HERO 5th LARP?

[Thia Halmades]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

The simplest solution?

 

As I said, you build weapons as DC SER (so all of your killing attacks are rounded at 3 DCs - each 3 DCs is 1 point. Trust me on this). Second, you have two immediate options with armor.

 

1. Use armor rules as written (RAW). I have a 1 DC weapon! Oh yeah? I have 1 Armor! Nyah nyah! This will quickly break down, but there are special effects that should grant that level of 'damage reduction.' It's also covered simply by "always take 1." Even if you have Armor 5, and your opponent is swinging 2 DCs, you always take 1. Guarantees someone is always getting whittled down.

 

2. Use armor as additional BODY, and then restrict total BODY levels. Your big issue comes in the creation and execution of various magic spells. As a f'rinstance.

 

Wizard A gets up in the morning and buffs himself to high heaven. Armor, Flash Def, you name it, he has it. no one sees him do it. You hit him for a 10 point Fireball that tags everyone within 10 steps of him (in other words, assume everyone nearby is hit - if they argue, they take 10 'regular steps' towards the victim, if they get within arms reach, blam). He then declares "I have Energy Def up." You can't stop this.

 

Solution: Require all Def spells to be cast in the presence of one opponent or multiple allies. He can cast it before anyone gets to him, but they have to see him do it.

 

2. You can't use END for this, unless you're using a chip system (which someone mentioned) but then you run into the problem of people smuggling chips and having far more power than they should. This is why a Marshal needs to be on hand for any major confrontation.

 

2a. The OTHER interesting way this is handled is that people must give their chips over to the NPCs they fought. This is the 'accounting' phase. "Okay.. you put me down with... a Drain STR for 1 and a Lightning Touch for 3 - I also saw you pop Armor 4 for that fight. Gimme 8 chips, I'll turn them over to the Marshal."

 

This system was used when I played Mechwarrior 3 online - the Winner went and recorded a fight, but the loser had to confirm it. People who didn't hold their end of the contract got sanctioned by the Marshal. Of course, we didn't lose much, either.

 

Point being, if people are holding each other accountable, it removes some of the cheatery. You won't always have a Marshal on hand - but the accounting system is inherent. If you've got one person (or group) who's sole purpose it is to make sure everything is accounted for, you can ask them later - "Hey, did Astarte give you my chips after I whupped her *** earlier?" If he says no, you track her down and get the chips turned over.

 

See what I mean? It's all very cooperative, and it'll work, but there's a step of accounting that many people forget about.

[CBikle]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

Although I'm not really a LARP kind of guy, I've always thought that HERO had potential in that area (as well as mass figure miniatures combat).

 

Like others have said, I think playing cards and Standard Effect rules are the way to go with tokens being used for stun and body (I wouldn't worry about END).

 

- I think OCV/DCV/ECV could be kept as written, but using playing cards for resolution (a joker might represent a "fumble" or "critical success").

 

- Movement and range mods almost aren't a function, as LARPS are restricted to real-world dimensions (rooms tend to be much bigger in Hero due to the 1 hex= 61/2 ft. thing). For simplicity, you could say that each doorway represents a range penalty. Out of practicality, I don't think this'll be too much of a concern.

 

- Mind Link and radio communications could be represented by cellphones and/or walkie-talkies, but this would require that those players have access to those (unless they are provided by the LARP-runners).

 

- You might have large, unwieldy forces (like the "Orc Army" or the "City Guard") represented by multiple players, with each player assumed to represent 25 combatants or whatever.

[CBikle]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

As an aside, I initially assumed that this was for a super-hero LARP, which got me thinking how that'd work.

 

In my limited experience, most LARPs seem to represent multiple VIPs and factions who try to accomodate their personal agendas by forming alliances (sometimes through wheeling and dealing and sometimes through some sort of "coercion") to attain mutual goals. As a result, there's a lot of dialogue/role-playing going on between the players.

 

In most supers games, motivations are pretty cut and dry. If Defender and Viper come across each other, there's not going to be much dialogue; it's pretty much going to jump to the combat aspect of the game.

 

As hokey (albeit excellently written) as the whole Identity Crisis - Infinite Crisis storylines were, they'd work pretty well for a LARP, with the players representing Superman, Batman, Brother Eye, Alexander Luthor, etc. , but you'd need a LOT of players to portray all the different parties. I think Marvel's Civil War storyline would work as well.

 

Without a doubt, Prince Namor, the Sub Mariner would be the best character for this, because he could just as easily side with Captain America or Doctor Doom. The ultimate neutral character.

[feralucce]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

Seee...

 

we want anyone to eventually take anyone down, it destroys the fun in a boffer larp if'n you can't hurt the guy at all... hence the reason we were talkin translating armor into additional body... we were going to base it on 3dc's ...

