As a role-player of many role-playing systems, I tend to like the players to stay in character through the entire game more of a live-action style than a table top style. I was thinking about running a game to were no one actually sets at table until roles needed to be made. Has anyone ran a game like this? or have there own ideas about keeping them in character.
Boring. What good is being a wizard if you don't get to kill things with magic on a daily basis? ;)
As a role-player of many role-playing systems, I tend to like the players to stay in character through the entire game more of a live-action style than a table top style. I was thinking about running a game to were no one actually sets at table until roles needed to be made. Has anyone ran a game like this? or have there own ideas about keeping them in character.
As a man with a few levels in thespian and an appreciation for the dramatic, I have run many an adventure with everyong "in-character" nearly all the time. I have also whipped up plenty of homebrew LARPS in my time...some of the most fun I have ever had.
In fact, I don't know if I should admit this, but the first time I have ever used a battlemat was with the Paizo crew when I got to rock out their AoW game with them for one gloriously fun session (Before Belgrak became an otyugh snack...sad).
I was surprised how fun the battlemat was!!! I had never used them before so it was a totally different experience for me and I dug it. Most games I run are more similar to what you described above Capt., if you haven't tried it yet go for it, its fun to act, that's why I do it.
As a role-player of many role-playing systems, I tend to like the players to stay in character through the entire game more of a live-action style than a table top style. I was thinking about running a game to were no one actually sets at table until roles needed to be made. Has anyone ran a game like this? or have there own ideas about keeping them in character.
I'm a sucker for anything that encourages immersion and drama. I love games where conversation is at least as important as combat and where the big revelations are personal ones as often as they are plot related ones.
LARP has always been something I've wanted to love, but the fact that you're forced to stare at the mugs of your players dressed in the best outfits they could piece together rather than imagining their characters in full glory combined with the headache of LARP rules for combat, the restrictions imposed by having things all take place in a single setting, and the fact you have to imagine most of the NPCs and locales anyway unless there's a mideval ruin nearby and you have a lot of wierd-looking friends willing to wear ghoul makeup and fall over dead (well...dead-ish) on cue. Oh and the precautions that need to be taken just to keep the cops from being called in on you, it's just made LARPing something that hasn't worked out as anything more than a neat idea.
I dig the idea of maybe having the players going through the actions of what their characters are doing (if that's what you were suggesting--I wasn't totally sure) though it'd be something the whole group would have to be okay with as it could be a tad embarrassing for those unaccustomed to doing more than some mild voice acting in game.
As far as strategies to keep the players in character? I've always found the best way to do that is to give them challenges that can't be beaten down with sword or spell--centered around people they care about and dangers less physical than a carrion crawler rather with a psychological or philosophical edge to them. Then let the characters talk it out--there's nothing to get under the skin of your character like having to step your way through how he would deal with problems like these. Oh and likewise I like the idea of requiring skill checks for other players to chime in with ideas to bail out someone--Diplomacy or Disable Device, or Spellcraft, it works with about anything--the better the roll the longer I let the other players talk and how esoteric they can get before I silence them, oh and this is ALWAYS best if the players are encouraged to phrase their ideas in terms of "it might don on your character that..." or "hmmm...there's something familiar about that carving" relating it to the character rather than communicating player to player.
Loads of luck to you, it sounds like a laudable goal. I look forward to seeing how things go for you.
LARP has always been something I've wanted to love, but the fact that you're forced to stare at the mugs of your players dressed in the best outfits they could piece together rather than imagining their characters in full glory combined with the headache of LARP rules for combat, the restrictions imposed by having things all take place in a single setting, and the fact you have to imagine most of the NPCs and locales anyway unless there's a mideval ruin nearby and you have a lot of wierd-looking friends willing to wear ghoul makeup and fall over dead (well...dead-ish) on cue. Oh and the precautions that need to be taken just to keep the cops from being called in on you, it's just made LARPing something that hasn't worked out as anything more than a neat idea.
Well, if you just make a LARP out of your Pen&Paper group, that is surely true, as you don´t have locations and NPCs as you need them. So, I would recommend to keep it at a little acting for the role-playing parts, and have the combat and other game-rule related actions back on the table. In my experience, P&P and LARP don´t mix well, as a good LARP needs a completely different set-up from P&P RPG. But a real LARP, like Conquest of Mythodea , can be a lot of fun.
As an aside: If the LARP rules for fighting are too complicated, simplify them. Most LARP rules I know give you three hp at start, add armor and hp gained by xp to your hp total, an average weapon causes 1 hp damage, deduct hits from your hp total until one drops, and that´s it. Anything more is too much IMHO.Stefan
Address the players by their character's names and try to speak in a different voice. Use your normal voice when asking for rolls or initiative or whatever.
I can't pull this off consistently, as my NPC voices tend to all sound the same--like a bad Saturday Night Live character....sometimes I can pull it off, but not consistently enough to make it a habit.
However, your skills may vary....good luck!
Indeed, the battlemat-and-miniatures setup is an interesting addition to a game that doesn't generally use them. It adds an interesting tactical aspect to the game. It has a kind of a chessboard effect where you can look at any creature and know his range of attack, or look at your own character and see what tactical options are available to him. It's hard to get a clearer view of the battlefield than with miniatures.
What's unfortunate is that since miniatures are costly, many groups will naturally attempt to go without them. It's largely up to the DM to buy the miniatures, even though there are over four hundred creatures in the Monster Manual alone, not counting times when two or more of the same monster show up. You either buy a lot of D&D Miniatures, or compromise your game by re-using the same creatures, or compromise your miniatures by saying "pretend this orc is a skeleton", "pretend this fishing reel is a red dragon".
