Please help me understand this!!!

yes, some weapons do more damage than others, and allow faster progression in damage. For example, all two handed weapons deal half again as much damage as one handed weapons in general. the exception is staffs which have the improved progression in damage, but start lower.

one handed weapons start at 2 damage, and every increase in damage (which is a skill that can be bought) gives 1 more damage. two handed weapons start at 3 and every 2nd purchase of the skill to increase damage adds an extra. so for just a numerical model is

one handed dmg = 2 + # purchases of skill
two handed dmg = 3 + (1.5 x # purchases in the skill) rounded down
Staff dmg = 2 + (1.5 x # purchases of the skill) rounded down

i'm not too good with words, but models work best for me.

magic can increase damage as well or change the type of damage dealt.

there are several different types of damage and some of them have special rules governing them, but the main premise of the combat is damage is called when a person swings his representation of a weapon, and if it hits a legal target (not head or groin) and the person who gets hit determines if they have blocked it with their own weapon/shield representation and then subtracts the damage from their armor/health points. there are several principles that govern combat to make sure it stays safe, but that is the basic of the most basic of combat.

the tag system is to remind people of what abilities they have. there really is nothing to prevent someone from calling out something they don't have unless another person knows they don't have it because we rely on the honor system. I will determine what hits me (unless it is a spell being cast), and i subtract that from my armor and hit points until I get to 0 health (lower than 0 health remains -1) and then i fall over, or kneel, or put my weapon on my head to represent that i have fallen over and i start dying if i am below 0 health, and unconscious at 0.

that's the quick and dirty of combat. I like the Tag system because it allows me to keep track of what i can still do, but i am a fan of rules, and dice never really broke the flow of RP for me
 
Being knighted or being turned into nobles is something the plot and people in charge of the chapter determine. this is no set path to nobility, but the nobles in the set period had many powers not afforded to normal people in the political realm so these titles are generally not bestowed lightly
 
1st i am sorry if i am dumbing down the combat to much in my explanation I'm just trying to make it easy to understand.

how fights go down and how your combat works
think of a feaze tag game, dodge ball and simple math... all at the same time!
person 1 hits person 2 calling out there damage of "2 normal" person 2 did not block so the damage is taken, person 2 deducts 2 from there health in this case lets say they had 10 health, they know know they have 8 health left... all of the math is done in your head wile running a round trying not to get hit or hit others...

person 2 is a spell caster and throws a spell by saying the spell call"i call forth a ice bolt" ice bolt does 15 damage, if when person 2 throws there small bird seed filled packet successfully hits there target person 1 person one takes the 5 points of damage, unless they have a spell already cast on them called a spell shield, if they do they have 3 secants to call out "spell shield" or they take the damage anyhow.

weapons and damage
the rules on what size shape and amount of padding must be on each type of weapon makes it vary identifiable what is what, however damage can be added on top of the weapons base damage from skills and magic and its carrier or the type of damage can be changed from normal to many diffract things each with the possibility of doing more then just the normal type.

also weapons are some what color coded, to help, normal weapons are black, slivered weapons are silver, not every carrier has a color to go with it but some do... magic weapons don't have to be white anymore but for a long time they had to be.

examples of carriers:(there's tun more but i am just covering some for examples sake)
normal
(does nothing extra other then the # called worth in damage, some things how ever can not be hurt by normal damage and take no damage no mater the # it is swung for.)
ice, lighting, fire, stone...
(this is an element some monsters take more damage from some elements and/or less damage from others... the NPC playing the monster will add or subtract from the # called based off weather the element called affects them differently or not.)

massive
(this damage can not be blocked, if it hits your weapon or shield you still take the damage, you can subtract the # from your armor points before your health points but you can not block this type of damage.)

body
(this type of damage can be blocked but if you are hit with it, it bypasses your armor and gos directly to your health pool)

drain
(you can not use in game skills and can not run in till 10 mins pass, or some one feeds u potions to counter act the affect.)

earth
(this carriers can not cut a living person , you can be hit by earth all day and nothing happens to you, unless your undead and now your taking more damage then if you where being hit with the same # of normal.)
i cant re call if its 1.5x or 2x but undead and earth is like using holly on undead in most MMOs it hurts them and sends them running...

