who wants to help design a LARP?

[Stake A Vamp]

so, i am trying to design a larp, and i have hit a block, so i am fishing for ideas, information upon request (i only need story stuff, not system stuff, that comes later)

so here is a list of thing i need

• class ideas
• original races
• npc classes
• monsters
• colour systems for weapons
• coinage systems
• props
• setting (subsection: town)
• setting (subsection: surrounding area)
• setting (subsection: rest of the world)
• setting (subsection: rules of magic and other micelenius [may have misspelt that])

thanking everyone in advance for any and all ideas put forth.

[Partysan]

Honestly? In a LARP, the most important thing is to keep rules to a minimum. The place where rules are needed is the point at which something cannot reasonably be expected to be played in full but have to be respresented by something else - combat, magic if it exists and a few other things, crafting possibly. Everything else should just be played out.
Thus, classes seem to be out of place in a LARP even more than they'e in P&P from time to time. Even if you're using things like character skills that have to be bought, classes are usually both restrictive and complicated - if you have so many skills and abilities that you need classes to organize them, then your system isn't well suited to LARP anyway.

[Stake A Vamp]

Honestly? In a LARP, the most important thing is to keep rules to a minimum. The place where rules are needed is the point at which something cannot reasonably be expected to be played in full but have to be respresented by something else - combat, magic if it exists and a few other things, crafting possibly. Everything else should just be played out.
Thus, classes seem to be out of place in a LARP even more than they'e in P&P from time to time. Even if you're using things like character skills that have to be bought, classes are usually both restrictive and complicated - if you have so many skills and abilities that you need classes to organize them, then your system isn't well suited to LARP anyway.

let's put it this way, these are largely for flavor, certain classes give certain ability's (ie wizard may give a bonus spell per day, or thief may give a pickpocket ability, whereas a witch may get a hex (touch ability that can paralyze, blind-fold or give some other inconvenience, or an assassin may get a once per session deathstrike, or backstab bonuses, and so on) this is the point of classes (though our skill tree will be kinda big-ish)

[nedz]

I have done a lot of LARP, but it was classless, and whilst it had races the players could negotiate new ones. The Monsters came from the proverbial kitchen sink — though there were annual themes.

Coins are completely irrelevant, and props come along later with the costumes.

You haven't really given us any idea about the game type ?
The fact that you mention magic probably implies fantasy, but it is kind of a basic requirement to answer this first.

Also Miscellaneous.

[Figgin of Chaos]

Honestly? In a LARP, the most important thing is to keep rules to a minimum.

Agreed. LARPing varies a lot from group to group, but the advantage of Live Action is that real-world physics are handling a lot of things for you. So the fewer rules you have to remember during gameplay, the more you can get into the action.

If your group is larger than the average PnP group, that also makes fewer rules a necessity; some people are better at remembering rules than others.

My group, Westfinder of California, is very rules-lite. We have plenty of philosophical rules of improv and fair play that we follow, but they aren't game mechanics per se. Each event has a completely different setting, story, and characters (Sci-fi horror one month, high fantasy the next, etc), so the mechanics change plenty as well.

I did make a system of Heroic Fantasy Abilities for games in which they fit.

[Stake A Vamp]

thank you for the rules advice, however this thread is purely for flavor, the logistics will do the whittling down later, here, have a list of races i have come up with

the cherem (shaer-em) the cherem are as old as the forests, and live symbiotically with them. their cites are built in interwoven branches, they are a wise and ancient race. their bodies have taken many aspects of the trees that they live in from birth to death. their skin is like bark, sometimes hard and rough, sometimes smooth and flexible, their blood is green, having taken on some qualities of chlorophyll, and their hair is actually tiny leaves, not unlike pine needles, they need not consume food, because they photosynthesize their own food., they have a special affinity for browns and greens, and prefer minimalism to frivolous displays of grandeur .

