Designing a Boffer LARP System (Part 32)
Now that the system incorporates so much, we can start exploring how to expand it a bit.
The "Clans of Elgardt" group that I've just joined up with runs fortnightly, with ne fortnight focused on war sessions and the other fortnight focused on scenarios and roleplaying.
There's no reason why this system couldn't follow the same general structure, and with the set-up we've got, we can add some fun scenarios to the "off week" war session.
The game includes characters who have offsiders and followers, it also includes factions of multiple characters who might come into conflict against one another.
The war sessions might be used to resolve these conflicts. A faction might pool together their funds, to hire mercenaries or build fortifications for opposing teams to negotiate. If a player has characters belonging to two opposing factions, they'd have to favour their primary character over their secondary (and they'd get to choose which character becomes involved if they have secondary characters on each side). But the fun comes with the pool of funds.
Characters who aren't involved in either side of the conflict directly might have to opportunity to join the fight as mercenaries. They could ask for a fee in exchange for their services, and this would come out of the faction's pool of funds. Any players who chose not to offer their services as mercenaries might be able to join up on one side of the conflict as a "mook".
A "mook" under this premise is a nameless character with a single hit point. They represent the sheer numbers faced on a mass battlefield, but they aren't named and detailed characters...these are not their stories, they are like the majority of characters who makeup the economic ecosystem. Perhaps if enough mooks get taken out in a battle, then certain elements of the economy suffer due to lack of workers. It all connects together.
Mooks are also the allies, employees, followers, and swabbies. They don't have special abilities, they might wear crude armour (capable of absorbing a single point of damage), they fall quickly and probably have low morale, and can't achieve battle objectives (but can certaily make it easier for named characters to do so). When a character possesses an ability that says they have one of these, a mook might be called into a battle scenario "free of charge"...but the character doing the calling might be owing the called mook a favour to be repaid at a later date (either through coinage, or fulfilling some kind of quest). A mook linked to a character might be required to stay within a few metres of their "owner", I'm thinking of this in the same manner as miniatures games, where lesser members of the squad might stay in range of the battle standard. If the mook doesn't survive, then the character either loses their relevant ability, or they might pay compensation to the mook's family/clan (or might make the necessary contrition) and a new mook will show up to fill the place of the old one.
Why would someone play a mook? Simple, they get the opportunity to acquire Destiny Points that could be used to advance any of their characters at a later time.
Just something I've been thinking about today.
The "Clans of Elgardt" group that I've just joined up with runs fortnightly, with ne fortnight focused on war sessions and the other fortnight focused on scenarios and roleplaying.
There's no reason why this system couldn't follow the same general structure, and with the set-up we've got, we can add some fun scenarios to the "off week" war session.
The game includes characters who have offsiders and followers, it also includes factions of multiple characters who might come into conflict against one another.
The war sessions might be used to resolve these conflicts. A faction might pool together their funds, to hire mercenaries or build fortifications for opposing teams to negotiate. If a player has characters belonging to two opposing factions, they'd have to favour their primary character over their secondary (and they'd get to choose which character becomes involved if they have secondary characters on each side). But the fun comes with the pool of funds.
Characters who aren't involved in either side of the conflict directly might have to opportunity to join the fight as mercenaries. They could ask for a fee in exchange for their services, and this would come out of the faction's pool of funds. Any players who chose not to offer their services as mercenaries might be able to join up on one side of the conflict as a "mook".
A "mook" under this premise is a nameless character with a single hit point. They represent the sheer numbers faced on a mass battlefield, but they aren't named and detailed characters...these are not their stories, they are like the majority of characters who makeup the economic ecosystem. Perhaps if enough mooks get taken out in a battle, then certain elements of the economy suffer due to lack of workers. It all connects together.
Mooks are also the allies, employees, followers, and swabbies. They don't have special abilities, they might wear crude armour (capable of absorbing a single point of damage), they fall quickly and probably have low morale, and can't achieve battle objectives (but can certaily make it easier for named characters to do so). When a character possesses an ability that says they have one of these, a mook might be called into a battle scenario "free of charge"...but the character doing the calling might be owing the called mook a favour to be repaid at a later date (either through coinage, or fulfilling some kind of quest). A mook linked to a character might be required to stay within a few metres of their "owner", I'm thinking of this in the same manner as miniatures games, where lesser members of the squad might stay in range of the battle standard. If the mook doesn't survive, then the character either loses their relevant ability, or they might pay compensation to the mook's family/clan (or might make the necessary contrition) and a new mook will show up to fill the place of the old one.
Why would someone play a mook? Simple, they get the opportunity to acquire Destiny Points that could be used to advance any of their characters at a later time.
Just something I've been thinking about today.
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