How someone gets titles
they work realty hard step up beyond the call of what there skills and exsperanc would mandate of them, often risking much with little return and prove they are worthy! if a player works a long time and realty hard at making the game better and more realistic and takes risks there should and is a reword for this, you just have to earn it.


Different games are Different!!!!!! logic, logistics and rules
there are many efferent LARP groups each with different rules and ways they do things,
some of the big ones are: Alliance, Amp Guard, SCA, NERO ....
and a tun more i don't know bout being on the west cost...
lapping is done a round the world with games in candida, the USA, England, Franc, Mexico, Spain, Sweeten, Italy, down under, and more i don't even know a bout.

there are also LArps that hapen 1 time a year that can be huge with 3k or more people at then such as Dagorhir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGv215TTfkk but this is not alliance!

you have games where the damage is based off where is hit, using locations, like in amp guard
you also have games where damage is called on every swing like the game we play in alliance

you have games where death just means you have to walk back to a set point befor you can come back in to game alive
you have a games where death is just till that battles over
you have games where your # deaths are kept track of, and can be game ending, where you can die and have to make a new concept and never get to play what you where again! like what we play in alliance

in alliance your 1st 2 deaths are free no risk you will come back, after that you have a chance of not razing at all. this chance starts odd on your 3ed death at a 10% chance, forth death 20% 5th death 30% so on till you pull a black bead rather then white bead out of the bag .... the bags always got 10 beads in it.... each bead there for being a 10% chance, you can see how the math works from there.

Coin

we have token like $ in this game, gold, sliver and copper coins minted by the owners for the game and handed out under strict guidelines at each game as loot on monsters in other ways.
we use a system of 10.
10 copper = 1 silver
10 silver = one gold
so
100 copper = one gold... simple math.

players can collect and save the coin taking it home after/between games, and saving it up or spending it at there own pace at/in game for anything from magic items scrolls potions drinks food weapons armor lodging magic, and more...

below is a link to vary good example of the way combat is done in alliance, hand picked from hours of coming over you tube. i hope tit helps if you listen carefully you can hear weapon calls and defensive and spells.... and an over use of lighting....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sba9HoHc35Q
 
We seriously need a no-cost rules primer.
 
a video or 5 a bout combat rules and or simple game mechanics using clicks from real fights and staged practices would be nice, as well as a moister educational video would be nice lol but that's just me wishing i think...LOL
 
you get gobbys for it and spend it on a blanket.... lets you come in at lvl 2 rather then 1 if u right a back store up before your 1st event
 
kittenpunk2 said:
you get gobbys for it and spend it on a blanket.... lets you come in at lvl 2 rather then 1 if u right a back store up before your 1st event
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Didn't know that submissions to PLOT could be gobbied. Wish they did that in OUR chapter. :mrgreen:
 
Maybe they should. It's a very small price to pay for lots of good material to work with.
 
Ondreij said:
kittenpunk2 said:
you get gobbys for it and spend it on a blanket.... lets you come in at lvl 2 rather then 1 if u right a back store up before your 1st event
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Didn't know that submissions to PLOT could be gobbied. Wish they did that in OUR chapter. :mrgreen:
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To be clear, once a background is approved, plot gives logistics the green. The player then receives goblin stamps that are immediately spent on something as far back as is allowed per the rules. The logic being that most new players don't show up to their first couple of games with large donations, meaning the things most likely to fall off the calendar *will* before they make a donation to the chapter. And if they aren't a new player and there's nothing for them to buy back because they've been attending it all, they just get goblin stamps.

It is, indeed, a small thing that helps plot write a far more immersive game and helps the player create a far more real personna. It's really win-win.
 
