A Wraith LARP?

[Arnino Storm]

I read somewhere that they made a "Laws of Oblivion" book. Now, I only discovered the whole WoDverse about four years ago, and discovered Wraith about three after that (making it early this year), but I really liked this game. <

What I'm wondering is, are the rules any good? Or could I just 'wing it' by mixing the new MET system with ze olde game?

Also, does it make for a viable LARP environment? I was thinking of maybe trying it with my college RPG club, maybe as a way to let more people know it exist. Not exactly mainstream, but then, difference is good too.

[Uberxael]

Wraith is one of those games which is either brilliant and horribly intense or crap and not worth playing, depending on your group.

Shadows are the main issue. You need a lot of STs/dedicated Shadow players to make a Wraith LARP work-about as many people playing Shadows as you have Psyches.

The rules, I've found, are basically irrelevant-new MET is generally better than old MET, but Wraith isn't particularly crunchy anyway.

[Matt-M-McElroy]

Well, you can get Oblivion (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_16&products_id=3038&affiliate_id=22713) on DTRPG for a look at the "old" rules. They have their share of problems, and are a bit more complicated than they need to be, but they do the trick.

Regards,

Matt

[sbca1995]

Well, you can get Oblivion (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_16&products_id=3038&affiliate_id=22713)

Don't you mean "Obilvion"?
(well, that's what it says on the spine) :p

[The Gamestas]

If you hop on over to The Wraith Project (http://www.cattail.nu/wraithproject) and holler at a guy named JL Williams, he might just send you his write up for the Laws of Oblivion. Tell him we sent you and he might be more amicable :) .

[Jadasc]

Don't you mean "Obilvion"?
(well, that's what it says on the spine) :p

Well, if you're gonna be petty, it's OBILIVION. As in,"Help me, Obi-Liv Ion, you're my only hope."

[Tylorva]

I am running one at Gen Con Indy this year, called 'Escher's Revenge'. It is on the event list. :-)

I tend to run mine completely freeform (ie systemless). Wraith LARP is very very very roleplay-centric and doesn't have much use for game mechanics to be honest.

[Arnino Storm]

Thanks for the tips. I'll check it out. I've still got a couple of questions, though. Mostly about the setting.

Mostly, it's about Underworld Politics. Are they worth it? Would the Hierarchy, Renegade and Heretic factions make for an interesting environment, or would they break the game? And what about the Guilds? Better to keep them mysterious and in the background? Not keep them at all? Or make them center?

Once again, any answer would be appreciated.

[Tylorva]

Here are some tips:

1) Keep it small. Wraith works best in small groups, even in LARP. It's a very ST-demanding game, but also it should be much more personal to each character than say a Vampire game. The one-off I am running at Gencon Indy is 12 players maximum, and that is going to hard work for the ST team as is.

2) Try and keep it to a specific faction depending on what sort of game you want to run. All three factions can be run as political/social games, or as more adventure based ones, but remember that there is rarely a reason for the different factions to mix. Any renegade with a sense of self-preservation wouldn't go near a group of hierarchs with a bargepole.

As a guide:

Hierarchy games are good for political backstabbing type games. They also allow a very wide range of character types, and I think are excellent for personal horror and 'angst'.

Renegade games can also be quite political but more in a 'informal' kind of way. Generally this are best if you want to play a 'little guys against the system' kind of way.

Heretic games are less political and more kind of weird and supernatural. I'm not a big fan of them, but if that's what your group wants, then go for it. :-)

Do what you like with the guilds, again depending on what sort of game you want to run. I tend to keep them very much in the background, but it's up to you.

3) Make passions and fetters important! They may seem like background 'fluff', but they really are good stuff. Give each character personal stories related to them and your players (and shadowguides) will love you for it.

4) The more shadowguides you can get, the better. At a minimum I would suggest one per six players, but if you can get more, then go for it.

Hope that helps! I'll add more if I think of them. :-)

[Jadasc]

Mostly, it's about Underworld Politics. Are they worth it? Would the Hierarchy, Renegade and Heretic factions make for an interesting environment, or would they break the game?

Decidedly worth it. Since the personal, intimate game is intensive on people wandering around playing fetters (or on Storytellers doing the same thing), the various political factions keep things interesting and provide a good source of activity.

