 Title:
Prawn
Author: Mike Young
Publisher: Interactivites Ink Ltd.
Review by Shade
Added July 21, 2002
PRAWN is a two-hour live action role playing game where players playea creature in a tank. What makes this interesting is the whole LARP is done in
a swimming pool. A LARP in a swimming pool ?!?!? Luckily, Mike Young's PRAWN
pulls it off.
PRAWN is a stand - alone LARP product and does not require additional
rules books from Interactivies Ink Ltd.
I met up with Mike Young at Origins 2002 and got a chance to see PRAWN
in action. Let me say that PRAWN is a whole lot of fun! My impression after
talking to some of the players was that they enjoyed playing the game. The
Tankmasters (TM) made sure that the plot moved along. Those two hours in the
pool went by very quickly. The whole LARP in the Pool idea is quite intriguing.
Don't knock it until you try it!
 The
Game Play: Players can either be the Fish who live in the Tank (swimming pool)
or The Horde who are outside the Tank. The Horde interacts with the Fish in the
Tank. Playing either part is fun. However, the whole point of the LARP is to be
in the pool. So my suggestion if you want to play, be a Fish. That is where most
of the action and role playing occurs. However, the
best part of being part of the Horde is using the HANDS, which is one of the
props used to take
Fish out of the Tank. All the characters are well developed. And there are many
sub-plots for everyone to participate. There are a lot of props for this game.
For people who want to run a game, this is something to consider.
 Combat:
Being a Fish is complicated. There are rival Fish gangs in the tank among the
denizens of The Tank. They are the Sharks and Jets. Combat is done using the finger-shoot method.
I won't go into detail. That's what the books is for. Combat works out great when it is one-on-one or one-on-many. However, the combat
system gets bogged down a bit when multiple people enter the fray. That's what
happens when gang wars erupt. Hopefully,
the TM can help keep it all straight. Hit points are denoted by charms on safety
pins. Using the charms and safety pins in a pool work adequately. However, I
would suggest, if you are running the game, to try find an easier
alternative. There are things called Fish Schticks that allow you to do things
beyond the rules. These are basically special abilities and powers. They put an
interesting twist into the game.
Layout: The book is organized very well. The 44 page booklet has all the
information needed to play PRAWN. It is even suggested to take the take
the book apart. I would suggest photocopying portions of the book needed to run
the game. Photocopying onto transparencies is even better so the players in the
water can have their character sheets with them and not be ruined.
If you are looking for something different in LARP, I would suggestion trying
this game out. Swimming pools are not just for swimming anymore.
Score:  | 
