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.

Due to the hectic nature of the last few weeks, I was unable to get an AP report up for the third session of our Saturday campaign. However, since the last two sessions have both been part of the same extended scenario, combining their reports makes it easier to collect my thoughts. So here we go!

The Cast

• Alex, playing the part of Captain Daylen Forgrun.
• Gaston, playing the part of Calvo Sotelovich.
• Nathanael (me), Arbiter, playing the part of Mihoaela Tatiana Kojimirin.
• Nievita, playing the part of Aeroica Mindal Tsvetkov.
• Scott, playing the part of Khazimir ibn Zalikahn.

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

Two Saturdays ago was the second session in our Undiscovered Countries campaign, using the Verses RPG rules system. In my last post on this game, I gave some details into the setup, the system, and the campaign premise, so I’ll skip all that and get right to the meat.

The Cast

• Alex, playing the part of Captain Daylen Forgrun.
• Gaston, playing the part of Calvo Sotelovich.
• Nathanael (me), Arbiter, playing the part of Mihoaela Tatiana Kojimirin.
• Nievita, playing the part of Aeroica Mindal Tsvetkov.
• Scott, playing the part of Khazimir ibn Zalikahn.

Last night was the first official gathering for my Sunday group’s new Iron Kingdoms game. This campaign is entitled “Bloodstone: An Iron Kingdoms Western,” and is set on the edge of the Bloodstone Marches in a shady little prospector’s town called Ternon Crag. This game is very heavily influenced by the television show Deadwood.

This game also uses the Verses RPG rules currently in development by yours truly. I had originally intended on using The Burning Wheel as the system for this game, but after a bit of minor GM burnout on my part, I made the switch to Verses, for two main reasons. First, I just don’t have the time to dedicate towards mastering the Burning Wheel rules while simultaneously teaching them to others. Second, I want to give Verses a more versatile (pun intended) playtest. Currently it is being used in my other bi-weekly campaign, and I hope that by applying it to an already-established setting I can test its functionality with several new perspectives.