Clearly, not mistaken

What a flurry of larping.  I think 5 games in 3 days (one of which I ran) counts officially as a metric butt-load of games.

This ended up being one of the most enjoyable Slarpas.  Every game was fun.  That in and of itself is an achievement because, being perfectly honest, not every game is a complete success.

I like to look at systems of course.  They can add or subtract from my enjoyment of the game.  Sad but true.  I make no secrets about this.  Maybe it's a flaw.  I've no idea.

KC was the most rules heavy system of the weekend, and that makes me a little sad.  Don't get me wrong, I do like my own system.  But it suffers from trying to accommodate both good and bad gamers (or as Houses of the Blooded puts it: Wankers).  Wankers will min-max the shit outta something and find the flaws.  Vampire was as complicated as it was to try to fight the wankers, but it just wasn't a good enough system to do it.  I designed KC in respond to Vampire and that was my first mistake. 

What KC does well, I think, is dramatic combat.  It is fair and relatively quick and (hopefully) exciting.  This was important to me because KC is, in my head, an action movie.  I like combat and I like it to flow smoothly.

My game showed me that it does work, but Fray combat is still a bit painful.  Will I fix it?  I dunno at this point.

Anyway, the other systems were all more on the rules lite systems.  And most of them were more Conflict resolution vs. Task Resolution, meaning one challenge determines the results of the fight rather than a blow by blow (which KC does).

So we had two Cthulhu games this weekend, one using a slightly toned down system and the other using a normal Cthulhu live system.  Now the first one was a light hearted Cthulhu game so in that, the system was 'just right'. 

However, that being said, I have to say it (sorry Jill) but I fucking hate the Cthulhu Live system.  In fact, I happen to feel it is one of the absolutely worst larp systems out there. 

Now I know that I am terrible with algebra, but larp system should NOT make me have to every do STAT times Skill.  What's 14 x 3...it's irrelevant...why the fuck am I doing math in a HORROR GAME.  You know what is not scary?  Math!!!!  

The combat system is garbage.  It's most often extremely one sided and very boring.  One character gets to go first and murder you before you can act.  Good times...good times.  In fact, the combat system is so terrible because it does the opposite of what the world is trying to do, which is scare the players.  The combat system forces you to stop, break character, stand around, resolve it slowly, then role play the results.  Any tension or fear caused by the sight of the monster is utterly ruined when you have to resolve a fight with it.  Of course, I've also played it Cthulhu games where there was no resolution...if a monster got close to you...you automatically died.  Again...good times...good times.

Some might say that's appropriate to the Cthulhu world but I have two problems with that.  First, this should be a game...and as presented, it's not a fun game.  Second, I will go out here and say it...Cthulhu is not a very great world.  It's imaginative but it's one that works far better in books than in as a game.  In fact, I've played Cthulhu games for something like 15 years now I seriously, most of them are kinda the same. 

I'm not saying that the Cthulhu games I've played in are 'bad'.  All the games often have great fucking style.  Like 4 or 5 out of 5 for style consistently.  From Randy and Amy's giant fucking glowing worm, to Adam's giant steam-punk machine that you step into, to something as simple as Jill's beautifully acted Asylum game, these are games that are so cool to be a part of.

However, where virtually all Cthulhu games fall apart is the story itself.  I do not blame or attack an organizer here.  Cthulhu is just a bad world to run a game in because in the end, the main characters cannot fucking win.  Hell, even breaking even is usually unlikely.

Now, not winning is really not a problem for a larp or a story.  It's just that...I've played 15 years of not winning Cthulhu games.  They all end up being the same.  In fact, the world is pretty much designed for the main characters to be nothing more than observers of the plot.  In most cases, they cannot affect the plot in any way.  The plot (translated text, experiment gone wrong, etc) is in motion, often before the game itself.  And it cannot be stopped.  Like...at all.  MAYBE, in the rare game, there is a ritual that can stop the big bad IF you can find it filed in the sub-basement C past the horde of guards and fish monsters. 

Again, not an attack on the organizers of these games.  They are technically doing what the world was designed for, but after 15 years of playing the same sort of plot, it does get a little tiring. 

See the thing is, how do most Cthulhu games end?  During the wrap up, the organizer will state: "So...do you want to know what was going on?"  90% of the players are completely and utterly clueless so of course they want to know what the hell the plot was. I mean they did play the game but finding out what was going on is really difficult.

None of this means you cannot enjoy a Cthulhu game.  But you have to really accept that you're more of an observer to the game and not there to actually interact with the plot.  Look but don't touch. 

The other systems were more along the lines of a token transfer system.  A resource system.  The supervillain game was tons of fun but the system didn't wow me.  It was slightly convoluted in one way but pretty much amounted to the standard token transfer game.  Who wants the 'win' more in a situation?  That player ends up bidding more tokens and giving them to the other player.  What ends up happening here, whether intentional or unintentional is that you can rack up a TON of tokens.  Case in point, I was defeated 3 times in succession and all that failure filled me with tokens so I was nigh-unstoppable by the end of the game. 

Also the common problem is 'token dumping' in which a player just dumps all their tokens into a challenge right near the end of the game cuz...well...there isn't anything more than the end of the game so why the hell not. 

