Tag Archives: no rest for the wicked

Systems and Roleplay

In the context of LRP and roleplay in general, what use are systems? What benefit do we get from them? Are they something to be thinned down and eradicated, or something to be built up and enshrined?

There are arguments both ways. I’m not sure where I stand, and I’m not sure I agree with all the arguments that I’ve been presented with.

What good things do systems bring to LRP?

  • Systems provide structure
  • Systems mean that everyone is playing by the same rules
  • Systems ensure impartiality
  • Systems give context to setting

What bad things do systems bring to LRP?

  • Systems impose order
  • Systems have loopholes
  • Systems breed rules lawyers
  • Systems can be misinterpreted
  • Systems restrict choice
  • Systems confuse
  • Systems are complex

An initial glance at the two lists I’ve put together puts the argument way in favour of not having them if there are more bad things than good. But there are many levels of system, and they’re not all the same.

Someone said to me recently that the difference between a big fest game and a small local game is that the advantage of a small local game is you can have a massive complex system that covers every possibility while a large fest game has to keep things simple for the masses. I happen to disagree, as I don’t think any system should be so complex that players need to be reminded on what calls do before every session.[1]

Broken Dreams LARP are a company who specialise in games that have strong, evocative stories. From what I’ve seen, there games have systems but they are simple things that give you a basic structure and idea for how the game should be played and then it gets out of the way to allow you to roleplay your heart out. Shadow Factories is another LRP group who run events with tonnes of story and roleplay and a system that gets out of the way to enable that.

Empire by Profound Decisions is a big fest system that has a fairly simple system that enables you to go out and do your roleplay while having a system that supports it. While there are some more complex systems in there, they’re opt-in, not opt-out.

For five years, I ran No Rest for the Wicked, which was famed for having a ridiculously complex system. It was about as bad as people said it was, not helped by having had at least six different people involved in writing rules at different times, many of which contradicted each other when publishing rules updates, and a rulebook compiled by yet another person which simply brought together all the other rules documents without checking them. I believe someone once pointed me at three different systems for healing in the rulebook, at least one of which said they were better off recovering by lying in a ditch in the dark than actually getting healed by a medic.

Having looked at these systems, what I’m taking away is that a good and successful system should:

  • be simple enough for anyone to understand, regardless of how large your game is
  • enable roleplay, not restrict it
  • be clear and concise
  • not need explaining every session
  • not contradict itself

This is the ethos I’ve been trying to work to when developing the system for No Heaven. I’m not sure I’ve succeeded, and I don’t think I’m done. It’s certainly more complex than a Broken Dreams or Shadow Factories system, but I think it’s not much more complex than Empire, and it’s much simpler than the old No Rest for the Wicked rules. Of course, I’m not sure I’m ever going to get around to running No Heaven at this stage, regardless of how much progress I make with the rules system.

To go back to the earlier point about the advantages of small systems versus big systems. I don’t think the advantage of a small system is that you can make the rules more complex; I think the advantage of a small system is you can more often trust your players to roleplay their hearts out regardless of what the rules are, and you don’t necessarily need to impose order by having a single rules set everyone has to use to make things fair.

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. The difference in what Strikedown calls do in different systems notwithstanding
xkcd: Life Goals

New year, new things

It’s 2017, I’m still getting used to typing 2017 instead of 2016 by reflex (haven’t even tried writing it down yet), and I have absolutely no resolutions for the year. Not one.

I don’t really believe in the whole resolutions thing. But I do believe in setting some goals for myself, and trying to do better over time. I just find “New Years Resolutions” to be a crap way of doing it.

So this year, I want to achieve some things, and I might take some inspiration from the stand-up meetings we have at work and start keeping a record of how I’m doing on them to keep myself accountable and keep track of what’s getting in my way (besides myself).

With all that in mind, here are my current goals:

  • More gym time, get my cardio up, look at freeweights
    • Possibly try cardio in chain once I’m back in the swing of it
    • Currently blocked by my new gym still not being open but there’s another branch I can use in the meantime.
  • More work on Tixty
    • I need to get the admin backend sorted, and get a better frontend interface done while I’m at it
  • More creative writing
    • I want to try and get some regular creative writing done. Might start looking around for sources of inspiration or ask people for prompts
  • Write and run Heroes Rush In
    • It’s the penultimate event for No Rest for the Wicked, and I’m not alone in writing it but our plans are ambitious and we need to get started on them.
  • Make mage armour
    • I need new mage armour for Empire
    • I need to settle on a design, get someone to help with the bits I need help with, and start working on the rest.
  • Get Magento certified
    • We’re working on it at work, but I need to put in the effort, and I need to push for it to get sorted.
  • Learn Japanese
    • I’ve got a number of events coming up where knowing conversational Japanese would be useful – I need to brush up on it again and get used to using it.

I’ve probably missed some off, but one of the joys of life is that if you forget something, you can always it it to the list later.

 

Featured image from xkcd: Life Goals

LRP Schedule

My LRP schedule for the year has been pretty full since last October and events are still being added.

