Thanks to John for uploading the pictures from Saturday’s playtest. I’ve put them in their own gallery here. Check them out!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

Yesterday’s playtest session of the new working BMF LARP rules was quite satisfactory. Beer, Pizza, Highlander Jokes, and more, the game was pretty damn fun, and John even took some good pictures of those who could make it. Sadly, several of the originally-listed players were missing-in-action, but there were a few extras who showed up to fill most of the roles, with me taking the reigns of one of the “wild card” faction characters.

The People

Thanks to Robin, John, Alex, Jason, and Tammy for coming over, eating pizza, drinking beer, and having a damn good time roleplaying, playtesting, and dorking out. You guys are my heroes of the week.

I’m pretty excited about tomorrow’s playtest of the BMF LARP rules’ core mechanics. The Screg and I have worked together Shake-and-Bake-style to pen a fairly nifty scenario that should fit the playtest’s needs quite suitably. The scenario is based on the shoulda-been-a-hit TV series Jeremiah, and the premise is a high-stakes negotiation before a full-blown war erupts.

I’m in the middle of writing up the character roles right now, and I am having a blast doing so. Each character for this scenario has three major involvement-defining features beyond the rules mechanics. The character’s Motivation is the goal they’re working towards first and foremost as the scene progresses. Alongside that is the character’s Concession, which sets one or more conditionals which would alter that Motivation, and how. Finally, the character comes into the scenario with an Empowerment, giving them an extra edge over the rest, a hidden trick up their sleeve, or maybe just a good force or power to back up their words.

Anyway, here’s my introductory write-up for the whole scenario:

“Jeremiah is set in a future post-apocalyptic world where, over a decade before, a deadly virus wiped out the world’s adult population sparing only those who haven’t reached puberty. Now in their 20s, the oldest survivors of the pandemic must find their way in a decadent civilization and attempt to create a new world order of hope.”

Sixteen years ago, the Big Death hit. In 2004, this mysterious virus wiped out everyone in the world over the age of puberty, leaving their children to live and suffer in their absence. Over the years since, some folks took to the roads to steal and scrape by, while others gathered together to form power centers great and small. Now, in 2020, two of these powers have brought their forces to bear against each other at Four Roads, and the events that follow this encounter will drastically change the political face of territories which were once the Midwest and Northeast United States of America.

In my previous post, I mentioned a LARP playtest on September 29th. Due to conflicting schedules with hopeful participants, this has been rescheduled two weeks earlier to September 15th, same time and location.

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

I want to give this a second try. I’m looking to run a playtest of some LARP mechanics. The playtest itself will feature a small scenario in a gritty no-mutants post-apocalyptic setting. The mechanics are based entirely upon negotiation and manipulation of one’s qualities and traits. I’m looking to gather at least six people (not including myself), and hopefully 10 to 15. The game will take place at my house, and I will be providing meals for everyone, just to entice you into coming and participating. Maybe pizza, maybe a lot of tacos, maybe even some home-cooked curries or BBQ.

I’m aiming at Saturday, the 29th of September, starting around 3 or 4 PM. I think this is early warning enough.

Let me know if you’re interested. Thanks!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

(Update 6/17/2007: This post actually refers to a rpg system now called “Verses”.)

Two updates in this post.

Due to lack of responses, the playtest of the BMF LARP rules for this weekend in Portland has been canceled. I’m going to make another attempt to muster some interest in the next month, so more on that when it arises.

Additionally, I’m looking to organize a playtest for another gaming project of ours, a tabletop RPG system called QUAD. I’m looking to get a group of 3-6 players together to test character creation and mechanical concepts, and am looking at Saturday, June 2nd as the target date. I’ve contacted local gaming center Guardian Games to host it, but if they cannot then another location can be chosen. Again, I’ll update more as this arises.

Stay tuned!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

“It’s 1899, and the most sinister figures of the Portland criminal underground have gathered to discuss the new century, and how their empire will stand up to the Times That Be a-Changin’…”

For two-to-four hours on Saturday, May 26th, I’ll be running the first round of playtests for the new Live-Action Role-Playing game system from Reality Merchants Games. The premise of the scenario involves characters from the Portland criminal underground at the twilight of the 19th century, with a hint of deeper darkness at the core of it all. Piracy, shanghaiing, white slavery, vice, and a sliver of the supernatural can be found in this open playtest of our brand new LARP.

I’m looking for 10-15 players who like LARPs and are willing to try and test something new. I’ll prolly order a lot of pizzas too. If the day is nice, we’ll be meeting at Pioneer Square. If the day is crappy, we’ll meet at my place. If you’re interested, comment here, or fill out one of the various contact forms on the left.

Thanks!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole

Head over to their forums and check it out.

“There will be many situations, however, in which the involved parties just can’t agree on an outcome. For these situations, I’ve designed the Bid Battle conflict resolution mechanic. I wanted to keep the core focus of inter-character negotiation as prominent as possible, and as such Bid Battles are still quite similar to the “gentleman’s agreement” described above. The difference is that in a Battle, the system is designed to favor the character(s) with the strongest reason to succeed.”

Read the rest…