New Fantasy Rules?

Sure. But in the end the limiting factor isn’t the audiance, but the organisers who have to put in the time and effort to make things happen, and so it ultimately comes down to what the latter are interested in doing, simply because no-one is going to expend any great effort on an idea they think sucks.

This is the case even with the annual KapCon LARP. While we specifically seek public input on the theme (this year’s threads are here, in the end we rely on having writers sufficiently inspired by the discussion to step up. If no-one does, we don’t get a LARP.

It’s volunteerist. It’s anarchic. And it works for us. Wellington now has two more annual tabletop cons because people went “I want to do X” and ran with it. On the LARP front, we have a shortage of LARP organisers, and so fewer get run.

I dont think anyone who has played quest can say that anyone playing quest is really a powergamer.

I do think that the ideas coming forward from the different camps that support certain ideas are just that. People with different life experiences that think they know best. I think i know best because i have experience and talked to lots of people about larp and think I understand the games needs. I am sure Derek, Mike etc have done the same However our ideas and are different and because of that open to hot debate.

I think maybe the Larp convention could give people access to the different game ideas maybe more than 2. we could play them all with open minds and perhaps at the end of it find a system we would “ALL” like to go forward with. One that everone like and is happy to make into something greater than us all. A NAtional Larp Game.

Perhaps there will be bits and pieces that both systems have that we will all like, and maybe we will look at the systems and think Well I never knew it could be like that. Thats cool.

As for me I have a wife to go home to and housework to Do. I don’t really want to keep commenting this circuitous argument so I am not going to withdraw from this thread. If anyone wants some help with something like the game I have been advocating for and you want constructive open criticism PM me.

There are two parts to the game, the players and the organisers.

For a game to be successful then both sides should get something out of the games.

A system as proposed is designed for the benefit of a very few players, so therefore out of the 1.2 million people you may be able to persuade 10 to 20 to play. The organisers have fun because they play their characters the way the want. Most othe people don’t have fun and we drive them away from Live Role Play forever.

Compromise is when both sides get less than they ask for, but what they need. Or to put it another a comprise is when nobody is happy. I have never seen any compromise on this forum, even when the level headed correspondants have offered it.

Using that system, I suggest that we let Derek play his system all by himself and we go off and play NERO nationally. (Why? Because no one I know likes it.)

I think I’m a day or two late with this post but I like xp. It lets you get new abilities at a controlled rate. I see that if you have spell books you can get new abilities without xp as a mage but as a non mage you seem fairly stationary. I came into Mordavia about 3 years later than I would have if I’d realised how cool it was. (I thought the system was too simple. Wow was I wrong)

I’m something of a powergamer/munchkin and I think most people will back me up on this but hopefully that doesn’t make my vote for xp systems worth too much less.

Despite coming into Mordavia later than many I think I managed to have about as much fun as any of the old characters and eventualy become one of them myself. While its great to be powerful I still fondly remember getting incapacitated at my very first game in my first fight against a necrotaur because I was too much of a newb to realise it would get back up again after we beat it up. (Thanks again for the heal Acanthus)

Prehaps (although I’m still firmly for xp) one game without it would be an interesting change and give us more “experience” with the concept.

Ignoring all other posts:
I am attempting to put together a fantasy larp using borrowed & expanded rules. It will have a bevy of races, XP, HP & AP, magic & money.
I am completely driven to do this, even if it only ever makes it to the design phase & not to the implementation phase I will be happy because I have to do it. I like fantasy. I’m also happy to do things in the 2nd best way if that’s what people like.
I don’t want to compete with other larps, I don’t think I can with my meagre GM experience or resources.
So Derek, we are alike, we will organise something we want to present to people because we can. So goodluck to all us designers out there & pray yourself lucky for not getting into a slog about it like some of us are prone to doing.
All right, back to the design board.
Cheers

I’m sure if you ask nicely, you can get a private forum so you can work on it with 1-2 other collaborators without heckling.

I’ve played and run larps using HP+AP systems and XP systems for a while, and I like them well enough. They’ve given me a lot of fun, and I’m not saying they are inferior. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Power Up play either, I just see it as one approach of creating a satisfying game among many.

I’m not saying that people who like a game with XP and Health Points (such as Mordavia, Skirmish or Quest) are power gamers, or that those games don’t allow for great roleplay. What I’m saying is that Derek’s simpler system does not support play where a character accumulates power (except in the case of magic). We’re actually all in agreement about what each system allows for, I think.

There are many equally valid approaches out there, and I think they deserve to be considered and explored. Not all larps need to have a system that supports Power Up gaming. This system should not be criticised for not supporting it, because it openly acknowledges the fact. It’s a valid question to ask whether a larp without Power Up gaming can be widely popular. But as I’ve already said, such larps have events with hundreds or thousands of people in Sweden so I don’t see why they couldn’t be popular here.

Just to be clear, I’m discussing Derek’s one-page system which he actually put forward on the national fantasy larp thread. Which is a bit different to the system discussed at the start of this thread. I’m not really sure why we’re discussing the new system on this old thread, I think someone got confused.

I don’t mind criticism, as long as its constructive (my point here at this time)… I have even asked for it & got none suprisingly.
Personally I want both larps to work, so the HP/AP/XP crowd gets what they want & the Armor location crowd get what they want.
And then everyone is happy.
Yes?