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Message no. 1
From: satinner@*********.net (Steven A. Tinner)
Subject: Long Range LARP Combat (Was: Re: Generating List Traffic)
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 09:01:39 -0800 (PST)
> Now, if everyone you game with is also a paintballer
> (wrong term, sorry,
> can't think of the right one) then it would work for
> your group/friends.
> But I think Tinner was looking for something more
> global :)

I actually DO play with a group of paintball warriors
too, and we've played out some SR scenarios. But
you're right, I was looking for something else.
Paintball is great, but it's pretty much all about
shooting people/ LARP is a social roleplaying
experience.
In the LARP I play in, ranged combat is handled pretty
well IMO. There are very few exchanges of long range
fire, since the game is played in a house and
surrounding alleys. All the gunfights are pretty much
close range.
A good GM staff can handle these combats easily, and
with a couple walkie-talkies, even longer range
attacks are not too hard to resolve.

I guess my problem isn't so much how to handle the
comabats, as how to involve all the players.

When/if this goes down, I expect to have at least 50
players. That's too big to make them all one runner
team. And putting them all on the same shadowrun makes
the game too linear IMO. I want something that's more
a Sixth World simulation, instead of just a runner
slugfest.

I'm still working on it.

Tinner
Evil GM
Message no. 2
From: graht1@*******.com (David Buehrer)
Subject: Long Range LARP Combat (Was: Re: Generating List Traffic)
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 12:32:55 -0700
>From: "Steven A. Tinner" <satinner@*********.net>
>Reply-To: Shadowrun Discussion <shadowrn@*****.dumpshock.com>
>To: Shadowrun Discussion <shadowrn@*****.dumpshock.com>
>Subject: Long Range LARP Combat (Was: Re: Generating List Traffic)
>Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 09:01:39 -0800 (PST)
>
> > Now, if everyone you game with is also a paintballer
> > (wrong term, sorry,
> > can't think of the right one) then it would work for
> > your group/friends.
> > But I think Tinner was looking for something more
> > global :)
>
>I actually DO play with a group of paintball warriors
>too, and we've played out some SR scenarios. But
>you're right, I was looking for something else.
>Paintball is great, but it's pretty much all about
>shooting people/ LARP is a social roleplaying
>experience.
>In the LARP I play in, ranged combat is handled pretty
>well IMO. There are very few exchanges of long range
>fire, since the game is played in a house and
>surrounding alleys. All the gunfights are pretty much
>close range.

I would be interested in hearing how you handle it. In my IFGS experience
range combat consisted of a prop (a bow), consulting the hit/miss table for
that characters class/level, and when firing at a target calling out the
target and whether it was a hit or miss and how much damage was done.

>A good GM staff can handle these combats easily, and
>with a couple walkie-talkies, even longer range
>attacks are not too hard to resolve.

Where the above fell apart was when you had a lot of ranged combat going on
at once. In one encounter we encountered a group of NPC archers at range.
We had to charge them, giving them plenty of time to fire, while at the same
time our archer and spellcasters were calling out hits/misses and damage.

>I guess my problem isn't so much how to handle the
>comabats, as how to involve all the players.
>
>When/if this goes down, I expect to have at least 50
>players. That's too big to make them all one runner
>team. And putting them all on the same shadowrun makes
>the game too linear IMO. I want something that's more
>a Sixth World simulation, instead of just a runner
>slugfest.

IFGS handles it by letting everyone play. The adventure is organized along
a "course". Several groups of people are stationed along the course to
roleplay the various encounters. Then the player groups are sent into the
course at staggered intervals. Each player group has its own GM,
responsible for handling rules conflicts and making sure the players move
along at a respectable pace. Every NPC group has a group leader,
responsible for setting up the encounter and preparing the other NPCs. Each
game also has a game producer and a small number of people to assist the
game producer. It's quite a production, and I was consistently amazed that
they managed to pull it off every time.

>I'm still working on it.

Check out www.larpnews.com. It's a site that just started so you could get
in at the ground level :)

-Graht

_________________________________________________________________
Take off on a romantic weekend or a family adventure to these great U.S.
locations. http://special.msn.com/local/hotdestinations.armx
Message no. 3
From: satinner@*********.net (Steven A. Tinner)
Subject: Long Range LARP Combat (Was: Re: Generating List Traffic)
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 14:55:52 -0800 (PST)
> I would be interested in hearing how you handle it.
> In my IFGS experience
> range combat consisted of a prop (a bow), consulting
> the hit/miss table for
> that characters class/level, and when firing at a
> target calling out the
> target and whether it was a hit or miss and how much
> damage was done.

The LARP I'm in is called Carpe Noctum. It's the
Celveland branch of One World by Night. It's set in
the Vampire genre, and we use White Wolf's Mind's Eye
Theatre sysem, with a few modifications.
Essentially it's Rock-Paper-Scissors, and compare
traits for everything.
Ranged combat requires a Narrator/GM near each end of
the firefight to judge the combat, and keep track of
time. Which is really not too tough to organize.
The only time a scene breaks down badly is if some of
the combatants don't know the rules. Once you've
learned the system, it's pretty seemless.
For longer ranges, the GM's can keep track of the
firefight via walkie talkie.

It's a LOT different from IFGS or boffer style
LARPing.

> IFGS handles it by letting everyone play. The
> adventure is organized along
> a "course". Several groups of people are stationed
> along the course to
> roleplay the various encounters. Then the player
> groups are sent into the
> course at staggered intervals. Each player group
> has its own GM,
> responsible for handling rules conflicts and making
> sure the players move
> along at a respectable pace. Every NPC group has a
> group leader,
> responsible for setting up the encounter and
> preparing the other NPCs. Each
> game also has a game producer and a small number of
> people to assist the
> game producer. It's quite a production, and I was
> consistently amazed that
> they managed to pull it off every time.

Yeah, I've run "course" style events like that. Maybe
that would be a good way to be sure that every runner
team had a shot at pulling a job.
What I want to avoid though is 50 different runners,
all running willy-nilly and never interacting with
each other except in shadowruns or combat scenes.
IMO what really makes a LARP stand out is when you get
to interact with a ton of people. It just seems to
make the world seem that much more realistic and
vibrant.

Tinner
Evil GM

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