Stormhaven was the first LARP system I played at warwick. You got to buy the rules in a swish red binding for a couple of quid, and they have sat on my bookshelf for the last 8 years.

During a discussion I remembered that they had a pretty good ref guide (stormhaven had an overall system ref but active refs change from week to week - you applied to run a game and they penciled you in sometime so they incluided a guide to running adventurers: for those who have heard me talking about the 3 dead slug test, you will find it here about 3/4 of the wya down). Sadly the ref guide didn't exist in the electronic rules doc i have, and is thus in mortal danger of being lost forever. So I have scanned and OCRed it in, as it is a pretty good guide to how to run adventurers and I'd rather not see it lost to time. Sticking it on the wiki so i can reformat it whilst at work.

Hmmm primary and secondary games.... from the days when the larp society had enough players for that to be an issue....

Running a L.A.R.P.S. Game

Before you start Before you start writing your game, there are a number of key factors that you should consider before putting pen to paper:

Primary or Secondary?

Will your game be a primary or a secondary game? If it is a primary game, you have first choice of the number of people that will take part in your game, equipment, and you also know for sure the week your game will be running. If your game is a secondary game, you will have little choice of who will make up your party and the equipment you will have available to you. Obviously, the way you write a secondary must be far more careful than a primary. When writing a primary game, you have almost free reign about what you want to do. If you are running a secondary, you should make sure that you do not require any specific equipment as it may not be available to you, and be aware that you may have a very limited number of people on your game.

How large a party will you have?

Remember that in large parties, players may get lost. A fish is always bigger in a smaller pond, and so it is with party members. One or two more confident or overbearing members of the party can eclipse their fellow party members. In a small party, a rogue can be very valuable — in a larger party, there may be two rogues and one of them may become redundant. There are lots of reasons not to use a large party, but very few for. Experience has shown that most enjoyable party size tends to be of four or five members. However, this will be largely dependent on how many members you have available to use on your game (which is in turn dependent on whether you are running a primary or a secondary game).

How many monsters will you use?

If you are running a primary game, you have the choice of how many members you want to use on each side. A common mistake is that the Ref. decides that they will pile everyone into a single game that is not able to support them. The result is that a significant portion of your bodies find themselves uninvolved and urrinterested as many find themselves with little to do. It is far better to write a game assuming that there will be enough members for a secondary game to run, or to be very careful when writing a large game to ensure that the attendees will not find themselves simply ‘making up the numbers? For secondary games, you will not know how many people you could be getting — it could be as few as five or as many as ten. For this reason, secondary games must be very skillfully written with no points that require large numbers of monsters. It is best to assume a party of three and a similar number of monsters when writing a secondary game, but be ready to increase those numbers should there be a need.

Member’s monster to player ratios

A problem common to both primary and secondary games is what proportion of players to monsters to use. Typically, there should be only one or two more monsters than players. A comnon mistake by inexperienced Refs. is that they plan a large number of monsters compared to players so that they can do what is known as 'bounding encounters’ (where the Ref. takes half the monsters and sets up the next encounter whilst the players are in the current encounter). This poses a number of problems, especially for the inexperienced; Firstly it has an adverse effect on members’ monster to player ratio. Secondly, if you are required at the current encounter whilst you are preparing the following encounter (which is a frequent occurence), you are not available and the whole encounter falls apart. Although bounding encounters do work well in certain circumstances, this is usually where you are dealing with a small number of people who have a clearly defined brief (e.g. one monster in a conversation with the party whilst you are setting up the next encounter with the rest of the monsters).

Encounters

Introduction

Each game will consist of a number of linked ‘encounters’, usually lasting between 10 and 15 minutes each. An adventure generally consists of around 10 linked encounters. Most adventures are linear which is to say that each encounter will lead onto another, which take the players onto another, etc.

There are basically three different types of encounter;

• Combat,
• Role—playing
• Skill/puzzle.

Some specific cases of these encounters are common to all games — these are the player brief, the bandit encounter, and the final encounter. Below you will find descriptions of the diiferent types of encounter, with special mention given to the three specific encounters for each game.

