Until Further Notice...

[magicaddict]

...and and all calls I make during TL Time In should be taken with a pinch of salt unless they can be immediately verified by the GM or battleboarder. I'm serious.

If last weekend was a bad day as far as roleplay was concerned, this weekend completed the duplex with a bad day for mechanics. This is not remotely the fault of GMs or other players - indeed, had I enacted what I was told to rather than what that which used to be my head for LARP came out with, I'm sure I would have had a better time. The vast majority of other people seemed to enjoy it.
There simply is no excuse for someone who's been playing the game for three and a half years making as many fundamental errors in game mechanics, safety and simple mathematics as I did on Sunday. Must do better.
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The game itself revolved around the eternal battle between chocolate and sugar. One one side, in the land of Berry, the party encountered the Cream of Society - Queen Berry and Princess Straw. They led the chocolates, aided by their bodyguard, Walnut Whip, and their slightly jumpy advisor, Flake. Wandering Minstrels pervaded the court, feeding the pet Mousse and making sure the captive Whine Gum didn't escape. What they didn't know was that the sugars had put a spy in their midst, in the form of a Kit Kat (mainly biscuit and sugar, but wearing a chocolate overcoat), sweet talking them with sugar-coated whispers.

Dispatched to retrieve the Easter Bunny, deluded into believing he was giving out chocolate eggs when in fact they were higly addictive sugar-coated chocolate eggs, the party had to follow the Milky Way and the directions of Moomar the Cow Druid and the Milky Bar kid, for whom only the best was good enough. Battling with their own increasingly debilltating sugar craving, they faced the full pick and mix of the sugars forces: Shock troops from the deep south (American Hard Gums), capricious mages (Caster Sugars), morale killing heralds (Wine Gums), stoic defenders (Gum Shields), wild animals (Gummy Croccodiles, Candyfloss Sheep and Gummy Bears), and seductive geometric objects (Sugar Cubes), all under the command of the evil Princes Tate and Tyle, running the show from the court of the Refined Sugars.

Much insanity ensued and the players won, as such. I got progressively worse throughout the day, the pinnacle coming after I had been asked to mind how hard I was hitting, when the joy at having landed an almost unanswered blow on Warren was rather offset by the fact that it was an unpulled fourpenny one right on the crown of his head. But anyway, see earlier for such whinging.
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Finally, the conversation in the pub afterwards led me on to thinking. I will make this point with the disclaimer that I have Guard Gerrard Knight statted, half backstoried and waiting to come out in October of 2009 or 2010.

The players were discussing how the party got fragmented quite a lot during the game, as they had shock troops and soft underbelly, but nothing defensive to rally to. They said they needed guards. I pointed out that general IC opinion tends against guards, with implications of incompetence, small-mindedness and wasting of space. I received confirmation that such feelings were only IC, and that, in fact, the abilities of guards were both appreciated and seen as useful.

However, if such feelings are pretty widely existant IC, and any guards coming into play will have a stigma attached to them that they will need to spend a couple of years overcoming before having a chance to be viewed on the same playing field as other characters, even other military characters, what on earth is the incentive to play one?

I have heard arguments about years in which there were very few military, and the party had to get by without them. I have heard arguments about there being a lot of powerful, capable pathfinders whose command ability and durability erodes the usefulness of guards. I have also heard arguments suggesting that there is nothing a guard can bring that a properly buffed different character cannot provide in spades. Are these enough to condemn all those potential new characters who would don armour, pick up a shield and take the Prince's Shilling to a lifetime of being ridiculed for stupidity, used as yardsticks to show how powerful your non-guard character is by beating them, and viewed with suspicion because back in your day you didn't exclusively need them?

As I have no illusions about how unpopular this opinion will be, let the flaming commence.

