint if you're playing on this scale.

[grimworks]

Thanks again. We have professional writers editors and such. We have designers and artists. It would seem that we have it all, but truthfully, we are mostly old school and our experience is in traditional boffer and seed packet LARPs. We are airsoft players and when we decided to combine the hobbies and find some people experienced in airsoft LARPs to save us some design time. The ideas submitted so far are very helpful and thought provoking. The reason we are posting here is, after reading many of the posts on game design and rules development, we were confident that this wasn't a group of childish fanboys trying to out do each other. The devotion to logistics as well as playability was enough to convince us. We still welcome any and all ideas. Thanks

[grimworks]

Our characters are going to be simpler than most traditional LARPs as will the rest of the rules set. This is to streamline check-in and encourage those more interested in the combat side to play while still allowing roleplayers an opportunity to develop and play a character with depth and complexity. Most LARPs have an armor and weapons inspection at check-in, add chrono for each weapon, the extra safety gear, safety briefings, new player orientation and other opening ceremonies, and the fact that not everyone arrives at the same time, we decided to forego the complex in favor of the expedient. The ideas here have shown us the things that others have tried and failed or succeeded with. We are using mid to high end airsoft weapons with fps ranges of 320 to 420 for rifles, pistols and support weapons and 460 to 520 for snipers. standard engagement rule apply. All participants will be required to wear full face protection with customization highly encouraged due to in-play "air quality", hi-cap mags will be allowed and an in-play justification due to munitions developments is in place. We will not implement a level system for characters but there will be skill levels and earnable points to spend on them. our medic and healing system is fairly complex and in-depth without being incomprehensible. only medics can heal and there are multiple medic levels. I was paramedic for a long time and I took a lot of time here to ensure realism and playability. Some of the other leveled skills in development are: lock picking, demolitions, electronics, computer skills, various material gathering and crafting skills and others. Melee weapons are available as are some "nerf" style guns for stun and other purposes.

Any help in the areas of skills, consumables, armor and crafting/ gathering/ acquiring would be helpful