Combat Encounters

As the name suggests, combat encounters are encounters that contain combat. Combat encounters usually add a welcome change of pace for the party and are often the primary outlet for skill use. As such, it is usual for the group’s battle boards to be updated after each combat encounter. There are a number of good guidelines to follow with combat encounters;

• Combat encounter should challenge the party — if you write four combat encounters into your game expecting three of them to be over in a minute, the party will probably feel as though they haven’t been challenged.
• Some Refs. write combat encounters that the party are forced to lose (by this I mean that the party are outnumbered, outclassecL and if they are doing well, the monsters are boosted so that the party cannot win). These are very unpopular with parties and should be avoided where possible.
• When creating the players’ opponents, you must remember that whilst the party may have more skills than the monsters, their skills must last the entire game whilst the monsters skill uses can all be burnt in one encounter. Therefore, a ‘fair fight’ on paper is usually far from fair in reality.
• Just because you have a party of five people, this does not mean that all will be taking part in a fight. It is quite common to have at least one party member who cannot fight, and as such an equal number of monsters as players usually gives a good fight. If you want it to be a very difficult! challenging fight, one more monster than player usually suffices.

Role—Play Encounters

The purpose of role-play encounters can vary quite significantly. Sometimes they are simply there to give the party someone to play off against, other times they are used to pass information to the party. Role-play encounters can be played in a number of ways, and hence little guidance can be given. However, you should be aware of the different ways you can use the different types of non-players characters (NPCs) — refer to ‘Using monsters and non—player characters.

Remember that with larger parties, you need more things of interest in the encounters, else some players will not be able to actively participate and so not enjoy the game so much.

Skill/Puzzle? Encounters

This type of encounter is used as an outlet for many of the non-combat based character skills and/or the party’s brains. As with role-play encounters, the outlets for this type of encounter can be quite broad, examples include the un-killable monster (get the party past a monster that can't be injured), a trap that resets after each time it is sprung, or solving a riddle to open a door.

It can be difficult to judge these encounters so be flexible as to their solutions. It is usually good to apply some sort of in-character time limit to prevent the encounter from dragging on (as it can tend to). You should also try not to create a puzzle that is easily beaten by, for example, someone with high alertness walking up, spotting the puzzle, and simply bypassing it in three seconds.

It should be possible for these types of encounters to be solved without the use of skills or magic, although the party should probably pay for their lack of imagination in blood. If a puzzle requires a specific skill or spell to solve, what happens when you discover that no one in the party has that skill or spell?

A good example of a puzzle encounter would be where a party have to find someone who is running from them. They are in a village where they knew he stayed last night, they know he’s good at hiding, and they know he has speed potions that will allow him to run if he sees them. The party must first find out where he went, track him, spot him, and take him out before he can run. To find where he went, they could track him or bribe the correct people. To spot him, they may need to purchase an alertness potion. To take him out, they could gamble on elixirs, blowpipes, or magic. Whichever method they use for any of these, it should need some planning and contingency on the part of the party.

The Player Brief

The player brief is usually a role-play encounter in which the players are introduced to the adventure and discover what part they are to play in it (e.g. are they protecting someone, transporting something, etc). The party will use this opportunity to ask questions, negotiate pay, and get introduced to one another.

It is very important to make sure that there is enough information in this encounter to ensure the players have a very clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish. As such, it is often a good idea if this encounter is run directly by the Ref, where they will take on the role of the employer.

Please try to avoid starting the adventurer by saying "you meet in a random pub" — it’s very implausible. The setting has tools for getting adventuring parties together (i.e. the Adventurer’s Guild and the League of Guardians) — please use them.

The Bandit Encounter

The Bandit Encounter is the first combat in a game, and is made up of a group of fairly weak combatants who attack the players (this should be unavoidable). This encounter is VERY IMPORTANT as it permits the Ref. to gauge the fighting potential of the party. If this encounter greatly weakens the party, then the combat needs to be downgraded, while if the monsters die in a few seconds without causing a single blow, then you should consider boosting the monster power.

It’s worth noting that the bandit encounter need not be bandits, it is simply a name that has stuck from our roots. The key thing to remember is that it is primarily a standard combat will little in the way of shock or surprise — you can almost think of it as a warm up.

Some question the need for the bandit encounter, but unlike a professional setting, the Warwick group is run for students who have probably had a good night the day before.

