thoughts on the Vampire LARP of the future

[enthusiastick]

I had a revelation today:

The LARP of the future will be electronic. I was thinking about the way chops are currently thrown, and how some people prefer to use chops decks or automated computer programs to randomize the outcome. From there its really just a short step from having everything automated to a certain extent.

Think about it... in the near future each player will possess a cell phone (or something like that) which at this point is complicated enough that its a PDA unto itself, essentially a low-power computer. What's to stop LARPers from utilizing those devices to their maximum potential? Each phone has a copy of the character's sheet and a program used for executing challenges. And the whole thing is networked through the Storytellers' laptop - meaning a record is kept of every single challenge thrown.

I'm not just talking about combat chops, although those could certainly be streamlined. I picture a utopian Vampire LARP where your cell phone vibrates when you're being summoned, telling you by whom. Where you engage in a Telepathy challenge to determine someone's Derangement or Negative Trait and the phones retrieve it automatically without needing to pause the game and search for a Storyteller to whisper it in your ear.

At that point there's not even a particularly good reason to stick to the clumsy rock-paper-scissors system, which is statistically unsophisticated only for simplicity's sake. Man, it could be so cool...

Comments

[attackmonkey.livejournal.com]

My god. that is so cool.
At that point, you could do away with the Larp ruleset altogether, and just run things off of tabletop.

You need to get rob on this. I hear he likes immensely huge projects for no pay.

-monkey

[cassielsander.livejournal.com]

I had a dream once in which there was a LARP where we wore special glasses or headsets that gave us a heads-up display of our current stats and the "public information" (name, clan, status, position, weapons) of other people. (Player's info below, other people's would sort of float over their heads).

It was done mostly with icons rather than text. I remember some girl walking up to me and that I was startled to see a Set-serpent floating above her head. (There was also a hissing sound).
I was probably spending too much time watching rollick play Redemption.

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

I suspect even this is beyond Rob's meager budget. But yeah, that's my point exactly, or one of them. I have such a beautiful vision of the automated digital LARP system of the future...