PDA

View Full Version : Of Gaiman, Achilli and Lost Things



MandibleBones
2007-07-04, 04:46 PM
So I've been on a Neverwhere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere) kick recently, and have a great desire to run a LARP with a distinctly Neverwhere feel and tone. I ran a Changeling: The Dreaming LARP for a year, but it had more of a Sandman/Gummi Bears theme to it and wasn't quite what I wanted.

Now, as for the actual mechanics and house rules, well, I'll work on those in the homebrew design forum, but I'm wondering a couple things here:

1. How many people played/play Changeling: The Dreaming, and are familier with the MET Rules (OWoD MET, not NWoD)?

2. Has anyone either played a demo of / been shown a preview of / been slavishly following the release of Changeling: The Lost - and if so, am I better off waiting for rules for that to come out to get the feel I want?

Jannex
2007-07-04, 06:28 PM
I'm pretty sure I qualify for both of your criteria; Changeling: the Dreaming was actually my very first roleplaying experience, and I still play it quite avidly. I have a passing familiarity with MET rules, and played in a Vampire LARP for a while a couple of years ago. I've also read a bit of the release info on the White Wolf site about the new Changeling: the Lost.

I can see how you might have gotten more of a Sandman feel than a Neverwhere feel from your C:tD experience, since C:tD casts the PCs as actual creatures of myth. From what I remember about the releases for C:tL, you might have better luck at running something Neverwhere-esque with it, since there's more of a feeling of being cast adrift from the "normal" world without being entirely a faerie creature yourself. To be honest, that's what has me skeptical about C:tL in general (I liked the feel of C:tD), but for your purposes, it might suit you better.

Edit: Incidentally, the idea of a Neverwhere-styled LARP is just generally pretty awesome. You win.

MandibleBones
2007-07-04, 07:11 PM
Edit: Incidentally, the idea of a Neverwhere-styled LARP is just generally pretty awesome. You win.

Thanks - this is what I get for reading the book, coincidentally finding the graphic novel the next day, and then immediately ordering the miniseries to see what all the kerfuffle was about.

I'll take a look at C:tL - I got that feel from the previews as well. It's not like I'm not going to get it anyways :)

Mr Croup
2007-07-05, 09:56 AM
First off, hooray for Neverwhere. If you couldn't tell from my handle, I'm a bit of a fan. That being said, creating a Neverwhere inspired LARP is a tricky thing. Some members of the production company I work with toyed around with the idea of creating one several years back, when we were still in the business of running LARPs. We started out looking at the MET rules as a basis, thinking that Changeling would be a good starting point, and if I remember correctly looking at some of the systems involved with Hedge Mages, before we started thinking about generating an entirely new system for it.

If you decide to use the MET rules, I think looking at Changeling as your leaping off point isn't a bad idea. However, I'd seriously think about starting character creation using base line humans. The idea of "Knacks" in Neverwhere lends itself to tacking on special abilities (whether they be Disciplines, Gifts, Cantrips, or what have you), but keeping the characters, for the most part based off of humans, or perhaps kin of the various supernaturals, or toned down versions (like garou with out shifting, just the access to Gifts).

Adding in higher level special abilities as things that can be gained either through some item, learning some special piece of information, or bargaining for it as a boon, is one way to handle some of the more powerful things we see in Neverwhere.

As I'm typing this out, I keep hitting the same issues with balance that I did years back. You'd have to spend a decent chunk of time figuring out what abilities players could choose at creation for their Knacks, and if those things progress, or stay constant. How do they learn new powers? While pulling different powers from the different WoD games would make it easier to have the Knacks be more individual, you have to be very mindful of keeping things balanced, either by setting up a system of prerequisites, or scaling build costs off of power. At which point, would you end up better off just starting from scratch? Or do you stick to the MET system, and stick to one or two of the settings as they are, but just change the fluff.

Right, so this post ended up being a bit too rambling, but hopefully there's something to be gleaned from it. In any event, I wish you luck with it, and would be interested to hear what direction you go in.

Dan_Hemmens
2007-07-05, 10:03 AM
There's a (probably out of print) RPG out called Underworld which takes Neverwhere as its main inspiration. See here (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=3700).

It's actually designed to be at least semi-LARP friendly (the "dice" mechanic uses coins, which are no more immersion breaking than good old RPS).