The Final Encounter

A The last encounter type is the Final Encounter. This is usually where the players face off with the most powerful villain so far and defeat his nefarious scheme (usually in a huge combat more diiiicult than all the others they have faced so far), This should be the grand finale, and should feel as such.

Using the correct mix of encounters

It is recommended that you attempt to achieve a balance between the different types of encounter so that people who dislike fighting or role—playing don't get bored, but neither do those who love to battle or delight in talking. Each encounter (especially the role-playing ones) should have a point to them. For the combat encounters, this is often just to provide a change of pace, and to give the players a reminder that their characters could die. The role-play encounters usually progress the plot and allow the characters to gain information. The skill/puzzle encounters either provide an obstacle to overcome, such as someone who must be persuaded to allow passage or give the characters information, or a riddle that must be solved before the players may proceed.

Using Monsters and Non-Player Characters (NPCs)

Introduction

There are many different types of monster that may appear in a game, and many different ways in which you can use the monster team available to fill those roles. This section not only gives general tips on how to use monsters, but also specific tips on how to use different sorts of roles (e. g. nobles, mages, etc.).

General Tips

Remember that the purpose of the monsters is not to facilitate the players — they are there to enjoy the game just as the players are. When using monster, Refs. should Ufv to take into account the following tips, both in writing and execution.

• Always aim for a monster to party ratio that is about equal. It is not usually necessary to have more than one or two more monsters than players (at most). For reasons of trying to keep the number of games played and monstered relatively equal, try to stick to this guideline. Bounding encounters are very difficult to get right — try them at your peril!
• Giving a monster all of the information for the game may seem a good idea, but they can easily become bewildered and lose sight of their more imminently important task. Try to keep information for monsters balanced.
• DO NOT choose monsters because they can do it better than someone else can. Choosing someone who makes a good ogre for the ogre every single game means that you are unfairly depriving the other monsters of the role. lt is very easy to end up with a single person getting two important roles and someone else being nothing but random nobody for several games in a row. Try to make sure than everyone has a chance to do something (particularly, do not run on volunteers only).
• Stressing the above point, do not write a role for a specific person. They may not play it the way you imagined. It also tends to cause the discriminatory effect described above. This also means that that person cannot go out on the game, whether they wanted to or not.
• Ensure every monster has a chance to do something.
• Do not have a succession of encounters with only a small fraction of the monster team being used. Games are not written for the enjoyment of the players only, and a continually bored monster party will penalise you strongly when awarding your xp.
• Do not be afraid of giving female roles to men, and vice versa- it can often be quite enjoyable for everyone.

Villagers

Villagers are the most common NPC types in role-play encounters. They tend to be ignorant of politics and indifferent to issues that do not affect them directly. They are also ignorant of the greater world around them in general and will tend to avoid non-humans and those with poor reputations. As they have no special value, they have little rights and no voice of come back against groups who have a higher social standing than them.

Professionals

A professional usually means a guild member (e. g. a blacksmith or a merchant). They are obviously richer than the common person and are on a similar scale of wealth as a character is. Although they are superior to commoners, they will usually be used as more worldly villagers. Unlike villagers, they actually have some rights through their guild association.

Officials

Officials could include civil servants, employees of nobles, or city watch and guards. The main thing to remember about these people is that they have power, either because of whom they work for or because they are representing the law. This means that if you mistreat an official, you could find yourself in trouble! Officials are essentially promoted villagers, and although they have more power than the normal person (frequently including an adventurer), they will also recognise authority within a group. They are better than the common person (and know it), but know that they must be respectful of individuals such as knights, nobles and mages else they are likely to be demoted again. They are usually interested in self-preservation and will be choosing between which is worse, going against the party or going against their boss’s orders!

Nobles

Nobles are the ruling elite of the country, and as such are far above the party in social standing. Nobles will not tend to bend to the party as they have power over them and will frequently only be interested in their own agendas. The party are required to be obedient, but nobles will give greater recognition to knights, nobles and mages.

An important point to note about nobles is that they make the laws over their own lands, and as such have the power (and the men) to treat the party as they wish — the party have no rights. However, this does not mean that nobles are free from reprisals, as a party may have links with groups more powerful than them, such as the guilds, the brotherhood of Maura, or other nobles. Any action that a noble takes is a calculated risk. A party defying or attacking a noble could be taking a big risk. However, this could also be true for a noble attacking a party as it may give their enemies ammunition to use against them.

