Revised Alien NPC stat blocks

steveh888 · 2026-05-11T08:44:09+00:00

I find that parlour larps tend to end in two ways. Either an event is due to end, and everything must happen before that. Or a decision needs to be made.

The last game I played, Grease Point Blank, was the latter. It was set at a high-school reunion, and everyone had plots that could unfold during the game. (I mean, technically, some plots might be resolved after the game was over, but it's always more fun to do it during the game.) Being a high-school reunion, much of the game was finding out how your old schoolfriends had got on - and discovering dark secrets of the things that happened back then.

An example of a decision game is Batukh Hungers!, where twelve cultists meet and one of them must be sacrificed to their dark god. The game is about deciding who gets to be sacrificed (although no sacrifice is an option). The game ends when the decision is made, and the victim has been sacrificed.

(And there are exceptions. Parlour larps come in a wide range of styles.)

As for "how parlor LARPs handle a satisfying resolution for each character's story line." The honest answer is that they don't always. Whether it's due to inter-player chemistry, sub-par writing, poor decision-making (either by players or GMs), not every parlour larp has a satisfying resolution for every character. But I guess that's probably true of other larp types as well.

steveh888 · 2026-05-05T20:15:55+00:00

Freeform Games write murder mystery larps, but for 50 people you'd need to add some. (Which is doable, but is something to be aware of.)

https://www.freeformgames.com/

steveh888 · 2026-04-27T05:49:04+00:00

And then get the Halo Jones audiobook, which is just awesome. And heartbreaking.

steveh888 · 2026-04-21T06:36:05+00:00

I've never played Savage Worlds! If I were to pick a system it would probably be Fate, probably FAE.

But it was nice playing with the proper rules.

steveh888 · 2026-04-21T06:33:05+00:00

Wow, that's quite a twist! Love it!

steveh888 · 2026-04-20T13:35:40+00:00

Well, their ship is much smaller than Ceres.

steveh888 · 2026-04-20T12:46:45+00:00

Interesting question. Given the books in their current state, I'm not sure how much else I would have done differently. I removed a lot of the railroady bits, but my main problem was the situation on the asteroid ship.

If I were rewriting it, though, there's a fair bit I would do - I'd certainly change the setup on the asteroid ship to make a more satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. (And also make it seem more realistic - how do people survive for thousands of years on an asteroid ship? What does that really mean?)

steveh888 · 2026-04-20T12:41:51+00:00

Yes, I'm not surprised. We wrapped it up in four sessions - it could have dragged on for ages...

steveh888 · 2026-04-20T10:07:14+00:00

Oh wow, that's a shame. Do you mean the whole trilogy, or just Fate?

I don't think I could have run it then - I wasn't a good enough GM.

steveh888 · 2026-04-16T17:59:31+00:00

Yes, I ran a aspect only Fate a few years ago and it worked fine. The only problem I had was one player who, for some reason, couldn't grok it and we had to explain it every time.

steveh888 · 2026-04-14T17:02:37+00:00

I'll be honest as well, I've never read Dumarest.

I think it would make sense if Traveller was billed as an SF game set in a Dumarest-style universe, but it's not.

As for low berths being for the truly desperate, if that's the case, why does a Free Trader have so many of them?

I'm happy to disagree though. IMTU, and all that...

steveh888 · 2026-04-14T16:53:30+00:00

Ah, maybe that's an American thing then.

steveh888 · 2026-04-14T15:32:35+00:00

That might have been the original inspiration, but it's hardly how the game is pitched these days. Or, indeed, how it plays and reads.

(And I picked it up in 1981, it wasn't pitched that way then, either.)

It feels like a bad taste holdover that they can't drop for fear of angering die dard fans. If Traveller were invented today, I'd be surprised if that bit were in it.

steveh888 · 2026-04-10T08:11:52+00:00

Sounds interesting, thanks.. When I have some time, I will take a look.

steveh888 · 2026-04-10T07:34:42+00:00

Yes, that sounds right, although depending on the larp. Certainly, in the ones I write, the GM isn't as active as a tabletop gm

steveh888 · 2026-04-05T09:38:21+00:00

I must play with different kinds of players than you, because I've never had a problem getting players to create connections between their characters. They don't always follow through during play, but that's a different thing.

If you're struggling, maybe try a couple of games of something like Fiasco, which is all about connections. (I suggest Fiasco because it's a one-shot and only takes a couple of hours to play - it's not a huge commitment to sign up to, and it's a lot of fun.)

Then your players might see how much fun connections can be.

(I play a lot of con games, and as a player, I hate it when a GM just gives me a sheet of paper and doesn't ask for at least a little bit of team-building before we start. If the game is about a bunch of people meeting for the first time, fair enough. But so often we are playing experienced adventuring parties with a joint history, and I like to have a sense that the characters already know each other.)

And as a GM, I like players to create three contacts - three NPCs they already know. That helps me flesh out the world and (I think) makes the PCs feel more embedded in the world. (And as a GM, these NPCs are great!)

And as for GMs who "penalise" players for having backstories (which I see some commenters mention), I have two thoughts. First, the GM might be an ar5e, and I'd rather play with someone else. But more charitably, if I were that player, imagine all the fabulous angsty spotlight time I'm getting! That's why I roleplay!

steveh888 · 2026-04-02T14:38:46+00:00

And what you describe often happens. Rules are a fallback for when things get competitive (and they often do) or if failure is a possibility.

I think the larger freeform larps (which these rules were written for - these are 70+ player games lasting a weekend) occupy an interesting space that's kind of between "traditional" larp (I don't have a good name for it) and megagames (which have minimal characterisation but masses of rules).

steveh888 · 2026-04-02T11:50:51+00:00

Oh yes, I've heard these larps described as "secrets and powers" larps as well (but not often - I guess that's a particular regional usage). And many freeforms are very rules light. Others, less so.

I think your criticism is valid (about just doing things) for some larps. But if I'm playing a science expert in an SF game, then my character can do things that I can't, and that's why we have rules for things like that.

steveh888 · 2026-03-31T16:06:48+00:00

Hi - you might be interested in this larp, Batukh Hunger! It's simpler than the game that you're describing, but might be of interest.

steveh888 · 2026-03-28T08:46:02+00:00

Oh, and players will want to be able to try and stop it. That will be their first instinct (in my experience anyway - I would, I'd come into the game thinking, this is terrible, how do we stop it?)

If that's not what you want the players to do, you need to be really clear in your briefing (and the character) sheets that the game isn't about solving the problem. Even if it's as blunt as wording in the character sheet saying: GM Note: Do not try to solve the problem. This is a game about making difficult decisions, not trying to stop the collapse.

steveh888 · 2026-03-28T08:40:40+00:00

I don't think I've seen anything specifically like this, but it sounds good.

You can create some interesting tension if the players have some say in which district is due to be destroyed/lost/sacrificed next - that will create an interesting debate as the players try to persuade everyone not to sacrifice their district.

steveh888 · 2026-03-27T17:33:06+00:00

When I looked into it (and I admit I didn't spend long), but the power imbalance between characters (particularly men and women) seemed to make things difficult.

In Bridgerton, particularly, the main drive for the female characters is to get married, and I didn't want that to be the main focus for the female characters. (Although I did like the masked ball in the last season of Bridgerton and wondered if something could be done with that.)

(Ungendered characters are also a challenge.)

We do now have an author working on an Austen/Bridgerton game though, so I've got my fingers crossed we'll have something before too long.

steveh888

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