the setherune: the setherune are the result of a schism in a once mighty race, the counterpart to the cherem. as the cherem are to the natural world, the setherune are to the magical realm. however, some event centuries ago forced them from their own home. they were ethereal creatures and possessed no true forms. then they discovered that they could posses the forms of humans. this led to a great debate, should they share human form, or should they make their own. the setherune choose to posses the form, the horocorpa choose the latter. the setherune offered a trade to a tribe of humans, they would trade great magical power for their forms, they agreed. the setherune waited and the human souls moved on naturally the setherune had the forms to themselves. over the cenurys, they went through many changes, and became a distinct race. they like pale colours, and are particularly fond of pale blue.

the horocorpa, the mechanical bodies of the setherune who choose to create their own bodies, they have minds of metal, and most are intent upon building an empire of magic and might, they are fond of most metals, iron and copper in particular

[ko_sct]

Like other said, a LARP really need to be rule-lite.

I've played one with 200 pages of rules. It was silly, a lot of people didin't know a lot of rules and there was lots of pauses to figure what happen.

Also, for a magic system, i'd advise keeping it as much as possible in things like healing, passive effect, raising the dead, giving out bonus and the likes.

Nothing break immersion for me as much as having to stop a fight for the mage to explain the effect of a spell.

One exemple; in a fight a mage casted a spell, pointed me, yelled provocation, and started running away, leaving me confused and everyone started staring at me. After a moment they explained that i was overwelmed by an urge to kill the caster and had to run after him... kind breaking everything.

Compared to an other one where the necromancers would chant a spell in front of a corpse, bow down and whisper something in the corpse's ear (it's hp and special characteristics) and suddently the corpse would rise from the dead and fight for it's master.


An other fun spell (was from the 200+ pages larp I mentionned) was stone skin, the target became immune to normal weapons, but couldn't bend his knees or elbows.


Edit: missed the last post, welp nvm, guess you aren't really interested in mechanical advices right now

[Drakeburn]

Exactly what kind of larp are we talking about here?

Steampunk?

Cyberpunk?

Fantasy?

Alien?

Anime?

[nedz]

I'm a little confused too

Half of your bullet points are Mechanical and yet you ask for Fluff; but then you don't give us any clues about that.

[SowZ]

It's better in LARP not to have classes, even for flavor, IMO. All it does is encourage meta-constructing of characters and severely limits character building. (What if I don't want abilities A, C, and D of a wizard but want ability B of a wizard and ability C of a Barbarian?)

What you COULD do is have a list of abilities that correspond with certain archetypes and the players get to choose a certain number of abilities. Some of the most successful LARPS, (Minds Eye Theatre,) do it this way and it works wonderfully.

Perhaps people can attain new extra abilities, but they shouldn't do too terribly much in combat, IMO. I've been in and even started LARP groups, and special abilities that win combats have split groups in half. For a couple reasons. One, it is NO fun when someone can say, "Extended Touch of Death, you die." to you.

Secondly, making combat skill a leveling system kills your ability to recruit new players. Clearly, it can work, (Amtgard, Darkon, etc.) but these groups are large and have a variety of people in every class and are really combat oriented.

Also, you hurt one of your biggest advantages of LARPing. In LARPing, your skill and combat abilities or 'feats' or maneuvers shouldn't be abstracted or defined in a rules system. Your skill should improve as your actual skill improves. Nothing makes me feel like I am emulating reality less when someone actually says, "Power Swing!" and then it breaks my block as opposed to him 'actually' being strong enough to break my block.

It makes LARP fighting translate to real melee fighting even less.

Regardless, I would be more than happy to help you come up with a list of special abilities to draw from! Abilities that can't be played out by actual skill but would need special rules.

[tardisvalkyrie]

so, I have come to a decision. I will delete this thread and create two, one for fluff, which goes in the roleplaying games forum, but where would the logistics thread go?


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[SowZ]

so, I have come to a decision. I will delete this thread and create two, one for fluff, which goes in the roleplaying games forum, but where would the logistics thread go?


Posted from Giantitp.com App for Android

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