Pay particular attention to the ‘level’ of noble you are using. There are the lesser nobles (level l) who have little power or influence, the more rich (level 2) nobles who are more powerful and likely to be more domineering, but there are also those nobles who are above the level any player noble could achieve. These are those who vie for leadership of the family and who dominate the political landscape of the country. They often have little time for anything other than politics and little regard for others. Use the higher—level nobles sparingly and be realistic about their positions, notoriety, entourage, wealth, and above all, power.

Mages

Mages are somewhere between oflicials and nobles. They are socially superior to commoners, but are individually significantly less important than nobles. Be aware that the majority of mages are not very powerful and are unlikely to have any schools above level 3.

Power levels of mages are unlikely to be linked to their social status. Many will only have two or three schools, the highest of which may only be level 2. However, this can usually be all that is required to make a fight situation difficult.

Shaman

Shamans are socially on the same level as villagers and have no legal rights or recognition. Amongst commoners however, they are treated as people with respect. A level l shaman is more than enough to pose a problem to most parties.

Non-humans

Goblins are seen as pests, half ogres and ogres are seen as stupid lesser creatures. Other sentient creatures are viewed with dread and suspicion and will frequently be treated negatively. Therefore, you should never expect non-humans to be approached in a positive way (be they in the party or meeting the party).

Powerful NPCs

There is often great temptation to use exceptionally powerful NPCs, either as a major villain or as an awe inspiring rallying point. However, they can also have the effect of destroying the suspension of disbelief and rather than complementing the party, can make them feel insignificant.

For example, take the case where there is an extremely powerful enemy who can crush the party easily. However, the party have been given an item that makes her vulnerable — the party win in the knowledge that their character’s never stood a chance of succeeding in their own right, they never could have done it without help. Also, it will usually require an implausible incompetence on the part of their enemy for the group to get the chance. Parties will invariably get far, FAR more satisfaction in getting the level l mage who’ll fall over if you blow on him, but he just keeps getting away again and again and again! Always consider if it is really necessary to use such a powerful NPC. It can remove any feeling of self—achievement and is usually completely unnecessary for the goal required (e.g. why have an incredibly hard person help out in a fight, when a just adequate one who needs protecting does the job and makes the party satisfied if they survive).

The best rule to follow when considering whether or not to use powerful NPCs is NOT! People of even high level are incredibly rare in the system (in particular heroic skills should be virtually unheard of). The Inner Council will not usually hire a party. Incredibly powerful old men have no NEED to hire a party, because if they’re that hard they can do it themselves. About the only situation that a powerful NPC should be used is when you need to approach them for help, and even then they probably should feel little obligation or interest.

NPCs with the party

· As with powerful NPCs, the use of NPCs with the party can actually detract from them. If the NPC is active, they are almost certainly lessening the game they are meant to be enhancing. An NPC should absolutely not join a party for the purpose of supplementing their skills — if this is the case, you should hire another party member. Suitable reasons for using an NPC are as an information source, a distraction for the party, or as a very short-term addition (such as the party hiring a woodsman to track someone to a cave).

Remember that NPCs take away from your pool of monsters and adversely affect member’s monster to player ratios.

Plot Styles

Introduction

The most important part of writing a game is to produce a plot that the characters will follow. If you are Reiiing for the first time, start by taking an idea to a Senior Ref. and ask them to help in running the game (they will act as your assistant Ref until you are considered capable of Reffing by yourself). You then need to talk to your a-Ref. and begin to till in some details. There are essentially three types of styles to use — these are detailed below:

The Linear Style

This is the easiest kind of game to write and run. The basic principle of the linear game is that there will be a set number of encounters each moving consecutively from one to the last. Either the characters will have no or little choice as to where they go, or their course of action will always be obvious. Because you know the expected outcome of each encounter, this type of game is very easy to anticipate and run. However, they can also prove to be less interesting for the party because they are so predictable and tend to have little choice. This is the most commonly used style and is the easiest to learn with.

The Cinematic Style

This style involves a number of known scenes, but the succession of each encounter is not necessarily known. A party’s actions in one encounter will also have an effect on what happens in the other encounters. E. g. if a party chooses to ignore a wagon train being attacked in one encounter, a few encounters later the local militia will assume you did it and attack you (there are no survivors to say otherwise). The party’s actions are unlikely to change what encounters take place, but will affect the response they get from each.

