Alliance Sub Campaigns

C

ChrisB

Newbie
I'm an old NERO player from back East, where many sub campaigns from the regular chapter have been run and been very successful. I was wondering if the Seattle or Oregon Alliance chapters have tried this sort of thing and if it was successful. These games back East were under the NERO umbrella, but were not run in the same campaign world as the home chapter and often the rules set was altered in some way. Though they were smaller games, they had almost fanatical followings. I'll likely play both the Alliance and Seattle chapters, I was curious as to whether there was interest and feasibility of a sub campaign in the area.

What are the general numbers for attendance on both PC and NPC sides in Seattle/Oregon?
 
ChrisB said:
I'm an old NERO player from back East, where many sub campaigns from the regular chapter have been run and been very successful. I was wondering if the Seattle or Oregon Alliance chapters have tried this sort of thing and if it was successful. These games back East were under the NERO umbrella, but were not run in the same campaign world as the home chapter and often the rules set was altered in some way. Though they were smaller games, they had almost fanatical followings. I'll likely play both the Alliance and Seattle chapters, I was curious as to whether there was interest and feasibility of a sub campaign in the area.

What are the general numbers for attendance on both PC and NPC sides in Seattle/Oregon?
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There's been much talk and zero action on the idea of starting up alternate campaigns using the Alliance ruleset as a core. There've been more successful attempts at starting up larps that use their own systems, though.

The last Oregon event had around 45 pcs and 25 npcs, which was uncommonly big. I think the average is 20 pcs and 8 npcs? Seattle gets a little bigger turnout.
 
Wow...I guess I should take the 50+ views with 1 response as to the interest or perhaps confidence in something like this. Is there not a substantial LARP community in the Oregon/Seattle area? I'm new up here, so I really have no idea save for what I have seen checking out the area from Eugene to Portland. Honestly, I would have thought there would be a pretty good gaming community from what I've seen.
 
Greetings Chris,

There is a fairly significant larping community in the portland area, but there are also a significant number of larps. Not everyone knows eachother and not everyone is interested in the same stuff.

~Mark
 
meltedwing said:
Greetings Chris,

There is a fairly significant larping community in the portland area, but there are also a significant number of larps. Not everyone knows eachother and not everyone is interested in the same stuff.

~Mark
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Hey Mark,

What kind of LARPs are we talking about? I've heard of a couple Vampire groups and Amtgard, but not much in the way of boffer style, chronicle (continuing plot line) LARPs. Are there any other LARPs like Alliance? Boffer with an ongoing plotline?
 
Really, I'd try playing the actual game before you start looking for offshoots.
Both Oregon and Seattle have considered running offshoot games, but there's not really any practical interest. (That is, there are some people who say "That might be cool/I'll give it a shot if it comes up" but very little actual interest from individuals who are willing to put in the time/effort/money to make it a reality.) The normal games hold people's interests quite well now, and we're gaining a significant number of new people, to the extent that running offshoot games might hurt considerably more than help.

Keep in mind that one of the biggest draws to Alliance is the consistent rules and transferability between chapters. If you run an offshoot game, you lose both of those things, so it's really not something that people in our group tend to have a serious interest in.
 
obcidian_bandit said:
Really, I'd try playing the actual game before you start looking for offshoots.
Both Oregon and Seattle have considered running offshoot games, but there's not really any practical interest. (That is, there are some people who say "That might be cool/I'll give it a shot if it comes up" but very little actual interest from individuals who are willing to put in the time/effort/money to make it a reality.) The normal games hold people's interests quite well now, and we're gaining a significant number of new people, to the extent that running offshoot games might hurt considerably more than help.

Keep in mind that one of the biggest draws to Alliance is the consistent rules and transferability between chapters. If you run an offshoot game, you lose both of those things, so it's really not something that people in our group tend to have a serious interest in.
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I'd actually very likely play both. The thing is, I really dislike the system Alliance and NERO uses. It's a really noisy game with every single thing a character does is announced in some way by a call. I think the ability to really become immersed in the moment is tested when you have a group of people yelling numbers and effects and always having to do math that is way more complex than it needs to be in my opinion. That said, I've been brainstorming my level 1 PC to bring in to the next Seattle or Oregon game.

I agree that starting an offshoot game is a dicey endeavor without a very solid staff to support it and sufficient player interest. I was just testing the waters to see if it had been done here and if it might be viable in the future.
 
ChrisB said:
The thing is, I really dislike the system Alliance and NERO uses. It's a really noisy game with every single thing a character does is announced in some way by a call. I think the ability to really become immersed in the moment is tested when you have a group of people yelling numbers and effects and always having to do math that is way more complex than it needs to be in my opinion.
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It seems like you'd want less of an offshoot and more of a different game entirely. Those do exist, too.
 
elliotbay said:
ChrisB said:
The thing is, I really dislike the system Alliance and NERO uses. It's a really noisy game with every single thing a character does is announced in some way by a call. I think the ability to really become immersed in the moment is tested when you have a group of people yelling numbers and effects and always having to do math that is way more complex than it needs to be in my opinion.
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It seems like you'd want less of an offshoot and more of a different game entirely. Those do exist, too.
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This is not entirely untrue. At the end of the day though, I just want to LARP. I want fantasy, chronicle, boffer, and convenient all wrapped in a nice package of simple, yet diverse rules and game mechanics. I'm going to give Alliance a chance no matter what I find though. Even when I was playing games back East that had rules systems I loved, I still played NERO to be with my friends despite strongly disliking the rules.
 
Chris, are you interested only in high combat games, or are intense RP / low combat games an option as well? The reason I ask is because there are a few games around that might be interesting to you. Shadow Accord is one that I play.
 
meltedwing said:
Chris, are you interested only in high combat games, or are intense RP / low combat games an option as well? The reason I ask is because there are a few games around that might be interesting to you. Shadow Accord is one that I play.
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I absolutely love RP. I also love to hit things. I'd be fine with a high intensity RP game, as long as there was an option to get whackity if the situation arose. I don't know that I'd like a game where the ability to engage in combat was limited by game mechanics though. I'd still give it a try, but I might not be able to stick with it. For example, I really enjoyed the intense and cunning RP I found in OWBN Vampire games, but couldn't get past the inability to really mix it up with people. Rock, paper, scissors just didn't do it for me.

Shoot me a PM if you don't mind, regarding other games. I don't feel right talking about these other games on another game's forums.
 
Honestly I don't really want to play in any off shoot Alliance campaigns in either chapter. I enjoy the current main campaigns in both chapters. On top of it as Matt said it would take time/effort/money to run additional alternative campaigns. As it is, we really only have a few decent sites that we can use and it can be really hard to schedule additional events on top of the events we try to do for the main campaigns. I currently have no desire to play anymore LARPS then I am playing at the moment. I feel three is a good number for me, while it is really technically two, I consider the Oregon and Seattle chapters as their own games. As to the rules, well for me that is not the reason I play. Yeah, their are some annoying rules, but really it is not as bad as you may think. I play because of the people. They are what make the game in my mind. The rules are there as a frame work, and the people are everything else in my opinion.

Shadow Accord is also a great game and is my other current LARP. It is definitely different then Alliance and is not Fantasy in the traditional sense at all. It is also a low combat LARP, in my opinion. There is way less comabt/boffer fighting that happens in SA vs. Alliance. The two games are different but they are both fun and thoroughly enjoyable, as well as offer players different genres and types of play.

There are some other boffer/nerf LARPs in the area, such as Legacies, Dying Light, Bio Machine Games, Amtgard, and I believe a few others.
 
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