How to roleplay wounds?

Community Larp discussion
#12

Adding to Derek’s comments - hit points have always meant how much general scuffing up one can take before one is truly injured. It has always represented minor wounds, cuts, bruises. For the benefit of the roleplaying experience, I try to shout, flinch, pull back whenever I am hit. For double hits (or worse), I treat these as immediately painful, things that get my attention.

So like Derek, my last couple of HP represent the point at which my body is starting to scream it’s vulnerability… and like him this is how I role-play wounds.

As for 0 HP… seriously wounded to the point they are incapacitated… well mostly people go into shock. They go pale, they get quiet, withdrawn. They stop moving. Just like the army adds they had a while back… who needs the attention most? The injured person bawling or the pale quiet one?

The next layer here is what is the attitude required of the game being played? Fantasy can be quite pulpy, our HP show our heroic endurance, the ability to roll with a blow and make the consequence less than a normal person might experience.

For horror, it may well mean you roll around screaming from horrific wounds. For location based systems I would definitely recommend a higher level of pain or injury roleplaying.

Could we do better? yeah. Is it needed? Maybe, depends on the game. Personally the biggest reminder of how serious wounds were was in St. Wolfgangs. Wounds persisted, healing was very very slow (for the most part). The wounded tended to huddle in a sort of triage area after being “healed” and waiting for wounds to close.

So my thoughts are - if wounds are meant to be serious then give the players bugger all HP. If you start with 2HP then I guarantee fighting will be done differently. More desperately. But whatever you are looking to do, it has to be part of the games mindset… be it SWVH, Teonn or Witch House.

#13

I had a thought about watching Rugby, which is probably where I see the most actual injuruies occuring in my life. The players tend to drop, grab the bit that hurts, and grimace. Not a lot of screaming. Just writing and a really screwed up face - and withdrawing from the outside world.

#14

Unless it’s Buck Shelford :wink:

#15

Hmm, so lots of comments about going all quiet, which I accept is realistic. But does lead onto the question about whether is this the best way to roleplay it?
WRT getting healers to come over to help, and/or how would it let other players know this is what you’re roleplaying, or are you just tired as a player. Or is it just taken in context of your situation, and the people around you.

#16

Depends on the Larp surely. If you’re in a quiet, suspense filled larp, then the quiet expression of pain would probably suit the atmosphere best. However if you were in a big melodramatic larp, then making a big deal about every wound, complete with declarations of agony and over-dramatic gestures, would probably be more entertaining.

#17

Hannah’s right about environment being important. There are definitely locations where screaming and shouting things like “OMG you just SHOT me” are just not appropriate. I remember being told off for screaming a bit too enthusiastically when I was (larp) attacked at night in the Domain in case someone called the police. :blush:

Regarding game mechanics? If you’re bleeding out and going to die… make noise. Don’t let your character die because no one noticed you there. :frowning:

#18

[quote=“theotherphoenix”]

Regarding game mechanics? If you’re bleeding out and going to die… make noise. Don’t let your character die because no one noticed you there. :frowning:[/quote]

The weak hoarse calls of the dying. Pain filled, rapid, desperate. Pleading. Begging. A scream of frustration. Then quiet, a few moments of awful realisation and then darkness.

Of all of the things about larp battles that make it seem so harsh are the cries for help afterwards that make it feel so awful (assuming I have managed to remain upright).

Wandering around the ground littered with bodies of your friends calling for a healer.

Finding an Ovidian crying out for blood… and giving them an exposed wrist… oh wait that happened at Broken Pathways.

#19

I also notice people limping and limbs hanging down, or being clutched into them and trying to make themselves small. All indicates to me you are hurt. Admittedly in character I tend to go for the people down for the count first as I can often do the most good there.

But it is hard in a crowded loud environment. So exaggerating it often helps. Even if you aren’t down to your last hp, looking exhausted after a battle where you armour has been chewed up and you lose most your hp makes sense.

#20

My pet peeve in the larping world is the roleplaying around Sap. It’s treated as a magical sock of sleep when it’s actually a heavy rock, in a sock, whacked on the back of the head with force enough to give you a concussion. I like to treat it as highly painful and lasting head pain.

What really helps for wounds or permanent injuries is wearing something uncomfortable, that bites into your skin and hurts in general. That just lets you immerse yourself into the right headspace. The growth vests of Witch House had me cramped and in pain throughout the game and it was great to take me into that depressive state when you are dealing with continual pain.

#21

One thing I find difficult, especially in Teonn but also in all of the fantasy games, is translating abilities like Regeneration and Fast Healing to my real life experience. The rules state that my character, Magni, heals faster in an hour than I, Vanya, heal in a year. As such there is a certain logic that the pain from the wounds fades fast too.