The Situational Style

This style is the most dillicult to run and is not suggested for learning Refs. In this style, the characters are placed in a situation with a goal to achieve and left to it — you have to run whatever encounters they move to in order to facilitate their actions. This method allows you to make some predictions about what you expect the party to do, but means that serious planning of encounters is diificult and often counterproductive. A good example of a situation style plot is to hire a party to assassinate someone, give them a map of their house and a number of contacts and leave them to it. This method tends to work better with smaller groups of both players and monsters.

Other Points on Writing a L.A.R.P.S. Game

Writing for Characters

If you write a game for a character, do not ignore the fact that there will be other characters with them. This can lead to members of the party feeling as though they are only there to make up the numbers. Equally, don’t write a game to give one person an item and ignore the rest — no one should be walking out of a game with more than the rest of the part unless they have earned it (e. g. by robbing the rest of the party when their backs were turned).

Writing for a level

Remember that you are writing for a particular level of party. Try to adjust the game as such when it is being written, as the whole structure of a game is to some degree dependent on the level of the party. Eg. low-level games tend to be simple and linear due to the lack of varied skills in a party, mid-levels are much more complex and involve more interesting use of skills, and high-level games are a highly complex and have exotic creatures.

When writing the game, you will not be sure what the average xp level of the party will be. Therefore, you should try to write a game that can be adjusted depending on the average level of character that actually goes out. Note that just because you have written a game for a range of xps, you should be trying to aim for as narrow a xp range of character as possible actually going on the game. This will help to ensure that none of the characters are dominant over any of the others.

Jointly written games

Some Refs. like to work in collaboration. This can be beneficial at the writing stage, but is very detrimental when running. When writing a game, the use of two opinions allow weaknesses in the plot to be spotted and results in a much stronger game. However, when running the game, having two people in charge often means that neither is in full control of the situation meaning information is lost and differing decisions are made. Two Refs. tend to result in inflexibility and too rigid following of the written game when changes need to be made and hence joint running is strongly discouraged.

Bad guys wear black

Some Refs like to use very stereotypical enemies, often demons or undead. These enemies are instantly recognisable as being evil and provide a very black and white game. Whereas this does work, it has a tendency to be extremely overused and becomes very boring. A clever use of human enemies is frequently much more highly praised because of the inevitable need for the game to be more clearly thought out.

Don’t try to be too adventurous

We have this little thing called the ‘three dead slugs test’. It basically works like this; if three dead slugs can solve a problem, then the players may stand a chance. It is the standard test that any Ref. should use when designing a thinking encounter. What may seem obvious to you may not to the players - often infuriatingly so. A game can quickly fall apart if you try to do a complex, interwoven plot that relies on the party making some difficult or ambiguous decisions or conclusions.

This is not to mean that decisions placed in front of the party need to be easy, simply that they should not be ambiguous. It is also worth remembering that adventurers are unlikely to be dealing with world-shaking matters. Quite frequently a Ref. has set up a world threatening situation, only to find that the party were not up to the job and having to do a major fudge job to not end the setting. Adventurers will usually deal with small matters that have local consequence. Although there will be exceptions, this should be the norm.

Plot continuity

Something that is very tempting for Refs. is to create a grand plot to run over a succession of games. However, these don’t tend to be as successful as anticipated because 1) a Ref ’s games tend to be so far apart and 2) other Refs. try to do the same, making the major plot seem somewhat less important.

In the past, plot continuity and setting development has largely worked through a voluntary basis by which Refs have followed on from events that have taken place in other people’s games. A prime example would be where in one game, a unit of knights are killed. Two weeks later, the Ref. of the day decides to play on this by having the same area in need of adventurers to clear out the increased bandit activity. For this reason, it is not necessarily a good idea to write a game far in advance, as this guarantees that it will be completely detached from any current events.

Character death

Historically, the Warwick setting is a low fatality setting. As such, writing games to kill characters is viewed very harshly. Although it is reasonable to write in situations where a character may die if they are stupid of careless, writing a game with the expectation that there will be fatalities is a bad idea. Equally, you should never aim to kill a specific character without some method for their escape (unless requested by the characters owner).

