Metal Gear Solid-style LARP?

[Tumbleweed]

And no, I'm not talking about having people dress up in kevlar and latex in order to hide under boxes and stuff. :)

Anyway, I got this idea awhile back, so I thought I'd bring it up here, now that there's a LARP forum.

Now, anyone who's played any of the MGS games knows that there's almost as much going on behind the scenes as there is in the game itself; Snake's got his own supporting cast to feed him information (and plot points) as needed.

So an idea for a LARP thing I came up with awhile back was to place the players in the roles of said support staff. They all keep in contact with 'The Agent' (Read: GM) via radio, and feed him orders/advice/moral support over the course of the game. They'd have a bunch of maps, files, dossiers, and other junk at their disposal...to really make it work, I imagine there'd have to be a HELL of a lot of GM preparation in making the documents...but if they got it right, it'd be bad-ass cool :)

One idea I had to go along with this would be to make 'The Agent' relatively inexperienced; probably by having him be part of a larger squad- most of whom are killed right at the beginning of the game. That way, the players can make more of a difference.

Anyway, a couple of character ideas:

The Commander: He's the man in charge, the only one who knows the whole story- or at least he knows a whole bunch of it. Of course, the whole story is classified, natch. He also might have the "special power" to have other PC's arrested.

The Techie: Because there's always tech support. I figure this guy's schtick could be access to a computer...and google. Perhaps even to deliver pertinent information through instant messenger or E-mail. Oh, and he'd be the guy with batteries to the radio, too.

The Girlfriend: Well, maybe 'The Girlfriend' could be her secret, as she's really signed on as a secretary/medical officer/something else. But something else to add more drama to it all.

The Veteran: A grizzled old guy, perhaps one who trained The Agent- he's there for tactical advice, and...stuff. Not sure what his special gimmick could be, though.

The Traitor!: Because there's always a traitor. They'd have the express goal of trying to make the mission fail. Really, this could be applied to any of the other roles I've listed thus far.


So yeah. My LARPing experience...isn't, really. Even still, has anyone got any thoughts on such a game? Would you want to play in it? What other characters could you squeeze into the 'Situation Room?'

[Graham W]

I like this idea. I'm interested to see how you'd get around the problem of providing those materials and maps and so on. There must be some way of using maps of Alaska (or similar) and scientific stuff grabbed from the Internet.

It's almost a tabletop RPG, though, isn't it?

Graham

[Tumbleweed]

Well, it wouldn't have to be ALASKA, per-se. The idea's based on the Metal Gear Solid games- it's not tied into it. Might even set it in some urban area- Google Earth, here we come!

It's KIND of like tabletop, I suppose- as in they'll need a table to put all the junk on. But the whole point of it all is based on a very limited environment, and the fact that they're essentially playing the 'backup' cast- in a real tabletop, they'd be the secret agents, sneaking around and explodifying stuff. :)

But yeah, my experience with LARP is rather minimal. I'm basically coming at this from a 'One shot drama' sort of angle- something like the "Boots for the Glory of the Revolution" which I saw here awhile back. Only, y'know. It's a little more complex.

[invisible_al]

Wow that sounds like an idea for a 'crisis-room' LARP that a friend was talking about running. He was talking about various shadowy groups interacting trying to get their agents to solve a crisis and grab the 'alien artifacts' for themselves.

But this takes it to another level, have the 'war-room' and then have the agent or agents doing the op while staying in contact via radio or phone. One source of inspiration would be 24, so you would have to have a traitor or two and possibly a double or triple agent. Hey perhaps people are being blackmailed, or brainwashed, or robot duplicates if you want to get weird.

If you need organisations to throw into the alphabet soup, the Delta Green and Conspiracy X games both have a good selection of government agencies to choose from. You could have the CDC, CIA, NSA, Secret Service, NASA and the USPS all arguing over jurisdiction while the agents are in a gunfight :).

[invisible_al]

Oh and I've now got the urge to run both sides of this, complete with agents hiding under cardboard boxes in a warehouse :).

[NERO Aeon]

I think that this would be interesting and could be run with a very basic site requirement. This may even be ideal for a Con or something similar.

