Staempunk LARP? Zombie LARP?

[Warlok]

I liked the idea for melee weapons where you could swing for base damage, but no profs/slays/etc., as well.

While your system for guns seems like it would work fairly well, it's also extremely complicated...Players now have to remember different rules for first, second, and third shot plus have a 10-minute counter running for each shot and do math with halves and rounding. I would recommend a 1-minute wait if you decide to stick with this plan and make it jam after the second shot (need some way to mark this so it can't be handed off and then it's good to go again). Otherwise, I would take a look around at some other Steampunk or other modern LARP rules to see if you can get any ideas for how to deal with it.

-Luke

 

[Dom]

I don't believe there should be any restrictions on gun use and there should be no skill requirement for the use of guns for one major reason. If we stick with the storyline that these are ordinary people placed in an extraordinary situation (A 747 crash landing on a zombie infested island) for starters, NOBODY is going to be carrying a gun on the plane except maybe an Air Marshall (who dies in the crash). THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT PREPARED FOR THIS, THEY ARE NOT ZOMBIE HUNTERS. So maybe there will be one gun at the crash site with very limited ammunition. Now, this island that you crashed on is a government testing facility that was overrun by it's test subjects (the zombies) so there are a few guns scattered throughout the island. AGAIN with very limited ammunition. If you pick up a gun with say 12 rounds you are not going to use them all at once. If you do, you and your party have to deal with the consequences of having no ranged weaponry for when you really need it.

Gun use should be powerful, but ammunition is very limited.

I think a lot of people are over complicating the rule set for a game that may happen once every now and again and realistically should not have any return characters. I understand the whole concept behind Alliance is to "be all that you can't be" and you don't want to play a character that you are every day. But understand that you are not at all an ordinary character. You are a normal person, but you are a normal person being chased by zombies, fighting for your life against devastating odds. A zombie game would be a survival game, not your everyday Alliance game where everybody is a superhero with powers well beyond that of your enemies. The primary strategy should not be "let's kill them all". It should be "run away, find shelter, figure out how to get off of this island"

 

[Deadlands of Old]

Yes, if we do this resources should be fairly limited, but we kind of have to consider the number of people who own, not one, but several, guns in the rural US.

I'm not saying the pcs should open up a case of .50 cals in some dude's barn, but I didn't know many families that didn't have at least a shotgun in the cow town I grew up in, for instance. So there needs to certainly be some kind of system. Also, we would like to invent a modern system for other Alt games, just in case someone wishes to run different Alliance games down the line.

These are all things to consider, and everyone's feedback is of course welcome.

 

[jpariury]

Mike - what are your feelings on Airsoft use at the Faireplay site? (Assume people are using biodegradable beads)

 

[markusdark]

Mike - what are your feelings on Airsoft use at the Faireplay site? (Assume people are using biodegradable beads)

Oh, now yer tempting me, you bastage!

A few notes on this from a Zombie Airsoft game I played in:

Nothing over 200 FPS
Springers only (which means one shot deals)
No shots within melee range
Everyone has to wear protective eyewear all the time (the IG answer for this was that some radical attempts to remove the zombies left the atmosphere a bit stripped and protective eyewear was needed 24/7. Also, the idea that infected blood could get into the eyes often had them worn as well).

 

[Robb G]

mmm.. i don't think I'd want to play a game like that.

 

[Dom]

Mike - what are your feelings on Airsoft use at the Faireplay site? (Assume people are using biodegradable beads)

Oh, now yer tempting me, you bastage!

A few notes on this from a Zombie Airsoft game I played in:

Nothing over 200 FPS
Springers only (which means one shot deals)
No shots within melee range
Everyone has to wear protective eyewear all the time (the IG answer for this was that some radical attempts to remove the zombies left the atmosphere a bit stripped and protective eyewear was needed 24/7. Also, the idea that infected blood could get into the eyes often had them worn as well).

Steampunk-Zombie LARP. Combine the 2 original ideas. Everybody will have goggles

 

[Deadlands of Old]

Mike - what are your feelings on Airsoft use at the Faireplay site? (Assume people are using biodegradable beads)

We're not leaning towards air soft. I don't believe we want the emphasis of this game is to be on gun play.

 

[jpariury]

Springers only (which means one shot deals)

I'm curious if 3-pellet shotties like UTG M3s were allowed.

We're not leaning towards air soft. I don't believe we want the emphasis of this game is to be on gun play.

These two statements don't seem to necessarily have to do with one another? I imagine any game that includes guns in any meaningful way would ultimately have the same emphasis on gun play regardless of the tech used?