Ok. I got a hold of a copy of the rule book, so helpfully i wont have to ask anything else about how actual game play works. I am however still very interested in what i said earlier about the other larping group that doesnt use the tags and spell stuff. Does anyone else want to comment on if they think that this detracts from the narrative element? like does the fact that you have to yell stuff out while your fighting, or carry character sheets around take you out of character or out of the story at all?

ps- Thanks for the link it was helpful
 
There has to be a logistical / out-of-game part to every LARP/wargame or it turns into a game of people playing imaginary trump cards against each other.
Imo, it doesn't detract and sometimes enhances because a tag can represent something we can't feasibly/safely represent such as animals, personally owned buildings, glass bottles, etc.

Character sheets are usually tucked away on your person. You should know your own character enough to realize what you have and it takes little time to throw away tags for skills you've expended. Your character sheet also acts as a "tag" for your body along with your costuming if you permanently die.
 
chelsea said:
About the Story
1 Who gets to decide on the plot each time? I know you said you are on a story committee, does that mean that everyone who is not on that committee has no idea what the story is going to be until they get there?
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There's generally a group of folks (A "plot committee") who have the overview of the weekend as to what's "going to happen". Now, the fact that you don't have total control over the players and how they'll react means what you write is definitely not always what you get. Parts of that will often end up going as writeups for non-player (plot-controlled) characters, so they have an idea about how to play their characters. Plot will often have teasers on what's planned for the event, and of course many events are tied to prior ones in some form. It's a campaign of multiple events over months and years, with new stuff being added each time to the mix, even as old portions of the plot may pass away for various reasons (character deaths, completions of plotlines, etc.)

2 How much of the story is decided before hand and how much of it just comes from the players themselves? When my class talked about dungeons and dragons we discussed how the dungeon master would lay down the backbone of the plot, but then due to the players’ actions the final result may be a completely different story from what the DM originally planned. Does this ever happen in LARPing?
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ALL THE TIME. I've had people compare running an event to riding a tiger- you don't so much steer it as you throw tasty pieces of meat in front and hope it lunges after the right ones. Players are not guaranteed to do things the way you predict, and a smart Plot takes into account multiple possibilities. Even then, sometimes they'll throw you a loop. Maybe they figure out a shortcut and jump ahead of what you expected. Perhaps they fail utterly. Possibly they ignore the tasty tidbits and go a completely different direction and your plot people have to improvise to keep up with it. Player characters have their own motivations, and those collide with plotlines in near-infinite and occasionally appalling or delightful ways.

3 Do the stories that you play out develop over time? Does the story normally pick up where it was left off or is there a brand new story every time you guys get together?
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Yep, some of them carry over years or even decades, as long as the characters involved are around- or sometimes, end up revived when someone sees something neat in an older event and uses it for a foundation for new ones- or in a few cases, outside considerations can split things apart.

Take Ashbury, the campaign run by the owner of Alliance. The first newsletters here on the site actually cover the point where the original story- and many of it's players - split off and became an independent game. The previous nobles became a traitorous cabal, arrested and worse for their crimes and were mostly written out (as the game and the people playing them weren't there anymore). The same characters (and their players) took on entirely different paths in the other game- Alaric still died, but had a son that became a prince over a decade later when the Duchy became a full-fledged Kingdom and he came of age. Likewise, the "Ashbury" of the Alliance has a split off

About the Characters
4 I want to know how people chose their characters, like are there a set number of races or clans or something like that, that you have to choose from, or do you just get to be whatever you want as long as it seems to fit in?
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There's a guide to each game generally- races and cultures, so you do have limitations in that regard. That's in part to keep a game from degenerating into TOO much chaos, but those limits are rather broad. A barbarian club-wielding savage next to a swashbuckler? Been there, seen that. Likewise, the culture of races can vary- an elf from one land may behave considerably different from someone elsewhere. A lot like the real world in that regard.

5 Do people normally make back stories for their character? Do their characters have goals and fears and emotions like that?
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Frequently, but not 100% of the time. My first LARP character was literally supposed to be a throwaway, as the original idea got derailed at the event- and I ended up writing the "back story" after getting through the first few events. Long enough, and events ARE your backstory. Goals, fears, emotions? Darn skippy.

