Exactly, Anna, bloody reoccuring big bad guys. whinge “but we killed him already!”
[quote=“Alista”]
You die and you are :
Out for the rest of the game
You receive less xp and less treasure
Can have all your magic items looted and lost to you forever
And you know that you have failed.[/quote]
Do you have a high concentration of magic items? I don’t have one magical item and what you mean with treasure? You mean copper or silver coins and that? Normally we will buy this coins out of game and use it as our start money. So, my character always carries a lot of coins with him.
I think a “fast death” at the battleground robs you of the chance to roleplay. And not only your chance, your teammates chances too. for example: You meet five orcs in the dark wood, why does the orcs have to kill you? I mean, orcs a ugly and goon creatures, but they are not only killing machines. Why they don’t take you with them, as a prisoner. As a prisoner you have a higher value than as a dead body on the ground. And about that all sides have a chance of good roleplay, I think.
I reckon that you have to trust your player more 
To roleplay fear or something else is good roleplay, and in Germany you can get some extrra XP for good rp.
In DragonSys you will boost your character very slow. If you take a look in the DragonSys thread, you will see that you get 5 or 7 XP per day. And all of the higher abilities cost 100 or more XP, so you have to save your XP and survive.
A seasoned Quest player (Alista’s system) will usually end up with a few magic items, so yeah Quest is pretty good for items. Oh yeah & yes we have in game loot, found on monsters, in hidden chests & pried from idols jeweled eyes.
Issac, I think you’re coming from a somewhat different larp culture. With lots of generic fantasy larps that you can transfer character between, death being avoided in most cases so that players can continue playing their character, and a low emphasis on game-like aspects of larp such as gaining abilities/managing resources/overcoming difficult challenges in the setting. Basically you take D&D, and remove most of the stuff that makes it game-like (except perhaps a basic combat system).
We’ve heard about similar larps to what you’re discussing in Denmark and I know there are similar larps in Sweden and Switzerland too (and I’ve even heard of one in this style in the USA).
Superficially Quest Waikato resembles what you’re talking about in that it has long-living players and generic fantasy setting. But it is very game-like, and social play probably isn’t emphasised as much.
In terms of social play Mordavia was probably more similar, but it was still much more game-like than what you’re discussing and death was common. Death was common in Mordavia because it was part fantasy, part horror game. For me the horror genre implies the possibility of fast death. Although we did brief most NPCs to avoid killing players most of the time, at most weekend games we’d lose soemwhere between 10% and 80% of the player characters (partly because the PCs also killed each other, which also suits a dark setting).
Even in a less dark fantasy my preference would still be to allow for the possibility of permanent death. If there’s fighting in a setting, then I enjoy the challenge of trying not to die.
That’s the reason why I am asking so much. I’m thinking too much about theoretical things, it seems to me. The next wise step would be to come to NZ and simply play a LARP with you. I reckon, that I will then more understand your aspects of LARP. And can then tell you more about LARP in Germany since I then know the differences.
My characters always die and I tend to make them intentionally disadvantaged in whatever way the setting will allow, whether it’s through rules or simply the character’s personality. In retrospect, they have all been sociopaths so far. I create character I think will be fun and challenging to play and I don’t tend to think past the first game.
The points have distilled I think. With the scope of games available in NZ, although not as large (not even close) in scale as in Europe, theres a massive diversity. So pick some games & come to them. Its a shame that Mordavia has ended because with some more player investment between that & Quest down here in Hamilton we would have 2 quite nice fantasy games to pick from or indeed choose both.
With the right player investment the Quest system could pull off some neat large scale games, much like Mordavia did.
Still now that some of Hamilton types are involved with nzlarps the scope for better games has increased, so I think the future for high/epic/whatever fantasy is quite good.
Its certainly not all a quick death, doom & gloom for sure.
… the game
We’ll… I have been Live Roleplaying for sometime. I first started in 1994 in the U.K with a couple of events then for 3 years at the gathering My character survived all of these. I moved back to New Zealand and started with Quest Waikato in 2001 with periods of inactivity due to new relationships etc. Now I can play again (a bit like a ressurection - I think I won this time though)
My Character in Quest has not died in 7 years. Although a Lich almost did it. in the early years.
I believe how you roleplay is most important. If you feel yoiu have enjoyed yourself and have helped others to enjoy the game were all winners.
