The concept was pretty neat. Take a stage production based heavily on D&D, and written and performed by gamers. Then, add audience participation and an element of choose-your-own adventure. Live. Then, select from the audience the main characters of your story randomly, and as the production begins.
The result was... well... EPIC.
Writer/Director/Game Designer/Dungeon Master Alex Gray has come up with something I enjoyed mightily and must attend again. EPIC! has its own simple LARP system designed to be quick and accessible, and not too confusing to new players. The experience of EPIC! went something like this:
We arrived a the Galaxy dance studio. Standing out front were some tabarded 'guards' to let us know we were in the right place. The first thing we noticed was the heraldry on the tabards - a d12. Yep, these were gamers all right. Upon entering and having our tickets checked, we waited a bit before someone came out and declared that the Twelve Bells tavern was open for business. I immediately regretted not bringing cash. Once inside the 'Tavern', there were costumed performers doing all manner of entertaining from a busty tavern wench to a singing bard to a huckster running games of chance with a bowl of d12s to a table where one could purchase EPIC! t-shirts and items for use in the actual production. Gold, healing potions, etc.
I must say I felt a little bad that it seems most of the audience, like myself, had either not brought cash, or had eaten before the production. The Twelve Bells bill of fare actually contained a small meal of a "crawler rib" with corn and a roll in addition to snacks and non-alcoholic drinks. I was unable to patronize the Twelve Bells, but in future visits I plan on bringing some cash to support the endeavor, get the full experience, AND GET ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE CRAWLER RIBS. You see, after the performance was over, the cast member who was the chef behind the ribs brought some of the leftovers out to us in the parking lot and offered us samples. The dry rub on the rib was really, really good and the rib itself was large and meaty. Another cast member told me that their BBQ chef regularly prepared food for the cast during rehearsals and that it was uniformly excellent. If the Twelve Bells keeps serving crawler ribs, I'll keep eating there...
Ahem. Sorry, back on track. So, we were asked as we entered the Twelve Bells if we wished to 'play', and if so, what class and name should we use. My companions were just wanting to watch the show, but I signed up to portray Kelek the Wizard. Yes, yes I know he was a 1983 AD&D action figure and showed up in an episode of the cartoon. He's an in-joke in my D&D campaigns and I had to come up with a character on the fly. After signing up, we spend a good half hour in the tavern (we had arrived early) talking and wishing we had brought cash. The performers were entertaining, it's been a while since I've just sat and listened to a bardic.
As the time grew close to curtain, all guests not signed up to play were asked to go ahead and find their seats in the performance hall. My friends went ahead, I stayed behind. A cast member in studded leather armor introduced himself as the Battle Master and instructed us in the ways of the game system. Combat would occur when two or more of the four-player party declared "Attack!", but would be avoided if two or more yelled "Run Away!" Upon beginning combat we would form two ranks, with only the players in the front rank being able to strike, and then only monsters in the front rank. Players in the back rank could use ranged weapons or cast. Fairly simple. Combat was turn based, with the battle master indicating each player or monster in turn, and when indicated they called out their action and if necessary hit location. Melee and missile attacks could be targeted to torso, right or left arm, and right or left leg. Arcane bolt simply hit, and had no location necessary. Some creatures, we were warned, were immune to strikes in certain locations - so change up! We were told our starting hit points, and that in a duel situation the duelling players would enact a slow-motion combat with the "gods" (audience) deciding the winner based on style. If anything was in question - there was THE DIE! A giant d12, about three feet across. It was set up in a wooden track padded with exercise matting. It rested on a ramp, and when necessary an audience member would roll it.
We were then asked to go into the performance hall with the rest of the audience, and the performance began. We got a brief history of the realm, and the setup for today's story. A young boy had been captured, and must be rescued. Heroes were needed! And so at this time the names of four players - one of each class - were called. I was chosen to fill the mage slot, and so back to the back of the room I went to recieve my garb. Oh! And my wand. Once each of the players selected was appropriately garbed we entered the stage which was minimally set to be a dingy adventurer tavern. As the Guide- who served to lead the party from encounter to encounter and offer advice to us- called for adventurers, each of us was required to prove ourselves against a member of the cast for our slot in the party. The gods out in the audience had to determine the winners. Our party was GREAT. Our Cleric and Rogue were hilareous and natural improv actors. Our fighter, Brick, was the epitome of dim-witted meatshield and immediately endeared himself to us.
