LARP Help!!

[jhkimrpg]

Help!

So I've been asked to help organize an outdoor fantasy larp for some kids I know, about a dozen of them around age 11 13. I'd like to do it, but (1) I've never played or organized an outdoor fantasy larp, and (2) I've never done any larps for kids before. My larping has all been theater-style with adults

Comments

[aaronjv]

Hello

rizwank told me about your project. Not knowing where nor when this is to take place, all I can offer is some contacts with people who specialize in this kind of LARP (live combat).

Check out LARP Alliance and post in the forums there, or let me know if you need more advice.

I recommend you set it up so the kids are competing with each other, but NOT fighting each other. In other words, the King's (item or person) is stolen by (monsters or bandits), and the king offers X prize to the team that brings it back first. You then set up a series of scavenger hunt like puzzles and combats. These should include some kinds of math or word problems (riddles), and the big climax at the end should overpower any one team, but if all teams band together, they'll be victorious. So you're setting up a GM vs. player game, where the kids aren't likely to hit each other (they have a common enemy, the adult NPC monsters). Still, the kids are competing and so may sabotage each other, or work together.

I think you can get away with this with say, one role-playing situation (talk to the Old Wizard, figure out this riddle), two puzzles (a lock or filling a bucket of four cups using a three-cup container and a five cup container, kind of puzzle), and three combats, one of which being the climax.

Also, do NOT allow head or groin shots. Period. I'd penalize the players if they hit there, say, they lose their weapon for two minutes (which will probably take them out of the combat).

Other advice: game balance in combat is related to # of villains vs. amount of hit points. Usually, a large number of bad guys is harder for parties, because they have to split up and fight them one on one. So I would say that for the climax, the villains outnumber or at least equal the number of team members. However, if the teams band together, they will outnumber the villains.

Also, you probably need to avoid killing players (at least until the end), so that they will "win" in the end, it's just a question of how well. This means that the ill effects from losing a combat or a puzzle take things away from them (like a weapon, spells, or artifacts) or immobilizes them for a set amount of time.

This is all off the top of my head; if you find anything useful, use it, if not, ignore it .

Good luck and have fun!

[jhkimrpg]

Well, this runs into resource problems. I'm probably going to have one or two grownups at most who will help out, so villains aren't going to outnumber anyone. Also, I'm doubtful that the kids fighting only grownups is going to engage them enough for long. They have a lot more energy than we do.

So the scenario is going to have to really rely on kids driving things rather than them being shuttled around on carefully overseen quests. So I lean towards allowing kids to fight each other but limiting the consequences, and encouraging them to eventually set aside their differences.

[aaronjv]

Depending on where you are (Southern California? Midwest? East coast? Outside the United States?), I can put you in touch with LARP groups would be more than happy to assist, and you could get a group.

In fact, the LARP Alliance just had a Board of Directors meeting tonight, and I found out that they have already run mini-larps ("line courses", they call them) for Ren Faires, haunted houses, etc., for kids of about that age, and the urchins loved it. LARP Alliance probably already has a scenario ready, I bet.

If you don't want to do that, my recommendation is to start each team at a separate place in the course, running into each other occasionally, but trying to reach the "middle" first.

If you have any open space (grassy field), I know of some mechanics that work great for ship-to-ship combat, so you can do a pirate encounter, or, the kids can still fight using a different combat system than foam swords (just to mix it up so it's not all boffer combat). Also, ship-to-ship combat means that if it goes bad for one side, they have to swim to shore, which takes time away from their quest, letting the other team get ahead of them. UCLA's Enigma ran two (three?) wonderful pirate games. They're simple to set up, and have a lot of action. It's not too much of a stretch to go from medieval to piracy, or to include some elements of it. Just a suggestion.

But again, talk to Adrianne and Rick at LARP Alliance. They're the experts. Mention me, I told them about this.

Finally, blame rizwank if I am overstepping my bounds here.

[jhkimrpg]

Well, I'm in Northern California. If there are scenarios written, that would be great. (It looks like LARP Alliance are based in Southern California, right?) I'll write and see if they have anything (though I recently found that it is quite short notice - we'll be running next Saturday, May 9).

[aaronjv]

There are some LARP Alliance folk in the Bay Area. Talk to the people in the Alliance (Rick/Adrianne), mention me, and hopefully we can get you set up. I know there are some LARP groups up there.