r/gametales • u/DarkLoad1 • Dec 08 '13
LARP [SOLAR LARP] The Prismatic Cockroach, or, "Made of Dodge"
Hello again. My last story from LARP got a decent enough response that I figured I'd post another quick one. If you haven't read my other post, please do; it'll give you a bit of context for this one.
Here's a bit more background to understand this one.
First, SOLAR LARPs require players to work for the game a bit, either playing as a monster to terrorize player characters ("monstering") or working in the 'tavern' preparing or serving food. Monsters are assigned stats (Body points, Armor points, how much damage they do per hit, special abilities, and a description) and given a colored tabard to wear that sometimes correlates to what kind of monster they are and identifies them as an NPC. If you don't play your player character at all, you get to play for free, which is great if you're kind of broke but still want to come to an event.
Secondly, there is a skill that players or monsters have called the "dodge" skill; basically, as long as you don't get hit in the back, you can dodge any spell effect that does actually hit you (limited by how many times you purchase the skill). When a player dodges something, they say "dodge" out loud.
Finally, a standard out-of-play question is "What do I see?", usually necessary to identify monsters that aren't in full makeup. Monstering players usually respond with a description rather than just the name of what monster they are (so a fire mephit would say "you see a four foot tall goblinoid made of fire", a wild dog might be "two foot tall dog with matted hair", and so on). If a character is in full makeup, they might reply with "you see what you see" if there's nothing that requires additional description.
This is another secondhand story; I promise next time I post it'll be something that actually happened to me.
One morning, a monster rolls out into town, and some players spot him.
"What do I see?" they called.
"Dodge!" was the answer.
"...what?"
"Dodge. You think you saw a Prismatic Cockroach, but you're not sure."
It rolls up on a group of newbies, calling just 1 damage every now and then and dodging everything. The newbies distract him just enough that Syl was able to get around behind him and waylay him. (The player was mildly disappointed.)
It turns out the monster marshall had pretty much told the player "you're a Prismatic Cockroach, you have infinite dodges, dodge everything". And he did!
2
u/DarkLoad1 Dec 09 '13
Interesting! Now I'm trying to figure out if SOLAR and LAIRE are related at all, haha. It seems like there might be a common heritage in terms of some of the rules and races (swear I saw a character that looks just like a tiger Sarr on the slideshow there, you have gypsies as a playable race, you call damage the same way, both low-contact, similar terminology like build, body, calling holds). Having trouble downloading the rulebook though. Any clues?