I do Believe Ryan that your understanding of Quest Waikato’s social interractions and roleplaying is off the mark.
The monsters do roleplaying within the monster groups, “Brains” … sorry slipping into ghoul monster character habit, parties roleplay, characters have goals and aspirations (I am a Count and want to become king and rule the world for example)
It is not just hack and slash. although certainly part of its allure.
The system is what I believe to be the best around (In my experience and I am sure i will experience more). Much more in depth that Lorien Trust for example.
Characters have goals, political aspirations, social aspirations. We have had feasts almost every year, quest to save characters from impending doom, tourneys Gobbo Hunts.
However, Quest does not haw a huge character base and I believe like Jared and Alista said, Would be great for large scale games but lacks numbers. The character diversity and different social organisations would make a fantastic system for these size events. It has also been developed over more than a decade.
My 10 cents (now that is the only copper coin we have)
Count Drax D’Armagnac out…
BTW: Look forward to seeing you all at the Vampire Hunting Weeken. May St Wolfgang look over you and God Save your Souls.
Just hijacking this thread on characters for some research.
I think I may have asked this before but can’t think where exactly?
Anyways
I’m looking at player races & what people would really like to have a go at in a fantasy larp, so what is the race you’d most like to play in a high fantasy larp?
Even if it’s the regular Humans & Elves or whatever, let me know & what racial traits do you like to see with each race?
Feedback would be awesome.
Cheers
fairies, elves, demons… basically anything where I get to facepaint myself 
… not ogres or orcs though. I don’t look good in green! hahaha
I’ve only played humans as a player though. NPC’d the other things.
Kara
I’ll put in a vote for humans 
One day I’ll get myself some latex ears and then I’m going to play the worlds most irritating elf 
I’d also really like to play a tall race some day, just to see what it’s like.
But what I’d prefer is to be given a bit more free reign, like maybe being told we can play any non-evil race we can physically represent given the understanding that we don’t get any special powers that we wouldn’t otherwise get.
I like making cool costumes and I find picking from human, elf, orc + one other very limiting
This is probably why I crew more than I play.
EDIT: I’ve always wanted to play a Gelatinous Cube
Elves are very popular, and I played one in Mordavia.
Faeries were also very popular, and the wings were cool (I played a couple of Fae in Mordavia). However, the Fae realm needs to be abstracted, since you can’t easily represent it ingame because of the flying thing.
Although Laurell K. Hamilton’s Sidhe would be easy to do - no wings or pointed ears, and lots of wild magic.
I think the irritating thing about races is that everyone’s a human, but now you’re a different colour and can do this (insert own skill/ability/etc), but not this (and again). It would be a lot of work to really create separate cultures that make each race act in a way that would be alien to humans, but if somebody did that it would be the best fantasy LARP ever.
Also I think that if there are races, racism is just necessary and appropriate, because I’m certainly not hanging out with any of those irritating pointy-eared bastards.
I don’t think you need the ears for that Derek (joke).
Llaurel K hamiltons sidhe are dirty ho-bags & also completely insane for the most part, so I can see the attraction. People who have read the entire series will recognise what I intended for the Cluagh, a race of bestial mutant types, I intend to include.
I also see how culture has a lot to play in race & creating their identity & it was my intention to insert a little dirty sidhe into my elf-like race.
Dirty seelie, dirty unseelie & dirty Cluagh. Maybe some goblin.
Thanks. Keep the responses coming.
I seriously think its a do-able costume
baaahahahah… i can just see you trying to sleep in character…
Amoeba men are fun and easy to costume, They are a bit like a cube. An amorpheous shape that prowls aroound eating things. Not much room for character development though.
I slept in my centaur costume; it was not comfortable.
Yeah I agree.
But can you imagine trying to role play one?
What motivates a gelatinous cube? Love? Money? Religion?
Do they have friends? Are they intelligent? Do they marry, have kids and a mortgage, work a 9-5 day at the office?
They really are stereotyped into crawling around the lower levels of a dungeon and I’d like to break the (jelly) mold a bit.
Ha, that reminds me of a Monty Python sketch when aliens from Andromeda come to Earth and change people mysteriously into Scotsmen. And blancmanges of an enormous size have been seen practising on tennis courts up and down England.