So we decided to write something similar and created a game based on the "Nightwatch" trilogy, which homage to WoD and Nightlife RPG etc. We started running this a couple of months ago and have had a really low turn out (ie. less than half a dozen players for each game)

As the game was written as a PvP game if relies on having players, so we were looking at how we might make a few changes to try and boost numbers. 

One that seemed to be popular was to run the games less often but on a larger scale. Whilst the idea of a larger scale modern day horror game sounds like an interesting challenge, I am concerned by the fact that there doesn't seem to anything like that already running

Normally if theres a good idea then someone is running it already. Is it just the general lack of interest in modern day horror (with the players as the Vampires, Werewolves, etc)?

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez

I dont think its lack of interest in Modern Horror, more an allergy to white wolf.. Sadly Modern Day Horror now makes people think 'White Wolf' which a very large number of people dont even consider to be actual live roleplay at all if played by the 'official rules'. It also got a bad reputation for attracting 'tits' which ended up impacting the membership of the few good groups that existed.

Say 'homage' to whitewolf and even that'll put people off...

However Modern Horror is interesting and has a player base....

Looking at your system (as currently presented) the following put me (personally, cant speak for others but I assume you want to know possibilities...) off.

You bannned head hits. Which in my experience doesnt actually reduce the number of times people get hit in the head at all. It actually encourages unsafe fighting and also makes it a complete pain to fight anyone shorter than you. Thats not the major issue though... 

Later in the document you state again that 'head hits are not permitted' and then immeadiately contradict that by saying "though any landed safely, or accidentally do count" which makes a mockery of your first statement indicates that actually you can do head hits if they are safe and creates a confusing situation about whether a head hit was landed safely or accidentally and who gets to decide that. Either banned or not, you cant have a halfway house. That smarts of very poor system writing and makes me suspicious of the entire thing.... if that basic has been so badly presented and evidently not thought about I dont hold great hope for the rest of the system.

You're allegedly carrying aropund latex weapons in public, in fact, worse, concealed in public.  Id be unhappy... how publicly is this game played? In clubs, or just in areas with some public access?

Use of the word 'Edge' immeadiately makes me think 'Final Fantasy' and thats an immeadiate turn off.

A large number of skills seem to be designed solely for Downtime play over 'live' play, many folk are allergic to systems like that.

Guns are 'auto-hit' as I read the rules which is a flaw in many folks minds.

The Rules you have available give very little indication of the world on which the players will be, why they are there or what purpose there is to their interaction. Which makes it not easily accessible or attractive to a new person.

I find that the rules layout is poor and information requires 'casting about' for. A smaller more compact rule boooklet laid out simply will be more likely to attract new players initially.

For the most part we have been blessed with a generally un-angsty / non-powerplaying player base. Which was nice

The head hit thing means we don't want people to deliberately aim for the head in combat. If someone is prone on the floor or restrained, and you gently bonk them on the head then obviously the hit counts. If you do get accidentally hit on the head in a combat then the hit counts. I can just re-write it it to "Don't aim for the head when in combat" if its not clear

Yep there are quite a few Downtime skills in there, but we intended on having a fairly active Downtime.

Edges were just the term used in Nightlife. I don't think the word used to describe a power is overly problematic though

The game was / is run in a private room, but sometimes we'd go out of the building where we'd have a combat scene. The room isn't very big, and there are tables, chairs and glasses around, so we'd go somewhere more spacious to do that. We've been running games that way for 6 years in Brighton and another 3 years in Derby with no problems, so I'm not overly worried about that. If we did a larger scale game though, I'd run it in a larger (and private) venue which is big enough to safely run combat encounters

Yep Guns are auto hit, but the damage is relative to other types of damage. i.e. a gun will do the same as a knife if you're untrained. When you're skilled you can do more. Unskilled shots might just be that the bullets are just skimming limbs, whereas expert marksman are hitting the head or the heart everytime. Its just a simpler way of doing it.

The world background is in seperate book.

The basic question is....is there are market for larger scale modern horror? As a general rule, all the larger games (50+) games are predominantly fantasy. Just wondering why there aren't larger ones around

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez

Oh there were good groups playing vampire... just they were quite rare.

Thats completely unenforcable though. Thus I regard it as a bad rule. either they dont count or they do. How are you going to tell if someones deliberately doing it or not?

Thats fair enough, but it will put off a group of potential players who are more interested in the live portion and rarwely involve themselves in downtime.

*grins* thats me own allergy to the term... I dunt reckon its too problematic really...

Cool I presumed so.... but I have seen people try and do it in public clubs and so forth.... hence my wariness... 

Aha!

I still think though that if you have a larp idea, go for it.  You never know if it will fly or not. 

PD: Dubious (so i'm told) and all round Arms Dealer of Mill-en

RL: Ian, maker of fine-ish LARP weapons

www.makai-larp.co.uk

Now providing replica firearms - delivered to every Maelstrom Event!

 

I think that the market is there, if you output high quality games, the playerbase will grow as word spreads.

Maelstrom gets  X hundred people because its a well written and conceived game. However do I think a game that is as equally well conceived and written wouldn't get the same level of interest if it was in a modern day setting

Its pretty easy to phys rep a city if you live in a city. Just that people generally aren't comfortable in wandering around it whilst dressed up.

Having said that, for the most part I'd have said that the modern horror costumes are just normal clothes. Which is what I think is part of the appeal of high fantasy. It feels like much more of an event if people have impressive costumes. A modern day event and people just wear their normal clothes

Could you find a reason to get 100 vampires / werewolves / demons etc in a field together?

Erm...probably yeah. We just robbed the Nightwatch concept for our game in that there are two Factions who come together to make appeals to the "independent overseers" in their war. There has to be balance in the world, so the good guys say "we can to use our powers to get a new hospital built. In return we'll let you use your powers to have this murderer released" Basically try and get favours from the other side, get approval for their next actions etc.

The concept could probably work on a larger basis, in that the two factions come together to have their actions approved. Its not massively interesting as a basic concept (i.e. formulating a business contract) but its a reason for everyone meeting up. If you have individuals all being part of smaller gangs, then you might get other rivalries and backstabbing

Needs a lot more thought

The Nightclub idea works. There was a game called Pretenders in Manc a while back that used that idea, though think it was on a pretty small scale

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez