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Science Fiction Live Role Playing

In 1998 a Nottingham based Live Role-playing club started running Science Fiction games using Worlds of Wonder Lazer Tag equipment under the banner of Starlore Adventures. Over the next 10 years Starlore hosted a number of weekend events based within the unique ‘Continuum’ Universe, drawing inspiration from a wide range of Science Fiction source material including movies, television and books many of which are often described as ‘Space Opera’. The Traveller RPG provided additional inspiration with regard to the ‘feel’ of this new setting. The Starlore rule system has undergone a continual evolution with many changes driven by the requirements of each new game event. The cover art of the latest set of rules was influenced by the Classic Traveller Rule Books by way a homage to this unique table top game system. Beyond the odd reference, any resemblance to the Traveller RPG rules are coincidental so is not a ‘live’ version of the classic RPG.

Wikipedia describes Live Role Playing as “a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character.” Most of those originally involved with Lazer Tag were from Fantasy Live Role Playing or Tabletop Role Playing clubs and quickly saw the possibilities offered by the new system. While Fantasy Live Role Playing tended to be based upon a mix of Norse, Medieval & Tolkinesque backgrounds with Science Fiction as the basis the setting possibilities were almost endless.

Starlore Adventures - Nottingham

So what is Lazer Tag Live Role Playing?

You may be familiar with indoor game systems that use Infra Red guns like Quazar, Megazone and Laser Quest or outdoor systems like Paintball or Air-soft. Worlds of Wonder’s ‘Lazer Tag’ burst onto the market in the mid 1980s along with other systems like Photon & Sega Lock-on. Unlike most of the systems launched at the time that were very much ‘toys’, Lazer tag was designed and marketed to be more durable and more importantly in the main adult sized. It is no surprise then that Lazer Tag quickly became the favoured system of a number of clubs up and down the country. Very quickly the more inquisitive amongst us were dissecting the equipment to see how it ticked. The first few modifications were modest in terms of improving performance and included the first ‘auto-fire circuits and multi-barrelled guns (just chop the front off a few tag pistols and ‘hey presto’!). The real ‘Arms Race’ however began in earnest when the first ‘lensed’ gun was unleashed and the hobby changed forever. By replacing the Lazer tag pistol’s tiny plastic lens with a 50mm magnifying glass, the range and output increased dramatically. If you were lucky an unmodified gun could hit a sensor at 100m on a cloudy day, if you used a telescopic sight. Now, the same electronics mounted behind a cheap magnifying glass could easily hit the same sensor at over 300m and at shorter ranges you no longer needed a telescopic scope. While some bemoaned the so called arms race, saying that it would destroy the hobby there was however a limit to what could be achieved with a half decent IR LED and a magnifying glass. Whilst it is possible to boost the power of a gun even more it becomes very expensive and most solutions involve an emitter that is certainly not eye safe. The 50mm lens is still pretty much the standard used on modern equipment although now most guns contain purpose built electronics rather than original Worlds of Wonder circuits. Please note apart from a couple of systems out there, which have a compatibility feature only a small number of systems produced in the 1980s (GiJoe, Quickshot, Sureshot and the ‘Terminator’ SMG (nothing to do with the movies) were compatible and none of these had a sensor that was of any real value.