Cortical Implant

02/04/2024

I had a great time running They Come at Night at Conpulsion this year. We got a good turn out of players and had one of the highest body counts I've ever seen in one of our little personal apocalypse's.

This run was demonic entities rising up from the grave with the added twist, that the souls of the dead were able to posess the demons get a second chance at life and potentially come to humanities aid.

Just as well as I think we had 12 character deaths over 11 players this run.

01/04/2023

First mock ups for the IC character sheets for Battle of the Bands.

06/02/2023

Submissions are now open for the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program! This program focuses on amplifying the voices of up-and-coming hobby game designers with a focus on creators from marginalized communities.

The Emerging Designer Program provides both access and support to those designers that have historically been excluded from the larger industry conversations. While we recognize this program is only a first step in that process, our organization is committed to pushing forward, learning from mistakes, and improving the industry we love.

Designers who are selected as finalists receive a free badge and hotel room at Gen Con, up to $2000 travel reimbursement for both domestic and international travel, a $75 per day food stipend, a $500 – $2500 honorarium for presenting their work, and are showcased as a Diana Jones Emerging Designer at the event.

Eligible designers should have released their first professional or commercial publication (including free, self-published, PWYW, and PDF releases) no more than four years before the selection year. A designer selected for 2023’s Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program should not have first published before 2019, for example. We interpret “hobby game designer” broadly, to include both narrative and game mechanics design.

For Excellence in Gaming

05/02/2023

Wow, I've started playing with ChatGPT to get ideas for what might happen to some the artists in Battle of teh Bands so I can do a music magazine retrospective about the night.

It's been suprisingly helpful. I started by asking for biographies, but for all I changed about a few details in the prompt they were mostly very similar and followed the sme formula. Still enough to give me some ideas for the sort of language I might want to use, though.

Then I got it to give me some examples of events that might have ended a musician's carreer or caused them to try something different and give them examples of what they might do next. There were loads of ideas in there, way more than I can use, so I can just cherry pick the best ones.

Finally I got it to sugest things that musicians might consider their crowning achievement a it not only did that, bu fleshed out why they would consider it important.

24/07/2022

Words to live by in LARP as well as life.

13/07/2022

I wonder if I could get a few people together to buy it as a larp/paintball venue?

Detached house for sale in Bull Sandfort, Humber Estuary, Hull HU12 0UG, HU12 for £50,000. Marketed by Savills, National Auctions

11/07/2022

Had an amazing time at Tank LARP this weekend. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but I was looking forward to catching up with some friends that already new the game (who unfortunately came down with covid just before the event) and the wiki made it sound like an interesting LARP design. I even managed to avoid heat stroke or sunburn in the blazing sunshine. My poor Scottish blood doesn't respond well to the heat, but lots of fluids and an allied group (Yay for the Lucky 13th Tank Battalion) having a gazebo saved me.

The concept is a diesel punk military larp where you play one of two opposing factions aiming to progress a relatively drawn out war. Let’s be up front, it’s a military game where you play special forces war heroes with a degree of autonomy. But it’s very much centred around the war and carefully designed to hammer that home at every point.

The two factions (see the wiki for the details) that the players represent have signed the Attraxian accords (a mutual defence pact against external enemies (a set of powerful foreign enemies unexpectedly tore through multiple countries within living memory, killing thousands of soldiers and civilians). This means they can only fight within strict rules enforced by the equivalent of NATO. You'll have an NPC Attraxian medical observer along with you for each skirmish to ensure no war crimes are committed. They also have the OC job of deciding how badly hurt anyone reaching zero hp is (mostly due to time left bleeding out or savagery of the attacks that took you out). A small number of missions were against bandits, terrorists or dissidents and the rules of the accords were not in place there.

You can be more than a soldier, with options for surgeons and logistics officers as non-combat classes that get dedicated bits of the game only they can do at camp. The main combat classes vary from pure combat (lancer for melee and soldier for ranged) to hybrid classes (engineer to buff your unit and medic to give you a bit of on field healing). The classes are all interesting and I was having some trouble initially picking one until I ended up picking going for the special option and picking a Casshi'aan Tanker on the Ravaaran side. They aren't great on the field, but they get to go on a special tank battle mission and have a big impact on the strategic battle.

You work together in a crew of 3 to drive, load and fire the paintball cannon at an opposing tank and the number of solid and glancing hits scored by each side determines the outcome. It's not quite the free moving tank battle I was picturing as both tanks progress along a parallel road, stopping at intervals while firing 12 shots. But honestly, the tanks are so hard to operate I don't think you could safely do an open skirmish without days of training. Also... operating a tank under fire is f*cking amazing and the adrenaline really gets pumping.