  • 22-24 Jan – Empire Player Event: In the Fields of the Cloth of Gold
  • 19-21 Feb – Empire Player Event: Gilded Horn Carta Winter Retreat
  • 4-6 Mar – Future’s End: Mission One
  • 25-28 Mar – Empire: 379YE Winter Solstice
  • 6-8 May – Stargate: The Spaces Inbetween
  • 13-15 May – No Rest for the Wicked: Dark Deeds
  • 27-30 May – Empire: 380YE Spring Equinox
  • 1-3 Jul – No Rest for the Wicked: By Schisms Rent Asunder
  • 29-31 Jul – Empire: 380YE Summer Solstice
  • 9-11 Sept – Empire 380YE Autumn Equinox
  • 30 Sept – 2 Oct – Future’s End: Mission Two
  • 14 – 16 Oct: No Rest for the Wicked: Humans Are Such Easy Prey

And that’s not including any extra Stargate events I get tempted into, or any extra Empire player events that might happen post-season, or the potential of going to CP in August.

On the other hand, I only have 8 days of holiday left and I may want to take the Thursday off for Empire E3 and E4 and any Christmas leave I want has to come out of that as well. So maybe this is about my LRP limit in a year. But maybe not.

#rpgaday2015 day 15 – longest campaign played

This one is an interesting one. By tabletop standards, a year and a half, maybe two years? I don’t remember how long I was playing in Ben’s Witchcraft game at uni, or how long Rob’s Rogue Trader ran for before it bowed before the weight of running a Rogue Trader LARP.

By LARP standards, the Isles of Darkness wins out. I started playing late 2007, and the campaign ended at the beginning of this year. That gives me seven years of play. As a single character, I think I can only claim 6 years as that’s how long James/Henderson/Firestarter was in play (October 2008 – chronicle end).

This post, like some of the others, is out of order and not posted on its original day because I wasn’t in any state to write it on the original day and didn’t pre-plan it.

In the Footsteps of Giants

Overall, a great weekend. Event 8 of the 9 events we’ve run for No Rest of the Wicked, and the eighth that I’ve attended.

Many positive points:

  • Getting paggered by Phill on a combat run because I ended up between the crew and the players as they tried to escape was frustrating and fun at the same time. There’s (now) a realisation that I forgot I could VANISH out of that situation, but being picked up by a player instead of being the one picking someone else up was an interesting change.
  • The banter between Jaxx and Orpheus was awesome
    • Crumpets are crunk!
    • She’s got a gut full of dynamite and a booty like POW!!!!
  • Jaxx dying after Orpheus specifically told her not to led to the interesting RP post-resurrection of “what was the one thing I told you not to do?” “you told me not to fall over.” “and what did you do?” “I went boom.” “and then you fell over.” “in lots of pieces.” “but you still fell over and I told you not to do that…”
  • Engaging with PCs was good. I managed to get into the post-timeout social RP on both nights, and that was a lot of fun. I kinda wish I’d swapped to Trysten, but being there as Orpheus was a lot of fun, and I wanted to do a complete costume swap for Trysten to minimise kit confusion.
  • “Symmetrical circles with no corners” – enough said
    • Working out how you can have a non-symmetrical circle with corners that’s still a circle
  • The labyrinth and the astral fight encounters were amazing
    • Sneaking/dancing around as Or-fae-us (the half-Harlequin, half-Spectre illusion) was fun
    • The reaction from players as the Aressiyans powered up their EL wire simultaneously was brilliant – it’s like I planned it…
  • The zero-crew encounter that just kept going. 9 players and me in a closed room as they poked things and investigated what they did. That was fantastic.
  • Using Pyro’s fiery explosion to light my cigar
  • Pancakes!
  • Arborian frisbee
    • Tree climbing!
  • Getting some good feedback about my prototype deck timer app was pretty awesome as well.

Some negative points:

  • Not being able to get time off work meant I didn’t get there till after time in and it was nearly 9 before I actually hit the field.
  • Apparently I need to make Orpheus and Trysten look more visually distinct as a few people didn’t realise I wasn’t just playing Orpheus on Sunday even though I’d completely swapped kit
    • Orpheus: Eye bionic, black tactical vest, black combats, pistol on left thigh, armour, shotgun
    • Trysten: Arm and neck plugs, black bracers, black sleeveless shirt, black military jacket, pistol on right thigh, buckler and power sword
    • Rob’s suggested that switching to the velvet jacket rather than the plain one might help, but I’m looking for more suggestions on how I can switch it up and create a more visually distinct image for the pair of them
  • Having players wanting to do stuff and not being able to run anything for them because there’s no crew available is incredibly frustrating
  • Didn’t get much chance to get someone to hire some Knight Titans looking for some action
  • I’m running out of coherency to write good things about the event!

All of the numbers

I’ve been working on the new No Rest for the Wicked trade system for a while. For a very long time I was just staring at a wall of numbers willing them to make sense. Then I sent them round to Rob, who provided some input and based on that input I rewrote the entire system (kind of) in a way that (a) didn’t make my brain hurt, (b) made a lot more sense, and (c) was almost fun to work with.

The updated trade system is now out for preview with some people. If you’re interested in being one of the people helping make it make sense, let me know.