Ahhh so sweat... Historically it was. Then Scarred Lands happened.

Rewarding the Party

Introduction

After each game, the party should be awarded for their part in the game. These will at least to some degree be dependent on their performance in the game. Although the final decisions of awards will not be made until after the game, consideration should be given before the game. A breakdown of the different awards is given below.

Money and Equipment

Parties of differing levels will be awarded money appropriate to them. Characters should be limited in their development by funds as well as abilities, otherwise they would simply retire. Below are the suggested guidelines for monetary awards based upon the level of the character:

• Low-level characters can expect to receive between l00 and 200 silver coins per game
• Mid-level characters can expect to receive between 200 and 300 silver coins per game
• High-level characters can expect to receive between 300 and 400 silver coins per game

It must be stressed that this is a guideline and not a rigid rule. It is also important to understand what this money should include, and what it is intended to be used for. This will allow a better understanding of how to adjust your awards for each game. The purpose of monetary awards is to allow characters to replenish their in-garne costs (such as armour repair or magic) and to allow them to save for equipment upgrades.

It is important to understand that in any given game, there should be an expected reasonable expenditure, which the reward must cover. If the party spends over this expected expenditure, then any loss they incur is their choice. Analysis has come up with the guidelines above as being a reasonable award. However, if you expect the game to be high expenditure, you should increase the award accordingly. Equally, if you expect it to be low expenditure, it should be decreased. As the primary purpose of the money is to cover expenditure and upgrade, non-monetary awards (such as equipment) should be subtracted from the reward. Although this kind of reward can be acceptable, it should also be noted that the cost to the individual of taking an item could be too much in that it may prevent them from being able to cover their in- game expenses. For this reason, you should think very carefully about the awarding of non-monetary rewards.

It should be pointed out that it is strongly discouraged to use master-crafted equipment in a game unless you are absolutely convinced that it will not get into the players hands. If a player does manage to get hold of a master crafted weapon and decides to use it in future games, it should be made clear to all of the Refs. that the weapon is likely to recognised with reasonable frequency and may come with some level of status or reputation (depending on who it was owned by and how it was obtained). It is usually unnecessary to use maser class or superior class weaponry as carrying spare equipment will usually suffice.

Fame and Reputation

For each adventure, it will be unusual for a character not to be noticed. After all, at some point the characters will be seen walking around covered in blood! Therefore, the characters are likely to be talked about in some way from the majority of games. This could be positive if they killed a group of bandits, or negatively if they stole an item.

Examples of fame awards can be found in the ‘Player ’s Guide. Awards of fame should be around l or 2 points per game. This might be modified according to the character’s actions both in and after the game. The fame awarded should not be reduced to negative numbers by declaring that the character didn’t do anything in the game - they just get a bad reputation for being a lazy hanger—on.

Reputation is a little harder to judge. This is very subjective and will usually be done only early on in an adventurer’s life and is probably best done with advice from a Senior Ref. The concept of reputation is that a character’s reputation should reflect their actions. In any given game, the character may experience a temporary ‘blip’ away from their current rating. However, if you strongly believe that the character’s actions do not fit with their image, this should be reflected by a change to their reputation.

E.g. A knight, known for being righteous and honourable is suddenly caught up in the party’s actions to murder a toll collector rather than open their purse. Actions so out of character as this could easily warrant an adjustment to their reputation (possibly simply to make it less positive). However, for another character who was only on more moderate rating of reputation may not see it alter at all unless similar actions were witnessed over a number of games. The change in reputation each game should not be by more than 1 point except in the most exceptional of circumstances, and these need to be authorised by the Senior Refs. If in any doubt a to whether a character’s reputation should be altered, consult both the player and a Senior Ref.

Experience points

Experience should be awarded as described in the ‘Player’s Gurde’, with special note to penalties. There are a number of reasons why a player should be penalised, such as persistent abuse of skills (e. g. failing to role-play intimidate), failing to wear armour or having strength levels 2 or 3 without a suitable physical representation (we will generally let players get away with level one armour, but this is down to the discretion of the Ref. of the day). We suggest a penalty of -2xp for each obvious infringement, although, this is very much down to the discretion of the Ref. For example, if a player goes out simply wearing a tabard clarrring that they have strength level 3 and level 3 arnrour (chain mail), then penalising them by as much as l0xp would not be considered unreasonable.

