Yesterday, we started thinking about our LARP-ing characters by answering some questions. Today, the group will shape the environment and run through the game mechanics we will try to use in the LARP on Day 4.

In adapting a traditional RPG to a LARP, the first step is to empower the characters to figure out how their actions impact each other in real time. We don’t want every player to carry and rely on dice to dictate outcomes of each decision they make. Rather, we want the game to be freely played as much as possible, challenging only what cannot be resolved through character interaction or meta discussion (talking to each other as players, not characters).

In a successful LARP, no dice would be rolled and all characters play within their pre-defined constraints.

Safety
To keep everyone save and positively engaged, there are a few hard rules everyone is expected to follow:

  1. Listen to other people, both as characters and players.
  2. No griefing—Your primary goal is to help others have an enjoyable experience.
  3. Play as your character would, and accept the consequences of their decisions
  4. “STOP” means that role-playing is paused (including any actions you were currently taking) and meta discussion between the players has begun. Character play only resumes when all impacted players agree. “Stop” is the most powerful word in our LARP.

Actions
Borrowing from Fate, there are four kinds of actions characters will take as they move through the world. Attacking and defending are self-explanatory, as fighting other characters is a central appeal for many LARPers. Since there are no NPCs (non-player characters) in this LARP, if someone attacks someone else will implicitly be defending. As long as the play is safe, characters will usually resolve these actions in real time.

In Fate, there is also an action to create an advantage. Due to the time constraint, we won’t be using this to add new stunts or aspects. Advantages that would be acceptable in our world include researching to gain information.

Overcoming an obstacle is another key action. This is something that might be difficult to do and stands in your way of a goal or another action you want to take. In RPG, this might be picking a lock or climbing a wall. Obstacles are either going to be difficult because of physics (e.g., climbing a real wall) or because other characters around you say they should be difficult.

In other words, everything is freely role-played until challenged by someone else. When challenged, the first step is to say “Stop” to enter meta discussion between players. If after everyone involved cannot agree on the circumstances of the character action, then the only way to resolve a challenge is to head to a Boss.

Bosses
The authority for our LARP are Bosses, uber characters who spend their entire time in one location. They serve as game masters for their part of the world, advancing the story and resolving player conflict, when needed.

In our LARP, dice only serve as an subjective aid to the Bosses. Each Boss will carry with them four six-sided dice and a box in which to make official rolls. This action is best played if the dice serve as a placeholder for some character prop, like a mafia Godfather consulting his consigliore or a High Priestess reading chicken bones.

Only Bosses touch the dice, and their rulings are final.

Dice Rolls
When a challenge reaches a Boss, they will first ask what the challenged character is attempting to do. The challenger then describes the obstacle (someone or something) that can prevent it. The Boss will set a target number for the dice roll that reflects the degree of difficulty. Finally, the challenged character then responds to that information by indicating which approach they plan to take in attempting the action.

After the Boss rolls their four dice, any appropriate bonuses are applied and that value is compared to the target. There are four possible outcomes that result:

  • Failure—the total (roll plus bonuses) does not meet the target
  • Succeed At Cost—the total exactly matches the target
  • Succeed—the total exceeds the target
  • Succeed With Style—the total exceeds the target by at least +3

After the result is known, any player can try to impact the outcome further by invoking or compelling an action, at the cost of a Fate point.

Once final, play resumes with the characters role playing that outcome.

Aspects
By now, each character should have several aspects that shape how they act in the world. Since every strength is a tradeoff that brings a weakness, an aspect is neither good nor bad.

A character may opt to invoke an aspect for a benefit, such as adding a bonus to a roll or re-rolling a bad outcome. Other characters may also compel an aspect to surface the weakness, something the target may defend. Invoking, compelling and defending against a compel each cost 1 Fate point.

Aspects also serve as the guides for how a player role-plays their character. If you indicated that your character is a “greedy bastard,” then that character would likely always be looking for a way to get some money or stuff and probably doesn’t care who is hurt along the way. Compelling that aspect might drive that character to drop whatever action they are doing to go in search of money. Invoking that aspect might allow them to spot where the wealth opportunity is and have a higher success of acquiring new goods.

Some example Fate characters can be explored for inspiration as you finalize your own characters.

Stress and Fate Points
The equivalent of hit points in Fate is stress. Oversimplified, stress is a way of absorbing broad damage. Each character can only withstand three points of stress, which you can offset by accepting consequences instead. Once you can no longer deflect a hit by taking stress and opt not to accept any more consequences, you are taken out and at the mercy of the victor until you are able to return.

For our purposes, stress is a complication that can be difficult to track in a LARP. The person being attacked will decide whether or not they want to be hit, negotiating consequences in meta discussion instead. By combining stress with fate points, we can leverage that economy to determine when a character has to be taken out.

Every character begins with 3 fate points meant for invoking aspects and another 2 to mitigate damage, for a total of 5. For each stunt your character defines—a particular benefit that always happens in a specific situation—one fate point is removed. The player spends fate points in game by invoking their character aspects or by taking stress. They acquire additional fate points by accepting consequences or having other players compel their aspects.