Years ago, I was a Green Cloaks LARP regular. I left the main system because of safety concerns but maintained close friends in my old faction and went to one of their Sanctioned events before the plague struck. It turns out the game is still quite enjoyable when it's run by a different team. GC's unique game system has driven my development cycle for many a year and the those developments underpin the core of my design philosophy. The potential for 14 hour long play sessions in an immersive world where you have to eat, drink and fight make for some interesting kit choices. Long set piece battles where you're engaged for 2-4 hours at a time mean reliability becomes king as well as storing all the ammunition to keep blasters fed for that time. Multi-hit point opponents result in engagement strategies that require higher volumes of foam on target can be ported over to more regular Nerf wars where you can modify that discipline into a suppressive fire and manouvre doctrine. Plus the players are much more timid under fire. The average LARP player has a lot invested in their character in terms of time, narrative and the like so they can be a bit more hesistant to take the initiative and engage the opponent. Being around a player base like that readily teaches a powerful lesson in tacticial initiative and playing a little more aggressively. Coupled with multi-HP characters, you can charge down sentry gun positions in a Big Damn Hero moment, end up under the window of their fortified point with the gun unable to pivot down before popping a grenade over the window sill and clearing the room with boomy. It's an experience like no other and I've always played combat focused characters that lend firepower to a melee focused regiment.
What GC also has, however, are Adepts. Essentially, these are cybernetically enhanced soldiers who would probably be equivalent to space wizards. I've always wanted to play one but I've never had the hard skills to put together the kit necessary to match my image of what one of these soldiers should look like. Until now. I have a 3D printer, I have a lot of sewing machine experience and I can solder and code Arduino. I have been refining these skills over the course of the pandemic and I've now sketched a vision of the character, his personality and his vision.
The Character Build:
With the way that GC works, you have skill points to spend on your character. I elected early on that I wanted a shooty focused character that could force multiply using a combination of shooty and space magic to disrupt and control the flow of a fight. I have a number of options as an Adept from causing enemies to run away in fear, to causing them to fall over as though they've been hit by a giant hammer or just simply magically removing 1HP from them with 3s of chanting or being able to heal with a laying of hands. The magic missile 1HP removal is out because you only get 15 focus points to cast your magic a day so that equates to a single magazine worth of damage which I could put out in less than 3s with a semi-auto rifle. Fear is relatively easy to counter in the system and only forces the opponent to run away for a little bit simply delaying the problem. I tussled between healing and knocking people on their arses for a while. In the end, I went for knocking people on their arses. I can cast a Knockdown call 15 times a day which forces folks to take a knee as stunned for 3s. In that time, I'm able to either deal with another problem or, more reaslitically, dump enough ammo into the target that they don't get back up*. There are in-game items that let me stabilise dying casualities and my plan is to trade, borrow and scrounge for lots of those so I can do the healing hands thing (sort of) without having to spend points on it.
Now, Adepts don't get the ability to use Rifles as part of their basic make up so I'd have to spend 3 points out of my original 4 to take it in order to be able to run anything appropriately semi-automatic. That would leave one point for spells and by taking Mind, I'd gain the ability to knock people on their arses. This leaves my character with very serious vulnerabilities. I cannot use a melee weapon bigger than an 18" dagger, I can only use a single shot side arm and given the fact mages don't wear armour (even in this system), I've got 5 hit points before I go over. That's 5 points where you can take full auto bursts to the chest and you'd be like paper. To make the character work, I'm going to need to stick close with my fellows and act like that force multiplier.
My combat styling, therefore, would be close in with the melee fighters. I'd be lighting up targets of oppurtunity and knocking them over for the melee guys to wade in and finish them off. I'll be moving all over the battle line to problem areas to bust problems and generally have to be very mobile. I think that nomadic ranger type styling is something I could really riff of in the story part of things. Adepts are weird creations anyway so the idea of a ranger type of character who appears out of the mists, fixes things and moves would be pretty neat. Background wise, the current narrative within the GC universe is that the task forces' numbers have been scattered and ordered to go to ground for in-game reasons. I like the idea of coming in as an outsider type who links up with the regiment because they're the nearest friendlies and just sort of tries to fit in. Narratively, I think riffing on themes of isolation, reintegration and trauma would be a strong start. We tell stories from our own experience and imagination and I think that idea of longing for home and joining a band of folks to get there is something I'd like to explore.
*Important note here: In actual practice, I would probably break character at this point to agree with the player who is playing my opponent to simply fall over dead and empty the appropriate amount of darts into the floor rather than unload at close range into the target. Politeness and etiquette trump any power fantasy you might have.
The Equipment:
So with the idea of a cyber combat wizard in mind, I started looking around. With these sorts of space mages, you're not looking at a heavily armoured build. Ideally, you'd want to go more with a flowing robe and then build out from there. GC's rules require that Adepts have something cybernetic lookign on their faces to denote that they're infact space wizards. I thought I'd extend that and opt for an entire glowing hood using LEDs to produce a more impactful effect. I wanted and LED system in my palm so I can have glowing lights when casting spells and given that Adepts are a living weapon, I elected to have something on my blaster that would light up when I gripped it. The idea being that the eldritch energy I'm drawing from the other plane flows through me and through my weapon.