I don't want to go into the plot too much, as I'm unsure if it will be run again or if the ongoing "campaign" will just keep rolling. I tend to think the latter, as we were given runestones that allowed us to get an extra "experience point" upon being chosen in addition to the one we earned from playing. So... if I go back, and play Kelek again... I can level up! Woo-hoo!
In-game, the Guide provides wisdom and sometimes a needed prod to the players. In-world he is prohibited from entering combat, so it's up to the players to slay the monsters and save the day. With a good group of players (and I'd like to think we were) the roleplay and yes, comedy rolls naturally. My friends in the audience were laughing the entire time as the players and actors engaged in banter with one another in an attempt to figure out where to go to save this young boy. We desecrated the grave of a hero, fought some claw-handed rats, confused an intern guard, watched our Rogue get driven insane by a magic sword... IT WAS A BLAST.
Combat was novel. A projector had our hit points up on the wall under our names. I'm proud to say that like any good mage I was hidden firmly behind the fighter in every combat. As we got our turns, we had to call out our target and location. Well, except me, I didn't need to call out a location because I AM THE MAD WIZARD KELEK! PREPARE TO DIE! Ahem. Anyway, adventurers, I found out, always hit in this system. The trick is if we hit somewhere useful. Monsters may or may not land their attacks, and the Director/DM/Announcer who was running the projector was monitoring the combat and adjusting our HP accordingly.
Before anyone says that it sounds biased in the favor of the players - our Rogue got whacked in a duel. He died permadeath. We had to bring in the backup rogue from the pool of signed-up players.
Was it perfect? At the same time no, and hell yeah. It was obvious this was the first performance and nobody really knew what was going to happen when the randomness of an audience and players chosen by chance were introduced. This, of course, made it even better. The DM was funnier than hell. So were the cast. The intern guard was particularly hilareous. My fellow players were brilliant. I think EPIC! is just going to get better as the concept gets more time in actual use.
After the story ended - with the party triumphant - the gods voted on MVP. I'm proud to say our stalwart if none-too-bright warrior Brick got the kudos. This will help him advance in XP if he plays again. We all got a 5GP reward, which was a plastic coin with "EPIC!" on it, that can be spent between games in the Twelve Bells to buy healing potions, etc. Pretty neat.
Now, my only issues with all of this is that there are three performance days per month, one show per day. There are only four player slots per show. This means that we will either see the same faces a lot, or the players who do get to play will not get to reap the benefits of continued play in XP and advancement. There's a hint on the sheets we were given of "prestige class" type advancement for some classes. How many games does this take? What happens if you show up to every show and just never get picked? Either way, spectator or player, the experience is NOT to be missed. It's a hoot. But just wondering how it's all going to work out over time. Play the same people too much, and others wanting to play will get discouraged. Don't play them enough, and the players wishing to advance will get discouraged. The crux, I fear, is that this is a volunteer group running the game for the love of the game. I don't think anybody's making a profit on this. So asking the cast to do more than they already are- or trying to rent the stage for longer than already contracted for - might prove to expensive.
Oh, speaking of expense, the tickets to the show are $10.00 It is possible to get a 4-for-3 deal, and get four folks in for $30.00 total. This is what we did to keep costs down.
I loved EPIC! It's definitely in its freshman year garb and production-wise, but the minimalist sets are really necessary to being able to strike and re-set almost instantly as even the DM can't predict where the gods will send the players next at certain points in the story where the audience gets to choose. In fact, the minimalist sets really add to the RPG experience. The people covered in plant runners to simulate trees were particularly amusing. Run on stage - FOREST! Run off stage, add headstone - CEMETARY! It was brilliant.
Twas a lot of fun. I look forward to going back. Those of you in the Austin area, check out www.lets-get-epic.com for tickets and more information.
Oh, and one more minor quibble - the web site needs MORE INFORMATION. It was hard to find things I didn't like about EPIC! and while the minimalist approach works great for the sets in the game/show - on the web site, not so much.
