paizo.com - Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition: Sight Unseen PDF

Can we trust our senses? How do we know that what we see is real? Are our eyes inherently deceptive and prone to misdirection? If so, then such flawed organs must be removed, for only in blindness can one perceive the truth: that all the world is horror.

Sight Unseen is a LARP experience like no other. When an assortment of Arkham citizens check into the local hospital for surgery, they find themselves blinded by a madman and forced to confront the unearthly terror he has unleashed upon the world. Sight Unseen is a game script for Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition and requires the Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition game rules. The text contains the game overview and timeline; detailed guidelines for simulating blindness in LARP, including safety precautions; prop, special effects, and stagecraft techniques designed to play upon your player’s senses of touch, smell, taste, and hearing; and detailed character sheets and backgrounds for seven player characters. Ideal as an event for a Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) party with friends or as a convention event, it offers hours of fun, intrigue, and horror.

This download includes three different variants of the game script—color, black-and-white, and background-free—and each of these comes in low-resolution screen-friendly and high-resolution printer-friendly versions.

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As a LARP script, this product shares many features with any game scenario (and indeed it would not take much effort to convert it to the table-top if you like the concept), but also includes the physical direction to enable you to create - or at least, simulate - the scene in real life. Remember always that LARP means real people, and their safety (not their characters' safety) is paramount. Also, locations need to be carefully chosen to avoid alarm to bystanders.

This particular script is designed for a small group - three to six players, a couple of NPCs and the Keeper - and is suitable for use as an introduction to Cthulhu Live or even to LARPing. Given that the script calls for the players to simulate blindness by being blindfolded during the game, it's advised that - even though it might ruin the surprise of losing one's sight - the players should be informed of this in advanced so that they can make an informed decision as to whether or not to participate - after all, in a good LARP it is easy to get so absorbed in the action that you might panic even when you can see what's going on! The use of a 'safe word' to call a time-out is also recommended.

The actual adventure itself is simple... yet effective and with the potential to be genuinely scary for the players. As they will not be able to see, some excellent suggestions are made for tactile, auditory and even olfactory props to sustain the horror. Hopefully no PLAYER will go insane, but it is a real possibility for the CHARACTERS! It's not recommended as part of an ongoing campaign, play this with a one-off character. Yet despite this warning, it is possible to defeat the monsters and survive.

Overall, an excellent adventure which takes advantage of the possibilities inherent in LARP to create something that will be remembered for a long time...