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| I'll end you! And I'll do it in my PJs! |
I needed to start simple. I needed a hooded robe that would sit under any webbing and pouches I needed to carry for anything else. To that, it all started with a dressing gown pattern from Simplicity. Specifically pattern 3575. I opted for a DPM outer to fit with the regiment's aesthetic and a black lining to give me black facings that I could pin badges, do hand embroidery and generally enhance the look as the character begins. Cotton with a side helping of cotton was the choice because it's cheap and cheerful. If this was a longer term character, I'd have probably invested in the lighter option of linen.
I made the hood as large as possible, the idea being that surplus fabric would be able to fold around the shoulders to soften the profile and look more cyber wizardy. I've sewn Velcro loop tape into the lining of the hood to allow me to attach the mesh of LEDs that will form the lighting effects. The sleeves are long but I've opted to have them folded back so they won't get in the way. I like the idea of pressing them so they have a crease. It's a small touch but any one who's ever served will tell you that they iron everything, even their t-shirts (my Dad was always a dab hand as a result when we were kids).
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| Pre-lining... |
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| The longer this pandemic goes on, the less able I am to do photos... |
Under the robes will be my standard set of DPM greens because they're utilitarian, durable and fit with the theme of the regiment. I'm thinking of adding some waist sashes in bright colours depending on what I decide to do with the character's backstory. There's an enclave of warrior adepts that I'm looking at joining and having sashes in the appropriate colours for their various schools would be cool.
Equipment wise, I will follow on from the developing multi-phase approach that I've been working on in previous posts. Like my old character, I'll have a skirmish or battle belt with every day carry and lightweight engagement stuff on it. A couple of magazines, some in-character magical and medical equipment and a load of spare ammo plus water will all I'll need for the permanent carry. Then I can put the 18 pattern and haversack on for major fights without needing to carry it all the time.
One important thing about this build, though is that the radio will be carried permenantly and the head band piece will carry a piece of hook Velcro that will keep the hood up. That way, the LEDs will have a permenant back drop and I can use the radio ear piece as a mounting point for facial markings that I'll need to spirit gum to my face. I'm thinking of edge lighting some pieces of 3D printed translucent plastic so you get a weird fade effect on one side of the face.
Electronics and power:
I'm not just opting for basic LEDs. The system is designed that I could readily swap out for an off the shelf set of net LEDs if I needed but I wanted to go big or go home with this build. To that end, I'm going to use WS2812b LED strips which are sold by Adafruit as Neopixels. I've cut them down into 38 LED lengths and will sew them so they form a coronal plane across the hood. To control them, I plan to use an Arduino Nano and a LiPo pack on my duty belt. To that end, I've designed a custom board to control the LEDs and do everything I need them to do.
The specifications for the board are as follows:
- 4-5 input buttons for presets and general input
- A master power on/off switch to allow the whole system to be turned on and off as needed
- Stable out put of 5V in order to be able to safely power the LED strips
- XT plug compatibility for plugging in LiPos
- A cooling system to keep the system cool under load
- A master dimmer option to change the brightness of the LEDs with a simple button
- A master voltage monitor to keep an eye on the LiPo pack I'm using
Optional bits and pieces:
- Bluetooth compatiblity
Enter the V1 board. I put this together on Eagle and ordered it from China via JLC PCB. There are parts libraries from all over the internet and if you recognise your footprints, thank you for making them freely available. I've gone for entirely through hole components because they're easy to source and easy to solder. The board itself is 100x45mm which is a bit chunky but given the size of the LiPo packs that will power this system and the fact it's belt mounted, it's not that big in the grand scheme of things.
The big LM338 package there gives me up to 5A of current at 5V and I'll put a IRL44ZN MOSFET where the IRF540 package is. That's 49A of continuous current. Past experience has taught me that the LM338 packages get warm under load so I've placed them under a fan and will back that up with a heat sink, too. If a basic 12V fan is too noisy, there are Noctua silent options on the market if I really need them.
The switches at the top of the diagram are the right angled PCB variants and they're surprisingly robust when soldered down. These 5 will form the basis of my inputs and two of them are wired to the Nano's interupts so I have the option of using them for ISRs and funky effects that come with those.
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| Humble beginnings as I remember to how to solder through hole components... |
At this point, I've begun assembly of the board. It's thrown up some interesting bits and pieces that hadn't been evident in the design process. For example, that Nano's USB port is placed where it can't be readily plugged in so I'll have to either keep the fan somewhere else during testing or unplug and replug the board each time I flash it. We'll see how that goes. Worst case, I can move the button switch and flip the board around. It'll require some major redesign work on the EAGLE end of things but it's not the end of the world.
I've opted for a 90 degree plug in connector for the Bluetooth module so it can be plugged in as needed. It's all wired up in the traces, it's an optional module and won't get in the way.
There's a huge amount still to do on this project. I need to fix the printer before I start on the next phases. I need to design a housing for the main board and power system. The anchor points for the LEDs in the hood need designing and printing. I need to find a way to safely bundle long cables between my belt and the hood and the belt and wrist for the hand LEDs. I've got a while before the next event so I'll keep tinkering and playing. I'll keep posting as it goes.
