TEXT: YOU ARE YOUR OWN GM 
  This is the one page summary document of the You are 
  Your own GM (YaYoG) system.  YaYoG empowers 
  players to make decisions and ruling without needing to 
  find a GM or interrupt the flow of the game.  However, 
  you are still beholden to the rules of the game, to the 
  rules of drama, and to being fair.  It becomes your job 
  to make the game more enjoyable for everyone; luckily, 
  you are empowered to do just that. 
  A NOTE ON GM THEORY 
  In a LARP, GMs are called upon to make rules 
  decisions, to clarify information, and to act as “the rest 
  of the world.”  Essentially, they are called upon as 
  independent moderators when the players cannot 
  resolve the issue themselves. 
  YaYoG endows that ability to the players.  You are the 
  judge of whether your character may or may not do 
  something.  You are allowed to expand the game world 
  as needed, as long as it is reasonable.  The trick here is 
  knowing what is reasonable.  If you aren’t sure, find 
  someone who is uninvolved in your situation.  We call 
  that person the O3P, the Objective Third Party.  
  The O3P acts as a GM for your situation.  The O3P 
  must be agreed upon by all parties and the ruling of the 
  O3P is final.  If you cannot find an O3P from among 
  the player base, all GMs can act as O3Ps in all 
  situations. 
  LET’S GET SPECIFIC:  GAME MECHANICS 
  Every Skill (thing you could do) has five levels: 
  Horrible, Below Average, Average, Above Average, and 
  Excellent.  If you are trying to do something, say pick a 
  lock, you compare your level to the target level (which 
  will either be explicitly stated or decided by an O3P).  If 
  you are better, then you do it.  If you are worse, you 
  fail.  If you tie, you need to find an O3P and have them 
  make a decision.  We’ll get into how to make a good 
  decision as an O3P in a bit. 
  There may come a time when you want to try 
  something for which you don’t have a skill.  At that 
  point, you must decide if it is reasonable that you could 
  do it (see Making Decisions) based on your character 
  history and your abilities.  If you cannot decide, find an 
  O3P to decide for you. 
  If you are attempting to do something to someone else, 
  like say, defeat them in combat, you first have an 
  announcement phase, something to the effect of, “I’m 
  a-gonna whump you because I’m above average in 
  combat.”  “Oh yeah?  I may only be average in combat, 
  but I’ll get my licks in.”  Try to keep it in character, but 
  get the idea across. 
  In this particular example, the character who is above 
  average will win.  But the character who is average is 
  saying that the other won’t leave the fight unscathed.  
  That’s fine and follows the rules. 
  Once all parties know how they will do, then you act 
  out the resolution safely and dramatically.  Afterwards, 
  resolve the combat.  You my end up Healthy, Slightly 
  Wounded, Severely Wounded, and Dead (see Damage 
  below).  The winner gets to decide how the loser is.  If 
  the loser is the same or one rank lower, they can “get 
  their licks in” and leave the winner Slightly Wounded. 
  If both parties have the same skill level and they cannot 
  come up with a mutually satisfying resolution, then they 
  must find an O3P to decide.  The decision of the O3P 
  is final and could result in any resolution, up to and 
  including all participants being killed. 
  Teaming Up 
  Two or more people may team up to defeat someone 
  who has one higher skill level.  For example, two 
  people who are Below Average in combat, may work 
  together to beat up someone who is Average in combat.  
  The person who is higher may get his licks in to up to 
  two others in the combat of his or her choice. 
  For combats more complex than that, find an O3P 
  agreeable to all involved and have that person decide 
  the results.   
  The O3P decides the results but does not describe the 
  action of the combat.  After hearing or deciding on the 
  results, you must act out the combat or actions, roleplay 
  them in slow motion. 
  Damage 
  There are four levels of damage.  If you are Healthy, you 
  have no damage and there is no game effect.   
  If 
  you 
  are 
  Slightly 
  Wounded, all of the levels 
  of what you can do are 
  one less.  You need to 
  announce this in the 
  declarative phase, “I wish 
  to 
  win 
  the 
  dance 
  competition, 
  and 
  am 
  normally 
  an 
  excellent 
  dancer, but due to this leg 
  wound, I am only above 
  average today.”   You 
  may be Slightly Wounded 
  for as long as you want, 
  but not less than 15 
  minutes.   After that, you 
  go back to Healthy. 
  If 
  you 
  are 
  Severely 
  Wounded, you need immediate medical attention.  Until 
  you receive medical attention, you may not use any of 
  your skills, nor may you move faster than a slow limp. 
  Dead is dead. 
  Two additional notes.  First, note that damage does not 
  stack.  If you are Slightly Wounded and become Slightly 
  Wounded again, you do not gain more wounds.  It just 
  resets the 15 minute wound clock. 
  Also, it is possible that you may want to knock 
  someone out but leave them unharmed.  If you win a 
  combat, you may choose to declare that your opponent 
  is Unconscious.  They stay unconscious for as long as is 
  dramatically appropriate.   The combat winner gets to 
  decide how long is dramatically appropriate, although 
  an appeal may be made to an O3P if it seems excessive. 
  Breaking the Rules 
  In general, you cannot break the rules, such as they are, 
  of YaYoG.  But you may have a certain number of 
  Special Abilities that let you break the rules.  An 
  example might be, “Always Excellent” which allows 
  you to be Excellent in a skill even though you are 
  wounded.  Another special ability might raise your level 
  in a skill in certain situations.  