I think that this would have to be set up in a 'war room' scenario to make it functional, but you could have the option for the Players to 'go remote' and become agents in the field. This may work better for NPC's that leave the war room to assist the agent and function as part of the storyline. It may work for players if you have an assistant Gm work with them while on their mission - although this may end up very table top in style, but the interaction from them to the war room would add another element to those trying to control and keep tabs on the situation.

Definately an interesting idea.

[David Artman]

My 2¢...

What are the main elements?
One-off LARP.
Two factions in opposition.
Players may leave the war room to do "missions."
Missions entail, basically, stating objectives, engaging in tests versus the GM to determine degree of success, and returning to the war room with the goods (info, items, NPCs).

Basically, you'd need three rooms, a few (four?) pairs of walkie talkies, and a few GMs to be ready to take folks aside and do tests. No actual crawling around or hiding involved; the point of play is to solve the mystery (a la Where in the World Is...?) and get the widget (alien artifact, Ark of Covenant, etc). Or to find the villain and assassinate him. Or to finish off the other faction (competative!).

What do players do?
Choose a site and defenses for their faction base.
Debate starting clues.
Decide agent agendas/goals and decide who will do the tasks.
Be specialized agents (i.e. one guy is the demolitions expert, one gal the seducer, etc) and test against GMs to accomplish assigned (or not!) goals.
Repeat until ready to attempt end game solution.
Declare their end game actions (guess the mystery, describe the final attack on the enemy or opposition faction base).
Test against GM/other faction to see if victorious.

Basically, the game would provide some structure vis a vis character ability, world situation, faction base design, and starting clues. After that, the players must attempt to learn more details and discover the necessary elements to declare an end game attempt. Perhaps they get "buffs" and additional capabilities as they uncover useful facts and new details. Then, they try to "win" by finishing their end game attempt.

Nice, linear, loaded with decision-making, and competative. Make it run in a typical 4-hour con slot, and you've got gold! Make a "meta-LARP" system that lets you easily write modules of the various goal types, and you've got a product line ready to happen!

HTH;
David

[Black_Flame]

...


Killer is the game you want. Steve Jackson Games, if I remember properly...

The granddaddy of all Larps... and lots of fun with NERF.

BlackFlame

[Black_Flame]

Link for Killer here:

http://www.sjgames.com/killer/

BlackFlame

[Drake_The_Wise]

I have about 2 maybe 3 yrs of LARP and 6 to 7 yrs of TT experience so if you can maybe set it up with some help of course I can attempt to run it for you. by the way that is a very good idea but I was kinda thinking that it would be a little more fun but dangerous to use Airsoft guns but i dunno.

[deflagratio]

Using Killer is a great idea. My friends ran a giant killer war in their neighborhood last year. This would allow for people to really go do the missions. One way you could spice things up for the war room people if you do have it in a "go do missions" type of way. Is to install webcams at various points. If you play it in a neighborhood have the webcams in windows of houses and other things. Give the warroom GM a list of webaddresses to view the cams and now the techie can "hack" to provide servaillance. Oh yea one interesting thing my friend did in his game was that they used airsoft guns outside and nerf guns inside.

[Agent Oracle]

Don't forget

The Team: (Inspired by Splinter Cell Co-Op)
Two players who work so well together that there are certain things they can only do when in close proximity (covering fire, team tactics, etc.)

The Rookie: (Inspired by Raiden of MGS3)
This character would be dead a hundred times over, except for one thing, Fate has made him her bitch. The character is not impossible to kill, but has a slight chance to survive what would otherwise be an impossible situation, just with bad luck humiliating him. (i.e. that rocket went right between his legs and set his pants on fire. Slap a "Wearing just his Boxers" sign on his chest)

The Secret Master: (Inspired by the G man, Half-life)
You have no idea whose side he's on, but it sure as shooting can't be yours. The Secret master starts the game with a full dossier on every character in the game (except one), and his objective is to change the objectives of the "good" commander and the "bad" commander, to lead to a alternate third ending which is not beneficial to eny side (but his)

The Wild Card: (Inspired by Othar Tryggvassen, of Girl Genius)
nigh-indestructible, and highly focused on one mission, the Wild Card cannot be properly killed, he can only be removed from play for brief periods (think "toon") The secret master starts with no dossier on this man. his goals are distinctly aligned with the side of good, but it's a sepia-hued goodness that many would find impossible to believe. Everyone thinks he's up to something. Also, if nobody is watching his body, it vanishes.