Review of Herne LRP: Episode 1

Herne ('The Hunter' when he's being formal, Bill to his friends) is name of an old pagan god. It's also the name being used for a new LRP system beign run by Bristol Live Role-Play Society. (BLRPS) This is a review of the their first event, held at a youth hostal over the course of the weekend. The event was a little expensive (£50) but this did include food.

WORLD SETTING

The setting for Herne is dark age England, in 1137. Good King Stephen sits on the throne. Around Bristol, the peasants are made to starve as taxes are sent to Normandy to fuel the ambitions of Matilda. (Empress Maud when she's formal; She doesn't have any friends) The game style could be described as 'low fantasy' or 'dark fantasy.' Magic does exist, but is rare and terrifying thing to behold. Mythical creatrues like trolls and elephants are said to exist, but few people have ever seen one. The setting has much in common with Ars Magica, (Atlas games) especially with the feel of the hedge magic sourcebook.

RULES SYSTEM

Characters are generated by submitting a background and have skills allocated based on it. There is no 'points allocation system.' as such. Skills are ranked as basic, intermediate or advanced. On a case-by-case basis an unusually high skill can be agreed by taking a flaw, such as being lame.

Everyone has one hit in this foam sword system, plus one or two extra for armour which bow shots ignore. This makes combat quick and deadly, with much skirmishing in woodland between bowmen. Combat is never entered into lightly, for injuries are long lasting. Unlike most systems, characters lack ready recourse to healing magic. First Aid does remove one or two hits per 'scene.' (which are then assumed to be just minor cuts) Weapon skills allow one to three automatic 'parries' a scene.

Anyone playing a form of magic-user defines their own 'paradigm' (world-view; style and belief of how it works) and their own spell list. This is then costed by the refs before the game. Greater magical skills allow for spells which are easier to cast. (in terms of vocals, hand gestures, props, and other foci)

Overall, these rules seemed to work well. Combat felt a good deal more 'real' than any other system I have seen. And since every magic user is unique, you never know what a 'witch' could do if crossed. The only drawback (if it can be called that) is the length of time needed to create a character.

A full list of the rules can be found on www.hernelrp.org.uk

EVENT PLOT

This is Herne's first event, aside for a one day playtest last year. It began with a series of preludes for each player, as they found thenselves one way or another on the wrong end of the law. Imagine the mood created when 16 soldiers find you with the king's deer over your shoulder, and when a lone magus stands defiant against a whole patrol of the king's men and threatens to unleash the ars hermetica.

After our preludes the player character gradually drifted together in the forest, in various states of being 'on the run' and heeded off the rescue a few character whom we heard had been captured by the constable's men. (aka. the boys in blue) This rescue action brough home that in this game the players are the lightly armed troops and the 'monsters' are the professionals in heavy armour.

After a series of fights (in which combined with our preludes we ended up defeating what was getting on for 10% of the entire Bristol garrision) we made our way (battered and broken in some cases) to the inn. We rested there through the day until darkness fell.

And then a god turned up.

We walked out onto the balcony and looked down to see the shadowy image of a tall mist-shrouded figure, with great antlers upon his head. The smoke machine, lighening effects, and slow echoing voice all combined to make this one of the most impressive gods I have seen on a LRP. After making a speech everything went dark. One character questioned what had happened and the clouds broke above us for real on cue.

The players spent the rest of the night discussing exactly what this was, (Christian characters had somewhat differing views to out-and-out pagans) drinking from the Chalice that was found, and fighting off black clad assasins that lurked outside.

On the morrow, we were making ready to depart then the smoke machine saw action again. The Constable of Bristol had turned up, set fire to the inn and stood outside behind a shield wall to accept our surrender. After an exciting combat we captured him and discussed how we should treat him, before proceeding on our way. After pausing to rob some evil tax collectors, we followed a series of (sometimes obscure) clues on a metaphorical treasure hunt to eventually find Herne's drinking horn.

We returned with a huge stone slab, and set about translating what turned out to be a ritual using the chalice and horn to become reborn as the 'Children of Herne.' Eventually translating it (with some help towards the end due to lack of time) we set off to the edge of the 'deep woods' and conducted our ritual whilst trying to fight off the black clad infernal servants seeking to stop us.

PROPS

The prop standard was fairly high, and most characters (player and otherwise) did have quite a good standard of kit. The food certainly did it's most important job, through some of it did look somewhat inappropiate. (Rice in dark age England caused a few jokes) Also on that note the standard of role-playing was fairly high, with NPCs that seems confident in their parts and well-briefed.

CONCLUSION

Overall the event was well written and well-run. The combat had a new feel to it and the non-combatants were kept busy as well. In part this was also a biggest weakness of the event. It was too well-scripted, and there was little opportunity for plot-branching. (never mind player driven plot) We had been hounded by a impropable number of troops into accepting Herne's offer (or were 'leaves scattered on the wind' as he put it). Some players saw this was the case and choose to merely go along with the scripted plot rather than forge their own path. Whilst this sort of situation is to be expected, especially at the start of the 'story arc,' there are limits to how far it should be taken. Follow the plot or be killed by hordes of monsters is not much of a choice. In fact it's no choice at all.

That said I don't want to focus on this too much. There is much that is good and more than good about this event. True it does have this one failing, but given time one would hope that this would be outgrown.

The next Herne event is pencilled in around Jan/Feb next year. I for one intend to be on it.