New Larp ideas

Community Game ideas
#9

In terms of intellectual property my opinion is that you can do whatever you want, in order to achieve the kind of game you have in mind. It’s all fair “fan” usage of the material. So use the characters and setting exactly, or modified versions, whatever suits your creative agenda.

The only rule is: if you’re directing using material that is under copyright, give the original authors credit and don’t try to make a profit off it. Trying to make a profit or claiming that it’s your own material is where it crosses the line from fandom to theft.

#10

I’d actually advise checking what the IP owner’s stance is regarding unsanctioned use of said IP, but its not necessarily a good idea to ask them outright, especially around plot stuff.

#11

There’s no point in checking because they’re all the same. They ask people not to use their IP at all, but they look the other way when people use it for non-profit fan stuff, because they know that cracking down on that makes them look like dicks and upsets genuine fans.

#12

Another question is about GM involvement. It seems like all the LARPs I’ve been in have either had the GM either a servant type person or just not involved in game at all. Is there an unwritten (or written? I haven’t seen a handbook!) rule about the GM’s not playing a character? I realise this is not feasible in big LARPs but I feel like they could be involved in an under 10ppl setting…

#13

That’s just the games you’ve been in. Some games will have the GMs play important NPCs just because they’ve got a really good knowledge of what the part requires and what direction they want the game to go in. Just that it will eat into the time and attention you have for directing crew and dealing with player questions in game.

#14

[quote=“Stephanie”][quote=“Dan”]The main problem I think I’ll have is the funding. I don’t have any props or anything to offer my players.
How hard is it to get backed by NZ larps (let me use some of the weapons etc for “crew”)[/quote]
Well, that’s what they’re for. :wink:
[/quote]

Yes, it is indeed why we exist. Hi Dan, I’m the friendly treasurer on the Auckland and National committees, and I’ve managed a fair chunk of larp finances in recent years, so I am very happy to talk you through the nzLARPS process and help you prepare are realistic, workable budget :slight_smile: Drop me a PM or email me on treasurer@nzlarps.org

Anna :slight_smile:

#15

That’s just the games you’ve been in. Some games will have the GMs play important NPCs just because they’ve got a really good knowledge of what the part requires and what direction they want the game to go in. Just that it will eat into the time and attention you have for directing crew and dealing with player questions in game.[/quote]

What Steph said. As a GM, you don’t have time to ‘play’ in the game, because you’re running around like a crazy person organising crew, answering player questions, solving problems, trying to figure out what’s going on…

Servant characters are really useful because you can wander around unobtrusively and figure out what the hell the players are up to. And you end up playing a lot of information-heavy NPCs.

#16

Try to keep your rules and character sheets simple. Time players spend In Game re-reading material is time they’re not spending playing.

#17

Ah yes good point.
Also I’m most of the way through the general concept of my game, “Sepulturum” has that name been taken?
As you can tell from the name, I’m planning a zombie invasion game, medieval style.

Think medieval meets Left for dead with wizards. (every nerds fantasy)
Any idea if this has been done to death?

#18

[quote=“Dan”]Think medieval meets Left for dead with wizards. (every nerds fantasy)
Any idea if this has been done to death?[/quote]Nope, I think you’re good. Bryn was talking about something a bit like that a few years ago in Wellington, but I think he moved onto other projects since and it hasn’t played.

#19

[quote=“Stephanie”][quote=“Dan”]Think medieval meets Left for dead with wizards. (every nerds fantasy)
Any idea if this has been done to death?[/quote]Nope, I think you’re good. Bryn was talking about something a bit like that a few years ago in Wellington, but I think he moved onto other projects since and it hasn’t played.[/quote]As I recall, there was a ‘Zombie LARP’ back a year or so ago (maybe two?), but I think it was a modern day setting. Certainly zombies have come up in games with fantasy/medieval settings (I’m pretty sure I’ve been a zombie in both St Wolfgang’s and Teonn), but they’re just a small part of the game. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no ‘survive the zombie horde’ game with a fantasy setting run in Auckland for at least six or seven years, quite possibly more if ever.

#20

Yep, walking dead have been a common element in various fantasy games in Auckland, probably with some of the largest and most persistent shambling hordes at Mordavia (where a big area of the setting was overrun with “ghouls” that were basically self-animated zombies) between 2001-2006, but “surviving a zombie outbreak” hasn’t been the main focus of a medieval/fantasy game yet that I know of.

