Welcome to the VR LARP project, produced by Anthony Osborne

Situation:

Trigger Warning: Ageism and Classism ahead, or “The future is now, old man.”

It is my belief that the hobby of LARPing overall is slowly dying. That is a very short version of events.
Additionally, I am writing this while talking to someone, and I SUCK at multitasking.

The longer version of things involves the community of LARPers. Specifically, many communities are run by the same people who were in college 30 years ago. This itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but these people have been doing TPS reports since before “Office Space” was a movie (That movie is old enough to drink now: You’re old). Additionally, these people now have the funds to host events at lavish places that are simply not meant for “The poors.”

So now we have rich people who only speak beurocracy, confused why a struggling college student can’t make the time to read a lore book printed before they were born. This…. this I feel will kill larger organizations, and stifle innovation.

Mission:

Creation of Tools

It is my belief that VR Technology at this point in time is beyond a fad, and now has the capability of being useful within LARPing circles.
I have spoken to multiple people about it, and while the consensus is often along the lines of “That sounds cool.” I have yet to see anyone try to facilitate any actual progress towards such an objective.

My mission is to create a set of tools to function as a Proof of Concept to the world, and inspire others to work towards similar goals. These tools will also be open source to allow others to adapt them to their games and otherwise expand them.

From my perspective: I’m not creating the Ingenuity Helicopter: I’m creating the Wright Flyer.

Execution:

Advance and Hold-Avoid Project Bloat

I have seen too many projects in my time that suffer from project Creep/Bloat, where the scale of the project is so massive as to make achieving the original goal difficult. I wish to prevent that by creating series of objectives that can be reasonably achieved, and then build on that. A summarized list of objectives is to follow:

Identify a medium for this project: I have determined VRChat to be a reasonable base of operations: It is a free game that can be used with or without VR headsets, and offers a reasonable amount of modification to create the tools needed to make a semblence of a LARP setting.

Identify a programmer to work on this: I do not have the programming skills necessary to work on something like this, nor do I have the time or energy after working my 70+ hr/week job of trucking. I have found a programmer who is willing to work on this project within my budget

Identify which game will be used for the proof of concept: I am most familiar with the World of Darkness series of games when in a LARPing context. As they are a parlor LARP they are one of the easier to use games in a VR setting.

Identify a game setting to use as a test bench for the software: This was one of the easier parts: Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has a cult like fanbase that is updating the game even in 2021. Creating this world in a VR setting will allow for a sense of familiarity when working with the new tools and concepts.

Identify what mechanics need to be created: At this point the two mechanics that I feel will need to be fleshed out are the way to make challenges, and a form of status effect identifier. At the time of writing a rock/paper/scissors mechanic has already been developed, with a 1-10 system being developed for the Chronicles of Darkness community. The Status Effect system is in development.

Playtest the systems: I will require people to attempt to play LARPs using these systems in order to identify bugs, quality of life improvements, etc. Development is not quite ready for that, but if I am unable to find groups of people willing to give it a shot find-a-friend is a real website and I know I can hire people to function as storytellers. As the Malkavian scientist says: Never Enough Test Subjects.

Extract and Export: Once the mechanics have been developed to an acceptable amount, they will be extracted off the test bench and set up as an open source resource. The idea is to make it so if other people create worlds in VRChat and want to have the ability to LARP, they can copy this suite of tools, paste it into their world, and Voila: Vampires in Space, Wizards in Wreck-It-Ralph style internet, Werewolves in hell, and Changelings in a safe place.

Service and Support

How you can help: Page in development

I have several ideas on how people can help with this project, some are purely speculative and need to be discussed with my programmer to see if it’s even feasible.

LARP Group ads: We will have plenty of wall space to allow LARP group, troupe, and communities to have advertising posters within the game world. For larger groups I would ask that the Parent group be the one to provide an ad, at least until 3 large groups come forward. At that point we can create halls to feature the independant chapters (I don’t want to make it look like I have favorites). Please contact me first so I can go over some particulars beyond “Don’t break VRChat’s TOS”, Contact info will be below

Avatars: I just spoke to my programmer, and he said it would be relatively easy for him to accept appropriate avatars for stock characters. So if you create one or have them commissioned, contact my programmer (details should be available below), add the name of the person being credited (give the artist their due), and what the avatar ID is (my programmer says it should be in the SDK). As a side note: Avatars based on VTM:B is one of the backburner projects I have in store for my programmer while we wait for test data on the systems, so while we will accept them, I’d rather efforts be dedicated to characters from settings outside of vampire, or people’s OC rather than ones from the game.

Statuses: At this point we have a placeholder system for status effects. They are divided into 3 categories: Metagame (like OOC), Mechanical (Like “Supernaturally invisible”), and Social (Positions like “Prince”). I do not have the energy to scour the depths of one of the versions (OWOD, NWOD/COD, and BNS) and get EVERY status. Eventually every status from every system will be included, but I need to start with a baseline. Next month I intend to petition BNS for a master list from their product line, but if they do not provide I will be looking for volunteers to collect that data for me. Contact me if you’d like to help.

Money: Actually….. at this point I have no need for financial help: I’m making a good wage and my programmer is within my budget. I am going to go with a modified “Accursed Farms” take on the matter: If the money you would spend on this project would otherwise go to hookers and blow, then I’m willing to take it. That said: I’m not trying to get screwed on my taxes, so we can talk about how money will trade hands.

Create a test group: I am not a storyteller, and am quite frankly a bit of a dick when in positions of authority. If people were to willingly create small games within the world, I will be able to survey what works, what doesn’t and how to improve the systems before we publish the final product.

Command and Signal

How to contact people:

The Producer: Anthony Osborne (me)
Email: Anthony.james.osborne@gmail.com
Discord Server for the Project: https://discord.gg/jhcdQNxyUT

The Programmer: Oninnaise

Discord: Oninnaise#1333

Please note: While my programmer is available for commission work, I am in command of the VR LARPing project. I am willing to listen to suggestions (and have already started to implement some), but whether or not they get implemented and at what priority is at my discretion.