There were roughly 10 skirmish missions available over the weekend with a few of those being key strategic fights. Strategic fights take place at a further away set of woods full of strategic emplacements and encounter spots. To get there your squad crams into the back of an actual APC and gets driven to the encounter start. Those 5-10 minutes with your squad mates surrounded by the roar of a 600hp engine and the smell of diesel fumes is an amazing way to add atmosphere to those fights. Incidentally, the higher price for combat classes is to pay for the hire and fuel for the APC. Trust me it's worth it.

The Nerf Rival weapons work really well for ranged combat. They have a decent range and you can actually feel them hit through costume. Well worth the price of compulsory eye protection on skirmishes. The skirmish fights were generally brutal and short due to the low hit points and low number of participants (I think the max is 10 per side, but neither side had that many combat characters). The base is 2 hp, so having a plan or getting positional advantage makes a big difference to the outcome. I suspect if we’d had more crew and players those might have stretched out into longer and more complex encounters

There’s no way to get hits back after a battle without a visit to the Surgeons to get checked over. A battle medic can get you back on your feet, but they aren’t fixing you up properly. If you get dropped during a fight you are at risk of longer term injury, particularly if the surgeons don’t treat you quickly. This means that the surgeons get caught up triaging patients and trying to prioritise the treatment order to keep casualties to minimum. It looked like they were having great fun and we had some great interactions with the medical staff.

Of course, being a military game the officers need to send in an after action report detailing what happened on the skirmish and any particular noticeable performances from the characters. This can result in formal commendations for the character or even a visit from a high ranking official coming to thank you or hit you up for special duties.

I didn’t have too much to do with the strategic game. But each event covers roughly 3 months of in game time and each day represents about a month. Those are further broken down into weeks that represent the turns of the strategic game. Each week you get an update to the strategic map and officers can issue instructions to their forces. Logistic Officers also get a supply order each month and although they can be used to resupply troops, their actual usage is really freeform and can be used to through money at political problems or support an important skirmish as well.
The politics is represented by the monthly newspaper (physical documents delivered to both camps at the start of each OC game day). You will see hints of things you are working towards and new opportunities in the news. This is supplemented with a regular mail call with letters from NPCs and you are free to contact people mentioned in the news or NPCs in your home nation from your background that might be useful. You’ll also get visitors from interested other nations and mercenary groups that have signed the accords (I think there’s about 8-10 beyond the player factions) and if you curry favour with those visitors they may eventually join your side and be unlocked for play.

There’s also a whole science/investigation element that I think our side hasn’t dug into very deeply yet. The humans of this setting were strictly medieval tech level until the invasion left behind relics of more advanced crystal based tech that they have spent 20 years reverse engineering. What causes those various crystals to form, how they work and how best to use them are all there to be discovered in game through character actions. Pretty sure Sean and the Red 69 crew know much more about this side of the game.

All in all, it’s a really fun military LARP that doesn’t go too far into milsim and gives the players a bit more slack to be big damn war heroes in a number of ways. It also has plenty of other elements for less combat focussed character and some interesting setting mysteries to investigate. The politics and strategy layers feel like a faster and more responsive version of they Empire LRP ones as they are handled in uptime rather than between events. The one thing it’s really missing is more players as if feels like it would run best with at least 15 per side rather than the 10 per side they are currently getting. Take a look at the wiki (Link in the comments) and don’t be afraid to ask me or the organisers questions if something might tempt you along?

26/06/2022

I'm starting to think about running regular short larp games again so I wanted to get a feel for when and where it might be practical to run games (I'm edinburgh based, but willing to travel a bit to play and run).
https://forms.gle/QbqpfYACYXJftjZt6
I'll share the results so people can see where there might be practical groups of available players for regular games.

Looking at possible player interest for upcoming short (2-6 hour) larp events in Scotland.

28/02/2021

I've been wanting to give DMing D&D 5e a another go properly for a while now and after a one off session over Christmas, I'm finally taking the plunge with a full campaign.

My last experience made me realise just how much work is required to run D&D compared to a lot of the indie games I normally GM, so I've picked what I'm running pretty carefully. I wanted something that's situation heavy and a lot of the mystery/intrigue is done for me so I can concentrate on making the sessions themselves as fun and interesting as possible. D&D really shines in when it comes to interesting combat, so I want to make sure I make the most of that with my players.

I'll be running a relatively old school Hex Crawl game (google Western Marches Hexcrawl if you aren't sure what that is). Setup is that the party is hired to go an explore the haunted and ancient ruins of a lost civilisation in a custom setting. Of course, the reason they are being hired is because another expedition came back with treasure, so there’s lots of other expeditions all competing for the same treasure. Should make things nice and spicy and keep the party from taking things too slow IC.

