User Blog:
LARP Plot Tips: If Used for Evil...

Anyone who's written plot for LARP or table-top knows that there is nothing quite like writing an absolutely epic storyline. These often involve characters meddling with power greater than their own, high level diplomacy, and maybe a little war or two. Problems go as deep as this could end the world and solutions are complex and spectacular. What do these plotline often have in common?

Items of power will play a major role in fixing the problem.

These items or artifacts give you the opportunity to put powers that are not normally available into play. They're a great source of story and lore and being the keeper of that item of power is often the highlight of a player's career. But there is a great danger in using an artifact in LARP that isn't an issue in table-top games.

Wiping the entire campaign is not an option.

Before we put any item or formal ritual into game, we always ask ourselves "What if someone uses this for evil?" In a game where people are playing evil characters and PvP can be a very real occurance, you do not want to allow your artifact to unbalance the game. That is why you should follow these guidelines before putting an item of power into game.

1. Does this have the potential to unbalance PvP?
Don't give a character a cloak that makes them invisible that cannot be countered. Otherwise, what happens if an evil character gets it and uses it to kill the entire town? You just ruined the event for as many as seventy people. Put controls in that limit the uses outside of the quest it's intended for, but don't be too cheesy about it, as there should be some reason evil characters would want the item.

Some suggestions would be to either associate the artifact with a specific location or make it take a long time to activate. Both of these can pretty much remove the possibility of mass PvP.

2. What happens if the plot is not resolved?
Don't threaten to end the world if you can't end the world. Make failure to do the job steep enough that the players want to follow through with it. On the other hand, one of the biggest issues I see with some plotlines is that the benefits from the artifact are worth more than the resolution of the plot line.