And what about the Guilds? Better to keep them mysterious and in the background? Not keep them at all? Or make them center?

Background, and only a few -- pick the ones you find most interesting and emphasize them.

[bink]

I was panning on running a wraith larp for quite a while. The system isn't worth keeping mostly beacuse the powers become horribly uneven and diffrent from the table top versions wich I think are quite balanced. I would definatly keep it small and get players you trust and put some effort into their characters and the game. I wouldn't make it any faction, and let people play from all factions as long as they play moderates. Also their are plenty of external factors that would make them not fight each other, and possibly a specific problem you can introduce as a st. I like the idea of a shared haunt or otherwise more remote location then a necropolis. In this type of circumstances your faction connections will be much less important then your personal connections to other players and npcs.

[Arnino Storm]

Thanks guys. I'll check the stuff you mentionned out when I get time. It's mostly a long-term idea anyway.

[somniturne]

I'm running a Great War one-shot this summer
http://www.somniturne.com/pandoracycle/wraithflyerweb.jpg
It's a really interesting game that pretty much noone knows anything about. The main problem I'm running into is the Arcanoi are so unbalanced, but the setting is cool enough to make up for it. The Great War setting for wraith was one of the best supplements WW put out in my opinion

[David Mandrake]

WooooOOOOoooo! There was an outfit that put out I think 3 LARP rulesets--ghosts was one of them. They all worked together well; I played basically the ghost of Solomon Kane in a Seattle LARP. Vampires, witches, ghosts, were those the three? Main author was in Missoula, MT? Anyone?

[Pope Guilty]

As awesome as JL WIlliams is (that is, very,very awesome), I seem to recall White Wolf sending him a cease-and-desist on distributing his reworking of the Oblivion rules.

[JibbaJabbaWocky]

I was planning on running a Wraith LARP at some point, in my Grandfather's old house. It's one of the oldest houses in it's town, and is a big stone house made in the 1860's. Because he never took care of it, it's all decaying and falling apart. Perfect for characters with deathsight.

Anyway, the plan was to have a bunch of people play Wraiths, with the house being kind of a communal Haunt in the middle of a Maelstrom. Also, there would be other players playing a family living in the house, going about their daily lives. Perhaps one or two of them would be fetters also, but that would come later. Anyhoo, the Family players would have flash cards with a variety of emotions written on them, so as they interacted with each other and the Wraiths, they could feed the Restless players Passions. there was enough room in the house so that one room could simulate part of the Labrinth, and other such locations.

Too bad we're selling the house soon. :(

[Arnino Storm]

I was planning on running a Wraith LARP at some point, in my Grandfather's old house. It's one of the oldest houses in it's town, and is a big stone house made in the 1860's. Because he never took care of it, it's all decaying and falling apart. Perfect for characters with deathsight.

Anyway, the plan was to have a bunch of people play Wraiths, with the house being kind of a communal Haunt in the middle of a Maelstrom. Also, there would be other players playing a family living in the house, going about their daily lives. Perhaps one or two of them would be fetters also, but that would come later. Anyhoo, the Family players would have flash cards with a variety of emotions written on them, so as they interacted with each other and the Wraiths, they could feed the Restless players Passions. there was enough room in the house so that one room could simulate part of the Labrinth, and other such locations.

Too bad we're selling the house soon. :(

Oh.My.God. :eek:

I'd have played that like the fist of an angry god.

[JibbaJabbaWocky]

Depending on when we get the house sold, I might end up actually running it.

Really, any old house will do. If I finally get it up and running, I'll certainly let you know. I'm sure someone will have floorspace for a random Montealite. :)

[Arnino Storm]

Depending on when we get the house sold, I might end up actually running it.

Really, any old house will do. If I finally get it up and running, I'll certainly let you know. I'm sure someone will have floorspace for a random Montealite. :)

:)

[JibbaJabbaWocky]

Hmmm.... now that I've told someone outside of my immediate group of friends, I'm getting the itch to actually run it. The question is, should it be Pre or Post End of Empires?


Finally, a chance to use all of my Wraith books!



Proto-LARP notes will be forthcoming.

[JibbaJabbaWocky]

Wraith is one of those games which is either brilliant and horribly intense or crap and not worth playing, depending on your group.