Somewhat related - what are your feelings on padded archery (golf tube or foam-tipped prefab)?

 

[Dom]

arrows against zombies is meh

 

[jpariury]

Depends on your ruleset, right?

 

[Dom]

well, everything comes down to ruleset. That's just my personal opinion on the arrows

 

[Rhys]

Everyone has to wear protective eyewear all the time (the IG answer for this was that some radical attempts to remove the zombies left the atmosphere a bit stripped and protective eyewear was needed 24/7. Also, the idea that infected blood could get into the eyes often had them worn as well).

As someone who plays paintball, goggles can be a real pain in the neck in certain cases... like bad weather. Anytime the humidity is high (including if the temp is right and you're sweating too much), you've got the potential for fogging up. While it's not bad if you've got a fan system, or if your matches last at best 30 minutes, but a full day wearing full goggles with straps would be a pain. There's some nice high-impact shooting glasses available (including amber and clear lenses), but if we're swinging boffers too, those have a good chance of getting knocked off (says the guy who wears glasses during foam combat....)

And speaking of glasses - for the folks with poor vision who don't have/can't wear contacts, finding protective eyewear that'll fit over the glasses (or comes in prescription strength) can be tough (and/or expensive).

 

[Dom]

Everyone has to wear protective eyewear all the time (the IG answer for this was that some radical attempts to remove the zombies left the atmosphere a bit stripped and protective eyewear was needed 24/7. Also, the idea that infected blood could get into the eyes often had them worn as well).

As someone who plays paintball, goggles can be a real pain in the neck in certain cases... like bad weather. Anytime the humidity is high (including if the temp is right and you're sweating too much), you've got the potential for fogging up. While it's not bad if you've got a fan system, or if your matches last at best 30 minutes, but a full day wearing full goggles with straps would be a pain. There's some nice high-impact shooting glasses available (including amber and clear lenses), but if we're swinging boffers too, those have a good chance of getting knocked off (says the guy who wears glasses during foam combat....)

And speaking of glasses - for the folks with poor vision who don't have/can't wear contacts, finding protective eyewear that'll fit over the glasses (or comes in prescription strength) can be tough (and/or expensive).

coming from somebody else who plays paintball, avidly, A decent pair of dual lens goggles will not fog and do not require a fan. If your goggles are uncomfortable, It's probably because you are using a lower quality plastic mask instead of rubber. If you are buying any goggles of lower quality for airsoft play you might as well just save yourself some money and get some science class safety goggles. I can see the downside to a paintball mask for boffer combat as it significantly reduces your up/down peripherals. If we are going to keep this as an Alt-Alliance game I would stay away from airsoft and focus more on boffer combat. Mostly because safety masks can get dangerous on unlit paths at night.

 

[jpariury]

As someone who plays paintball, goggles can be a real pain in the neck in certain cases... like bad weather. Anytime the humidity is high (including if the temp is right and you're sweating too much), you've got the potential for fogging up.

That's where using Airsoft (or even speedballs instead of paint) would come in handy - just use these:

Or, I have about a half-dozen of these for my group's outings:

 

[Avaran]

Everyone has to wear protective eyewear all the time (the IG answer for this was that some radical attempts to remove the zombies left the atmosphere a bit stripped and protective eyewear was needed 24/7. Also, the idea that infected blood could get into the eyes often had them worn as well).

As someone who plays paintball, goggles can be a real pain in the neck in certain cases... like bad weather. Anytime the humidity is high (including if the temp is right and you're sweating too much), you've got the potential for fogging up. While it's not bad if you've got a fan system, or if your matches last at best 30 minutes, but a full day wearing full goggles with straps would be a pain. There's some nice high-impact shooting glasses available (including amber and clear lenses), but if we're swinging boffers too, those have a good chance of getting knocked off (says the guy who wears glasses during foam combat....)

And speaking of glasses - for the folks with poor vision who don't have/can't wear contacts, finding protective eyewear that'll fit over the glasses (or comes in prescription strength) can be tough (and/or expensive).

Do the SCUBA diver spit-and-rinse. Works amazingly well.

Also, is 'steam' spelled incorrectly in the topic title on purpose, or is that an unintended typo? I ask because of the Beatles.

 

[Dom]

I think it's just a typo

 

[Deadlands of Old]

"Staempunk" is a new form of "Steampunk."

"Steampunk" is like so five minute ago.

It doesn't really matter, since we're focusing more on a Zmobie game.

 

[Dom]

Zmobie is kind of like that hair buzzer you put on your vacuum

 

[jpariury]

I thought it was a Roomba for your brains.