6 When you are playing your particular character do you really feel the emotions that they are going through or is it more like being an actor. For example if someone does something to make your character mad do you yourself actually get mad as well?
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There's definitely bleedthrough, but there's also a measure of separation. "You are not your character, your character is not you."

But yes, there's emotion. I've been terrified, angry, joyful and in tears at events as my character. Some people, more than others.

7 How attached do people get to the character they are playing? Do people often switch characters or is it more likely that a person will make their character and then just be that same one every time?
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They can get quite attached to them, but many people do have "alts"- characters they start as backups, or to play something different once in a while.

8 Have you ever played Online role playing games or table top role playing games? If so do you think the narrative potential is similar or very different?
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Certainly. I tend to find I get more out of LARPs, though. MMO's are static, unchanging worlds. Tabletop games have more narrative potential, but the interaction is generally in a much smaller group, and it's tougher for one GM to be a "cast of thousands" than it is for someone at a LARP who has access to a group of NPC's to work with on a regular basis.
 
chelsea said:
First of all I want to thank you for your continued responses.

+ Also, as far as the weapons and tags go: another guy I talked to from another group told me that they don’t do anything like that. If someone in group wants to use magic they just yell the spell. He told me that they don’t carry around sheets either. He said that they believe the sheets detract from the narratives kind of like how dice rolling does in table top games. For them if you can do it in real life your character can do it. Do you guys think that this would allow you to focus more on the story instead of the logistics, or do you think that this type of system would just be more chaotic?
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LARPs go in different directions, if you look back at their origins.

Way back, the original rules were a way to play "D&D in the woods", so it tends to be a bit more rules-heavy than some games. Then again, it also has a much wider reach as far as characters go- from basically ordinary people to player-characters that could tussle with Death and not come out on the short end of the stick. I generally find the broader the "power level", the more rules tend to accumulate to do it.

Also, it's a matter of balance. Rules are what keep a game from degenerating into "Bang! You're dead!", "No, you missed!" "I'm Superman, they bounced off PEW PEW PEW!", etc.

Simpler rules system are good too, though. Games like Alliance are a huge amount of stories wrapped into one big plot. Now imagine a game that instead of dozens or a few 100 people involve thousands. Google "Mythodea" or "Lorien Trust" sometime- they use a simpler system, but also try to do less within them as far as "what can my character do?"/

Rules-heavy or rules-light, there's only one rule IMHO that matters. Are your players having fun? Are they able to do what you need to as part of the game? It's all good.
 
To be honest I have been playing for a year and have NEVER used my character sheet at a game. I have never been asked to prove anything nor did I require information from it. I play a spell caster/fighter so I have a lot of abilities that use tags. We fight, I call the things I am using, use the appropriate delivery method and when the fight is over tear my tags and hand them to plot (a 30 second process.) Sheets and tags just keep people honest. Plus finding a real pirate ship is kinda hard (I have tags for owning that too).
 
Hm. Well i didn't realize that tags worked for stuff like pirate ships. I thought it was more of a "just for spells" type of thing. But i can see how stuff like pirate ships would make it a lot more interesting. Right now I am trying to find an event nearby. Carnegie Mellon University has a website that says that they have a Larp club, which made me really excited because I live like ten minutes from there, but when I email them they don't answer me. Anyway my outline for my paper is due on the 15th, and you guys have really helped me out. I have approx. 17 pages of color coded responses from you guys. I'm sure my teacher will love that. I really value the answers that you all have provided me with. Please feel free to continue responding if you want to and i will check regularly just to see. Also I will make sure to let you all know if any other questions pop up as I write my outline and my paper. Thanks!!!
 
There are youtube videos out there that people created from videos taken at some Alliance events. There is one called "The Blood Isles" that was done after one of our events that features a large combat with a dragon. This and others like it are a good example of how combat works.
 
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