Help me Dia-tribe Kenobi

Community Game ideas
#1

…you’re my only hope.

I’ve agreed to run a kind of larp for my niece’s birthday tomorrow. She and her friends are around 9 years old.

She wanted a party themed on Pixar’s movie Brave. So Scottish adventurous princess with bow and her little friends.

The key to my concept is that they make their way around a “map” choosing their destinations off it, and the places are represented by areas of their backyard (re-used), solving problems and things as they go. 3 or 4 adults will play their guides and stuff they encounter.

[attachment=0]brave_adventure_map_small.jpg[/attachment]

I’m pretty happy with the adventure I’ve got planned. They’ve even going to have little foams and bows and things.

There’s one spot on the map that I can’t seem to figure out though… and that’s where your brilliance is needed.

See where it says “Forest of Something Terrible”? My plan is to tell them that people go in there and never come out, so there must be something terrible in there but nobody knows what it is. I thought it could be a good “facing your fears” encounter that turns out okay. But now I can’t figure out what should be in there. They may need to go in there to help find ingredients for a potion, if that helps. I need something that either uses things I have, or doesn’t need anything special. Also, it would be nice to have an encounter where the birthday girl gets to shoot her bow to solve something. Finally, it’s okay if your idea requires some special items - the kids will have some.

Other roles in the game so far include the King and Queen, a woodsman who helps them, numerous raiders to fight, a Scottish dwarf whose clan is “always being overlooked” because the King “doesn’t think they measure up” and the witch who they’re gathering the potion for to remove a curse. One encounter involves them crossing a river that turns people to stone, by jumping from rock to rock (blue tarp for the river). In another they’ll have to creep past sleeping raiders silently to rescue the King. Just to give you a flavour of my thinking - it’s natural puzzles rather than artificial ones. Another is social problem solving, pacifying the bitter dwarf Shorty McShort (of clan MyShort).

Go! :wink:

KIDS LARP - doable?
#2

Firstly, that is so cute! You’re going to be favourite uncle for life with this.

For the forest with something terrible, what about borrowing an idea from Into The Woods and having a monster of some kind in there who looks terrible and nasty but really is very lonely because everyone runs off screaming before even thinking of talking to it?

#3

^ I like this idea! Building on it some more, maybe it’s the “Beast” who was a Prince that got turned into a beast by a curse,
and the curse can only be lifted by someone brave enough to… pull the magically cursed thorn out of his paw!
Or some such. If they know the story of Beauty and the Beast, you could allude to it by having the beast protecting a magical rose
inside a glass container. Then you don’t have to explain who the beast is, the girls can try to figure it out from the visual clues.

#4

You could do it “Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail” styles …

In the middle of the forest there’s a clearing, surrounded by statues. As you look closer, you realise that these aren’t statues … they’re people that have been turned to stone! (Get the parents to play the petrified persons, perhaps?)

The statues are surrounding a small fountain … and sitting on top of the fountain is a tiny crystal chest! Inside it, you can see the Golden Rose of Wishes sparkling … but the chest is locked. Hanging from a small chain, you see three tiny keys - a red one, a blue one, and a silver one.

You look around you at all of the statues, then back to the Golden Rose. Surely one of the keys will open the box … but which one? How will you keep yourself from being turned to stone? And can you save all these people?

A random idea that numerous things could be done with. Maybe only one key works, and wrong keys summon monsters. Maybe all the keys work, but they ask the unlocker different challenge questions.

Haven’t really thought it through … but thought I’d throw some more fuel on the idea-bonfire for you :slight_smile:

#5

A scary monster (maybe my spider costume) that really just wants to be friends is the kind of thing I had in mind. But why do travellers never escape the forest?Maybe the spider is actually trying to help people against whatever it is that stops people coming out. One idea I considered is that there are candies hanging from the trees, but if you eat them you fall into an endless sleep. Maybe the spider tries to warn people?

If I go that way, the questions are how the spider/monster come to be, and same question for whatever it tries to save them from? How do they save the people that have been put to sleep (which might end up including some of them)? I think the spider would have to talk… otherwise they’ll just pulverise it.

The “people turned to stone” idea is so good that I’ve already done it. :wink:

The Stoney River has a curse that turns people to stone. When the kids arrive the witch has been chased into the river by a raider, and they’re both statues. Luckily one of the kids has an item that allows them to talk to stones. They have to carefully make their way to the witch jumping from rock to rock, use the power, and she tells them they’ll have to go up the river to remove the curse at the source… in the Ruins of the Ancient Kingdom.

Auckland, please stop raining.

#6

Hah, awesome. The spider vs. candy thing sounds cool.

If candy is evil … clearly apples are the solution!

Perhaps the people that eat the candy fall to sleep, then gradually turn into spiders …

But on eating an apple (or a potion of apple juice … you could even use a juicer!), they can be awakened. They could maybe even rescue the spider!

But who put the candy there? Is there a big bad villain of the piece?

#7

Oh dear, it’s a dental morality play for children. :wink: Good idea though, wonder how the game could get that solution across.

There’s isn’t really a villain in the game or the movie. Mostly accidents and misunderstandings. It could be that the witch enchanted the trees to grow cursed candy though, she has a strange sense of humour that sometimes ends very badly for people. Candy in trees does sound witchy.

Maybe the witch sends the children there to fetch some candy, as a kind of trick or dark lesson? “There’s candy growing on trees there, my dears. I wouldn’t eat it if I were you though, it’s terrible stuff, rots your teeth, just look at mine. Apples are much better for you. Want an apple?” And then later… “I did warn you not to eat the candy! He he he!”

#8

This sounds like it’s going to be the Best. Birthday. Ever. Go your niece!