Strictly speaking, it is the Ref. who awards xp, but many Refs choose to consult with the players and monsters about what they think individual’s awards should be. This is purely the Refs choice. The exception is of course the Refs. xp award for the game, which is decided by everyone except the Ref.

Oher awards

Although awards are generally quantified, this may not always be the case. A character may receive some unquantifiable reward such as a favour. Frequently, this will be a favour from a person or group with power, such as a noble. Although these sorts of rewards are in no way discouraged giving them comes with a health warning. If we use an example whereby a character is offered a favour from a noble, that favour should come from the noble and not the house. Be careful not to give away too powerful a favour or something that can be easily abused. If a favour is offered, the player should record the rough value of the favour as a guide to future refs. Another award that is sometimes offered is the ability to learn a skill. These sorts of award should be very carefully gauged. For example, it is okay to offer someone who is having difficulty justifying a skill increase to level 4 an offer of training (and hence justification), but an award such as access to a heroic skill would usually be the point of the game and would come with no other reward. A Senior Ref. should always pass permissions for skills. A possible alternative award is in the area of social promotion. This could mean to membership of a guild, promotion within the knighthood, or more power within a noble family. This type of award will usually have no associated rules benefit and is largely role-play based.

Running a L.A.R.P. S. Adventure

Before the Game Before each game, the Ref. must make preparations for the game. It is important that the Ref arrives on time or has given forewaming that they will be arriving late and has made preparations to ensure their delay minimises disruption. Usually, the first thing that the Ref. will have to do is to select the people they will use for their game and who will go to make up the other game (where a secondary game is running). This should usually be done in conjunction with the other Ref, where the Ref. of the primary slot gets first refusal.

During this stage, the party and monsters should also be decided. Once you have selected your the party should be sent to the cupboard to collect the kit for their characters. Usually, the players should be given first access to the equipment with the Ref. working with what is left. When the party have their equipment and you have selected the equipment you want for your monsters, you are ready to go out and begin the game. Be careful to take note of what equipment is taken out so that it is known when something has been lost and an attempt can be made to find it.

Choosing your Party

One of the first things that you will have to do it to select your party. You should try not to be biased in the characters you select and should try to avoid letting one member of the party select the other members (this can lead to problems with xp, individuals monster to player ratios, etc). You should always be prepared to say no to a player (e. g. "they’re busy somewhere else so can’t come"). You have say about the party, not the player, and if a game suffers as a result of the party chosen YOU are the one responsible.

Try to avoid sending a character out who is of very different xp to the rest of the party. This has the negative effects that the characters in the party get more/less money than they fairly should and gives the higher xp characters in game advantages. You should try to get as narrow an xp range as feasibly possible.

The Ref. Checklist

There are a number of points that every Ref. should check before the start of a game (and invariable forget to, hence the reason for this section). This is basically a list of things that should be considered about the party and how they will effect the game ahead - specifically, is the game written in such a way that the party don’t actually have the skills to complete parts of it, or do the party have some skills that should give them an advantage in the game ahead? It is usually the latter, where some skill that the party has should have got them information that the Ref. failed to give them because he/she did not realise.

• Does anyone in the party have Connections? lf yes, be prepared to give them extra information (especially before the game starts).
• Does anyone in the party have Streetwise? lf yes, be prepared to give them extra information (especially before the game starts).
• Does anyone in the party have a high fame? Bear this in mind during encounters where they may be recognised as a result.
• What is your party’s reputation? Bear this in mind during encounters where this may affect the way they interact (and if particularly low, you may wish to consider people chasing them for a bounty).
• Is anyone in the party a noble? If yes, they should be at the lead of the party (or be making themselves otherwise superior) or they may suffer in fame/reputation at the end of the game.
• Does anyone in the party have heroic skills? How will this aiiect the game?
• Is there a backstab that could mess up the game? If yes, do you want to do something to try and remove the problem without making the skill useless?
• Does the party have any lore that may help dining the game?
• Does your game have obstacles that require a skill the players don’t have (especially magic)? Do you want to do anything about this?
• Will some of the encounters need toning down (because, for example, the players as a party don’t have enough courage to face a Dread inducing creature)?

