Introduction to 2018 LCO Rules

Alliance SoMI

Alliance SoMI

Expert
The LCO Rules are now Posted. We look forward to seeing their effect on the balance of our game.
We welcome your constructive feedback. Please feel free to email us at Owners@AllianceSouthMichigan.com or to post your thoughts here.​

As a ownership team we have sought to create a game where our Players have the freedom to play their Characters as they see fit and know that those Characters have an impact on the world. We do not want to tell you a story, we want you to help shape the world of the game. Our Players make choices which have meaningful consequences and are not simply a means to reach the same encounter regardless of choice. We strive to create unique experiences for all of the Players while also enjoying the game ourselves. We did not buy a LARP chapter for the opportunity to make a ton of money, but we recognize that we are running a business that must remain profitable to continue and that profit relies on giving our Players a good experience.

Over the course of many years as volunteers and game runners, and decades of collective play, we have observed things about the Alliance LARP and our Chapter’s game that have become more concerning as we’ve taken on the responsibility of owning the Chapter. As the game grows, there are aspects that have the potential to become unsustainable. The amount of Body Points, Defenses, and Abilities NPCs need in order to present a challenge to our Players rises as the amount of Damage, Skills, Powers, and other Effects available to the Players grow. As Players experience different challenges they explore the bounds of the Rules to ensure they are better prepared for those challenges in the future. As the number of Players who enjoy Alliance SoMI expands it becomes more difficult to give them each the personal experience we want them to have. Growth is part of any endeavor and we are not adverse to the challenges that come with growth, but we have seen things in the past year that we believe need addressing before they disrupt the fun of the Game.

The power creep in the Alliance LARP, as a result of Character growth, Magic Item prevalence, Plot Effects, and other sources creates an issue for our Plot team and NPC pool. We find our Monsters growing more and more powerful in response to a number of specific experiences, and that power creep then has a negative impact on the experiences of Players. Part of this issue stems from our limited pool of NPCs during most events. The ratio of PCs to NPCs creates a situation where a handful of people must represent a horde of challenging monsters and if any one of those monsters cannot have a meaningful impact against a sea of attacking Players the NPC spends more time walking to the tree line OOG and respawning than interacting with and entertaining the Players. But even with a one to one ratio we could not completely address this issue (though it would help). There would still be situations where the disparity in Player levels, access to Magic Items, and other Abilities result in game disrupting imbalance.

In the coming days we will be announce a number of Playtests that we see as possible solutions to the problems we observe with the game. We will do our best to articulate the issue we are attempting to resolve with these Playtests and are open to our Player’s opinions regarding the changes, especially after experiencing the impact at events. That said, we have spent a lot of time putting together these Playtests as solutions to problems and the Playtests are likely to have a meaningful effect on your experiences. We are also addressing the NPC side of the power creep. In conjunction with these Playtests we are also making significant changes to NPC Monsters that have increased in power over the years. One of our guiding principles in this process is a balanced reduction in the power scale.

We look forward to another excellent season. In addition to our own plot we are excited to have multiple guest events, with more details also coming in the near future. We encourage anyone involved in the game to contact us directly or via the message boards if they have questions, concerns, or simply want to get more involved in the operation of the game. Without all of you, we would just be four guys hanging out in the woods with a lot of makeup, so thank you again for allowing us to spread our enjoyment of LARPing and storytelling.
 
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Love/Love 9/Plant False Emotion/Enslavement
Issue: These effect create the opportunity for Players to intentionally or accidentally place another Player in a position where they feel physically or emotionally uncomfortable or threatened. We seek to create a welcoming game environment where all of our Players feel they can live out their adventures and the hazards created by these effects overwhelm any Roleplay or other reason to allow them to remain part of our game.
LCO Rule: Love and Love 9 Alchemy and any effect that duplicates those effects do not exist in our game. Players may not bring any items that create these effects into game.
Plant False Emotion/Enslavement: These effects cannot be used to mimic love effects or force another Player, including NPCs, into situations involving romance, love, or physical intimacy.
NPC Balance: NPCs will abide by the same rules as PCs with respect to these Effects​
 