Shadows are the main issue. You need a lot of STs/dedicated Shadow players to make a Wraith LARP work-about as many people playing Shadows as you have Psyches.

The rules, I've found, are basically irrelevant-new MET is generally better than old MET, but Wraith isn't particularly crunchy anyway.

Actually, you could probably get a few people to exclusively play Shadows. The Boffer LARPs in my area have a thing where you can show up and not pay the fee, the catch being you have to NPC the whole time, and play goblins and such and job out to the PCs. Perhaps the Wraith LARP could work in a similar fashion. Anyone who doesn't pay the fee (or volunteers for it) can get paired up with a Wraith PC at the begining of the night/weekend, and is handed the shadow sheet for the character, (with Thorns, and Shadow Archetype) with a list of bullet pointed character history bits on the back, so they can bring up shameful childhood memories, or hit those touchy subjects. The Shadow sheets would be developed by the player and the STs, and then the STs will hold on to them, and distribute them to the Shadow player as needed. This way you don't need to have permanent pairs of players, so that their respective characters who never get to interact, actually can. Me and a few of my friends are pretty good (IMHO) at playing Shadows, so I figure the STing staff can pick up the slack where needed, and they'd be among the players for rules questions and such.

Again, this would require some pretty mature players, but I figure after the first few events, you'd be able to find out who stays in.

[Nath]

Wraith is a hard game to run.

Something that happens (as in other WoD games) is that the game works best focused on the personal level, with the character trying to protect his mortal family and survive nightly existence, but instead turns into power politics among supernaturals, with actual humans never turning up. Wraith takes this to an extreme given the characters can end up focused on a completely different world.

A particular problem with wraith is that, through the system of passions and fetters is good, it can tear the game apart as all the players want to go off and attend to their fetters rather than hang out with each other.

One solution is guide the character creation process and make sure the players have passion and fetters that keep them together.

For example, I heard about a TT WWI wraith game someone ran (this is was before Great War was published). The premise was that the players were a group of british soldiers who had been protecting a new secret weapon (one of the first tanks) and died when betrayed by a cowardly officer (and the tank lost to the germans). All the players had the tank as a fetter and a revenge type passion against the coward. I'm told this worked quite well for a while.

I would also suggest looking at other games that cover ghosts. If you can find it, I recommend the obscure RPG 'Heaven & Earth.'

[JibbaJabbaWocky]

Wraith is hard to run, but very rewarding if you can get it right. I've never had a problem keeping the group together, since I assumed alot of the routine Fetter maintenance is done during downtime, while the emergency stuff can easily net the whole group in. After all, if you need help to protect it, you'd probably need your friends.

And keeping them in contact with the skinlands is the reason I wanted the Quick family to be there. That way they NEED to interact with them, on some level, even if it's just trying to feed off of their Pathos.

[Caias Ward]

Depending on when we get the house sold, I might end up actually running it.

Really, any old house will do. If I finally get it up and running, I'll certainly let you know. I'm sure someone will have floorspace for a random Montealite. :)

I thought no one was allowed to sleep in the house? :)

Backstory on the house: Steve's grandfather was insane. He would throw his pants at people and call the dog 'Garibaldi'. He was also a collector of things. He would take trips to the dump and bring stuff home. He would build... <i> things</i>. We thought he was a Nocker gone retarded, trying to build some monstrous spider robot out of plastic detergent bottles.

Stuff we found in his house and garage:
- Oscilliscopes
- Ford Model A engine block
- 25 pounds of mercury
- 9 lawnmowers
- a wide selection of 1950's magazines
- a drill press this man pulled into the basement by himself
- a sealed paint can fulled of locks that had been cut.
- an anatomically correct tin man
- "Scary Dummy": a manniquin that Steve swears is stalking him around the house.


In all, it took about 16 30 cubic yard dumpsters to empty the house. I'm pretty mellow about the house, but others who were part of cleaning it out are afraid of it.

[JibbaJabbaWocky]

- 9 lawnmowers


12 Lawmowers, actually.

And scary dummy is stalking me. I think I finally convinced my mom not to take it into our house.

Oh, and we finally moved all the boxes of dirty magazines out of the house. They filled up our front hallway.


Grandpa was a dirty, dirty man.