When playing a battle hardened veteran, I only start feeling pain when my AP is gone and I’m low on hitpoints. When in a combat adrenaline drowns all but the most vicious wounds, added to that, my characters have been cut a thousand times before this means that the body is unlikely to go into shock either. The idea that the character has been hacked a thousand times and can still keep going means that he should be able to fight through most injury and pain becomes a relative thing. It is just more fun to feel the pain I think.

#22

keep those ‘fake blood’ caps in a pocket.

pop one in ur mouth if you’ve been given a ‘you’re on 0 hit points blow’.

u might get the goop on ur costume.
it comes off the chin and neck easy with make up remover and other skin solventy thingys.

http://www.i-mockery.com/blabber/pics/dracula-blood-capsule.jpg

#23

[quote=“zanni”]keep those ‘fake blood’ caps in a pocket.

pop one in ur mouth if you’ve been given a ‘you’re on 0 hit points blow’.

u might get the goop on ur costume.
it comes off the chin and neck easy with make up remover and other skin solventy thingys.

http://www.i-mockery.com/blabber/pics/dracula-blood-capsule.jpg[/quote]

I’d be worried about being mistaken for a zombie at that point. :wink:

#24

I tend to prefer systems where HP is treated as a measure of remaining stamina, rather than physical damage taken. That way, if you have 10hp, it’s not “I can take 9 small scratches, but the 10th booboo puts me down” but rather “I’ve avoided taking 9 potentially damaging attacks and I’m not sure I have the energy to twist aside from another.” Taking more hp damage in a single hit could indicate a situation where you actually DID take a significant wound, but the smaller amounts definitely make more sense looked at this way (at least to me).
It also helps as a perspective for non-magical regenerative abilities - you’re not actually regrowing lost fingers and toes, you just recover your energy a lot faster than normal people. I suppose, on consideration, that such a system also allows for distinction between different types of healing - for example, just restoring your hp doesn’t fix your broken arm, because that takes more (time+medical treatment) or (magic)… and only the strongest magics can actually regrow something that’s been severed.

From the roleplaying side of things, you’d basically be more exhausted as your hp got lower (plus acting out any wounds that it made sense to take). If it were me, I’d keep track of the approximate fraction of my hp I had left and try to be consistent with that. So, I’d be the same at 1/2 hp whether my max was 4 or 40.

#25

In Germany, as Jackie said, they do playing you hits really well. While they do have a 'hit point system the culture is more around playing you hit, not just where you get hit but how hard (with larp weapons I guess how clean the hit) and with what weapon. If you get slit by a sword right across the stomach or throat then people go down, doesn’t matter if you have five hit points left. If you get hit in the spine by a mace you are immobilised.

But I think what really helped get people into it was the healers involvement. Its much easier to remember you’ve been seriously wounded when you then participate in an equally cool roleplaying experience. I never appreciated how cool it could be till I saw it. Also they are big on the fake blood over there (some characters carry some around with them to apply their own wounds). There’s some good recipes for blood which are soap based so come out of costumes really easy. Its not about being accurate so much as having a great time.

Not that that’s really helpful for you Hannah :slight_smile:

#26

It is actually, Prema. In the last Witch House we had exactly that, a surgeon pulling bullets out of people and stitching them up, fake blood everywhere. I agree, it’s way cooler, although I’d probably be more precious about zephy’s complicated, expensive and white costume than I am about my opshop stuff for WH. :slight_smile:

Need to get that soap based recipe, although i’ve found the usual stuff seems to have come out of my clothes pretty well.

#27

I haven’t actually tried a soap based recipe, but other healers in germany had some that I used and it was great. I will try to get hold of a recipe to share.

Yes witchhouse is the one game in NZ where I have participated in some great healing moments ie full on surgery in the middle of a field. Not sure there was fake blood involved though.

#28

The soap based one doesn’t taste as nice though…the stuff we had at WH wasn’t bad tasting.

#29

Cameron, how many times do we have to tell you - don’t eat the blood. :imp:
Unless you’re being a zombie that is, which I never am. :wink:

Thanks for all your comments guys, some helpful ideas I’m sure I’ll refer back to over time.

#30

The usual stuff is pretty much golden syrup and excessive amounts of food colouring, so yeah, it’s edible and tastes ok, not great, but ok.

#31

I found a great recipe was grenadine and golden syrup, discovered it in Germany because you could only buy really weak red food colouring in small amount. Oh and also discovered that you can make great pus from golden syrup with yellow and a touch of blue. Great for wounds from fighting with orcs.