(Advice Needed)LARP GM attached to bad ruleset, won't commit things to paper

[Drynwyn]

So my college has an active LARP club, which is great- it was actually founded just this year.

What's LESS great is that the club's founder put together his own ruleset and style of play, and it is... not good. It's not impossible to salvage, or even particularly difficult, but it has some critical issues.

Spoiler: Spoilerd for not totally relevant- list of issues

Show

Rogues and Wizards can point and say "You're dead now" to a monster or player, and then are borderline useless for the rest of the fight.

The XP system he's established has a very high number of essentially mandatory expenses and generally is potentially unappealing to new LARP'ers.

Certain types of characters start off with flat-out better stats.

Etc. Etc. All fixable- LARP rulesets don't have to be perfect, foam swordplay is a good equalizer.

The difficulty arises in that he is extremely hesitant to make any changes to his One True Ruleset, and furthermore, many rules, particularly those about XP expenditure on anything other than simple stat increases, exist only in his head and nowhere on paper.

I need some advice on the best way to convince the guy to make necessary changes to his ruleset-baby, and to get him to write it down so that the club doesn't disintegrate when he graduates in a year.

[Thrudd]

Wait for him to graduate, and then fix the system or adopt a better system. There is nothing stopping you or anyone else from writing down the rules you know, and then filling in the rest yourself. When he's gone, someone else will need to run things, anyway. Why would you go on using a bad system?

[McBars]

Some friends of mine LARP pretty regularly and have encountered a similar problem in the past; I'd recommend you read this post from the LARP section of RPG.net

[WarKitty]

Some friends of mine LARP pretty regularly and have encountered a similar problem in the past; I'd recommend you read this post from the LARP section of RPG.net

Are you sure you got the right link there?

[McBars]

Are you sure you got the right link there?

Damnit, you're right. corrected

joking and foolishness aside, just sit down and have a talk with the guy; tell him your concerns both about the rules and the sustenance of the club after he leaves.
Especially, point out to him that without a printed/e-copy of the rules, how are players and particularly new players going to be able to learn or want to join?

[WarKitty]

Damnit, you're right. corrected

joking and foolishness aside, just sit down and have a talk with the guy; tell him your concerns both about the rules and the sustenance of the club after he leaves.
Especially, point out to him that without a printed/e-copy of the rules, how are players and particularly new players going to be able to learn or want to join?

Still youtube. Nice videos though.

On the original topic, might be worth also discussing who else would be willing to run the larp if this guy can't get it together.

[Vitruviansquid]

Tell me if I get this right... so there's this guy who has a ruleset nobody likes and nobody really knows, and you're worried that when this guy leaves the club, the club will disband because nobody will know how to play the game any more?

Good, I say. Let the rules be lost forever to the mists of the time.

Here's the two things I can see happening if you get the guy to codify the rules.

1. Your group keeps following these rules that you hate, ensuring you will hate it for the rest of your time in the LARP club.

2. Your group decides to change the rules, but different people will have different ideas about what changes are good and what are not. You end up with a ruleset designed by committee, a broth ruined by too many cooks, ensuring you will hate it for the rest of your time in the LARP club.

[LibraryOgre]

Might also look into any official rules the club has... not necessarily the LARP rules, but the bylaws. See if there are methods to get the LARP rules changed in place, and, if not, suggest some at a business meeting. I agree, work with the guy to create a good copy of the rules, and suggest changes as you go along. It can really only help the club to have the rules posted where everyone can read them.

[Sith_Happens]

Wait for him to graduate, and then fix the system or adopt a better system.

I say this if you're patient enough.

[SowZ]

I say this if you're patient enough.

If all you are doing is biding your time, why show up in the interim? It might just turn you off the whole hobby. Talk to other members, see if there is a consensus. If so, bring it up gently. Bring up the idea of playing a new game, or having a round table to discuss reworking the rules into something more fun for everyone. Is he an approachable guy?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Might also look into any official rules the club has... not necessarily the LARP rules, but the bylaws. See if there are methods to get the LARP rules changed in place, and, if not, suggest some at a business meeting. I agree, work with the guy to create a good copy of the rules, and suggest changes as you go along. It can really only help the club to have the rules posted where everyone can read them.

I agree with this. Work with the other members of the club for the club's betterment. This can be difficult if it's a new club, since many of the members will likely be friends of the founder, and thus committed to them no matter what. What's the lay of the land when it comes to club membership? Are there a lot of members who are discontented with the current rules system?

I say this if you're patient enough.

That's a bit iffy, though. We don't know what year the OP is in. They may not have time.