NOTE: This is one of two posts by our MD on our weekend with the Green Cloaks LARP system in Pembury, Kent. This first deals with the difference in experience that LARP offers to a HvZ veteran while the second deals with the lessons learned about our kit and our future development directions.
Here goes....
It's been nearly a week since we got back from Pembury in Kent after a great weekend with the lovely folks at the Green Cloaks. I've had plenty of time to think about things and I thought I'd share some thoughts. It was the company's first ever trader event and our team's first time in any kind of LARP system. I've written out my thoughts on the differences between the BUZAN Humans versus Zombies indoor variant and my experiences alongside these chaps.
I played a monster trooper on the Sunday and participated in the event's climax as a One Bakkar ranger while Steve took up arms with the player base as a trooper with the 23rd Heavy Infantry regiment on the Saturday and turned traitor with me on the Sunday.
The first thing I noticed was the shallowness of the learning curve. I hail from BUZAN, an indoor melee free Humans Versus Zombies variant. There, it's shoot or die. The human faction are invariably overrun and it's a case of yelling "By the manner of our deaths shall ye know us!" 25ft is considered out of range and your kill zone is between 6ft and 10ft. It's frenetic and brutal, a closely fought live or be turned system and it looks poorly on humans who fail to learn quickly. BUZAN members rapidly learn their blasters, rapidly learn situational awareness or they get really, really good at being a zombie.
Green Cloaks was refreshingly different. While BUZAN relies on a "here's a blaster, those zombies are going to kill you, survive as long as you can" there's a greater sense of community beyond the raw martial camaraderie seen at BUZAN. Our heroics are short lived because all human survivors are inevitably overrun but with GC, and I figure other LARP systems, there are the stories around the camp-fire that are told for years to come by characters that endure. There's a depth and richness that comes from a plot that has clearly been lovingly worked out by an experienced team. The charm of BUZAN is that it reflects the lack of context that comes as a civilisation comes crashing down. For the miserly sum of £20 (and I'm being serious when I say that - for what you get it's nothing) you can turn up and jump into a full experience.or you can even play a monster free of charge.
The difference in learning curves made itself apparent in some aspects of gameplay. The fact monsters were able to creep into camp and raise hell was something that would never happen at BUZAN but then we're a highly strung lot who routinely check one another for bites. A BUZAN player is never far from a fully loaded rifle, even in the off periods and the number of unloaded, unattended blasters lying around was a bit of a shock to us! To the credit of the player base, they shaped up very well toward Sunday and they acquitted themselves very well in the final battle. The density of game play was less intense so players learned much more slowly but the system was a lot less brutal and friendlier in some ways than BUZAN.
The other great thing about GC was the space. Oh the space. I mentioned earlier that 25ft for BUZAN is considered out of range. My Stampede is used to firing at 15-20ft with the best accuracy my aiming skill can manage. In the final battle as we held up the player base with a single sniper, with just a light breeze, that was woefully ineffective. Steve's Longstrike did a little better but the maxim about upgraded Elite blasters being the best for outdoor fire fights rings true. The other advantage of space is that, provided you can move and fire, you can remove yourself from a threat almost indefinitely (or until you trip over something, as I did at least once!). That shift gives you a lot more time to deal with threats and your decision cycle becomes a lot less compacted. In some ways, that makes the system more newbie friendly and ensures the shallower learning curve. Not sure which I'd prefer but for someone who's not a total masochist, I figure the GC model is a little preferable.
The number of hits a player will take before going down is another big change. My Stampede ECS, Katarina, is a fine tuned zombie slaying machine. In my first encounter as a monster (when I found myself with the diplomacy skills of a dead ferret and got my entire squad killed) she worked wonderfully as the charge came down the hill, my combat reflexes and 2 years of combat drills kicked in. I tracked and hit targets with typical BUZAN efficiency but because her ROF is muzzled, I was overcome. These players took 3 shots to kill, not my customary one. It set me thinking about all sorts of burst fire and rate of fire modifications. My blasters would need completely rebalancing for this sort of scenario, a 9 darts a second rate of fire would actually be reasonably provided I was able to match it with a solid 100ft range on the flat. That way I can lay down enough suppressing fire to overcome a charging player in some form of armour in the time it takes him to enter my blaster's range and close the distance to close combat. It was a shocking realisation for me as an experienced armourer but it makes sense that there are horses for courses. Full automatic fire at close range does actually have a role to play, just one outside of HvZ.
I didn't play as a character so I don't have much to say on the wider role-play side of things. Monster role play came slowly to me but it's not something I've ever done before. It was fun to do and I got to be a lot more tactical than I'd normally get in a BUZAN session. The monster refs were a great bunch and really got creative with things. The tactics were mostly down to the extra space and the different nature of the enemy. Even in BUZAN HvH games, we've only got a space of around half a football pitch which limits tactical capability somewhat. Acting as a ranger, crawling through bushes and hedgerows, allowed me to apply a little more flair than I normally would have done.
I'm not the sort of person that's ever taken to role-play. I've tried three different table top systems and not really engaged. Most of my personal gaming taste lies with Real Time Strategy but I think I'm finding myself warming to future-LARP. I'm not sure I could ever play a character but certainly playing as a monster in a number of different ranged combat configurations is a possibility and I find myself thinking up NPCs and support characters for the player base in my off-time. It's a dangerous bug and I think I may have been bitten. :D
In short, BUZAN is brilliant if you've had a crap week at work and need to blow off steam (and probably why it's so successful with students) but GC and Nerf LARP is more about the immersion and the escapism. It's more of a holiday than physical therapy! Cheapest camping holiday you'll ever get, too, and there's a brilliant group of people around to keep you entertained during the day (and into the night!). Green Cloaks truly is a grass roots system and welcomes newbies with open arms.
I think that's everything I wanted to say on the matter. I'd like to end by thanking the Green Cloaks team, Enys, Hollie, Woj and all the rest, for a wonderful weekend. You guys were all fantastic and thank you for putting up with us. We're looking forward to returning and waging war against or alongside you fine chaps and chapesses. And remember, never be afraid to bum rush a lone sniper.
If you've got any questions then drop me an email at mike [at] blastersmiths.co.uk and I'd be happy to chat. If you've got custom requests, if your regiment or detachment would like bulk discount then get in touch. We're here to help and push the UK Nerf community, whatever its gametype, forward to greater and better things.
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