Coombe Hill
| Game | The Secret of Coombe Hill |
|---|---|
| Storyguide | Andrew Oakley |
| Length | 2 hours |
| Players | 18-25 (can be run with 12 with some loss of plot strands) |
| Suitability | Any |
| Prerequisities | This game ideally requires 2 storyguides and an NPC "serpent" (puppeteer?). Note that this game uses custom cut-down rules based on ArM5, adapted for live play without dice. |
| Pre-rolled characters available? | Yes |
Sign up
There is no need to sign up for this game; you will be presumed to be playing unless you indicate otherwise. Please fill in the freeform survey and you will be allocated a character in advance by email, otherwise you can turn up on the day and be allocated a character.
The only thing you need to read is your character sheet. For players with busy lives, short attention spans or who are just new to freeform games, the bare minimum you need to know has been condensed down to 3 bulletpoints at the top of your character sheet.
Rules and play
- contains the game outline
A freeform is a variant of Live Action Role-playing (LARP) with no physical contact.
Coombe Hill is a very short game, only 2 hours long. A more typical freeform or LARP would last a minimum of 4 hours, more typically 6-10. The main goal for this game is as an icebreaker for the convention.
This game uses a cut-down set of Ars Magica 5 rules, specifically adapted for live play without dice. You can download the rules here but you do not need to read or learn these rules unless you are a storyguide (or love roleplaying game details).
Note that powerful magic costs vis in the cut-down rule for this freeform
Now the event is over, you can download the entire pack of all character handouts, secrets, plot, rules, order of play etc from:
The game was created by Andrew Oakley and is public domain. You can copy, edit and adapt it without having to ask for permission, but a credit to GrandTribunal.org and Andrew Oakley would be nice.
Puppet
We created a serpent puppet using duct pipe, such as this available from ToolStation for £6, plus a card nose cone covered in white duct tape. Garden canes with lobster-claw keyrings were used as puppet rods, which could be attached or detached from split keyrings pushed into the serpent's body. Flaps of folded duct tape provided removable "scales" that could act as Arcane Connections.
