I like the fact it's not yet another system with elves and drow in it you know, not dissing them but it's nice to try something new. Also while I'm here Dragons as player characters, demons and angels plus snake and wasp tribals. This is one of the better Wemic's (cat people), this one too, the furry contingent isn't the only story. I like having the cat people, dragon kin, bear/wolf/hyena/badger style Mokosh and all the rest in the system, in play you just accept them as the exotic foreigners I find. Humans are the majority in game mainly as they have the advantage of not having to wear make-up, have a look at Simon Whites pictures and you should get a good idea of what the mixture of races is. If you want to be sure of ending with a big battle where everyone fights, Maelstrom is not the larp for you because battles only occur when they arise naturally from play. But that's because I really, really get off on believability and natural cause-and-effect in larp. Those two factors make Maelstrom a far superior larp for my tastes. So everything you do matters and has its natural consequence, large or small. Nothing is planned out of character, any battles or other big interactions between groups arise naturally from the in-character actions of individual PCs. Every action you make causes a ripply of effects through the setting, usually with no requirement for GMs or NPCs to mediate the results. I get the impression LT is almost a free-for-all setting where any race of creature and almost any backstory goes, which for me would make the whole setting feel less coherant and believable.Ģ) Maelstrom is designed to focus almost entirely on interaction between player characters. Whether they matter to you or not is something else again.ġ) Maelstrom is a clearly defined setting. Leaving aside setting flavour, there are two very big differences in play style. It's these little details that make the game gel, allow for greater interaction and keeps me coming back time and again. You get people who simply cover up the word with their thumb.

So you get some people who refuse to use the Kyat, but that goes against other tents of the merchant. Worse still, the Kamakurans produce one of the games major currencies (it has 4 in total, all custom metal coinage). The pseudo-Japanese-samurai-badger nation Kamakura has 'bushi' virtues. Here's another example: The tenets of The Merchant forbid charity.

That doesn't mean the faiths can't get on, but there's always going to be some level of conflict and negotiation involved when the chosen work together, or worse, out and out violence. Within each Church, there's plenty of rope to get hung with.Įach faith's tenets have places where they'll clash with the others. The Huntress is about simple justice, The Teacher is about law and learning, etc. Take a look at the old world faiths: Each of the Faith's are based on a way of life, and are open to broad interpretation.

The designers have decided that it's the differences between groups that make the game fun. In Maelstrom, the setting seems designed to encourage conflict.Įven the more advanced, rational nations have good reason to hate their neighbours.

Maelstrom game orc