 

as for the chip issue... we were going to use expendable paper tokens (rip it when you use it) and print up a new batch (different color) for each session..

 

cbikle: we already have an idea if we choose to NOT boffer it... we have two prototype DICE-O-MATICS already made.

[feralucce]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

at one time, we had a long running Film-Noir/supers and psions game running on campus... as part of the rule was consensual reality (a bit like mage teh ascension, where the sleepers disbelief could harm you) so the charavters were not costumed, but had realtively cosmic powers...

 

We have a magic system in place limiting the power of magic to 9DCs starting... and probably, for LArp puporses, capping it at 12, just lke everyone else, and non damage spells are classed in 30 active point increments (requiring a perk)

[Egyptoid]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

1) don't be afraid to copy off the other kid's paper.

 

the White Wolf LARP System works okay for supernatural powers.

strip away the fugly subject matter, look at the mechanics, and see what works.

 

 

 

2) CBikle had the right ideas on factionalization of the players.

 

like have six groups:

 

Defenders, X-Men, Fant.Four.

and Thunderbolts, Masters of Evil, Freedom Force

 

each has strengths, each has different approaches to problem solving,

and differing weaknesses. plus the storyteller can give each team different

starting info and goodies.

 

So if the X-Men just up and trash the Thunderbolts,

both groups will lose. Thunderbolts lost because they got beat up,

and the X-Men lost because violence shouldnt be the goal fo the game.

Groups should be brokering info, favors, and trading items of power to advantage.

[feralucce]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

seee...I whoollllyyyy disagree... the MET rules are chunky at best... with one test, then each player can retest once from abilities, powers, willpower and finally a stat war with Crushing someone in an overbid.... so... count em that is 3 retests aside, with an over bid attempt, and the base one, meaning EVERY step of conflict resolution can be retried up to seven times... a 5 round combat with more than 5 people can take over an hour

 

DISCLAIMER: EDITED DUE TO THE FACT THAT I AM LISDEXIC

[feralucce]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

SO...

 

Not to BUMP the thread, but I feel I owe everyone who pushed the MET (white wolf) basic test mechanics an apology as we are playtesting the the system now, and it works. I will post a link to the basic documents as soon as some additional work is added to them

[Tech]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

What is LARP?

[feralucce]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

LARP =Live Action Role Play

[feralucce]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

Once again, not to bump the thread, we should have the hero system LARP basic play test document posted by the end of summer. We are doing some additional play testing to work out the bumps in the road.

 

Some basics are as follows:

To simplify combat (I know, weird, simplifying combat with hero seems an oxymoron, but with a Live Action game, simplified combat is a necessity) all powers are build with the standard effect rule... We tried a thing we dubbed the "dice-o-magic, but it was just too clunky for LARPing.

 

Combat order is handled the same way - on the twelve count.

 

We (for streamlining) did away with the post-12 recovery. Combat took just about 3 hours.. Not LARP friendly.

 

Basic mechanic: rock, paper, scissors. Winner wins, loser loses. Ties are resolved by comparing numbers as described in the main rule books. We allow ONE retest per roll. If you suspect that your standard effect number is more than double the defending stat/skill/power you can attempt a crush... It allows you one retest. If you are wrong... You fail for overconfidence...

 

Thus far, it works well... Once we get everything transferred from composition notebooks, well post the write up. Then we need playtestrs

[Kraven Kor]

Re: HERO 5th LARP?

 

I love HERO, I do, I really do... but not sure it would easily translate to a LARP.

 

However...

 

What might work best is if each player carried playing cards, with the number of cards = character's speed. Speed 3 would carry, say, Two + Six + Ten; Speed 4 3, 5, 8, 10, etc. Maybe even a bit of randomness in what cards they get - either handed out at game start, or by refs when rolls are needed. Unless you plan on having Speed 12 characters, I would use the 2 through 10 and save the face cards for other things (like, bonuses or special 'trump' cards players can earn through various parts of the LARP.)

 

When "rolling" for actions, players present a card and add the value of the card to their CHA/5 and compare against the difficulty of the task (either assigned when task is set up by GM's, or randomly made up by refs in game, or the opposing player's card + CHA/5 "roll" in the case of skill vs. skill.)

 

So, a character with Persuasion at 11- would actually just add 2 to the value of whatever card he chose to use; lower cards being "better" than higher cards.

 

Then GM's can hand out other cards as "bonuses" to rolls or whatever.

 

Then, basically, if "in combat" you get to play your cards each once per turn (and thus a speed 3 person would only have 3 actions per turn.) Out of combat, you can assume to play your best card every time.