"Larger Than Life/Mission St. Mary's?" Topic

Hi All,

For some time I've been gearing up to have a go at either Larger Than Life or Mission St. Mary's from Two Hour Wargames. We are having a rainy weekend here in Southern California, so I thought tomorrow might be an ideal day to give one of them a try.

Have any of you ever tried either system? What I'm curious about is how the "adventure generator" for either system worked for you: things like determining objectives, Big Bads, fights, clue solving, non-violent encounters, etc.? I would love to hear any pointers you may have, as well as tweaks you may have made to run a smooth game. Even anecdotes or AARs of games would be helpful!

If it matters, I will be playing solo (I hope I win!), and will have a more Victorian setting than is supposed for LtL (though it matches Mission St. Mary perfectly). My collection is pretty big, but it doesn't have nearly all the "types" that might be generated through the encounter tables, and so some flexibility will be called for. Fortunately the rules are pretty mellow about this. I'll fudge it and get as close to the original intent as possible.

There also might be era-specific demands that won't fit. For example, on the Travel tables, if a plane flight is called for, I'll probably replace it with a rail carriage or even camel train…So no big worries there.

Although most of what I've said above reflects the LtL rules, I'm also tempted by the more map-based structure of MSM. The truth is, I haven't decided which rules set to use yet.

So again, what I'd really appreciate are any insights on how the rules work (were they fun?) and any helpful pointers. I think I've looked at nearly all mentions about the games here on TMP and am aware of the THW forums.

Thank you in advance,

Daryl

LTL and MSM are two great story telling engines. I have both rules, however I combine Warrior Heroes Legends, which is a fantasy setting and New Market Round which is the swashbuckling rules which details settlement encounters and LTL style adventures.

For "sandbox" play you can start your character off in a tavern in Mission St Mary. Create a table of Encounters, Confrontation, Explore, Rescue, Job Offer, "Quest", etc etc. Randomly decide which Encounter and start your story.

If you roll up a "Quest" you can use LTL as the outline for the quest.

Here's my step by step:

1. Roll up clues person/object(LTL)
2. Roll D12 on MSM ,map to find which area the clue is located.
3. Check Day Part (MSM)
4. Check for travel encounters between areas (MSM)
5. Resolve PEFs at destination. (MSM)
6. If person or object is in a building, resolve Defining Moment.(MSM)
7. If person is found, question him.(LTL)
8. Generate next clue, (LTL)

After you become familiar with the system, you'll see that you can start creating house rules and add other rules from other THW games like bar fights, female companionship, duels, dungeons, increasing/decreasing Rep, gambling, more creatures, etc. The world you play in can be as deep and/or detailed as you want.

Tekawiz,

Thank you kindly for the response. That is exactly the sort of help/input I was looking for!