LARP rules translated

So the other day, the By Night Studios guy contacted me about my Larp (and my clever remarks), and asked me a few questions on how we played in our LARP. So I translated for him the rules we had as well as showed him the old character sheets we made. So here it is, for the lulz. All examples were the original ones, written before I was even assigned playing Claudia Vonigner :p :


And this was our character sheet :




And here was an exemple (I had made it lighter, but can't find the original PSD...)





Challenges

Challenges are the way of resolving conflicts, all kinds of them. There are three kinds of challenge ; normal ones, static ones, or simple ones.

A normal challenge happens as this ; the player who starts it “bets” at least one of his traits against his adversary, while stating the conditions to resolve such challenge (hit him, read the aura…). The defendant decides if he accepts it or if he tries to resist/oppose the action of the acting player. If he opposes, the defendant bets one of his traits in response. They both must use logical traits to act or defend themselves (you don’t use Appearance to try and resist a fist in the mouth). There are three kinds of challenge (physical, mental or social, big surprise), and the traits must all come from one same category.
The defendant must match the number of traits the acting player had bid, or he must bet higher. The acting player then can bid once more, until the number of traits bid by each party match each other’s.
Let’s take an example. Theodore, Brujah Primogen who’s had enough, decides to kick Gregory’s ass, the Toreador Primogen (Gregory is the toreador primogen, not his ass). T approaches G, announces his Physical Challenge to hit G, and bids two STR traits. G, smart enough to know he could never match with any number of traits, gives up, and takes it like a man. G loses one health level, but everyone keeps his traits.

If at any point, one gives up the challenge, he faces the action but he keeps his traits. If the number of traits matches and everyone has bid, then the action resolves as following, and the loser loses all the traits he had bided.
Let’s take a follow-up example. Alaister, the Tremere ghoul, decides he’s going to take the opportunity to get a Toreador Boon and approaches Theodore telling him he’s going to hit him, and bids one DEX trait for it. Theodore smiles, bids one STA and one STR in exchange, explaining he’s not afraid of the ghoul and he’ll respond in consequence. Alaister bids two STR traits (he really wants that boon, plus Gregory had promised him the moon), and Theodore matches up with one DEX trait. Each had bid three Physical traits, the resolution happens. To resolve, each take out their pack of cards (from ace to 10), mix it up, and draw two cards from each other’s packs. Theodore’s cards were a 4 and a 9, while Alaister’s were a 7 and a 3. Theodore wins the action as his total was higher than Alaister’s. Alaister loses his three bid traits (2 STR and one DEX) as well as one health level, while Theodore keeps all his traits and smiles as the ghoul will have a rough night.


A static challenge is like a normal challenge, except it’s against “the environment”, so the player faces a narrator. The player bids his traits as usual, but the difficulty (that means, the number of traits the environment bids) is unknown and will be revealed only after the first bid. If the difficulty is higher than the initial bid, then the initial bid is lost. The player can then match up to the difficulty and resolve the action. If there’s a tie with the narrator, the player wins.
Let’s take another example. Lyle is having a good time while playing his favourite online game, but his internet connexion is lost ! Because he has the Informatics skill, needed to hack another system, Lyle decides he’s not going to give up on his fun and that his neighbor’s internet will do the trick just fine. To “check”, Lyle bids a INT trait, and the narrator tells him the difficulty is Four. Lyle laughs out and bids four more INT traits, for a total of 5, wins his action, gets his internet and keeps playing. But he lost the initial INT trait. Note that he could have bid only three more traits to match the difficulty, but Lyle’s player has terrible luck when it comes to random card drawing, so he’d rather bid higher and be sure he’d win (would he have tied, he’d win anyway).


A simple Challenge has no bidding ; we just compare traits against the difficulty of the action ; if he matches or has more, the action is a success.
Another example : The Sheriff is looking for the Prince’s keys, he obviously lost them. The difficulty to spot the shiny metal on the floor is of one, and the Sheriff has at least one trait in Perception. He takes the keys and puts them in his pocket.