I'm experimenting with leaning into the OSR mentality as well. The campaign guide heavily limits the races, and I’m going further by ditching the artificer, monk, sorcerer and warlock classes altogether. Rather than the hard core OSR suggestion of only allowing a single sub class I’m going with two for each class that remains.

Races Allowed:
Variant Human (x3), Hill Dwarf, Halfling Lightfoot, Halfling Stout (Reskinned as Goblins), Goliath (Reskinned as Bearfolk)

The Classes and Sub-classes:
Currently allowed are:
Barbarian: Path of the Beast, Path of the Totem
Bard: College of Swords, College of Lore
Cleric: Knowledge Domain, Order Domain
Druid: Circle of the Moon, Circle of Wildfire
Fighter: Battlemaster, Rune Knight
Paladin: Oath of the Crown, Oath of the Watcher
Ranger: Gloom Stalker, Swarmkeeper
Rogue: Scout, Inquisitive
Wizard: Abjuration, Transformation

More to follow about my setup and Session 0 in future posts.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309401/The-High-Moors

The High Moors (5E) - **REVISED EDITION!** Includes: > 60 battlemaps for Virtual Table Top play! > revised and clarified text > new

20/01/2021

Queensland Museum

Many moons ago I was starting to think about how you could use more puppets in LARP. This looks like an awesome candidate for a design.

It’s our birthday! We’re celebrating turning 159 years old with Ebony and Webster reading “Happy Birthday Muttaburrasaurus!”

Grab your copy of the Queensland Museum publication online here: https://bit.ly/3nQZ67W

17/10/2020

Focus vs. Background

This is a really useful set of language to use when talking about your game, whether it's tabletop or larp.

One of the questions I ask when looking at a game to run, is “What kinds of conflicts make sense?”. This isn’t conflict in the sense of “combat” specifically, this is …

22/09/2020

The Wagadu Chronicles - Afrofantasy MMO for role-play

I've been reading through the free 5e RPG setting book that accompanies the Wagadu Chronicles kickstarter. You don't even have to back it to get a copy.

It's got a load of really flavourful ideas and concepts in it for an game inspired by the cultures of Africa. Looking forward to reading more over the next few days.

An Afrofantasy world to explore both as an isometric MMO built for in-character roleplay and as a 5E-compatible tabletop setting!

29/06/2020

Laura

There's still 24 hours to get your submission in for The Smoke.

Not sure what the rules are on this, but both mine and my sparring partners games were not "final" at this stage. Just solidly concepted out and a good idea for the system. So your game doesn't have to be perfect before you submit. Just at a stage you are comfortable you can test and run it in time for the event.

You have a little over 24 hours to submit any larps - they don't have to have been run before, and can just be a pitch at this stage as long as we can get either a larp script by November. We understand that you may not be able to travel in January. As long as you intend to come to the Smoke if you can we would welcome your pitch.

I know that the form is quite complicated - we ask for a lot of information so that players can know what they're signing up for. If you need any help with the form please feel free to FB message me and I'll offer any support and advice that I can.

We have some great larps already.

Please do not be held back by imposter syndrome. I'm happy to look through things or do anything I can to support you.

07/06/2020

Black AF Roundtable of TTRPG Creators

A glimpse into the experience of the black TTRPG community. It's very much from an American perspective, but a lot of the advice applies regardless of where you are from.

A roundtable that is Black AF! Creators in the RPG space having a long overdue convo but in front of a few thousand folks about race, racism and being black ...

25/03/2020

Cortical Implant

Cortical Implant

*Shared World Campaign Idea*

I’ve been playing about with an idea to run a tabletop RPG that gets that community feel of a local LARP and I think I have a workable framework that could be adapted to most genres/settings.

At the moment I'm playing about with the idea with the potential to lead something if there's player and GM interest, but feel free to use the ideas for your own shared game.

*What Players Do*

Players play self-contained episodic adventures over voice chat augmented by shared desktop for character sheets dice rolls. The expectation is they would join 1-2 of these per month and would each have a have sub goal that advance their faction’s agenda that they can achieve.

They can see or discern clear results on the back of their missions, succeed or fail.

Outside of the Episodic Adventures they can hang out IC on chat channels representing a small number of home base locations and talk IC and recruit for their faction. These would be ongoing for optional free play, but specific advance notified events with NPCs would be run a couple of times per month.

*Game Design Elements*

This is still forming, and I’m not settled on a “best” system for this yet.

+ Setting should support missions or other self-contained short adventures.
+ There should be a shared home base for people to retreat to.
+ Players should all be on the same side, but factions differ in approach and philosophy.
+ Characters should transform in terms of personality and capability rather than increase in power level.
+ Mission rewards should advance the player base or faction goals but may also unlock new (but not better) capabilities that could replace existing ones.
+ The faction that is achieving enough objectives grants members of that faction a small bonus on their adventures.

