A couple of long essays.

[Levi]

I realized today (after getting prodded in another discussion) that I've never linked people from these boards to the work of the guy that likely influenced my thinking on LARP the most.

So, here's his manifesto, a tool he used to write his LARP:

http://www.ccinet.ab.ca/tcantine/SM.html

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And here's his Master's thesis, which is also about LARP:

http://www.ccinet.ab.ca/tcantine/thesis.html

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They're both in my "fairly academic" category, but really good stuff regardless.

[Ryan Paddy]

The manifesto echoes my own preferences. I like the systematic way he's described his reasoning and the generic description of larp, although where he uses the word "fun" as the OOC goal of all larpers I'd say "fulfillment". But that's just a sematic difference, I agree with his conclusions.

The last conclusion about only having rules that have a victim when they're broken is interesting, it's an admirable goal but I'm not sure if it's achievable. Even a combat rule can be victimless when broken, if the combat action is applied by accident. For example a character who accidently finishes off a fallen comrade in the dark, thinking it was an enemy. If they cheat and pretend it didn't happen, where is the victim?

The thesis is too big to digest right now. Skim reading suggests that the examples involve item cards and dice resolution, which is interesting. I didn't realise those were the mechanics of Sunfall from your previous posts. And Sunfall is in Canada, is that right? Is there a website for it?

[Levi]

The thesis is too big to digest right now. Skim reading suggests that the examples involve item cards and dice resolution, which is interesting. I didn't realise those were the mechanics of Sunfall from your previous posts. And Sunfall is in Canada, is that right? Is there a website for it?

Dice resolution is and artifact of the times; Sunfall was being played quite a few years before MET and similar systems came out.

Sunfall is local to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, just as I am. It doesn't have a website, but the people that run it work under the auspices of www.lrpsedm.com.

The variant form of Sunfall currently in my .sig does not use them (or any other randomiser at all). The link has been adding junk characters to the end as I type this; I'm trying to fix it.

[Ryan Paddy]

Thanks for pointing out that rules link. Looks nice and simple.

The turn based combat would put me off a bit. How much does time tend to slow down when combat occurs? I'm used to simulated/live combat larps where just about everything is in real time.

Keeping everything is real time is one of my other goals in larp design. I believe that the more real-time things are, the more live they feel. Could Spectacle work in real time rather than turn-based? I guess if people have to mark damage on character cards it wouldn't work too well.

Is there a general Canadian larp forum? I'm compiling an international list of community larp forums (http://www.larplist.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=853) over on Shades Larp List.

[Levi]

Could Spectacle work in real time rather than turn-based? I guess if people have to mark damage on character cards it wouldn't work too well.

Not quite. Let's see...

I call "Combat - Attack" And point at the guy.

Let's say I point with one finger; one of my palls calls "harry", points at the same guy; I hold out a second finger.

I say "good weapons", he says "Good defenses". We nod, I show him the two fingers. Two damage.

His go.

It could be practiced to be really, really fast, in comparison to MET or similar.

But not real-time, sadly.

[Ryan Paddy]

But not real-time, sadly.

I've yet to see an abstract larp system that is.

While I enjoy the rush of simulated combat, I fully understand that a lot of larpers aren't interested in it. But simulated combat does have a much more important advantage over abstract. You usually don't have to stop roleplaying to figure out what's happening.

[James Holloway]

I've yet to see an abstract larp system that is.

While I enjoy the rush of simulated combat, I fully understand that a lot of larpers aren't interested in it. But simulated combat does have a much more important advantage over abstract. You usually don't have to stop roleplaying to figure out what's happening.

Cthulhu Live included a variant combat system that was real-time, or at least kind of real-time. We adapted it for a modern-day conspiracy LARP I was in, and it worked pretty neatly. The only problem was that a lot of players simply freeze up in a real-time LARP combat and die like dogs. Which is not a lot of fun for them.

I believe the system was in <i>Shades of Gray</i>. There was another in <i>Delta Green</i>, I think.

[Ryan Paddy]

The only problem was that a lot of players simply freeze up in a real-time LARP combat and die like dogs.

Sounds pretty ideal for Cthulhu. Although if people died because they couldn't remember game mechanics in time, that'd be annoying.

How did it work, roughly?

There's a Lovecraftian larp here in Auckland called the Nightmare Circle. They run with capguns to simulate realtime gun combat, and it sounds like it works pretty well.