If there is a tie between the players during resolution, the players, starting with the one who initiated the action, reveal a number of traits lower or equal to their actual total in the category they were acting in. The player showing the least traits loses the duel, and as such, he loses the challenge. If both players reveal the same number of traits, the defendant wins.
An example. Claudia scolds Lyle, saying he’s still wasting time in “those stupid game of yours while we’re expected in Elysium”. She starts a Challenge to talk him out of playing. She bids two CHA traits (she wants him out, alright). Lyle argues that it is a vital part of his research, to get to know mortals, and bids three MAN traits (it’s a subject close to his dead heart). To match up her sire’s, Claudia bids an APP trait and gets cute at him, matching the total. They draw their cards and.. tie. Claudia reveals Four Social Traits, hoping her Sire wouldn’t be able to match up. Lyle reveals Four as well, and Lyle wins the Challenge as he was the defendant. Claudia loses her three traits (two CHA and one APP) and it seems she’ll be off to Elysium all alone.

Once the action resolves, the loser can always outbid. He must bid another trait (one that has not been already lost in the Challenge), each opponent must match up to this bid, and each player, starting with the outbidder, reveals their total in the category in which the challenge was made in. If the outbidder has at least twice the amount of traits his opponent has, he is considered to have won the challenge, but his opponent only loses one trait.
Let’s follow our example. Claudia, pissed off at her sire and a little down because of her recent loses, decides her sire won’t get away with it. She announces she outbids, and uses her secret technique, by bidding one APP trait. Lyle, forced to bid as well, decides he’ll seduce her childe into leaving him to his raid, and bids as well an APP trait (to match up). Claudia reveals an amazing total of eleven Social traits. Lyle, with his 5 total traits, can’t match up, succumbs to the secret technique and interested in her new approach of “going to Elysium together”, he says good bye to his raid and follows his childe.

If the player possess an Ability (Talent, Skill, Knowledge) that matches the action he’s attempting, he can use one of those traits to force his opponent to try again the test. The opponent can use one of his own traits in that same ability to counter that effect. If the player has three traits in one same ability, he can use a fake trait as much as he likes as long as he has not lost the true traits. Once used, an ability trait spent is not available for the rest of the night.
An example. Claudia wishes to read Lyle’s intentions, once she’s drawn him into Elysium through her secret technique. Lyle resists, they both bid Mental traits, match up, resolve the action. Despite the world wide known bad luck Lyle has at drawing cards, Lyle wins the challenge, is about to celebrate the mirable… Until Claudia bids an Empathy trait to make him redraw. He redraws and fails against his childe. Claudia having three dots in her Empathy Talent, she does not lose the empathy trait she bid as it was the “spare trait” given by her mastery of the Talent. Were she to have only two points in Empathy, the one she used to make Lyle draw again would have been lost (bringing her total to 1 instead of 2 for the rest of the night).

So, apparently Lyle sucks at drawing cards. xDD

That's because Lyle (the guy, not the character ^^) has an amazing bad luck. Really. REALLY bad luck.

That's hilarious. Does it make him hard to take seriously in the LARP? xD

That's why he almost never engaged in any challenge himself, and whenever someone did, he made sure he'd bid more traits if possible XD

I have perfected the art of rock-paper-scissors.

It's the reason why we didn't use shifumi to begin with XD It's easy to cheat it. You can't cheat drawing cards from someone else's deck

Or if you can, why aren't you playing at Monte Carlo or Las Vegas?

Sio wrote:

So, apparently Lyle sucks at drawing cards. xDD

I just re-read this, and got a good chuckle out that comment, Sio. These forums seriously need a Like button. That, or I spend entirely WAY too much time on Facebook.

I want to have ALL the likes. And not just because I'm attention-starved. |':


Okay,
*Because* I am attention-starved. |':

We're all attention whores in our own special way - just some more than others...

The truth hurts sometimes...: