The Bear's Grove #7: Honor, Kid's LARPing, Game Design Toolkit

The Bear's Grove #7: Honor, Kids' LARP, GM's Toolkit, Authentic Religion, Romantic Sources



Kid's LARP links:

The Masquerade Mind's Eye Theatre rules. Yes, there is a new set of rules out - this is two generations ago, but I feel like for those of you who are adapting, you don't need to spend a lot of money to buy the book and adapt it for your own use. You can get a used copy of The Masquerade rules for $.98 + S&H on Amazon.

Remember, I'm not advocating that kids play Vampire. I think that's a PG-13 game at best. But if you take the rules as listed in The Masquerade, and use them for a kid's LARP you create from scratch, it works really well.

Game Design Toolkit links:

Chinese Portrait
Here are some examples for you:

Steve Zeck's Chinese Portrait

Tantaene animis caelestibus irae (Are there such angers in the celestial minds?), a wiki for a Nephilim game, each character listed has its own Chinese Portrait.

Gridwork

You can get a free office suite here

Bell Curve Wikipedia reference

Four Aspects of Religion we cover:

Dogma: What spiritual, ethical, and moral teachings the religion espouses
Priesthood: The structure and politics of the religious leadership
The Priestly Creed: The religion leaders' own beliefs and practices
The Faith & the Faithful: What the body of believers actually believe and practice

Big Questions:

Here is a (not exhaustive) list of Big Questions your fantasy religion should answer:

Where did the world we live in come from? Why was it put here? Who is in charge? Where did we come from?

What is right and good? What is wrong and evil? Or are there many shades of gray?

What famous holy people have been a part of our tradition? What did they teach, and what were they famous for?

How should we conduct our everyday affairs? What shall we do about money and charity?

Who is considered an adult? Who is eligible for marriage? What kind of marriages are there? Who is eligible for the priesthood? What rights and privileges does the priesthood have? Who is in charge of the church? Who decides what the church believes?

What are the spiritual teachings of the church? Are there spiritual beings who either help or hinder the church or its believers? Is there a supernatural opposition to the church?

Who are the enemies of the church? Who are the friends? What is the position of the church on other religions or deities?

What happens when people die? Is there a different afterlife for the faithful? What is the meaning of life?


Romance & Roleplaying segment:

The Kushiel Legacy Trilogy
Jacqueline Carey page on Amazon
Jacqueline Carey Homepage

The Keltiad
Patricia Kenealy-Morrison's Amazon page

Patricia's pretty touchy about providing information on the Internet about her, so you'll just have to read the books if you want to know more - her website, Lizardqueen.com, has vanished.

Liaden Universe

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller's Home Page

Order Liaden books from Meisha Merlin

Pendragon RPG

Well, I said in the podcast that it was put out by Green Knight publishing, but apparently that website has gone down, too.

Here is a link for you to get some Pendragon resources.

Amazon link to buy it

Vampire the Masquerade
Second Edition This is my favorite edition.

Changeling: the Dreaming
Changeling: the Dreaming

Laurell K. Hamilton


Today's music has been:

In the intro segment, we have "Forest in the Morning" by Fumitaka Anzai

For the Kids' Corner, the song "Forest Birds Fantasy" by Trespass

For the Game Designer's Workbench this week, the song "Innovation" by Mark Heimonen

The music before the Religion segment is called "Goddess" by Melissa Cox.


Finally, the music for the bumper before the Romance segment is called "Aerstream" by G.Org.

Our outro music this week is a song called "Coffee Shop" by Smallfish. Because everybody needs a little Caffienasation!