But then we come to Houses of the Blooded (Houses hereafter).  I had come across this game a year ago.  They had some neat stuff but the core book was a little too pricey and I couldn't see myself running it so I didn't get it (this was the tabletop).


I had told Wade (the organizer) that I had all but hit the historic fantasy wall and if he could just pick me a character.  I knew that this was the last game of Slarpa.  Everybody would be tired.  I could 'phone it in'. 

I had heard it was a nice and simple token transfer system. 

How delightful that it was that but so much more.  What a simple and excellent way to use something simple but oh so excellent.

Houses uses the token transfer idea but with a very neat twist.  When you want to challenge somebody (we'll not include combat here) you start with, "If I'm not mistaken..." and offer up 1 (or more) tokens.

"If I'm not mistaken, weren't we lovers before your husband died."
"If I'm not mistaken, didn't you murder my mistress a year ago." 
"If I'm not mistaken, are you not my uncle."

You might read this and wonder how this is different from other token transfer systems.  Well the devil is in the details, my friend.

See immediately, there is more role playing here.  You deliver your 'stakes' in a role playing fashion.  That's really neat.  The challenge (and tokens) can be accepted or declined.  If that happens you can insist (in which case it turns more into a standard try to outbid your opponent but that's neither here nor there).

But there is a fundamental difference here that I loved.  In other systems you immediately break character to do something called 'setting the stakes'.  This can be one sided (only the aggressor sets the stakes) or mutual (both characters set the stakes).  Setting the stakes has always felt clumsy and artificial.  They also often feel irrelevant.  Because setting the stakes sorts of games have 'clauses' to say that you can't kill another character or cause anything permanent to them.  So generally you slightly inconvenience another character for a few seconds to a few minutes. 

KC may have a rules glut but it's a harsh but fair system, compared to these 'polite' setting stakes games.  For stakes to have any meaning they really need to have some consequence.  I really didn't care that I was virused, knocked out and then dragged off by imps, in the supervillain game.  None of it had any real consequence.  I mean it was fun (and funny) but it ends up feeling entirely irrelevant.  It's more like a larping exercise than playing a larp itself.

So "If I'm not mistaken..." differs because, pretty much the only way you can deliver that statement is to have your 'stakes' introduce plot.  Yes, you can say "If I'm not mistaken, didn't I just punch you in the gut and take your sword." but hey...punching you and taking your sword will have consequences actually (especially given the setting). 

The statement used generates plot.  It is somewhat of a permission/bribe based system, however if you really want to, you can Insist, and go to a more aggressive 'cutthroat' bidding system.  I really like that if you accept he bribe you take the tokens but if you go to the cutthroat system all the tokens are lost.  That's a really neat way to differentiate between the polite and cutthroat. 

My main challenge in Houses was to Cindy.  In game I had killed her husband ten years ago.

"If I'm not mistaken, didn't we sleep together before I killed your husband." 

Good lord if that didn't change the entire dynamic between us.  Why did we sleep together?  Were we in love?  Why then, did I kill her husband?  Was I the jilted lover?  Did she cheat on him? 

None of these questions were answered and it was better for it.  Because the story was being developed by us, the players AND it was incredible organic.  It created tension between us, but at the same time, it created so many more unanswered questions.

I realized, that you could totally run a Lost game based on these rules.  Because that's exactly what it was.  Stay tuned and find out more between Cindy's character and I.  We (the actors and audience) don't know and in a future episode it will be revealed.  And what is brilliant about it all, is that we can transfer back and forth, who is the good and bad person. 

"If I'm not mistaken, YOU seduced me in a moment of weakness."  Immediately the dynamic is changed.  One of us is a manipulator.

"If I'm not mistaken, while I did use that opportunity to seduce you, I loved you from the moment I met you." and suddenly the seducer is redeemed in the eyes of the audience.

Simply brilliant.  It's one of those systems that makes a game designer super jealous...cuz I didn't think of anything as cool as that.  ;)

Houses has a great core system.  I didn't much care for the combat rules or much of it outside the core rules but I would have to try them again before I could fully decide.  The core rules were brilliant and the extended rules feel a bit tacked on.

Houses is a system that must be played with a mature audience.  Wankers could fuck with the system and the book completely accepts that and pretty much says, don't be wankers.

That's all well and good but then technically Cindy is a wanker.  And seriously anybody who knows Cindy knows she's she's a girl who loves the story and isn't out to ruin another person's game (outside of Catan that is).  But she did end up feeding tokens to an ally, which by the system does make her a wanker.  She would never do it again naturally and even she realized what she was doing after the game.  So calling a player a wanker because they did something that breaks the system doesn't always mean that that player intended to break the system.

It is also a system that I couldn't just accept as the One Ring.  I mean, it's excellent, do not get me wrong.  I would love to play it, I would love to run it, I would love to re-write KC with it.  However, it is a permission based system and I think it does not fit EVERY world out there.  A horror game wouldn't make for a great match for such a system.  So I loved it and feel a mental sigh of relief that I would not want to adopt this system for every game world out there. 

So anyway, that's my thoughts of Slarpa.  An excellent weekend, baring the stupid fucking beer festival at the hotel.  Seriously, Pilsner can go fuck themselves if they think that feeding non-stop beer to people at a bar and stuffing them into a hotel follows their BS ad requirements of "please drink responsibly".