  Skill Levels 
  Excellent 
  Above Average 
  Average 
  Below Average 
  Horrible 
  Damage Levels 
  Healthy 
  Slightly Wounded 
  Severely Wounded 
  Dead 
  
  Special abilities are just that, special.  You will only have 
  a certain number of uses of each ability per game.  
  Once it’s used, it’s gone.   
  Also, some special abilities can be used while you are 
  wounded, unconscious or dead.  The ability will say if it 
  can be used at those times. 
  MAKING DECISIONS 
  When deciding if you should be able to do something, 
  or if you are an O3P, you should decide based on the 
  following factors: 
  • 
  Is it reasonable?   Does it follow the rules?  Could 
  the character do it based on his or her abilities and 
  character history?  For example, if someone is 
  playing a super spy but doesn’t explicitly have an 
  ability to pick locks, can they try to pick the lock?  
  You might say that they have an Average ability to 
  pick locks.  They then want to perform brain 
  surgery.  You would probably say that there is 
  nothing in their background to support such an 
  activity, so you would rule they cannot do it. 
  • 
  Is it fair?  When making a decision, you need to 
  decide not only if it is fair to the player, but to the 
  game as a whole.    Would allowing the player to do 
  this keep someone else from joining in on the fun?  
  Would not allowing the player to do this damage 
  his or her fun?  Which would be better for the 
  game as a whole? 
  • 
  Are there extenuating circumstances?  A couple 
  of players might come to you to decide on a 
  combat, for example, and one player might say, 
  “hey, I know he would normally win, but I’m 
  attacking him from behind, and I have a bazooka, 
  and he’s tied to a chair.  Can I get a bonus?”  It is 
  fine to give a bonus to one side for extenuating 
  circumstances, but be careful that this doesn’t lead 
  to an arms race. 
  • 
  Is it dramatically appropriate?  This is a touchy, 
  gut-feeling, sort of thing.  John is playing an expert 
  detective.  Five minutes into the game, he thinks he 
  knows whodunit.  Allowing him to unmask the 
  culprit so soon is not only unfair to the other 
  player, it is not very dramatically appropriate.   Ask 
  John to get some more proof, or interview more 
  people.  Likewise, having the villain leave the game 
  as soon as he hears that you declined John’s 
  request isn’t fair or appropriate either.  Instead 
  encourage the villain to have a dramatic 
  denouement when it is appropriate for the game.  
  Think of the handcuffs scene in Who Framed Roger 
  Rabbit.  He could only escape the cuffs when it was 
  funny.  In the best of all possible worlds, things 
  should happen in the LARP when dramatically 
  appropriate. 
  Respect Decisions 
  As an O3P, you should feel comfortable making 
  decisions.  As a player, you should understand that 
  different O3Ps will make different decisions in similar 
  circumstance.  Because of this, you need to respect the 
  decisions made by previous O3Ps even if you don’t 
  agree with them.  Please do not retcon, or change history.  
  This way lies madness.  If you really disagree with a 
  previous decision, please recuse yourself instead. 
  Recusing Yourself 
  There may come a time when you are called to be an 
  O3P and you cannot decide.  Maybe you are too close 
  to the situation and cannot be an arbitrator.  Maybe you 
  simply cannot decide what is fair, reasonable, or 
  dramatically appropriate.   Maybe you have no interest 
  in acting like a GM.  In any case, you may simply recuse 
  yourself. 
  Explain to the people involved that you cannot make a 
  decision.  You don’t have to say why.  Simply bow out, 
  but if you can, please make some suggestions for a 
  different O3P so the players aren’t left completely 
  hanging. 
  Some players have agreed to be O3Ps for nearly any 
  situation and can be found by looking for the O3P 
  symbol on their badge. 
  PLAYER VS. CHARACTER GOALS 
  One final note: your goal as a player is to create a fun, 
  dramatic, entertaining event for yourself and the people 
  around you. This may come into conflict with your 
  character’s goals, which might be “win at any cost.”  
  You are all mature roleplayers who know how to take a 
  character loss well, but it still helps if you know ahead 
  of time which loss will make the game more interesting.  
  That way you can plan to lose big, or get just to the 
  edge of winning and then lose and be praised for your 
  sense of drama. 
  Therefore, when you get your character sheet, you will 
  note that it not only has your character’s goals for the 
  weekend, but it also will have GM suggestions for 
  achieving those goals.  These suggestions will help you 
  pace the game, and make it more fun for everyone.  
  Treat them as things your character would do, when 
  deciding what your character would and would not do. 
  AN EXAMPLE: BIG JULE 
  Big Jule’s goals might include: 
  Win the Heart of Bonnie.  Bonnie is a fine doll 
  and you are competing with Moonface Martin for 
  her heart.  [Go for it; let her vacillate between the 
  two of you.  Win or lose as drama decides during 
  play]. 
  Take Over The Underworld of the Big City.  
  The Big City is in flux and an out of towner like 
  you could stand to make a mint over it.  [Push this 
  to the content of your heart.  But do not stomp on 
  the floating craps game of Nathan Detroit lest you 
  ruin his fun.] 
  Win A Lot of Money.  There will be a lot of 
  money available at the floating craps game 
  Saturday night.  Win what you can; you brought a 
  gun and your special dice.  [Sky Masterson singing 
  “Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” will end the craps 
  game.  Be prepared to win until then, and lose your 
  marker for that song.  Should Sky not be ready or 
  able to sing “Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” the LARP 
  has strayed wildly from the play and the gangsters 
  should have a quick out of game huddle 
  beforehand to make sure that the craps game can 
  still be fun and entertaining to all involved.] 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Collections/Kid Friendly/5. Simple LARPs/YaYoG Summary.pdf