Comments

[ruthste.livejournal.com]

I think the problem with Guards /is/ mainly an IC issue and a high-level one at that. Looking back over recent years - the prominent Guard this year is Napier who isn't very good at taking charge and is disliked by a large section of the party; last year no Guards made it through the year; the Five Mages year had Azrael and Eagleson as their shining examples (neither being characters particularly suited to leading though both reasonable competent in a fight); Scara'Fould had Blaine who was special and the Borderlands had a distinct lack of military of all kinds.

It is my personal belief (and I would like to think that any future character wouldn't start off with any such prejudices) that if a Guard, who was actually competent, sensible and reliable turned up on missions and was played throughout the year and in higher-level that they would be capable of changing peoples' opinions. Initially it might be a change to acknowledging that there were exceptions. (Don't forget Fiddelo who, whilst he isn't an amazing party leader, is a very good Guard and a reasonably well liked character).

The problem, IMHO, is that: a) too many people either find playing a Guard boring and so don't continue playing them to mid or higher level
b) newbies get encouraged to play a Guard and thus if they decide that LARP is not for them part way through the year, the party end up managing without one
and c) the majority of existing PC Guards do fall into the categories you have already described as the stereotype.

The only way to fix it is for more competent people to play competent Guards. Not an easy thing to ask for.

[duke-of-krondor.livejournal.com]

IMO...playing a guard (or any military character) is difficult in LARP. From experience, it's not about being liked but being respected. The issue comes from not being able to dress down, people/characters not wanting to be put under that kind of authority and the TL system being designed for immature characters (freedom priests vs might priests, etc). At the end of the day characters are all individuals to the max. Although, of course, everyone is individual if you are a professional soldier you have signed up to listen to to the sergeant/lieutenant/captain etc. I very quickly realised as Blaine, that I was not going to tell people what to do.
a) I was new and didn't want to be an @$$hole
b) it's not fun for the others
C) it's really not fun for me

The fact is my cadets are better behaved than most LARP characters I know, also an issue aoccurs at promotion not being done through merit in LARP. No clear command structure is ever present due to everyone being mostly the same rank. Guard command doesn't start training a unit, then slowly promote a lieutenant, sergeant and two corporals to give it structure. I've always thought that other characters (especially justice priests and paladins) could be granted rank and help fill out a rank structure. The fact is though that this probably won't be interesting. We will still have immature/biased characters.

I think the problem on sunday rose from the fact that the fighters are specialist skirmishers. Nab is a unit with Morrigan and Travesty (and to a lesser extent Rain) since he was alone he fell back to skirmishing, Feyd seems to be similar...he's not a line fighter...same goes for Blackwing. This means the mages need to be aware of their surroundings, rather than planting themselves somewhere to cannon ice darts from. The problems of the soft under belly came from the fact that none of the fighters were going to stay in a line because that's not how they fight, the need room (in Nab's case to spin and twirl). It was Iussis' job to protect them(being ranking military), so he should have been near them to help and kind of failed in that duty....no offence to Tim intended, it's just Iussis' way of doing things.

So there's my two pence

[wargamer.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem I have as Napier and I think a lot of guards have with taking charge is that while I can happily control a classroom full of 10 year olds, I don't feel comfortable shouting at my friends.

Also the fact that virtually the whole membership of BLADES is made up of scientists and engineers rather than soldiers means that we're unlikely to ever have a party leader who is a master of small unit tactics.

[wargamer.livejournal.com]

*But is "Form a shield line with skirmishers on the sides and artillery behind/heavy brigade form a rally point for the others to dive behind if they need it/skirmishers, have 'em in the back while we distract them/break rank and fill your boots but keep an eye on each other" going to be enough to keep people happy?*

Strangely enough, this tactic has won almost every major battle in history (although there are always exceptions) It also tends to win the Gathering battle most years. Small skirmishs work rather differently. I have studied small and large scale tactics to a fine detail so I am very good at playing wargames like Warhammer. When the enemy is in your face its a little different and I'd be the first to hold up my hand and say 'I'm not a great party leader'.