…pixie going to Dixie?
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The Doclopedia #1,552
Alt. Roleplaying Reviews: MEGA-LARP!
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All ratings based upon a 1-5 scale
Substance: 3
Originality: 4
Looks: 3
Playability: ?
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Synopsis: It’s a LARP, but a HUGE LARP. Or maybe a convention.
Explaining MEGA-LARP! To somebody is easy. Just imagine a few hundred or a few thousand prople getting together for a game convention, then deciding “forget having a con, let’s do some Live Action Role Playing”. Costumes and identifying badges (which have GPS trackers built in) go on, info packs are distributed, everyone gets 30 minutes to disperse across a few square miles of city, and the 2 to 4 day long game starts. Note that in order to play this LARP, besides ponying up anywhere from 50 to 200 bucks for a badge, you must present proof of medical insurance and sign a hefty waiver.
That’s really all there are to the basics. It’s not that much different from smaller LARPs. The well written and nicely laid out PDF rules, which are free online, cover all the basics like combat, resolving skills, interacting and safety. That last one is absolutely key in LARPing in a city where most of the folks you meet are not involved in the game.
Most MEGA-LARP! Games are suited to urban play. Plotlines range from spy stories to alien invasions to a pretty hilarious comedy of errors. There were 7 plotlines available when I played and 3 more have been published since then. All of them are well written and show a lot of originality.
Getting to the actual playability of the LARP, the answer is: it depends. If the city is not too big or crime ridden, if the number of LARPers is right, if the weather is good, if the local police are informed (an absolute must), if all the players are experienced LARPers, well then, you have a good chance of having a great time.
But remove any one of those ifs and things can go south fast. Bad MEGA-LARPs have seen arrests, robberies and assaults, fistfights among players, blizzards, lost players and, to date, 3 deaths due to accidents. I’ll point out that none of those ever happened at the MEGA-LARPS held in conjunctions with big game cons.
So if you want to be part of one of these big events, my suggestion is to look for one held in a smaller city or larger town where everyone knows what’s going on, the weather is nice and you have hopefully very few bad players. If not, just play in one at a big convention.
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The Doclopedia #1,553
Alt. Roleplaying Reviews: Dungeons & Dogs DM’s Guide
All ratings based upon a 1-5 scale
Substance: 5
Originality: 3
Looks: 5
Playability: 5
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Synopsis: It’s D&D adapted for canine Non-Human Terrans.
Make no mistake about it, the other sapient species on our planet love playing games, including RPGs. They play many human-centric RPGs and plenty that were written by and for NHT. Dungeons & Dogs is sort of a halfway point between those two.
Basically, D&Dogs is first edition AD&D rewritten for dogs and other canid NHT. Very few of the rules have been outright changed, but many have been rewritten to account for the players and characters being sapient canines who all wear ottopuses. One rule, stated right up front is that only two tentacles are to be used for arms, with the other two being used to hold your backpack in place, or barring that, not being used at all.
Rules for high level senses of smell, hearing and sight (for sight hounds and others) have been included and are very clearly written. In fact, the whole book reads like what AD&D might have looked like if a whole squad of editors ruthlessly went over Gary’s final draft. It’s a pleasure to read and the table of contents and index are quite comprehensive.
Layout on this book (which actually combines the DMG and Monster Manual) is just great. It’s easy to read and the fonts used are nice. All of the illustrations are full color and every monster in the Monsters & Foes section get a half page picture. The various artists, some of whom were humans, all did excellent work.
The book uses good quality paper and that’s part of why it runs to a hefty 450 pages. The Player’s Guide, which will get it’s own review, is just as nice, but runs a mere 120 pages.
In summation, this book is an excellent piece of work and actually makes AD&D better, if you are an NHT canid. If you are a human, it might be worth buying just for the clarified rules or those great monster pix. All told, I rate this book a Best Buy.
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