Death fest?

Dr Larn · Death fest?

So, this is completely me just thinking out loud... having just watched an awesome zombie ending...

And I was wondering just how many people would go to an event where the chances of death were extraordinarily high?

With so many Reavers that staying alive was harder then it sounded?

Personally I think that would be amazing... Imagine the last stands!

Thoughts?

Beacon

I've always seen LARP (I'm sure like most) as part story-telling, part game. This leave you with the interesting dichotomy between, on one hand, whether the majority dying is 'good for the story', and whether it is 'a fair game'.

To run an event that has the risk or 60% casualty up to a TPK, you run the risk of players thinking it wasn't a fair game. That said, if you can make the story and atmosphere good enough, and leave all the dead folk thinking they should've/could've done something different (players should never be left with a situation where there was literally nothing they could do to survive an event), then you could make a very rewarding event.

Hell.. I'd be up for it - I do like being scared at LARP, and I do like heroic last stands.

Blibs

I once crewed a Stargate event where we had a huge fight over the sand dunes. Several players died in it. Once it was over I was walking back to the crew hut and there was still a player lying on the floor where he died with a huge grin on his face.

I don't think there's too much of a problem with player death as long as it's fair.

Capt Tom Crowson

I personally wouldn't have minded if I died, and I am quite surprised that more people didn't. As far as I know the only casualty was Prince and he did himself in.

Considering that we were being besieged by Reavers, the fact that a ponce in a silk jacket with only a pistol still walked out of there is pretty amazing. The only reason that I was in such a bad way was because I couldn't remember the rules so just took damage from everything

I do think that provided that the death is fair, and that everyone else is taking their hits etc then players don't mind so much. Telling a story is part of it, but in many stories people die

I wouldn't be averse to the rules been souped up a little to make survival a little harder

Admin Monkey

For someone who was NPCing with no actual physical stats, I was there to bleed profusely if I got shot... I think that medics being as great as they are is definetely something that prevented a lot of deaths over the course of the weekend.

I agree with Trez - as long as everyone is taking the htis and playing fair, then death is fine. What I dislike with Death Fests is the Death fest where there's nothing you can do about it. If the Plot Team have decided you die, that sucks. At least give me a chance ot get out of it, even if I did land myself in it, y'know...

Prince

Vera

Dr Larn

Some interesting thoughts.

Basically this came after watching zombies... like I said... and the fact that when they come, it doesn't matter how they got there, you're basically humped. (not sure if swearing isn't allowed here or not).

But I would love to have seen an event where there were just so many Reavers that they could have overthrown the olt of us at the event... like they charge in and take the front group to the floor and start eating leaving the rest of us the chance to run or help our friends... I think that would be amazing.

I think there would obviously be a chance to survive... you can always hide... but I would love to do something like, if you didn't get back to your ship it was assumed that you would just starve to death...something that really hit home with the terror of Reavers... something that really showed just HOW bad they are.

Not that anyone thinks they're a walk in the park Razz

Just thinking aloud.

Vera

Ok and now for something a little more coherent.

Something like this would be absolutely amazing... and terrifying from a player POV. I like mass death and terror in my scifi larps, no matter what side I'm playing it on...

I would have a preference for being on the player side though. Who wouldn't in that situation?? Laughing

I have to tell ya, when I Alliance soldiered it as Crew, those reapers scared the tzao-gao outta me.. for the few seconds I had before they dragged me off anyway. That's the kinda death fest that makes you feel "oooohh yeah!" and gives you adrenaline shakes. Twisted Evil

But you're right. Even just a few of those guys are scarey as all hell anyway!

Jon

Grr and I penned rules for a 'Schaffers Last Chancers' style game the other day. With a bit of playtesting, reshuffling and getting the right site and props together the intention is to run a real death fest of a game sometime.

Mr Heron

Wotcha everyone,

I'm getting old and slow, now, so whilst I enjoy combat going on *around* me, I really prefer to be a bystander rather than a partaker...

I also think that it's really, really easy to write a game where most of the players are going to die. You take a large monster crew, hand out too few resources to the players, and press the "Start" button.

To me, the skill is in writing an event where only the stupid or unlucky will die, whilst all the players think they're going to die during the next attack. I don't want my character to die because of statistics. I want my character's death to mean something. That's the "Win" condition, and that's where I think this last event worked.

Most people I know who enjoy the concept of dying in the mud don't see themselves paying for an event, only to die during the first night and then monstering for the next day and a half. They see themselves surviving, because that's where the "Cool" is. Just as in real life, no-one expects to be the first one face down and dying.

I'm not implying that anyone here would go into such an event with such a naive view, but I know I prefer the *illusion* of things being hopeless, whilst still being a real challenge to survive, to a "Most of us will not walk out of this" event. There are some fantastic characters amongst the player-base, and I'd hate to see them become disposable...

Cheers,
Steve.

Gerwyn

As jon has already mentioned, we are looking at running a games based around the schaeffers last-chancers/dirty dozen in space at some point in the future.

The entire concept of this at the momment is that there is little to no character advancement with all the characters undergoing IC training (think starship troopers bootcamp) before being sent out on a suicide mission while having "explosive collars" strapped to their necks as incentive.

The emphasis of the game would be in creating amusing, appropriate and dramatic deaths while still managing to complete the mission.

it's still a lot of work in progress, although i personal love the character generation system we've come up with Smile

What is your sin, Soldier?!!

Vera

I hear ya, Mr Heron. I don't think it's something I'd see as doing to the Serenity characters and stuff... death and life both have meaning in the Serenity LRP 'verse after all.

As Ger says, I was thinking it'd be a different thing altogether... more a horror thing where maybe you might have a few lucky (or unlucky?) survivors. Smile

O.D.

Blibs

All sounds lots of good fun to me.

If you need any help with the play testing etc. I'm definately up for it.

Dr Larn

Skippy

I like the idea of a 'alternate earths' style death fest, which means we would get the fun, but not our cool characters dying. As I don't know if I will ever be able to stop speaking in Australian...

Meg

Tobias Rieper

Coben Dane

Sven

At the risk of thread necromancy...

I personally am a massive fan of high risk LRP games where character death is likely. My best event of all time was one where by the end I was on my third character.

To get around the PC's feeling cheated, I can think of two options.

1. Charge less, and make it clear why.

2. Allow PCs that die before a certain point to play PC's again. For example, plan to have the main group of PC's come across another group of survivors on saturday early afternoon, consisting of the new players of those that died on friday night.