Opinions on a mini-con LARP

[Eggwhite]

I'm starting to think about options for a LARP at a potentially upcoming local mini-con. The event itself is something a lot like a SteveCon in scale - so I'm guessing at around 20 people. We've got the potential to hit around 50, but I think that's unlikely...

We're thinking of running a one off LARP in the evening, and I'm trying to trawl for ideas. We'd have a 3-4 hour slot, so it needs to be something that people can drop into quite quickly and easily without having to know a lot of background.

My LARP running experience is mainly with WoD LARPs with a bit of other stuff thrown in.
I've run some oWoD Vampire - Camarilla and Sabbat
I've run some oWoD Mage
I'm still running some Dark Ages: Vampire
I'm also running an Unknown Armies LARP

I'd like to try to do something a bit different. I'd be happy with modern (or recent historical) horror style, as it's easy for folks to improvise costume for, but I'm casting about for basic ideas - just setting and premise, rather than plot.

I have a few ideas already and will almost certainly have more before the event gets finalised (if it even happens), but more are always welcome. What do folks think suits a con LARP? What would people find easy to drop into?

[Attila-IV]

I'd like to suggest Cthulhu Live. The system is simple and quick, and the players don't need to know it well or at all. In my experience it's easy to use the game to set up excelent occult mysteries for a handful of players. If time get's short there are also a number of pre-written scenarios online. http://www.cthulhulive.com

[Eggwhite]

I think Cthulhu Live is certainly on our list of options already... I'm just wary of trying to keep the atmosphere going well enough with new folks around. We'll essentially have a sort-of theatre to run things in (it's an amateur-run theatre with a flat floor rather than raked seating- they hire it out as a hall as well), and I've heard of a couple of theatre based scenarios... not to mention a nice chunk of the mythos with a nice conspicuous play...

Ideas are now already forming on that front, if we do happen to go with cthulhu live...

[Matt-M-McElroy]

You could always go for a modern day murder mystery...

Simple, easy characters to pick up and a plot everyone is somewhat familiar with. Take a look at any of a dozen Cop Drama and/or Soap Opera tv shows for ideas. Some special event (like a wedding, birthday party, company get-together, a convention, etc) as the backdrop for all of these people in the same location...then, someone important (the host, a special guest) gets murdered and half the people there are suspects...intrigue, backstabbing and role-playing insue.

Add in a few twists in the character write-ups and make several people have a reason for the victim to be dead and you'll have a great time.

Regards,

Matt

[Craig Oxbrow]

Is there a particular room you'd have access to, which might suggest itself as a suitable location for some things more than others?

[Redfeild]

Just saw House on Huanted Hill. I think you couls pull this one off if it is presented as a social event or party at an old mansion.

You could use ether Cthulhu Live or modified new World of Darkness.

[Ambrogino]

Eggwhite, is this for Killercon? One thing I regret looking back is that the games there never made any use of Founders, since it's such a fantastic building. If you can run something low-key (so people aren't wearing unusual clothes, swords or shouting at the tops of their voices) then I'd say at least a wander through the halls or discussions in the quads would be well worth doing.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about;

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f14/Ambrogino/founders.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

It's a dorm, as well as containng a lecture hall, and some of the university's administration departments

[Eggwhite]

Eggwhite, is this for Killercon? One thing I regret looking back is that the games there never made any use of Founders, since it's such a fantastic building. If you can run something low-key (so people aren't wearing unusual clothes, swords or shouting at the tops of their voices) then I'd say at least a wander through the halls or discussions in the quads would be well worth doing.

It's not really a KillerCon thing, although several of the people talking about doing things are people who were never satisfied with what killercon was.

Essentially, we're looking at getting some of our local and ex-local or pseudo-local gamers together... There's still around 50 odd that I could list of either local gamers or people who live further afield but play games here regularly (and that's not even including filthy splitters who move up north!), but they're all scattered into lots of different groups which share a couple of members each. The idea would be to not try to turn it into a full blown con - that way lies madness, doom and horror - but to keep it as a simple games day. Just games - nothing else.

If it works, open it up a bit wider next time we do it and start pulling other folks in, like perhaps interested RPG.netters. Not for the first one, though. Get it right on the small scale and then let it grow to something bigger on it's own if people start bringing friends. No advertising outside of our local groups - no attempting to entice anyone else to come by anything other than reputation and invitation. Basically, the same way our LARPs gain members.

The plan started with just the tabletop games in the daytime, so that we could mix and match the groups a bit and introduce people to some games they may not have played otherwise. But since we've inexplicably got such a thriving LARP community in our pathetic little town (population of less than 15,000 people with at least four regular LARPs that I know of and at least two more that I keep hearing are soon to start) we thought an evening LARP would be fantastic - especially if work is put into dressing the venue and doing something <em>special</em>.

Additional bit that I forgot:
We're trying to avoid using the holloway campus because the room bookings there are frighteningly unreliable these days, and most of the rooms that are actually available are pretty grim or out of practical price range. We'll probably be using our favoured local LARP venue... upstairs rooms for the TT, downstairs for the evening LARP. We might even have to look at paying the little bit extra to use the lighting rig so I can do something fancy!