steve1
Experienced Poster
Posts: 240
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Post by steve1 on Jun 14, 2007 10:57:58 GMT
I'd like to add my two pence worth to this discussion. With regard to player numbers, 18-20 was only reached on a few occasions, and that was generally when we had a few new players who were only here for a couple of games all in system at the same time. The average from my perspective that we had attending was about 12 to 15, but this still means we have lost a few players for whatever reasons. Now as LARPing in general is always viewed as somewhat geeky, attracting new players is always an issue and i generally find it tends to be a word of mouth thing, advertising, as it is a geeky subject only gets you so far. Also, as a result of this negative impression of roleplaying in general there tends to only be a finite number of players in a given city/town who would consider roleplaying, whether tabletop or Larp. Another point to note is the size of our current venue, 9 - 10 players seems about right, there's no way we'd fit 18-20 in the CoB, let alone have a fight. With regard to revitalising the game, i love the system and the plots we've been having, i agree with Will's point with plot hooks, however i have always found them to generally be well used, it's just whether they're picked up on or not. The idea that's been mentioned of maybe having a different game system, say like nightwatch I think could be great fun, i always like trying my hand at a new system, espec if the quality of the roleplaying is as it is at the mo. I think keeping the modern horror idea is a def must. In fact i think the horror and suspense should be emphasised, it seems to go down well in darktimes after all. Maybe on this front we could keep descriptions of powers and abilities of beings whether player or npc as general descriptions until you actually encounter it, just to add to the level of terror. Whether changing the system will bring in new players considering what i said earlier re finite number of players in a city i don't know, it's worth a try, there's nothing to say that if the players agree with it we could try a new system for say 6 months or a year and if it's not liked or doesn't attract new players you could always ressurect the old vampire system. steve
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Post by james on Jun 14, 2007 22:34:56 GMT
Cheers Steve,
You're right about the finite number of players in a city. We know, I think now, most of the residential Brighton larper through a mixture of association and Brighton Below etc. As Simon's said though many refuse to play vamp for the reasons he said. Approaching SWARM each year is often worth it but tends to bring in 1 or 2 players at most.
Though as a point regarding the venue size we've had at a push 27 in there (the 7th Sphere auction) so can have a larger number but it just means no combat in there, which is easily planned for by cunning use of the level.
Though we don't want to cram people in like sardines just thought I'd make the point that I reckon we could easily have 15-20 players in there regularly.
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Post by felixedwards on Jun 17, 2007 19:30:09 GMT
It was said ages ago that their might be some 1 off games. Depending on whether the organisers are busy or not.
However what Seve has said is true about LRP and what steve says about trying a new system for a few months and if that does not work then we will always have the current system.
Nick
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Post by james on Jun 18, 2007 14:34:31 GMT
That's quite right Nick, easy enough to revive if something else were tried and we wanted to switch back.
Right, we 3 have had a little chat and we're gonna aim to time out the game early to have a little chat face to face to follow this up. Internets all well and good but not the fastest/easiest communication and not everyone gets a say. So we'll probably aim to end about 10-10:15 depending on how heavy the plot is at the time. That way we've got a decent amount of time for everyone to speak up and have their say.
p.s. While I've got everyone's attention, due to an appointment later this week I can't wear my contacts tomorrow. So fraid all my characters will have glasses. Hopefully this won't confuse anyone, if you can pretend your vampires you can probably ignore JFDs sudden four eyes.
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Zombie
Regular Poster
Posts: 54
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Post by Zombie on Jun 20, 2007 9:50:55 GMT
One thing I have noticed as a relatively new player is the gulf in power between starting characters and established ones. It's easy to feel completely over-powered in comparison. For instance, everyone who mans the door seems to have Security rank 5. This is the first thing a new character walking in the door is faced with. The first fight one of the new players witnessed recently started with a call of "Celerity 6". If vampire was to continue, and as a Neonate game, I would like to see the ceiling on skill limits lowered. Having a power to aim for is fine, but not when the target seems too far out of reach. Brighton Below seems to have a better skill and power system from this respect. A newly starting locksmith will be just as skilled as an established character, and could have the same "kewl powerz". The established character would have the advantage of a wider range of skills, hore HP and Will, or the "Advanced" powers. Then again, this could just be a bad case of xp envy. Richard
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Post by james on Jun 20, 2007 11:00:19 GMT
Richard,
It's one of those hard things to balance, and do think it's slightly to do with xp envy in honesty. ;D
In any system the more experienced characters should and want to be considered more powerful than newbies. BUT I completely see your point about gulfs between characters, and newbies encountering extreme powers from day 1.
The trouble is though that with a game run as regularly as vampire there need to be enough skills/powers/ranks (delete as appropriate) to allow people to develop their character over the 2 or 3 years they may be playing them, while advancing at a sensible rate (i.e: getting the joy of levelling up regularly to keep people advancing and interested but without them getting higher powers too quickly and easily!)
Rest assured it's something we're considering in the rules...
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Post by james on Jun 20, 2007 11:09:04 GMT
Thanks to all those who attended the meeting. Some very good and positive discussion.
For those that couldn't attend a very brief summary:
Mostly the players are happy with vampire, the game and the way it's run. However there is still concern about falling numbers (specially with some more people leaving soon) and vampire's inability to draw in more players - evidence of this could be in the "we don't do vampire" response of many larpers (e.g. There's approx 50 larpers on the Brighton below books and only 1 comes to vamp). So, we are in the process of drawing up a new system all of our own. It will be loosely based on influences from Nightlife (a predecessor to World of Darkness), Nightwatch (books/films) and other influences such as WoD itself. Still modern horror but with a different slant and various playable races/creatures.
We're aiming rules, which will be simpler than vampire, to be available shortly and aiming for a playtest in August. The idea being that at that point Vampire would be frozen for a few months while we try this. At the end of a trial period we'd review and see what people like better.
Think it's important to note the following points: 1) We, the organisers, will continue running a regular game as we like this group and think it's important. So getting rid of vampire wouldn't be the end of darklight or anything. 2) We will run a game the players are happy with - there's no point us forcing a new system on people if the players don't like it. 3) Vampire rules and system will still be around, we won't be deleting them and so should the decision to be made to go back to it this is possible - no decision on this is ever a final thing.
Hope that's clear to all (as said, is a brief summary of the discussion and important points). Once we've got a rules system we're happy with this will be put up for players opinions and input.
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