Sinergy and reffing

[sobrique]

Well, I'd imagine that some of those who do SINergy aren't amazingly impressed with the quality of the downtime returns.

Yeah, I know. I filled in a few, but a load were either 'yep ok' or 'I have an interest, sorry'. Or 'I have no idea what this person is talking about'.

I know Darren and Graham ... well have been living in interesting times.
When you get 180k of text files to 'review, comment on, and respond to' then ... well it takes enthusiasm to do so. And when you get the odd completely out of context comment, it's a real headache. Because you think 'I have no idea what they mean, who's running it, or what's going on, so I can't really respond.'

Not that I'm trying to make excuses (well, I am, but ...)

SINergy is good fun. I really enjoy being IC in a nightclub, poncing around with a gun and talking to people. Which is why I'm probably going to not be playing next session, and instead help to run things.

But you see, the problem is, SINergy is really busy, and getting popular. And ... well it's basically a 2 man show at the moment, and I'm sure that whilst darren and graham have much enthusiasm, it can only go so far.

I've heard a lot of people who say things like "I'm happy to help, just come and ask me.". That's a generous offer, but not really helpful. Ever tried to run a 5 way D&D game? Well, that can get busy. When you have 50 players all wanting spotlight time, it can get hellish.

So here's what I suggest. An NPC rota. Simply put a list, at 15 minute intervals, on which you write your name. Once, twice, or several times, by time slots.
The idea being, that you'll go over to the ref area, and ask 'do you have anything for me to NPC' at that time.

Of course, it's a LARP, so you might get caught up, forget entirely or whatever. That's ok. It's not a commitment, it's just a way of getting people to volunteer, and balance the ... well rate of volunteering.

The other one would be long term NPCing. Some times it's nice to get a break.
Personally, I dislike the idea of having two characters, and flipping between the two. But I _do_ like the idea of magicing up a "Named Character" NPC, and handing it off to someone. The idea being that they'd be a fairly limited lifespan character, that might not advance, and is given directions and power by the ref team.

Oh, for example, the 'voodoo priest(ess)' in my current plotline. Assuming they don't get shot right away, I'd be fairly keen to see that NPC show up a few times.

So, how does that sound? Would you be prepared to volunteer (as a player) for either/both?

At 5 hours long, and 50 players, if everyone did just two slots we'd have a rolling five NPC/monster's on the floor at any time. This would (ideally) be in addition to people who get dead/bored and join in. (Of course, this is assuming that you weren't 'occupied' be it kidnapped, shot, or otherwise in the middle of something at the time)

At the moment, we rather rely on a monster team, who spend the whole session playing loads of roles, and the odd person picking up an NPC/monster role occasionally.

Edit: xarrion has just suggested a 'bat signal' for the ref team to wave around to say 'we need NPCs now'. I like that idea, but I need suggestions on something we can use to do it.

[Poll #257788]

Comments

[the-wood-gnome.livejournal.com]

they're called directed pcs aren't they?

dpcs are useful and good, as long as people who are playing them realise they are dpcs and can/should be killed off before they get too powerful.

I would say though, if everyone had a dpc as well as their primary character, they would probably get into plots more (as they would be in on the plotting), bad points are when they start getting too attached to the dpc, and downtime could be hellish for the refs if they had to run the dpcs as players too.

ooo, I'm rambling on eds LJ, sorry...

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

Call that a ramble? Four sentences? ;p

I can't speak for Ed, but I'd rather see nice on-topic rambles here than have to keep swapping LJ's anyway.

[the-wood-gnome.livejournal.com]

it was more me stopping myself before I started rambling

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

Where's the fun in that? :D

Some of us don't have anything better to do than read LJ's. Need Input. Feed me rambles! Feeeed MEEEE!!!

;)

[faerierhona.livejournal.com]

More STs can work very well. I have run events for 350+ players, or weekend long events for 80 players, as well as regular monthly games, and many of those have been done with 10 STs. Just need a good team. NPC rota works too though

So what's SINergy then?

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Sinergy is a cyberpunk live action roleplay.

It's in Nottingham, on the first sunday of each month, and it's set in a nightclub.

From that, you can probably extrapolate most of the rest. I believe the setting is 2036 or so, in 'Nu Rome'. (built on top of old rome). And the usual, everybody trying to get ahead sort of cyberpunkish things.

And the usual mix of characters that you might meet in a club on the monthly edgerunner meeting. From solos, bounty hunters and mercenaries, to fixers, dealers and medics.

Combat is more or less optional (in that if you try and avoid getting involved in fights, then unless you _really_ piss someone off you won't have a problem).

And I'm sorta trying to run/help/improve the show. Unfortunately, it seems that the current two refs, for whatever reason are starting to lose a little of their enthusiasm. With approx 50 people showing up, I can see how much work is involved.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the website is http://www.sinergylarp.com and the forum is http://www.xsorbit4.com/users/nails/index.cgi