Who has played "Boots for the Revolution"

[komradebob]

I know that the author posts here at rpgnet. Has anyone played this scenario? It amuses the heck out of me.

[cj.23]

Hiya.

The game was written in one afternoon as an experiment in 1998, and is playable as at least four runs have shown, but I think 8 years on I should rewrite it! Sill I hope someone has run it and will tell us there experiences... :)

http://www.freeforms.org.uk/Boots%20for%20the%20Glory%20of%20Russia.pdf

It's a bit, well I wrote it in an afternoon! The Russian history and names etc are probably all very incorrect, in fcat the game is probably deeply inaccurate, as I did no research at all. :( (There simply was not time!)

After the 2000 Fallcon run Steve Hatherley kindly edited it, and made it a pdf -this version owes a lot to Steve. If anyone has tried it, lease do let me know how it went, I won't be offended!

There is also a 1916 game, set in London at a society seance that I wrote, called Last Flight of the Albatross. have not made a pdf of this yet as it is a much larger project, t may do one day if people are interested...

That game is reviewed here
http://www.freeforms.org.uk/review-other-freeforms.html

and the game website to promote the first run is here
http://members.lycos.co.uk/cjr23/rpg/larp/Albatross/

which has a few essays which might be of interest to folks anyway if they are thinking of running a LARP in that period. I am quite proud of Last Flight, and would like to make it available, but time is the pressing factor as it is quite a large project. Sadly I had best work on paying projects first! :)

cj x

[komradebob]

CJ:
What experience did you have with freeforms/larps before you wrote that? The overall style is much closer to what I'd like to participate in than the on-going MET LARP games I've tried out.

Were you involved with a group that regularly did one-shot freeforms, or was this something meant for a con, or?

[cj.23]

CJ:
What experience did you have with freeforms/larps before you wrote that? The overall style is much closer to what I'd like to participate in than the on-going MET LARP games I've tried out.

Were you involved with a group that regularly did one-shot freeforms, or was this something meant for a con, or?

Greetings Komradebob!

None whatsoever I'm afraid. I had heard of freeforms, but never played in any, nor indeed seen any. I had played a couple of sessions of LARP, one with boffer weapons, and one with reenactors (and with live steel), but neither greatly appealed to me. However after Steve removed the victory point mechanism it came out very much like a freeform -- there are some excellent ones on the web, though mainly they are for twenty plus players... :( I'll hunt some out later!

Non of the players I ran this with had everplayed a freeform before, but it still worked. :)

Still I'm glad you liked it: in '98 I was very innocent about how games like this should work. My later work was better, but hey, you live and learn! There is a UK Freeforms yahoo group I joined after I ran this at the con, and they are great folks who can offer all kinds of good advice.

I did run a seven game Cthulhu Live campaign in 2000, which was a bit of an epic, and have since that date written two more freeforms, and participated in several. Soe have been incredily tense, though one ended up as much fun as watching paint dry as it really was like a four hour committee meeting, devoid of any excitement. Ironically that one was a high fantasy game in a magic rich world!

Brian Williams wrote a super larp based in Middle Earth which I had great fun in, Council of Fenas Druiinn I think it was called, and I have played in some other wonderful games. David Chart wrote a fun freeform for Ars Magica called The Fallen Fane which I ran, (availablee form Atlas Games) and the gloranthan game Tarsh War is pretty good, though needs tweaking, and i very wargame influenced. Epic Advetures uk ran a wonderful game set at a golf course, Irons in the Fire, which was a very successful comedy, and I played two of Steve Hatherley's games which can be bought for a small sum andhighly recommend.

I love Freeform LARP, but enjoy other types of LARP just as much, but MET has been disappointing in my personal experience. :( However I knwo there ar people who run truly wonderful MET style games. :)

cj x

[the_axel]

I know that the author posts here at rpgnet. Has anyone played this scenario? It amuses the heck out of me.

I ran it a few years ago with a bunch of my friends.
Most of them had no LARP experience.
Most hadn't roleplayed in many years if ever.
We got through a very large amount of vodka in the course of the game.
Everybody who played loved it & I've been asked to do something similar from time to time.
(I also ran cj.23's Harry Potter themed LARP which was even more ridiculous (more rules, more players, not quite as grand a success but still went over well).

[cj.23]

Hi Axel,

good to see you on rpg.net!

I am still thinking about writing yet another freeform, and if I do hope you will run it. Unfortunately work and paid writing is getting in the way at the moment! :)

cj x