Attilargh
2007-07-05, 10:30 AM
There is also an official, free Neverwhere RPG (http://www.postmort.demon.co.uk/free.html), in case you're interested.

Mr Croup
2007-07-05, 11:02 AM
There is also an official, free Neverwhere RPG (http://www.postmort.demon.co.uk/free.html), in case you're interested.

Looks pretty interesting. I'd hesitate to actually call it "official," as they don't actually have licensing rights. I think I vaguely remember stumbling upon the original version of it, or at least the letter at the end in regards to rights.

MandibleBones
2007-07-05, 11:26 AM
The idea of "Knacks" in Neverwhere lends itself to tacking on special abilities (whether they be Disciplines, Gifts, Cantrips, or what have you), but keeping the characters, for the most part based off of humans, or perhaps kin of the various supernaturals, or toned down versions (like garou with out shifting, just the access to Gifts).

I was thinking of using the Kinain rules (faerie-kin) originally, though I realized quickly that using the Mortal rules with a heavy 'ling flavor might be work better.


There is also an official, free Neverwhere RPG, in case you're interested.

Seen it and downloaded it. Was impressed by the content (as would find it helpful), but the system is clunky and doesn't seem to lend it self to a LARP well.

Also read the d6 WEG version that's (unofficially) floating around somewhere. Same thing (and I used to like d6 so very much).

At this point I'm really thinking about waiting until Changeling: the Lost comes out - apparently, from friends of mine who have been following it, it's more what I'm looking for.

Mr Croup
2007-07-05, 12:01 PM
Yeah, I'd agree that running the players as Mortals, and sprinkling on various powers from the Kinain, Ghoul, Kinfolk, and what have you, possibly with some Hedge Magic, for Knacks will probably be the best way to do it with oWod. You might also want to look at Hunter as well. That way you can have a large variety of Knacks, but you won't have to invent a new system for them.

I haven't heard much about the Changeling: the Lost, but then I ended my love affair with WoD shortly before the shift to the new WoD, and haven't been impressed by any of the new lines. When is C:tL being released?

MandibleBones
2007-07-05, 01:25 PM
October or November, not sure which off the top of my head.

And you might check out Mage: the Awakening - of all the NWoD stuff, I was most impressed with it. Vampire remains TOO angsty and you can take your Werewolf and... well, you know.

And I'll check out OWoD Hunter as well - a mortals game seems the way to go if I'm going OWoD.

Mr Croup
2007-07-05, 02:20 PM
October or November, not sure which off the top of my head.

And you might check out Mage: the Awakening - of all the NWoD stuff, I was most impressed with it. Vampire remains TOO angsty and you can take your Werewolf and... well, you know.

And I'll check out OWoD Hunter as well - a mortals game seems the way to go if I'm going OWoD.

Yeah, I've looked into Mage: The Awakening, and I liked it the least, but I think that's probably because Mage: the Ascension was my favorite oWoD game, and I don't like the new metaplot or direction it was taken in. But hey, to each their own, right?

Hunter is interesting, and definitely worth a look, in my opinion, though I think I prefer Laws of the Hunt versus Laws of the Reckoning, myself.

MandibleBones
2007-07-05, 02:32 PM
Fair enough; I'll take a look at it.

And I think I liked Mage best of the new because I knew only the basics about the old Mage - seeing what I could do with the new Mage seemed fun.

Mr Croup
2007-07-05, 02:45 PM
Definitely true, Mage, in whatever incarnation, is the most flexible line in WoD. I really think that I wouldn't object to the new Mage, if Mage:the Ascension hadn't been the first White Wolf game I played, and what really got me back into roleplaying after a few years away from it when I was younger.

Jannex
2007-07-05, 04:16 PM
Definitely true, Mage, in whatever incarnation, is the most flexible line in WoD. I really think that I wouldn't object to the new Mage, if Mage:the Ascension hadn't been the first White Wolf game I played, and what really got me back into roleplaying after a few years away from it when I was younger.

That's pretty much exactly the reason why I'm so skeptical about Changeling: the Lost. I'm very much disenchanted with the nWoD line as well. I've looked at some of the release info for Scion, though, and it actually looks promising. I'd certainly recommend checking it out, for anyone who was a solid oWoD'er.