Og?

You good do Og thing?

  • Me good
  • Me no good
  • No good! You smelly - me bang you rock, make you food!

0 voters

I’m thinking it would be fun to run a day-game LARP of the caveman game, Og.

For those of you who dont know, this is a normal RPG where all inter-player communication is limited to a set of 20 words only. You have very simple characters, and most of the fun involves trying to communicate what you actually want people to be doing, and finding out the objectives…

We could LARPify this by making foam boffer clubs, everyone dresses up in tribal gear and skins, we have a number of NPCs and so on. Since dinosaurs (hey, its not supposed to be historically accurate!) are a bit hard to simulate, we can always have 2 tribes, for example.

Characters are basically ‘tough’ (more HP), ‘fast’ (can escape), or ‘smart’ (get an extra skill, like ‘drawing’ - IE, pictionary…)

I cant remember all the words in the vocabulary, but I think they include -

sun, thing, big, smelly, go, bang, hairy, food, you, me, rock, water, fire, small, tree, sleep, cave

(This is the correct list. However we found it impossible without ‘no’, which negates the need for ‘small’. It’s also hard without ‘make’.)

You also cannot use any proper nouns, and cant draw unless you have ‘draw’ skill. I think gestures and grunts are OK.

These people tried it
http://www.skotos.net/about/pr/Sep06b_2000.html

I must say that sounds like a real blast, limited communication with the aspect of running around in loin cloths

:wink:

Sounds like a great idea, might consider running something like this in Christchurch at some stage as a sort of ice breaker to Role Playing :slight_smile:.

sounds like a real hoot.

me want hit-rock-for-fun thing

now.

Sorry, frog in my throat there. It sounds fun.

Steph

er-hem. uhm… make one vote on that ‘bang you rock make food’ setting be a yes vote, please. i’m sorry, but i couldn’t resist! such a nice voting option

Hmm, I might run an Og game as a one-off. I have a silly scenario in mind…

To do this a bit more properly, we’d need to get a few things, like the Og rulebook (for the list of words and other stuff), lpus various costumes. Lots of fur loincloths, and a bunch of foam clubs would need ot be made. As a result there’d be a cost involved and time… even if people were prepared to make their own costumes.

My scenario would require about 5 or so NPCs and 5-8 players. Probably there would be a cost in the region of $15 depending on the cost of making all the props! Anyone think they’d want to help make clubs and caveman gear (hmm, fred flintstone outfit…)?

I think the key ingredient would be dirt, and lots of it.

I’d be up to NPC I think.

I think it needs caves and dead animals to cook over open fires.

just as long as its outside and away from the vegetrians.

Caves! I know a place with a set of big natural caves, near a beach. Would be cool for this sort of thing, although you might get occaisional passers-by.

But I can’t remember what it’s called. You go past Titirangi and keep on till you hit the sea. It seems to be off the Wises online map of Auckland. I think it’s in the general vicinity of Piha.

Wow, suddenly this is feeling really immersive. Do you want a private forum to organise? Given its simplicity, this could happen in December!

Count me out. It’s just toooo silly for my blood :smiley:

I think silly fun would come way before the immersion. I mean, we’re basically talking Caveman the LARP. Dibs on the Ringo Starr role.

You can purchase Land of Og (the second edition) as a PDF from RPGNow for $6 US: rpgnow.com/product_info.php? … cts_id=28&

Or the hardcopy for $10 from wingnutgames.com/landofog.htm

I was planning on buying the online PDF and printing, if LARPS will OK the budget :slight_smile:.

Actually, we need to sort out a petty cash limit that the committee can approve without a vote. But thats a separate issue.

For venue, how about the tunnels on North Head? Get lots of laughing mundanes … :laughing: Although, a more private area would be better, particularly with caves and beach.

I’d only worry about the initial costs involved in making lots of costumes and boffer clubs. (Has image of self in fred flintstone outfit, with bone in hair)

Maybe run it late January?

I just bought a copy of the rules. I’ll try and claim it back later.

Right - I’m working on LARPifying the Og rules. It’s much easier with no dice involved… I’m also simplifying the character classes.

Basically, you’ll get to pick a class (Strong (+1hp), Fast (+evade), Smart (+1 skill)) and a skill (draw, word, direction, pull hair…). Get basic 1hp. Then get armour points based on your costume. Easy!

Weapons - long pointy thing (spear), short pointy thing (knife), sharp thing (1h-axe), big sharp thing (2h-axe), club (club), rock (thrown).

Armour - leaves (0), skins (1), furs(2), tied-together-sticks (3), coconut shell (+1)(helmet or brassiere…)

I might force people to divide their points between strength, health and brain, and get rid of classes altogether. I’ll know more once Ive digested the rules.

Do you think it needs any skills at all?

Maybe not. You could simplify it straight down to character classes instead.

Or use a point build system. Assign everything (bonuses, skills, weapons, armour, whatever you want in the game) a cost in Og Points, and let people decide their priorities. Give everyone the same number of Ogs.

So, say everyone gets 4 Ogs.

  • Each extra Word: 1 Og
  • Each extra Health: 1 Og
  • Draw: 2 Ogs (assign costs to all skills that can be used in LARP)
  • Skins: 1 Og
  • Furs: 2 Og
  • Tied-together sticks: 3 Og
  • Cococut Shell: 1 Og
  • Small sharp thing: 1 Og (up to 30 cm)
  • Rock: 1 Og
  • Sharp thing or club: 2 Og (up to 70 cm)
  • Big sharp thing: 3 Og (up to 100 cm)

I think entertain should be a skill.
Imagine it,

“You kill me no. me hit drum”

You would get the word of what you do free with your skill. However no one else would understand it. That brings up another point however, can cave men learn words? if someone knows a word that someone else doesn’t, can the person that doesn’t yet know the word be tought it?