You may decide that you do not want to take any action from the skills that the part has, either because it has negligible effect or because you think it will simply add to the flavour of the game. One thing to state is that you should try VERY HARD not to resort to removing someone’s skills because they interfere with the game. For example, if you want a stupendously hard final encounter bad guy, you should be expecting it when he hits the floor in three seconds flat to a backstab. There is often a way to deal with a problem skill without depriving the players of it unfairly. On the rare occasions where this is not possible, a good way of dealing with it is to make them use it and feel glad they did (e. g. give them a blatant opportunity to use it where it clearly helps them). Whatever you think of, try to be inventive.

Briefing the monsters

One of the final tasks you will have to perform before the game begins is to brief the monsters (i.e. tell them about the game). This is not necessarily going through the game in great detail (this will take a great deal of time and the monsters will not remember it anyway), all you have to do is to give them a brief rundown of the overall purpose of the game. Leave detailed explanations of encounters to the set—up of the encounter.

During the Game

How to direct your attention During the game, the Ref. should try to be present to answer queries from the players and give descriptions of encounters. Giving descriptions is very important as what a party sees before them could very signilicantly affect the way they respond. Try to avoid giving too much information — e.g. rather than saying the party see zombies, tell them that they can see walking corpses. Try not to take a very active part in the game. Refing works at its best when the Ref. spends most of the game doing little but watching. Occasionally, you may have to act as a monster to make up the numbers or take an important role (such as the player brief). When this happens, try to take no more of an active role than the other monsters (e. g. in a pub encounter, you may know the plot far better than the other monsters, but try not to be the one doing all of the talking — it detracts from the other monsters).

The Ref. will inevitably be required to brief the monsters in the set-up of the next encounter, but it is important that this should not infringe on the action of the current encounter. Try to keep encounters simple so that set-up can be carried out easily. For this reason, it is very important that the Ref. is not a member of the party — being with the players takes up a LOT of your time and detracts significantly from your ability to Ref. effectively. The Ref should always be keeping an eye on the progress of the game and be prepared to make alterations at short notice.

Role—play encounters

In role-playing encounters, you ought to be aware of what information players are acquiring so that you can present important information again if they miss it, and to correct erroneous information that confused monsters may give. E. g. "No he didn’t go this way..." — Ref. jumps in “Yes e' did you blind old fool."

Combat encounters

Combat encounters are theoretically very easy to run. However, you should be ready to pull the plug on a combat encounter that you have misjudged or miss-stated. If a party’s failure is through fault of their own however, do not be afraid to let events take their course.

Skill/puzzle encounters

For skill/puzzle encounters, the Ref. must be ready to completely change the solution to the puzzle if the players manage to determine a very good alternative, or appear to be getting stuck. Be wary that there is often little for monsters to do in a skill/puzzle encotmter and are likely to get bored if the encounter goes on needlessly long.

After the Game

Equipment

After each game, it is the Refs responsibility to ensure that all equipment has been put away correctly ~ if equipment is damaged through improper storage, it is the Ref. who is responsible, even if they were not the one who put it away.

The Debrief

Generally, the ‘debrief” will take place back at campus after all of the equipment has been put away. It is during this period that any loose ends should be cleaned up and that the players fully understand all that they are meant to understand. Occasionally, a number of unplanned events will happen at the debrief, such as a character being particularly offended by one of the non-player characters and planning to do something about it. This could mean a knight who was cowardly in the face of danger, someone they want to report for crimes, etc. These can be dealt with accordingly, but do not be afraid to ask other Refs. (or even other players) for advice. If one of these events leads on to other games, it is the Refs. responsibility to ensure that those games are run (or to give a satisfactory reason why they are not).

Awards

Frequently, the parties planned rewards will be different to what it actually awarded. This could be because the party was of a different level to what you were expecting or because of their performance in the game. If you give the party something other than money, remember to reduce their monetary award so that they are not receiving more than they deserve. However, you should also remember that the value of an item to character might not be the actual value of the item (e.g. a bastard sword to someone who uses basic is not worth the value of a bastard sword to them).

Feedback

The main purpose of the debrief is to get feedback from the group on what they liked and didn’t like about the game. It is that feedback that will be most beneficial for developing your Refling ability. However, you should try to keep tight control of this part of the debrief as it has a habit of becoming very repetitive. If someone has something new to say, let it be said.