VD said:
Alright, alright. I saw that, but you banned it because it was too powerful not because it didn't fit into "real life skillz only".
Partially. Having seen that magic "in action" convinced us it is lame and unnecessary. Then we settled on "no-combat magics" principal which more or less includes also that "only-real-life skills" part.
VD said:
Still having a problem with this one. You may believe that the sword is cursed and in anything that comes with that, but you can't believe that you were hit for more damage, if you weren't. Granted, you can think that your wound is more serious then it is, but in (most) RPGs HPs simply measure your ability to keep fighting. You may think that you are dying because you've been scratched by something cursed, but you can still fight, so mechanics-wise it has little affect, unless you treat HPs differently.
Ahh...first of all, HP is the same here - it measures your ability to continue fight. Average man has 2 HP. Having 1 HP left, he is almost dead and may not continue fight. If you put on some armour, you get direct bonus to your HP [leather +1, chain +2, plate +3] . Plus, there are special feats chosen before game that allow you to keep fighting even with 1 HP [kinda Berserk]. We introduced HP because armour does metter and it is the easiest way to measure it. With no armour it is one hit in any body-part [hand, leg, torso] and youre deadly wounded, unable to continue fight. Any weapon does -1Hp damage, except for crossbows, those deal 2Hp as default being armour piercing weaponry. Thats the HP system.
Now, about those curses and blessings. Firstly, you can bless sword so it does more damage. Being hit with such sword means, you lose 2 Hp instead of 1. Thats the whole thing.
There are such things like cursed swords, but those are questologic items, you can get through quests. They deal more damage - because of being "magical", just like blessed ones, but thay lay curse on its wearer automatically. There were three or four such swords in our latest session. E.g. if you killed big badarse, you could get his sword. It was good sword, well balanced except for one thing - if you kill more than three people with it, the ghosts [unded] of killed start coming after you. [Ghosts are players killed in game. In order to reborn, they must obey orders of the King of The Dead. In LARPs those are mostly used as cheap NPCs.]
VD said:
Choices. Choices should be determined by your abilities. Without abilities restricting you, you can choose anything you want.
Totally disagree. It is not bad quest -design, but definetly not the best. Even in cRPG I wouldnt use such structure of quest solutions and choices.
Here is how I see the same problem [the options you listed stay, just add these]:
Let's say you need to pass through a gate. The gate is guarded during the day and locked at night. So, your all available choices are:
(First of all, what gate. There are no two identical gates in a whole universe, so you must know the background for the gate. Lets say its fortress that protects little town on the very border of some immmaginary country. Its fantasy. Further is only desert with wandering robbers, scavengers, wild animals. On the other side - more or less civilized, agricoltural countryside. Next, you must know the political situation. Lets say everything is calm right here, but still there are some raiders noted, so gate is kept closed at night. But you must get through because...lets say, you just robbed a very important person that had been cought by sudden nightfall. You have stolen a very valuable gem. So, now we have everything necessary to start thinking about choices, solutions.)
- You can learn about gate-keepers past and find out that he has been a robber time ago from the desert gangs. Noone of his current boses knows it, otherwise he would never gotten his job.
a)you can blackmail him;
b)you can inspire him use his status and let some of his old friends into town to steal as much as possible and then get away. You could help him with this affair, so get additional loot or you could just sneak out while he is stealing the stuff.
- You can try to bribe gate-keeper [considering his past, it would not be impossible].
- You could search the town for someone, who'd get you out.
- You could start public disorders [slim hope, most likely you'd be cought and thrown into jail before anyone would even woken up. Still, its possibility.]
- You could get false documents/identity and leave town with no pressure.
- You could offer some strong beer to guard, most likely he wouldnt refuse. Then you'd be able to
a)pick his keys while he is drunk/asleep;
b)convince him to let you out ["I want to pea in fresh air!"]
c)become his friend and use new friendship to get out;
None of quests above should have some limitations from characteristics. Those variants you suggested would be the easy way, the ones I listed - much more complicated, but - in exchnage - non-dependant on stats. Your choices would affect the gameworld, as well, e.g., if you blackmail him, be sure he would not wellcome you sincerly back. If you had inspired him to leave the goddamned guard's job and rob the village, maybe you could add him to your party. And so on.
That was cRPG example, though it very well fits for LARP needs. Its not that easy to implement in LARP such solutions, but its the direction we are headed. Or you like stat-check better?
If so, I allready said - you have biological abilities and stats. There are different people on larps, some of them are really well with sword - they could try to fight through. Others are good thieves [really, some girls are like cleptomans], they could actually steal the keys. That was the simpliest case. In more complex situations fighter character could talk thief into stealing better weaponry and armour for him so he kills the guard with less problems.Whats wrong with that?
VD said:
If you say so. You have your opinion, I have mine, and in case of disagreements, may I refer you to my signature?
No, actually I just dont understand what LARP is other than RPG. It has the role-playing elements and even stats/combat mechanics...I actually dont care is it larp or smth else, like live-action quest :D. It changes nothing except that I would stop raising LARP topics in this forum and move them on to Just Adventure :> .
((((?!!!?!?!?!11" but because I thought LARPs have interesting questological, story-building, character-creating problems that can bring some new ideas into role-playing as such. I looked in the sky..to the top of a page and read "putting back the role into RPG". There was nothing said about cRPGs and there was role in that phrase, so I said to me, "Hell, maybe those folks really know stuff and can see farther their nose?" and started the LARP thread. But no - as soon as comments arrived, I realised you cannot get by dress-up/pretending. Yeah, it is pathetic. You play cRPGs, some of you - PnPs, but as soon as its LARP, its gay. Have you looked at yourself from aside? [insert next witty comment like "Hey, Kamaz, look at yourself from aside"! here and distract from argument even more]