#9

That was insane. :wink:

I’ve never really done much with kids in numbers. Some babysitting, but not dealing with a screaming, squealing mob of ten kids aged 6-10. My herding and controlling skills are crap, so I went for madcap wildness instead.

Overall it went over nicely. They absolutely loved fighting. They enjoyed the story moments too - especially when it came as a physical surprise. The feedback I got from the adults involved is that the younger kids enjoyed it the most, and it did seem to me the most excited were some of the younger ones. The map worked okay, they were excited by it at first but then they just wanted to smack stuff and see cool things happen. Having agency and choosing their way was less of a priority for them (even though I was trying to emphasise it with the map), they mostly expected to be told what to do next.

The main story involved the Queen (played by the birthday girl’s mother) being turned into a cat by a mislabeled potion (it was supposed to cure hiccups), and them having to find the witch and gather ingredients for her to remove the curse. I made a big cardboard cauldron, about chest-high. At the end the witch dropped the ingredients and the cat toy into the cauldron, said a spell, and out of the cauldron popped the Queen (who we had hidden in there previously). Much squeals of delight! I actually heard one of the younger girls say “ohmygodthatwasAWESOME!”, and the birthday girl ran over and hugged her mum, excellent way to end it. Very fitting for the Brave theme too, if you’ve seen the movie.

The kids were tolerable when just practicing sword fighting, some were too rough but they were the exceptions. But when the fighting happened in the game, they all swung as hard as possible. Favourite quote from an adult after a fight, holding his manhood: “argh… one of those little bastards hit me in the dick…” I explained that’s their natural swinging level. He’d already taken a poke in the eye though. I definitely needed to do a better safety briefing, mapcap wildness failed me there.

As for the Forest of Something Terrible: they never went there. I skipped it due to lack of time, it had gotten very dark out. I had forgotten to buy the candy anyhow. Besides, they would have chopped the spider to bits. They wanted to murder everything that didn’t look like a princess.

I reckon this would be easier with a smaller group, like 4 kids, and then you’d be able to give them all spotlight time more easily. But then it’s probably not a birthday, more like something fun to do with your kids and one or two friends.

Lessons learned for future backyard adventures:

  • Send adults written briefings before the game, trying to brief them with the kids around is hard
  • Make any costume changes ultra-fast to do, kids have no patience waiting for the next scene to be set up
  • Minimise the number of bits you need, make fewer cooler things. Make it all fit in one big box you can carry.
  • If you’re having swords make sure there are enough for everyone (again, easier with small groups)
  • Don’t expect too much deep thinking, keep things simple, especially with a large group
  • If you’re having swords then have a serious sit-down discussion about safety before handing them out

Overall, I’d say I’m more likely to try to publish a guide for parents to run backyard adventures for kids. Less likely to suggest a rent-a-larp service where strangers come in and run them for parents. It doesn’t seem practical, but having said that the right person might be able to pull it off. Someone with experience managing kids, like a primary school teacher or scout leader, perhaps.

#10

Sounds like they sorted the basics out pretty quick …

#11

Sounds like they sorted the basics out pretty quick …[/quote]

Ha, as soon as I read that I thought of Mordavia and the inevitable crew death zone, aka The Inn.

#12

More kid quotes:

“We’re having a tournament everyone! I’m in charge of making sure people shoot arrows through the ring.”
“That’s not my mum, that’s a toy cat we bought at the Warehouse.”
“I’m not kissing anyone.” (In response to Shorty McShort saying he wanted his son to be able to vie for the Princessess’ hand in marriage)
“You should be dead by now.” whack

#13

Spoken like a true PC! :laughing: :laughing:

#14

So in other words a skilled kitten-herder :wink:

A book of mini-Larp party games would probably work quite well, it might be something to think about and a nice variation to the usual themed party packs.

What kind of boffer weapons did you arm them with?

#15

It was a mix of short latex weapons and some longswords. Which was another learning point - don’t give kids longswords, stick with short swords with soft foam. It’s much safer to flail wildly with a short, soft weapon.

#16

Good idea.

Maybe balloon swords would be a good option too, it’s almost impossible to hurt someone with one of those.

#17

One year, at the Taupo Joust, we were running a “Knight School” where children went through a labryinth with monsters to rescue a princess and knighted. They were fighting with newspaper swords, and us monsters were down on our knees to be more at their height. One child went behind me, put his paper sword around my throat, and started strangling me. :open_mouth: Kids are vicious.

#18

Yeesh. Methinks the epithet ‘little monsters’ suits that one.

#19

I remember going along to one of the kiddie skirmish games that Mike Curtis runs when I first started larping. ‘Pull your blows’ wasn’t really a concept they understood and you got real good at dodging real quick. I also distinctly remember going down and reapeating ‘I’m dead, you can stop hitting me’ as a not very effective protective mantra.

There was one wee boy that ‘killed’ his dad with a mob of friends and was soooo gleeful as he thwacked his dad mercilessly. I imagine semi-sanctioned wailing on their grown-ups must be an awesomely fun power reversal for the littler people.

tl;dr Kids hit hard, it helps to duck, weave and run.

#20

Yeah, they like to hit you when you’re down. What better time?

I’d really like to try again with a more school-teachery briefing before handing over any weapons to them. Make them all sit down and be quiet and listen. Introduce them more slowly to the gear and how to use it, with more clear and pointed instructions and warnings that they’ll won’t be able to play if they misuse the weapons. Demonstrate with one of them. Have them face off one pair at a time and tell them when they’re getting it wrong. And then build up to giving them all weapons and loosening the leash.

It’s against my nature to do all that controlling stuff with kids, I prefer to just go with the flow. But when it comes to special equipment like this, being used in a new way, I think it’s necessary. It’s like when kids learn karate, there’s a big emphasis on responsibility because it’s not everyday stuff they’re doing, people can get hurt.