Combat system
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| A typical UKLTA sensor |
You will need one or more UKLTA compatible Lasertag weapons suitable for your character and a UKLTA compatible Lasertag sensor.
There is a detailed PDF explaining how UKLTA equipment works here.
Melee weapons
There is much less emphasis on melee weapons in A Life on the Edge than in most other LARP but they are usable. If you are purposefully touched with a weapon you should fall down in exactly the same way as if you had lost all you hits on your Lasertag sensor. This is exactly as per the usual UKLTA "Tooth and Claw" rules.
If you are using a melee weapon, most of our participants are not very experienced with typical LARP melee combat. You should only 'purposefully touch' the other player with the weapon rather than swing and strike them.
Cyber attacks
In additions to melee weapons, as you'd expect, some characters will have strength enhancing Cyberware which will allow them to damage a person seriously in unarmed combat.
This is done by miming punching, kicking etc. and shouting "Power Strike" and the recipient should accept this as a devastating attack by a melee weapon. Acting out being pushed back or knocked to the floor would be cool but don't feel obliged.
When two Cybered up characters face off, it's the one with the most CyberWare wins. If you're even it's a standoff. Be cinematic!
SpeedWare offers a chance to be missed by gunfire as the character is in principle moving too fast to be aimed at. People with SpeedWare will have the mechanics explained to them but you're given a 'blipper' that activates the SpeedWare and this handles the effect.
Incapacitation and Death
Once you've lost all you hits on your sensor or been taken out by a melee attack you're considered 'down'. Being 'down' isn't dead it means your luck has run out. Nothing in the game will kill a character straight off like this.
Once you're 'down' you've got five minutes to get medical attention or it will end badly. Don't get left behind.
A shot of Combat Drugs will also get you stabilised or back up so getting knocked down isn't serious in the short term. You can't apply either to yourself but you brought friends along on this job, right?
If you've been shot down your sensor will be 'screaming' and flashing its lights. Pushing the button once will cancel the noise and start a minute count. Every minute it will beep, telling you how long you've been 'down' for. Once it beeps five times you've been 'down' five minutes.
Character death only happens by agreement with the player.
If you need to move somebody who's 'down' two people can carry a third at a slow walk. If you're a Cybered-up badass you can carry your mate on your own and maybe break into a jog but is that weak meat-sack really worth the effort any more?
Sometimes when you go 'down' there are going to be some rolling consequences, perhaps just the cost of whatever you used to get back on your feet or if the injury was serious long term damage that you will eventually need the Ripperdoc to deal with. Welcome to CyberPsychosis.
Ranged combat tips
Much as we love the UKLTA Lasertag system it does have a few quirks. This is doubly so as we tend to play in the dark which accentuates these. Experienced UKLTA players will be aware of these but this information may be of use to new players.
Reflec
The curse of all night games is that while we can use UKLTA weapons at 100m+ in the daytime this means they are very 'bright' even if you can't see the infrared light they emit. If you fire inside a room or very close to some reflective surface like a wall they will illuminate everything around, causing damage to everybody nearby, perhaps including yourself.
Try to take account of this by leaning out of a window to fire rather than firing at where the window is. Likewise fire with the tip of your weapon pointing beyond a wall rather than over, but behind, it.
Some newer weapons can use low power infrared at night to reduce this but they are uncommon.
Blue on blue
The UKLTA system has a concept of 'teams' but typically all games including A Life on the Edge leave all participants in the 'default' team which can be shot by anybody. So if you've somebody you want to shoot among a cluster of your friends, you'll probably hit them too if you fire. Always wait until you have a really clear shot with nobody you don't want to hit in your wider line of sight down the weapon.
Weapons like Shotguns with a wide arc of fire can be really bad for this.