elanya

I have talked myself into running a Murder Mystery at a mini-con thing that some of my local friends (and extended feremily) are running at the beginning of March break. I'm using a house-ruled D&D campaign setting from a game the lovely curtana has been running for some years now, the basics of which can me found over here. I wanted to do this live action, because I think it will be more fun that way. I've improvised a set of rules, based on past LARP experiences, that I think will be easy to use in this kind of setting, that preserve some of the basic flavour of the setting without being overly complex. I know that many of my friends are gamers and are interested in game creation stuff, so I thought I'd post them here to see if anyone has any comments, ideas for improvement, etc. There isn't really a leveling system, because this is for a one-shot, and characters should be pretty balanced, since I'll be pregenerating them all to facilitate the style of game I want to run.

Suggestions on what I might want to rename "House abilities" are especially welcome, as I think that would be a better name for what is currently called Special Abilities.

So.... Diablotin LARP system v.0.1

Traits:
Three traits: Social, physical, mental, rated 1-3.

Challenges:
There are two kinds of challenges, Social and Skill. Challenges resolved by paper rock scissors. If the RPS is a tie, compare your appropriate traits. Whoever is higher wins. Tie breaking differs based on the type of challenge.

Contested challenges: Most interactions will be contested challenges, where players compare their traits, eg, combat, trying to seduce someone. These are mostly supplemental to roleplaying. In a contested challenge, if you are tied and have no other tie breaker, play again, take that result – repeat until someone wins @_@

Skill challenges: These are mostly challenges used to accomplish certain goals using specialized skills. In order to attempt a skill challenge, your total trait rating must equal or exceed the challenge rating. In a skill challenge, the challenge wins ties automatically. Not all characters will be suited to attempting specific skill challenges. For example, climbing a tree may be a challenge rating of 2. If you only have a physical rating of 1, you won’t be able to get up there. A rope, however, may give you a bonus of 1, which would allow you to attempt it.

Some actions may require multiple types of challenge. For example, picking someone’s pocket may require a skill challenge to physically succeed, and a contested challenge to do it without being noticed.

Combat:
Attacking: Attacking is a physical challenge. The first to initiate a challenge is the first to attack – seek assistance from facilitator.

Damage: you deal ½ your total physical traits for that challenge if you win the challenge.

Health: You have wound levels equal to your physical score +1. If you lose them all, you are dead!

House Abilities:
Each House in this setting (save rat) is associated with a particular ability. In any challenge where the ability can reasonably be applied, they can demand a do-over, but must take the second result. These are separate from the normal traits.

House Cat – Charisma
House Wolf – Intelligence
House Bear – Strength
House Owl – Wisdom
House Lizard – Dexterity
House Ox – Constitution
House Rat – none

For example, a House Wolf character is trying to decipher a code they found in a diary entry. They lose the initial RPS throw down, but as intelligence applies to the challenge, they can demand a do-over.

Special Abilities:
Each House has a special ability that players from that house can use!
House Lizard – Sign: You can pass notes to other members of house Lizard which represents sign-language communication.
House Bear – Overbear: you can chose to use your physical trait score in ties to determine social challenges where your house trait is applicable (eg: intimidation, trying to impress someone with your physique, etc)
House Owl – Divine Insight: You can ask the facilitator three questions over the course of the game to gain insight into the story
House Ox – Meditate: by meditating for 10 min, the character can gain +1 to all his/her traits for the next ½ an hour
House Cat – Seduce: If you have a higher Social Trait score than an opponent of the attracted sex in a social challenge, you can use this skill to automatically win.
House Wolf – Use Technological Device: You have the ability to use/create more complicated technology - welcome to Steampunk @_@
House Rat – Scent, Darkvision: You have a supernatural sense of smell, and can use a mental or physical challenge to track and identify things by scent. You can also see in the dark!


Houseless characters are the result of mixed-house couples. They will get the class ability of one house, and the special ability of another. Also, social stigma ;)

Class Abilities:
Class abilities include skills and magic. These will be determined by character. Casters will have a limited number of spells they can cast, for example, and rogues may have skills that will allow them to attempt specialized skill challenges.

Items:
Various items can either grant extra special abilities, or add to traits in appropriate contexts:

Eg:
Sword: +1 physical traits in a combat challenge
Bracers of Protection: +2 physical traits in a defensive combat action.
Poison: imbiber must pass physical challenge at a 4 trait difficulty.
Lockpicks: +1 physical trait for picking locks.


Right, time to get back to cleaning @_@