The Forbidden Corner / Changeling: the Lost LARP waiting to happen

It was my little boy's 4th birthday this weekend gone, so we took him to The Forbidden Corner in North Yorkshire (UK). I'd been there before, whilst he was still gestating in my wife's womb (4.5 years ago, date fans), and loved it then. I still love it now.

The place is a four acre folly in the Yorkshire Dales. It's am eccentric maze that doubles as a treasure hunt. It is brimming with character.

The entrance to
the maze

When I visited four years ago, I had not read Changeling: the Lost. This is an important point.
Whilst walking through the hedge mazes, wooded paths, tunnels and corridors, my overriding thought was:

This would be a fantastic location for Changeling: the Lost LARP

Now, I'm not into LARP anymore, but I would play a C:tL live game if it were run here. I just need somebody within the UK to organise it. 

The game would be very Hedge-centric, with occasional forays into the edges of Arcadia and Dream spaces. There is a great potential for Hollows, Freeholds, Gateways, Goblin Markets and fucking scary encounters with the True Fae and Hobgoblins.

Part I of a water
tunnel that leads to
the Greek Underworld

Logistically, the site would need booking for an entire weekend, with each attendee paying for at least a full day, maybe two. 

There are cottages on site, which is good, and a possibility for camping for everybody else. 

There's also a cafe on site. 

These steps ultimately lead to the Greek Underworld

The Gates to Hell
or something

A submerged dragon mural

Gates leading to an offshoot of the grounds - a long path of trees and wild boars

A representative wooded path

The view from the edge of the grounds

A gateway to the Hedge
or something worse

There are a fair few gateways and arches

The entrance to another off shoot from the main grounds
This one leads to a graveyard and a herb garden

Another wooded path

A warning to anybody who would meddle in the affairs of the Fey

This, and many of the following photos, reminded me of the insignia from Changeling: the Dreaming

An exit
Also a point of No Return
(in real life, it leads to the toilets)

Game design by idiots

Not a post criticizing existing games or the design thereof, rather a post about my own struggles with concept vs design...

I used to read Melody Maker, back when it existed, and one of the regular sections towards the back was for musicians - it covered how to get your demo tapes reviewed, how to get inspired, how to objectively assess the quality of your own song writing.
One of the criteria for the latter was to determine if you could actually play the songs you've written (which sounds like a no brainer, yet is apparently a common stumbling block). If you found that you could not, in fact, play your own songs, then you should at least take comfort in the fact that your songwriting ability outstrips your own skill, which you can always improve through practice.

So, with that in mind, this post is about realising a concept.

My problem is, I have a lot of concepts. At the moment I am trying to create a game that incorporates as many of those concepts as possible without creating a bizarre ungodly monster that should be culled before it draws breath and lumbers out into the world.

I've been playing with something like a free form resource management system for a while now, the original concept coming from a half hashed LRP idea.
The idea being that the character didn't have a health trait, rather they had a Luck trait, which was used to avoid damage and death, as well as stumble upon advantageous items, people, occurrences or knowledge.
For example, if shot, the player would lose 1 Luck, and the bullet is stopped by their cigarette case / pocket bible / hip flask etc. If the character runs out of Luck, then the next damage they receive either knocks them unconscious or kills them, depending.

I thought this was a great idea, and held onto it for ages (i'm on the 7 year mark, currently), however, I may never see it successfully incorporated into a LRP game, so have been trying to use it in a table-top system instead.

I made some headway with the idea a while ago, then due to the majority of it being written on my Windows mobile, and it exploding after two years use, I lost focus.
I've recently started looking at it again, and have decided to radically overhaul the system, simplifying it extensively and focussing more on player involvement and creative play rather than dogmatic rules.

However, because I appear to be showcasing abandoned experiments, here's my very rough notes and ideas thus far, plus some setting fiction which may or may not see light of day in any other format.

Here's a concept for you. They, scientists, or maybe potters, have discovered that ceramics can retain some of the ambient sounds from when they were on the potter's wheel. It's a similar principle to cutting a vinal record.

Now, let's make an argumentative assumption: God exists. Also, the universe, the Earth especially, sprang into existence fully formed.

So, once there was nothing, and then there was a word, and that word was God.

The word is spoken, and the world is created.

What i'm getting at here is: If we could find a record player needle big enough and stuck it in the Grand Canyon, maybe we'd be able to hear the name of God...

Ghost Britain

Back when I cared so very deepy about LRP, around 2003, I started writing my own system - Ghost Britain - which was envisaged as a moderrn day zombie survival game, mostly so the players and crew didn't have to spend much on kit.
However, around 2004 - 2005 I stopped caring about LRP.

I have recently fired up my old desktop, and found my old Ghost Britain notes, and well, thy're the most complete piece of work i've produced in ages.
Kind of sad, really.

Anyways, I present to you Ghost Britain plus supporting crappy setting fiction. Feel free to use - Just credit me if you do.

Link to fiction

Link to system

Pedigree / verdigris

The purpose of this post is to magically transform me from a random voice in the 'blogosphere' into somebody who somebody else might want to listen to (whether or not it's an authoritive voice is a matter for further posts and individual opinion)

Let me know how I do...

If you're into formal qualifications, then I have a Diploma of Higher Education in Literature and Creative Writing. I should have a BA (hons), but decided to drink beer and chase girls in my final year instead of doing work.
To be honest, all i've done with my creative writing training is run games and write dungeons.

Whilst at Uni I got involved in Live-Action Role Play (LARP or LRP). It was a 'mud and beer' club, which means that you resolved conflict by picking up a foam/rubber sword and whacking your antagonist with it. They also whacked you back, so that's alright.
I spent about three years writing adventures, or linears, for the club. The basic format of a linear adventure was about 8 encounters, mostly fighting with one or two talking encounters, that progressed in a, you know, linear fashion to a predetermined goal.
So, basically like a computer game. An example that leaps to mind is Resident Evil 4. You can explore certain larger areas, but essentially there's only one way forward.
I have fond memories of running these adventures.
I eventually left the club after dropping my writing duties to be 'just another player', and discovering that I didn't really enjoy playing as much as I did writing.

I've been playing table top RPG since being snowed in at a friends house in Feb 1996. The first game I played was Cyberpunk, followed by Ars Magica and Paranoia (not all on teh same night, though).
I was made aware of Vampire and Mage around that time, and remember being unaccountably annoyed that The Order of Hermes and the Tremere were included in those games as options rather than the main focus.
When I got to Uni, though, the only games on offer were Vampire: the Masquerade and Changeling: the Dreaming. Mage: the Ascension reared its head once as well.
I started playing a Vampire game, and quickly discovered how a game can go wrong.

I started running games simply because the guy that normally ran them was, in my opinion, a moron. I could do better, I thought. I can show him how it should be done.
I did ok. Not great. Ok.

Since then i've run Vampire: tM, Mage:tAs, In Nomine, Ars Magica, Adventure!, Star Wars d20, D&D 3.5 and 4, Exalted, Aberrant, Trinity, basic World of Darkness, Hunter: The Reckoning, Orpheus and now Hunter: The Vigil.
All to an Ok standard. I think.

I currently play with a weekly group in my local town.
Most of them like old school D&D or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. They recently played Cyberpunk, which went down well.