Observations of the Fox

I've seen two common ideas for character progression in LARPs. The first is the point buy system, where players accumulate experience points (or whatever other name the system uses) over the course of play, then spend those points to improve their character, often finding that more potent upgrades have a higher cost. The second is the levelling system, where players gain a level in a profession for each game they attend, or maybe earn experience points toward levels in a manner similar to a D&D game. There are variants on these two options, where some levelling games allow multiclassing, and others don't... or where some point buy systems vary the costs for different things depending on the nominal "class/profession" or "race" of the character (eg. Dwarves are known for using axes, so they get 20% off their Axe skills, Elves aren't known for using axes and might have even made an ancient pact with tree spirits to avoid using them, so they pay 20% mor...

In the LARP I've been running for the past two years, I introduced an economy that I called Soul Notes. The idea behind felt pretty simple to me. Originally the game that we based our LARP on used a series of skills that automatically worked, but could only be used once per game. If you wanted to use "diplomacy", you had to have an appropriate skill card with your name on it. You flashed the card in the middle of a deal-making session, and either the opponent agreed with you or they lost a life. It all felt a bit heavy handed and trite to me; so when we broke away, I shook things up a bit. My variant developed an "economy of fate" which gave everyone 5 "soul notes". These notes reflected agency in the world, and were used with a range of skills, including Diplomacy, Picking Locks, Escape, and other things like activating magic items. A player could indicate how much they of this fate energy they want to infuse their action with, while their target ...

I think a setting lures people in when it has evocative names associated with it. These names might be places, occupations, people in the setting, specific powers. I remember that the first thing that intrigued me about Rifts (back before it had even hit the shelves), were the names of some of the classes... "Juicer", "Glitterboy", "Psi-Stalker". The orders of Space Marines in Warhammer 40k, and even the creatures they commonly fight against, all have names with an emotional intensity to them. The quirky OSR products that are all trying to outflavour one another with their outlandishness, each naming their locations in ways that highlight the esoterica, the psychadelia, or the grimness of their setting. Hell, even Apocalypse World did it with the short punchy names given to the various playbooks. So, I'm thinking about the twisted new setting for our LARP. It's a fantasy post-apocalypse setting. A savage wasteland of super-tech and magic, where a...

Swarms of Scuttlesnipes are said to have first appeared in the ancient woodland just after Olus the Fleshtinkerer blew up her tower and disappeared from the world. For centuries they have worked their way into the ecosystem, successfully becoming scavengers who inject enzymes into dying and dead animals, liquifying their innards to be drained when they return hours later. The toxins riddling the bodies of the Scuttlesnipes mean they are rarely preyed upon for food, but provide a valuable source of ingredients for hunters and alchemists. This will probably be the last of the Dark Crystal critters, since the competition closes tonight.

I've been drawing a few critters for the contest aimed toward the Dark Crystal setting. But if they don't manage to go very far in that contest, I might just end up using them as the starting point for a bestiary of exotic beasts in a new setting. I've already started thinking of other predators, carnivores, herbivores, and a food web that might exist within a fantasy woodland. But, we'll see how things go. 

A second critter for the contest The tongue of a Snootwomble is a curious thing. Covered in sticky slime, it typically protrudes from the creature's multi-hinged jaw. The maned Snootwomble digs holes in the soft forest floor, inflating it's tongue above ground in such a way that it appears like one of the smaller forest plants. When small herbivores and insects attempt to graze on the plant, the sticky tongue is retracted, entrapping the unwary prey, and the Snootwomble leaps forward with the rest of it's body to consume it's meal.