Balancing the Battlefield: Phased Combat for Engaging LARP Encounters

Clinking of armour, sword and staff at the ready. The commander of the group shouts outs. ” Ready yourselves for battle. Orcs and trolls are preparing to attack from the tree line” 

This scenario plays out many times in a storyteller lead LARP. Usually in an open clearing where 40, 50 or even a 100 plus players fight off an invasion of nonplayer character (NPCs). These NPCs are greatly out numbered by the players. Outnumber? Some times as high as even 10:1. What are some tricks storytellers use to balance the combat? 

The Challenge of NPC Spawns

Increase the number of spawns each NPC has.  Lets say there are 30 orcs but you only have 5 NPCs. Each NPCs would respawn 6 times. This would represent the total orcs of the scenario.  However, the way the players would perceive this would be not as challenging. Since there is would be a enemy death, loot and respawn. That amount of time would break the flow of combat. The fighter focused players would be able to gang up on the trickle of enemies as they respawn. Your NPCs would be physically drained by the scenario. Lower level players would mostly be spectators and player would not need to use any tactics besides smash. 

The Pitfalls of Overpowered Enemies

What else can storytellers do to create a challenging combat event. Sometimes they Jack up the NPCs stats or introduce a overpowered boss enemy. This would make a more inclusive combat scenario. Since the geared players would attack the boss while the rest of the player base would fight off the regular orcs. This is not without its own balancing problems. Boss tend to have better loot. Magic swords, cloaks of invisibility or weekend grog pass. While lesser enemies would scrap leather or pocket lint. The geared players would increase their combat effectiveness over the non geared players. This gap would lead more combat balancing issues later on. What can a storyteller do to create a challenging scenario that all then players regardless of level or gear would be able to participate in and feel a sense of accomplishment when completed. 

Combat Phasing: A Solution

Lets rewind to the original scenario with combat phasing. We have 40 players and our 30 orcs played by 5 NPCs. Players would breakup in groups of 10 and they would fight off NPCs in an repeated combat scenario. These combat scenarios would be replayed till all 4 groups got through it or not. There can be the regular orcs and boss as well on each group to give everyone the opportunity to engage or retreat. Loot would be randomized, not every boss phasing would drop the premo stuff however loot distribution would be easier. Lower end loot can be spread out through the player base increasing player on player commerce. Players would need to balanced there groups to ensure they have heals, range, magic or sword. Lower level support players would be considered more valuable. Higher level player group can fight against enemies with highier stats at storyteller discretion. The NPCs would have time to recuperate between scenarios and altho the total time of the sensation would be longer it would less physically demanding. If a group get wiped out, the death counters would be suspend till the game world would be re-phased and the remaining players can try to save the downed ones. 

Try it out at your next LARP and let us know how it goes!