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One_Wing
Feb 19, 2012

Handsome, sophisticated space elves.

Hedningen posted:

I'm beginning to gear up for a game in the fall - looking to do a week-long persistent world game in a somewhat cyberpunk setting. It's halfway between an ARG and a LARP, as the week is primarily for resource gathering, preparation, and alliances, all leading up to the event. Still finishing up some mechanics, as I will never be satisfied with how hacking works - it's gone through a few revisions. I may as well ask some goons what they think of the following:
  • The Basic: Several 'burner' e-mail accounts are registered. Players with Hacking can commit resources (essentially running calculations on a system and outputting the results) to get the password, whereupon they're given the password to the e-mail account.
  • Location-based: Hacking is purely about spending time at a certain location - players must check into specific places utilizing GPS services/Foursquare/Whatever, and remain in that area for a certain amount of time without corporate security catching them
  • Pointlessly Complex: A programmer friend of mine talked about making some simple little logic games to represent hacking - harder ones represent harder security. They're all accessible from a domain, with different 'accounts' leading to different things. Obviously would take a lot of time to set up.

If anyone has any suggestions for how to handle this sort of thing, I'd love to hear it. I'm not too experienced with really complex, large-spanning ARG-type games, so this has been a bit of a new experience for me to set up.

The local club I attend organises regular 7/14 week run parlour LARP games. A few years back some friends and I ran a near future (2019-2021) sci-fi game centring around an internet chat room for people who look into conspiracy theories, and we tried a few things to add a slight ARG slant to it. For example, when a player in game set up a pyramid scam, we found that we could get hold of the DNS name they'd chosen for it for only £10, so we did, set up a basic html front page and then when other players ran internet wide campaigns distributing secret messages we started embedding them in the otherwise boilerplate pyramid scam write up that was on the page. We then made sure that there were links to the site in the weekly in-character news. Some people did read it, but I think if we were doing it again I'd want to flag it up much more obviously. The thing we did that worked much better, since one of the GMs had access to a pile of USB sticks he'd been handed by various companies at a careers fair, was format them (to make sure we weren't accidentally distributing real-world viruses) then put some autorun stuff on there that did things when plugged into a player's real computer. The rule was, if you chose to plug the stick in that represented your character doing the same, so you had to do whatever the messages that came up said, which usually ran to maybe one binary choice and went to "Email the GMs and tell them that this happened".

That idea could be developed significantly further that we took it, I think, and we also had fun turning the USB sticks into cool props which were very well received by the players (Including embedded in a plastic rose where your revealed the connector by detaching the stem). Having tangible things to take away is cool. You could easily include some puzzles etc. as you suggested. THe only concern would be that you'd want to only do this with a playerbase computer savvy enough, again, to not start a Conficker infestation by passing USB sticks between them.

The other memorable thing from that game was one player explaining the type of cryptography they were going to use in-game by sending us some files encoded that way. My computer still complains about those files every time I run a full virus scan. It doesn't trust what it cannot understand.

I'll also join those saying that Empire is awesome - the company running it have done a fantastic job creating a system that is just non-stop fun to play, and this is only two games into its run, with both so far having had some major problems with British weather (-14 degrees centigrade at night at the first event, 46 MPH gusts of wind during set-up at the second).

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One_Wing
Feb 19, 2012

Handsome, sophisticated space elves.

atal posted:

I'm actually pretty interested in Empire (and so are two of my equally nerdy friends) but I'm a bit overwhelmed with what to do next. :ohdear:

What, in particular, are you stuck on, and is there anything you want to ask, as it would appear that there are several Empire players in the thread? As LARP events go, it's relatively accessible for new players, and the game is well set up to make sure that even people who come in fresh have plenty to do. If you want advice on choosing skills, obtaining costume or what actually goes on at an event I'm more than happy to give it.

One_Wing
Feb 19, 2012

Handsome, sophisticated space elves.
I don't think I've encountered much fo Calimacil's stuff in the UK so I can't really comment. IDV arrows cause arguments over here as well however, arguably with good cause as I feel that overdrawn IDV shots are some of the least safe blows I've taken in all my time LARPing. Recently in the UK there's been a huge upswing in the use of blue foam heads formed into a shape like an IDV, as can be seen on the LARP archery page of the following site:

http://www.fairbowuk.com/

I can't recommend these enough - they fly better than traditional foam heads due to improved aerodynamics, but don't hit as hard as an IDV, so bring a substantial part of the best of both worlds. I'm not sure what the source is, but a whole bunch of traders have started stocking arrows made with them - I believe I heard that a company has started selling the heads, and people are buying them and making the shafts to go with.

One_Wing
Feb 19, 2012

Handsome, sophisticated space elves.

atal posted:

Bah, I could have gone to the Empire on the 23rd but I'm not gonna have time to make a costume before then - sad times.

e: screw it, does anyone have a link to the FB travel group?

The travel group is here. What nation are you looking at?

One_Wing
Feb 19, 2012

Handsome, sophisticated space elves.

atal posted:

Thanks! Realistically I'll go as whatever I can source a costume for in two weeks - I'm not sure if I could just turn up and be an NPC with rented gear but I'd be up for that. Do you have PM's? I don't want to poo poo up the thread.

Basically it looks to be an awesome setup. The Orc background appeals and they seem to be quite close-knit but having looked into the various groups they also seem to be pretty hardcore about costuming/make up and I'm not sure I want that kind of mess.

PCing doesn't require that much costume, and the nations are diverse enough that you probably have the right kit for at least one of them somewhere.

On the other hand, PD are looking for more dedicated monster crew (see their blog post, which includes contact details for those interested, here), so if you want to come and monster/NPC, they can probably find a place for you!

One_Wing
Feb 19, 2012

Handsome, sophisticated space elves.

Hedningen posted:


Well, to round things off, I may as well show my latest project. I do some homecrafting of LARP gear, as I am one of those Americans who has figured out how Liquid Latex works. One of my biggest problem with LARP polearms is the fact that they don't really get to the length that some older polearms would get to - the point of a blade on a stick is keeping your opponent as far away from you as possible while still being able to make him bleed profusely and die.


One of the new features at Empire, compared to other games, is that pikes up to nine foot are allowed. Given that almost no-one has much practice fighting against them, the few full length ones around are terrifying weapons of death. Have fun with your new toy!

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One_Wing
Feb 19, 2012

Handsome, sophisticated space elves.
Not making Empire 1, but I should be at 2/4, and both Odysseys (as crew).

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