Not that it would matter… it’s all about how you execute it, every version of a concept has its own flavour.

Curious to hear from Latin language fans (i.e. Steph) how that name translates. “The Burying?”

#21

Sepultura is metal band from brazil and I know it was something to do with "graves"
Which is where I started my search for similar words, which lead me to the warhammer 40k “Ordo Sepulturum” who were zombie/plague hunters.
So I took the name, I don’t know if there is really much copywright they can put on that word.
I’m starting a new thread called Sepulturum to see what kind of interest I can gather.

#22

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Curious to hear from Latin language fans (i.e. Steph) how that name translates. “The Burying?”[/quote]And now I have a Latin dictionary in hand. A ‘sepultura’ is a burial or interment. Sepulturum looks like the wrong ending - was your band Ordo Sepulturarum? Order of the Graves? Illa Sepulturans would be ‘The Burying’. Ooh. Res Sepulturanda would be cool - ‘The Thing To Be Buried’. (You could ditch the Illa and Res if you liked, they’re kind of implicit in the endings.)

Um. I’m a bit pedantic, sorry.

#23

[quote=“Stephanie”][quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Curious to hear from Latin language fans (i.e. Steph) how that name translates. “The Burying?”[/quote]And now I have a Latin dictionary in hand. A ‘sepultura’ is a burial or interment. Sepulturum looks like the wrong ending - was your band Ordo Sepulturarum? Order of the Graves? Illa Sepulturans would be ‘The Burying’. Ooh. Res Sepulturanda would be cool - ‘The Thing To Be Buried’. (You could ditch the Illa and Res if you liked, they’re kind of implicit in the endings.)

Um. I’m a bit pedantic, sorry.[/quote]
Na its all good, should try and get the name right. But at the moment I’m trying to get the mechanics sorted first. I was wondering if a cooldown system rather than a MP system would work out better.
ANy thoughts on this?

#24

[quote=“Dan”][quote=“Stephanie”][quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Curious to hear from Latin language fans (i.e. Steph) how that name translates. “The Burying?”[/quote]And now I have a Latin dictionary in hand. A ‘sepultura’ is a burial or interment. Sepulturum looks like the wrong ending - was your band Ordo Sepulturarum? Order of the Graves? Illa Sepulturans would be ‘The Burying’. Ooh. Res Sepulturanda would be cool - ‘The Thing To Be Buried’. (You could ditch the Illa and Res if you liked, they’re kind of implicit in the endings.)

Um. I’m a bit pedantic, sorry.[/quote]
Na its all good, should try and get the name right. But at the moment I’m trying to get the mechanics sorted first. I was wondering if a cooldown system rather than a MP system would work out better.
ANy thoughts on this?[/quote]

Or… just maybe - perhaps you could possibly, slightly consider - only on the off chance that perhaps it might somhow be almost perhaps maybe interesting to maybe consider the chance that perhaps it might slightly be normal to somtimes on occasion when it suits people to perhaps choose to maybe decide to perhaps…

Use a name you like the sound of…

:unamused:

#25

[shrugs]It’s not my business, Ryan just asked for a translation

#26

Hey Ryan… www.google.com

Back to the topic - A zombie larp will always go down well - if you want to have shot guns then HAVE THEM - but you need an explanation as to how they got there :slight_smile: Time travel magic portal < Makes sence in a magic fantasy world :smiley:

#27

(Google Translate sucks at getting the endings right.)

Actually, Dan, you could maybe have a look at this? thefreerpgblog.com/2011/11/h … logue.html
It’s writing advice for tabletop games, but I think a lot of it, such as the brainstorming and research phases are very crossoverable.

Pretty much, the things you’re really keen on (shotguns, zombies, medieval costuming) are going to be what sells the game to other people. Like Adam says, come up with an explanation for why they’re mashed up together and go for it. And sometimes (often?) the explanation you come up with will drive your design in interesting ways.

#28

Wow! That thing lists like, heaps of websites! Why had nobody told me about this before?

Seriously, I googled it before and found the WH40K connection… and the band. But what I was curious about was what the name means. And not because I thought it needs to be grammatically correct for a game, just out of curiosity. So I tried Wiktionary.com and got this:

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sepulturum

But I don’t know what all that nominative neuter singular accusative masculine
vocative stuff means, so I can’t interpret that page. So I thought I’d ask Steph because she knows her Latin, and for some things a person is better than Google.