Article:
LARP Plot Tips: Pulling Punches

This week's article has a lot to do with the one from last week about the "Players Must Lose" Myth. Even with the best laid plans, even with hours of preparation for every module, you will eventually run into an instance where the group you expected to be on the module simply isn't there. And when you do this you have to make a gametime decision on what to do with the module.

Should you keep it the same way and punish the players for being unprepared?
Should you scale it back or give a safety net?
Should you scrap the whole thing altogether?

These are very important questions that should not be ignored, lest you make the module no fun for anyone. For that reason, you need to learn the appropriate way to pull punches. Here are several things that you should think about when you're confronted with this kind of situation.

Make Victory Possible Without Giving Away the Farm

Often times, a plot member might set up the climactic battle, where either the bad guy or the heroes die. The plan might be to end the a story arc, and for whatever reason, no one shows up to that module, or even the event. You can't in good conscious (and good plotscious) kill all the PCs without a chance, and you certainly can't have the climax be a weak battle. But what can you do?

On the fly, change the battle from a climactic ending into a major setback for the bad guy. That way, you can justify scaling down the difficulty of the module, without making the entire storyline end on a joke. The players now have a chance to win (it can still be hard), without belittling what might be years of story in the making.

When in doubt, pull powerful effects

If you're playing a boffer game, you might be used to the fact that certain parts of the game are skill based, and others are just powerful effects. When you've got a group with reduced numbers or power level, it's a good idea to rely more on skill based actions (like boffer fighting) instead of kill or incapacitate effects. Those effects might be very challenging for a powerful group, but a small change in scale could make it absolutely devasating for a less prepared group.