Shades of Night Fall, Shades of Divinity
Shades of Midnight beta rules and Hhades of harrowing Beta rules :)

I know the original writers and got to play in the wrap up of the global chronicle a few years back that they ran.

LK

Ok, To defend the boffer larps I must! I cannot fight for shit and yet I reguarly attend and enjoy a boffer larp with deep complex storylines. The current plot committee at my larp are doing brilliant things. No, my game will not satiate the newbie who wants to hack and slash, but if you are willing to actually Rp its wonderful. I also play A Vamp Larp and enjoy that too. But i like physical contact and the setting of a LClarp better.

OK, Evan. I did read your post, and my words are simply an attempt to explain my position. Any heat you read into them is probably a reflection of your own state.

What I am trying to explain, hotshot, is WHY we are critical of WW. I did not comment on those games other than that because you did not accuse people of being elitist based on those other systems, but based on criticism that you have read regarding WW. I was attuacking WW, not YOU, though my opinion regarding your good self is crystallising slowly...

I am glad that you have played other systems. However, unless those systems were really ass, I don't understand why you would choose to run your own game using the MIT rules or WOD background. It's akin to entering a race and cutting your left foot off with a cheesewire just before the gun went off.

I regularly attend 'boffer' events, though we don't call them that, as I think the construction of what the 'new games book' referred to as a 'boffer' was quite different. There may be differences between the LRP weapons in the US and in Europe. Anyway for the last 2 or 3 years I almost never raised a sword in anger.

The only difference between a good fighter and a bad one is practice. I went from a mediocre fighter to a good one over about 6 months, coinciding with learning the Yang introductory taichi form, bizzarely, so it can't be that far from reality. Strength is not an issue.

If you obtain just as much story and realism from an item card then you might as well be tabletopping. In our systems, props often have little attached laminated cards. these are covered in codes, from which people with the right skills can divine various nuggets of information. I don't know if you have experienced similar systems but this one is effective. However, it has, first and foremost a prop. This may be a latex weapon, or a crystal, ar a huge stone minotaur head, but the prop is both present and important for mood, and if you tell me that you gain exactly the same level of suspension of disbelief from a piece of paper, I would argue that you have never actually been immersed.

I am glad that you have enjoyed a rule-less system, and they may often work, both in LRP and tabletop, in small-scale and for short games. But with more than, say, 30 players, and over more than a day, people struggle to realise what they can do without continual referral to refs. this is far more taxing on refs as a resource than having a simple, easy to follow rules system, as then players can self-ref most of the time. I also dod not state I hated most systems in general. However, there are a lot of badly-developed and poorly-implemented LRP systems out there. That WW could have so much time and money invested in it and still end up so dogmatic and stupid astounds me.

My entire last post was really trying to address the fact that you accuse us of elitism because we were critical of something you happen to like. I was simply trying to explain and rationalise our viewpoint. Maybe the criticism of WW (and not your esteemable self) should be a guideline you should consider closely as you think about developing your game.

For the record, I have been involved in the running of 3 systems. One was the largest of it's kind in the UK, which may I remind you has the world's largest LRP fest event yearly and has a huge LRP community. The even I ran had people attending from all corners of the country, a more even split in gender than any other system I ever attended, and catered for the special needs of several disabled players. one of whom was confined to an electric wheelchair (amusing whilst drunk). So don't tell me that I should 'get off my ass and contribute'.

So stop being a flid, and stop ranting on a thread that someone didn't start for flame wars. This time I wasn't trolling, and I'm fairly sure that it's you that's coming of as ranty and irrational.