[UA] UA Larp mechanics

[gareth hanrahan]

>   I've been mulling the idea of running UA as a larp, partly
because my
>new UA tabletop game is running like gangbusters (yay!) and the
vampire
>LARP I help run is dying (yay?).  Thus, I've been pondering how to
make
>the rules work in a live setting.  Just had a few ideas in the
shower, so
>I'll throw them out for discussion.

Before I start, I'll say that I usually run once-off, three-hour
larps at cons, not campaigns...and that I tend to be as rules-light
as possible. Anyway...

>   First off, dice are out.  Dice require a level, stable surface,
and
>those little numbers can be hard to read in poor light.

Agreed. The only usuable one is a d6, and that's too much trouble
anyway.

>   Mind's Eye Theater-style rock-paper-scissors, while it works
passably
>in my experience, is probably too grainy, and leads to peculiar
>contortions (the whole MET system of overbids, and local house-rule
>variants) when one tries to make it less so.  I'd also like to get
some
>distance from MET just because I'm tired of running it.

How much of the player-on-player interaction to do you want to be
rules-based? I'd leave social stuff entirely to roleplaying. There
isn't as much magickal stuff in UA as Vampire (no disciplines)...if
you can keep a lid on magick, you can make most of it a gm-resolved
event...

>   Cthulhu Live's system is an option, and has the advantage of
being
>tuned to a more-or-less similar type of game.  But CL is mostly
>deterministic--as I understand it, non-combat skills are
deterministic;
>the only random factor in combat is a rock-paper-scissors choice of
>tactics.  This would cripple large parts of the UA setting.

I'm not sure about this...I agree, combat needs to be pretty random,
but most skills would be ok with a non-random system...imho. What I'd
do is keep the four stats, and get rid of skill scores. If you don't
have a particular skill, you're stuck, if you do, then you either
suceed (if it's not an especially critical situation) or roll your
stat (so a player only has four numbers on their character sheet to
keep track of - body, mind, speed, soul).


>   Get a deck of playing cards for each player, plus several spares
for
>each GM.  In each deck, shuffle out the queens, kings and jokers;
leave
>aces through jacks.
>
>   The basic mechanic:  Take the tabletop numbers, divide by 10 and
>round (Firearms-24 becomes 2, Firearms-25 becomes 3; Body-50 becomes
>Body-5, giving a player the starting skills of General Athletics-2,
>Struggle-2, and 5 points to allocate as they wish).
>
>   The resolution mechanic:  the player fans out her/his/its deck;
the
>opposing player (the GM for a skill check, an opposing player or NPC
in a
>fight) draws a card and reveals it; the face value of the card is
the
>value of the check.  The card is then put in a 'discard' deck (the
>player's coat pocket, a purse, whatever.)
>
>   Of course, if cards are taken out of the deck as soon as they're
>played, a clever player is going to count cards--if they've been
having a
>winning streak for awhile, Something Bad Will Happen Soon. This may
or may
>not be bad, depending on the kind of mood you want.  If you don't
want
>this kind of effect, then shuffle cards back into the deck as
they're
>drawn, rather than putting them aside in a discard deck.

!!!Keep the face cards in the deck! They're perfect for special
effects. Jacks are matches, queens critical failures, kings critical
sucesses. Yes, I know this screws with probability a lot, but there
tends to be less rules-requiring stuff in larp anyway, so it doesn't
matter as much....

The system's nice though, other than that...

>   Hunches:  Hunches are easy in concept--the player draws a card,
looks
>at it, sets it aside and uses it for the next draw.  In practice,
there
>has to be a way to make sure the player is honest about using the
hunch.
>This isn't a problem in a small game with one GM, but in a large
game
>using multiple GMs, it could be.  I can't think of a good mechanism
off
>the top of my head.
>
>   OK.  Now what about matches, OACOWAs, BOHICAs, cherries,
flip-flops,
>obsessions, and passions?

Do you actually want to convert *everything* over? I'd try and get
the feel of the rules without actually trying to use everything.
OACOWAs and BOHICAs...I don't think they're necessary. Obsessions,
passions, flip-flops...easy. Draw two cards, use the better one.

>   Matches:  Matches in tabletop occur roughly one time in 11 (9 out
of
>100, since 00 is a special case); correspondingly, we have four
jacks out
>of 44 cards, or one in 11.  If a jack is drawn, draw again; the next
card
>is a 'matched' success or failure, and activates cherries/sour
cherries
>just as in tabletop.  If the next card drawn is a jack, it's a
BOHICA or
>OACOWA-- draw one more time.  On the third draw, black suits mean a
>BOHICA, red mean an OACOWA.
>
>   (Here's an alternate mechanism:  When you prepare the decks,
shuffle
>out queens, kings, and _one_ joker.  The other joker by itself is a
null
>card;  if you draw one on a skill check, shuffle it back into the
deck.
>When you draw a jack, draw one more card; if the next card is a
jack, it's
>a BOHICA if the suits don't match, an OACOWA if they do.  If the
joker
>comes up, it's an automatic OACOWA.  If you do it this way, you
probably
>want to shuffle cards back into the deck as they're drawn, rather
than use
>a discard pile.
>   [The reason for doing it this way: Suppose you take a fresh deck
and
>draw a jack from it.  Then there are two black jacks in the deck,
and one
>red jack, making a BOHICA twice as likely as an OACOWA.  Putting the
joker
>in the deck and letting it 'match' the red jack evens the odds up.]
>   [Yes, I am a professional mathematician.  I make no claims as to
the
>validity of my arithmetic, however.])
>

>   Geez.  I didn't expect to write a whole article here.  Um.  Well.
>Anyway.  Comments?


There's a mechanic floating in the back of my mind, but I'm not sure
how to use it. Basically, you associate a suit with each stat, ie
Soul=Hearts, Mind=Diamonds, Speed=Spades, Body=Clubs...aha. If you
draw a match with the appropriate suit, that's an OACOWA or BOHICA?

Gar
"You thought that you were the bomb
Yes well so did I" - Tori Amos, Spark



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