*Possible Setting Ideas* (Serial numbers may need to be filed off)

+ Gangs of Tatooine – Member’s of Jabba’s court perform heists, hits and bounties. Factions are his main lieutenants vying for status.
+ Heroes of Knossos – Heroes from the court of Minos travel the Mediterranean working to defeat terrible monsters for the glory of their chosen gods.
+ Dumbledore’s Army – The allies of the death eaters have seized control of magical society. You are other members of the resistance trying to help the downtrodden and strike back where you can.

*Technology Elements*

+ Discord Server & a few channels.
+ Discord Bot to handle emotes and character alias/description.
+ Setting wiki with character overview (Maybe Scabbard)
+ Tabletop game system (probably Roll20)
+ Dice roller (also probably Roll20)

*GM Requirements*
+ 2-4 GMs
+ Run 1-2 adventures per month
+ Spend 1-2 hours per week in joint planning and creative sessions

Happy to hearideas, thoughts or notes of interest either as a player or GM?

24/03/2020

*Shared World Campaign Idea*

I’ve been playing about with an idea to run a tabletop RPG that gets that community feel of a local LARP and I think I have a workable framework that could be adapted to most genres/settings.

At the moment I'm playing about with the idea with the potential to lead something if there's player and GM interest, but feel free to use the ideas for your own shared game.

*What Players Do*

Players play self-contained episodic adventures over voice chat augmented by shared desktop for character sheets dice rolls. The expectation is they would join 1-2 of these per month and would each have a have sub goal that advance their faction’s agenda that they can achieve.

They can see or discern clear results on the back of their missions, succeed or fail.

Outside of the Episodic Adventures they can hang out IC on chat channels representing a small number of home base locations and talk IC and recruit for their faction. These would be ongoing for optional free play, but specific advance notified events with NPCs would be run a couple of times per month.

*Game Design Elements*

This is still forming, and I’m not settled on a “best” system for this yet.

+ Setting should support missions or other self-contained short adventures.
+ There should be a shared home base for people to retreat to.
+ Players should all be on the same side, but factions differ in approach and philosophy.
+ Characters should transform in terms of personality and capability rather than increase in power level.
+ Mission rewards should advance the player base or faction goals but may also unlock new (but not better) capabilities that could replace existing ones.
+ The faction that is achieving enough objectives grants members of that faction a small bonus on their adventures.

*Possible Setting Ideas* (Serial numbers may need to be filed off)

+ Gangs of Tatooine – Member’s of Jabba’s court perform heists, hits and bounties. Factions are his main lieutenants vying for status.
+ Heroes of Knossos – Heroes from the court of Minos travel the Mediterranean working to defeat terrible monsters for the glory of their chosen gods.
+ Dumbledore’s Army – The allies of the death eaters have seized control of magical society. You are other members of the resistance trying to help the downtrodden and strike back where you can.

*Technology Elements*

+ Discord Server & a few channels.
+ Discord Bot to handle emotes and character alias/description.
+ Setting wiki with character overview (Maybe Scabbard)
+ Tabletop game system (probably Roll20)
+ Dice roller (also probably Roll20)

*GM Requirements*
+ 2-4 GMs
+ Run 1-2 adventures per month
+ Spend 1-2 hours per week in joint planning and creative sessions

Happy to hearideas, thoughts or notes of interest either as a player or GM?

30/09/2019

Text Communication in LARP

This is a pretty handy guide to clearer communication that can really help people with reading difficulties.

Let’s talk about accessibility. When we are thinking about accessibility, people think about ramps, safety mechanics, inclusion, pronouns, noise levels, etc.  Why don’t people think about read…

04/07/2019

Pew 0.62

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my star wars inspired adventure larp (working title Pew!). I love the idea, but it has a lot of accessibility issues and weekend events require too much planning and financial commitment for me at the moment.

Time for a pivot.

What it was a modern setting larp about young magical activists attempting to undermine the traditionalist magical houses. A new leader among the traditionalists has come to power and isn't afraid to meddle in mundane affairs to make things "better" .

It'd probably be quite opinionated politically and a way to explore some interesting issues within society at the moment.

I'd also probably remove all use of larp weapons and just keep the wands so it could potentially be played without a massive private venue. It'd also make me much more comfortable opening it up to under 18s.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17e_jrvgZ5ilb39IgFyi9WHpMjPJIDP-vFPXSe2cGbGw/edit?usp=drivesdk

Pew! Pew! Pew! The Templars are all but extinct, the Union has fallen and in their wake, the Luminary Empire has engulfed the far reaches of the galaxy in fear. Persecuted members of the Old Union have been thrust into hiding. Only members of the Hidden dare take a stand against the ruthless Im...