Chimera needs at least one more game for Saturday afternoon, so if you’ve been considering running a game, don’t hestitate to submit your idea.
Games must run as close to three hours as possible, and characters must be pre-written. Your game should probably require less than 30 people to run. Ideally, action should be contained to one room.
I’m in. I have yet to write something for it but Knightshade Realms should be ready by then… So watch this space? Does it have to be inside?
If you want some silly fun, three hours would be about right for an Orcball tournament. Think Gridiron with weapons, or Bloodbowl. Lots of fighting. Yaya.
You would need to organise teams of 5 of 7 players. We have a full set of Quest Orcball rules somewhere, plus a regulation orcs head and off we go.
Thats not a bad idea Alista… pretty light hearted & easy to learn. I think you could run that many times during the day!
If were gonna do that we could start a chimera cup then. teams enter and play over the weekend as and when they can.
A Cup. Hmmm…
We might have to rustle up a team from Hamilton.
how many a side? cos i think i’ll rustle up a team as well. 
Traditionally Orcball is played with odd numbered sides. We find that 5 or seven is best, though there is no theoretical maximum. We have played 9 a side, but you need a big feild.
Seven a side is fun, five a side gives you a lot more teams and have a lot more games.
What the devil is Orcball? 
how long a orcball game (Ive played a few versions), as if we have say 10min game and enough teams we could have a nice two hour orcball cup
Orcball is a very traditional Live Role Play game for developing combat skills. Many different groups had various rules, but it seems to have died out in most iother centres about 10 to 15 years ago. Just think Blood bowl or Gridiron with weapons. In Hamilton we get in a few games a year.
You designate a field of play. Where we play you usually end up with a couple trees in the field, but what the hell. You have two equal teams. These are divided into front row and backs. Front row is allowed just about any combination of weapons and or shield that they like. Ball carriers are only allowed to be armed with a single one handed weapon.
Like gridiron you are allowed to kick the orcshead, pass it or run with it. The ball goes dead when the ball carrier is killed. The aim is to run the orcshead between a set of “posts”. First team to score a prearranged number of touchdowns (usually 3) wins.
It is loose, it is fast and you get lots and lots of weapons/combat practice.
I can’t see any reason that the games can’t be time limited. 7 minutes each way with a 1 minute turn around and a mercy clause.
I’ve played it as Trollball. The time I played at NAAMA there was tackling and wrestling (mostly to get the head/ball) as well as foam weapon fighting. That would probably be best avoided for safety & cleanness and to make mixed teams more viable.
There are some international groups out there using that name. Check out www.trollball.org - note that they use a very cool latex troll’s head, and you can hold on by the braided hair (see pictures on the left). You can see their rules, translated, here. It’s a one-touch-you’re-out system, no Hit Points. Which makes cheating hard. A limb-loss system would work too. They have some sort of healer system that allows replacements to come on - the healers can enter and leave the field. That site is about how Trollball is played at Bicolline in Quebec, where it’s an in-character sport. You can see a game in play here.
There is a flat open rectangular field next to Puketane (the “Keep”) that would make a perfect field. They use paint to mark the edge of the field, but white string could be used. In Trollball you’re trying to put the ball in a “hole” at the opposite end, which could be marked with a circle of string pinned into the ground or something.
does any one want to be on my team?
Orc-ball is a 1 hit down system also.
Any tag causes the player to be “out” until all players are dead or a goal scored… more often than not when all of the opposition are “out”.
Rounds tend to be so quick that a healer would be almost pointless.
Having a nice rubber head would be great… there was a good one used at St.Wolfs.
Also on resolution of strikes, simultaneous strikes (being those that occur within 1 second of each other) count as tags. This was very very common in games I have played. I believe we played orc-ball when some politicain came to the Waikato campus, though I’m not sure how interested anyone else was.
There are already extant rules in New Zealand that have been used without trouble for 15 years plus. I can’t see why we wouldn’t just use those.
Anna, is this the same timeslot as the Skirmish game ? If so, I’m happy for a trollball/orcball tourney to be played instead if there is sufficient interest.
Some English guys taught us a similar game once called Jugger. Each team had some Shields who had a shield and no weapon, Taggers who only had a weapon and a Carrier who could pick up the “ball”. It was loads of fun.
Ryan’s posted some rules. Can you post your rules so we can read them and judge for ourselves ?
I see there is interest in an Orcball tournament, and I have to say “The Chimera Cup” does have a certain ring to it. May I have a hand in the air for organising the “The Chimera Cup” in the Saturday afternoon slot of the convention?
There are probably several versions that have been played in NZ, seeing how we’ve played it with different names. I agree with Mike - let’s compare the available rulesets and see what everyone thinks of them.
Just a couple of really random points.
I thought that NZLARPS and thereby Chimera is supposed to support LRP in New Zealand. That would include, games, writers and locally developed rules sets. I am having having trouble seeing how supporting an overseas rule set over an established New Zealand rule set of at least equal quality is supporting New Zealand Live Role Play.
Secondly am sending the rule set directly to Anna as she seems to be the one actually making the decision. She can distribute as NZLARPS sees fit.
So you can’t see any benefit of experiencing overseas Larps to improve the ones we run in New Zealand?