Chaos/Earth/Elemental Aura Ritual:
Issue: NPC Monster body has increased exponentially in response to the double damage effect created by these Rituals. The Rituals allows a small number of Players to overwhelm the NPCs making up an encounter, resulting in a negligible experience for the majority of Players. Additionally NPC Monsters receive additional Physical Defenses, which decrease the value of Player Blade skills in favor of the ability to do more Damage.
LCO Rule: A Player cannot suppress or switch the Carrier Attack of any Weapon enchanted with the Chaos/Earth/Elemental Aura Ritual (i.e. a sword with a Flame Aura will always swing the Flame Carrier Attack). All other Carrier Attacks on the weapon are superseded by the Aura Ritual (i.e. a silver sword with a Damage Aura and a Flame Aura will always swing the Flame Carrier Attack, it cannot swing Silver or Magic)
Players with weapons enchanted with multiple Aura Rituals must select one Aura Ritual at the beginning of the Event to serve as the Carrier Attack for the Event. The Effect will not change if a different Player uses the weapon during an Event.
If a Player with an Aura Enchanted Weapon is affected by a Chaos/Earth/Elemental/Magic Blade Spell, their weapon will swing a different Carrier Attack for the duration of the Spell and then return to its default flavor.
NPC Balance: The amount of Body possessed by NPC Monsters will decrease and NPC Monsters that are particularly susceptible to to Chaos/Earth/Elemental Damage will see changes to Defenses.​

Channel Chaos/Earth/Foundation Element:
Issue: See Issue for Chaos/Earth/Elemental Aura Ritual
LCO Rule: A Player who chooses the Channel Chaos/Earth/Foundation Element High Magic Effect gains the ability, starting at any time during a Logistics Period, to swing the selected Carrier Attack through any weapon in which the Player has proficiency for as long as the Player chooses, superseding any other Carrier Attack on that weapon.
The effect can be cancelled at any time, at which point the Carrier Attack of the Weapon used by the Player returns to its default Carrier Attack.
The Player may use this effect one time per Logistics period for each purchase of the relevant High Magic Effect.
NPC Balance: See NPC Balance for Chaos/Earth/Elemental Aura Ritual​
 
Protection Auras / Thresholds
Issue: The above effects create situations where either a minority of Players become effectively immune to an encounter or the damage of all the NPC Monsters in the encounter is increased impacting all of the Players on the encounter. The increased damage of the NPC Monsters then creates a greater need for Healing.
LCO Rule: Protection Aura and Threshold effects (with the exception of the Fortress Spell) do not provide immunity from damage up to their level of protection. Instead, items with these effects will grant 1 Physical Cloak per level of protection for each Logistics period of an event. This cloak will negate any weapon strike.
The Fortress Spell is not affected by this LCO Rule
NPC Balance: Damage of certain NPCs will be reduced. Additionally Plot will continue to extend its policy of using Protection Aura/Threshold effects only in specific and very limited circumstances.​
 
Other LCO Effects:

Special Incantation and Calling Defenses:
Some NPCS may have special extended Incants prior to using spells and abilities to add flavor to the game. For example, an Ice Elemental may call upon Ice to encase someone in a Prison.
During the incantation if a effect group is mentioned, a player may use that defense in addition to the normal effects group to defend against the ability.
Example: The Evil Snowman is fighting Durk. The Evil Snowman says, "I call upon Ice and Stone to encase your body, Arcane Prison" and hits Durk.
Durk has no defenses against Eldritch Force but does have Cloaks for Ice and Stone. Durk may use either an Cloak Ice or Cloak Stone to defend against the Evil Snowman’s Prison.​

“Physical” Qualifier and Carrier Attack:
This Qualifier and Carrier Attack is no longer a LCO Effect

“Return” Defense
Return is no longer a LCO Defense.​
 
Addressing Concerns Regarding Chaos/Earth/Elemental Aura

In the weeks following our announcement regarding our 2018 LCO Rules a number of our Players brought to our attention that the changes to Aura rituals had an outsized effect on Players who had recently made items using those rituals. They fairly pointed out that had they known about the change it would have significantly impacted their choices.

We understand these concerns. Those Players worked hard, used resources in an allowed manner, and suddenly those choices have less value. To address these concerns we are offering the following options to our Players:
  1. A LCO item made in the last year that contains at least one Chaos/Earth/Elemental Aura Ritual may be remade. Your current item must be turned over to Logistics before you receive your replacement item. In the event that we learn that the LCO Rule is ineffective we will exchange the replacement items for the original items in order to return those impacted to the same place they were before the LCO rule.
  2. A LCO item with at least one Chaos/Earth/Elemental Aura Ritual may have that ritual removed from the item.Your current item must be turned over to Logistics before you receive your replacement item. In the event that we learn that the LCO Rule is ineffective we will exchange the replacement items for the original items in order to return those impacted to the same place they were before the LCO rule.
If you have items impacted by the Aura LCO rule, please email Matt at Matt@alliancesouthmichigan.com to begin taking advantage of these options.
 
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