My opinion should not be taken as legal advice.
I don't see any problem with it. Just be careful not to imply that your event is Paizo-sanctioned in any way.
My opinion should not be taken as legal advice.
Paizo sells on this website a few modified versions of the ogl rules for pfrpg for 3rd party companies. Others are sold on other websites like drive thru rpg (the new pathfinder modern products come to mind). These products are sold for profit by 3rd parties with not just paizo's consent but their blessing.
So long as you adhere to the standards of the liscense agreement, I cannot imagine paizo taking issue with you charging admission to a pathfinder larp. Heck if it was in the northwest usa i could see some of the staffers turning up for it.
I've played, play-tested, run, and written LARPs, and have friends and acquaintances I discuss LARP with who are among the country's top LARP experts. Remember the early days of "How to host a Murder"? One of their first authors is staying in my spare bedroom this week. LARP writers have come from overseas to run LARPs at my house. My roommate is a professor of Games and Learning who's dissertation was on LARP, and we run an ongoing LARP together.
Yeah, I'm basically bragging, and I feel a bit embarrassed about bragging on the internet. However, I'm doing it because I want you to understand that I'm not a just a Pathfinder player who happens to have an opinion about LARP. I'm a serious LARPer who happens to play Pathfinder sometimes.
The OGL material that you would be allowed to use in your game is not suitable for LARP rules.
Tabletop gaming allows for the easy use of reference materials, character sheets, dice, and math during play - LARP does not. AD&D 1st edition, AD&D 2nd, D&D 3rd and 3.5, and Pathfinder are very detailed, simulationist game systems that have evolved over years of play an publication to do one thing well, and that thing is not LARP.
You'd be better off creating a simple system yourself, or using one of the published LARP systems.
However, the significant problem that I have with homebrew systems (or at least with ours) is that there is no... transparency. There is no internet database where anyone can look at what spells are available to what casters at any particular level. No list of feats, or combat rules. A person might ask and, if they're lucky, get a roundabout answer that may not hold up. I wish to do away with that.
That, my friend, is a GMing problem, and a tough one to solve. I've been in that situation in more than one LARP campaign, and it usually stems from two things. First, the staff doesn't want to take the time to write everything down. Second, the staff can't agree on exactly what the rules should be, so they argue (hopefully not in front of players), hedge, make changes, and avoid committing anything to "paper".
If the game system you're using seems to be basically a good one, and the players are used to it, you might consider simply committing it to print. That's a fairly large project, but much easier than starting over from scratch, and your current GM staff may welcome the help with open arms.
On the other hand, if you think the current campaign, current system, or current staff simply aren't worth saving, but that there's room for a different fantasy LARP in your area, then maybe you do need to start from scratch.
Whatever we end up playing might end up a relatively low-magic world, which reduced quite a lot of the bookkeeping. In fact, I've been ready a lot about E6/E8 games and thinking that those sort of limitations might work wonderfully into what I am trying to do.
You've expressed a number of ideas/modifications that I think are heading in the right direction, like simplifying initiative and multiple attacks. I'm just not sure why you want to use d20 as your base. It seems to me that your ideas are simply better for LARP than d20 is. What is it in the d20 material that you think will help you write a good LARP?
Besides, it's all about having fun with friends anyway. We get some sweeping house-rules sorted out, I think I can show people a good time. If it takes off, and you find yourself in the Midwest, I'll send you an invite and let me know if I've succeeded.
Well, you're right about that, gaming is all about having fun with friends, and I'm happy that you have a group worth working for.
If it takes off, and you find yourself in the Midwest, I'll send you an invite and let me know if I've succeeded.
Good read so far for LARP, OGL and discovering you can get a PhD in Gamming.
This thread has made my night.
Now, I come from a theatrical larp background, not a boffer larp one, so that may skew my judgement a lot, but a d&d character sheet is way to much to remember mid game. So, I have to ask why you want all the overhead of an existing game system. Seriously. Most of the aspects of d20 would be terribly suited to a larp. Most feats are vague in what they do, and how would you do the aoe spells?
1st off: rolling dice: d20 are not fun. They slow the game down and have a ton of variance. In d&d, people tend to roll a lot of d20, so the swings are more ok. In a LARP, you are likely looking at only 3 or 4 rols the whole game. A d20 is a huge amount of varience to rely on, and way more than you need. Additionally, d20 require a place to roll. Its not like you can fit them in a dice bubble, so people would be bending down to roll them on the ground, or the GM would be carrying a box, or players would come up with some other awkward responce. If you want to go with dice for your random elements, I would recommend using a dice bubble with 1-3 mini-d6 in them.
2nd: You want something that will resolve quickly. d20 does not resolve quickly, and it gets complicated with larger groups. I can't count the number of times I have seen a mob decend on the villian. d20 is not the best system for a 10v1.
3rd: its a numbers game. In d&d, HP is in double digits. People can't easily handle large numbers in their head on the fly. They don't want to keep track of 50HP. Constantly writing things down slows the game a lot. I find it best when players don't have to deal with any number over 20 unless it is special, and that is for stuff that doesn't change much. Having HP max at 5 works for many games.
My advice is to homebrew something up, and keep it simple. It can grow as you run games and figure out what people want you to add, but keep it simple, and d20 is not that.
Think about how much the existing d20 rules will complicate things. How do you define flanking? Reach? Tactical movement? I think you will find as you go there will be more you want to toss out than you want to keep, and you would be better off starting from scratch.
One way to include randomization without needing actual dice.
Cut all of the numbers associated with the d20 in half. Every +2 translates to a +1, etc.
Whenever you need to "roll a d20", both you and your opponent / DM simultaneously reveal between 1 and 10 fingers. Add up the fingers, subtracting 10 if necessary to get a number between 1 and 10.
For the few things where this doesn't work very well, like for instance not expanding a "natural 20" to happen twice as often, you can quickly have people throw for even/odd.
Why not give him his extra attacks, with the extra targeting opportunities that represents, but make them all operate off the same "d20" roll?
So if I'm a Fighter 6 (+11 to hit), I can target two goblins with my first and second attacks, respectively. I roll a 4, which represents a 15 for my first attack and a 10 for my second attack. I hit the first goblin and miss the second.
This approach reduces the need for "dice" while still giving a high-level fighter the flexibility of multiple targets/attacks.
Actually, even this simplification has the problem of not giving the fighter the same chance of getting off trips, etc as he would usually have.