Hi everyone!
New player (Completely new to LARP). I’m 19 years old, a student and a competitive target longbow archer. Looking at going Wintermark, probably some form of bowman, although I’ve been informed the skills aren’t going to cross over from a shooting line as much as I’d hope. I don’t really know what to write beyond that…
Best advice for armor/weapon choice+appropriation?
[size=85](Mark Wilkin: Have split this off from the introduction thread[/size] so it’s easier to spot)
063whii,
if you know what you are doing with a bow, the hard skill will carry over.
Armour/weapon choices?
Bow. ( Cheap and cheerful one, not your high end Competition bow)
a dozen arrows at least
buckler and Sword.
Mail Hauberk.
The Marchers will always give a warm welcome to a good bowman. (In case you are not set on Wintermark…)
If you’ve ever shot field then that’s the closest to larp archery, you’re firing flat not clout. Larp arrows fly horribly, you’ll lose several per event, and you’ll need a very low poundage bow (at least to a target archers mind 
)
The horrible flight is compensated for by aiming for centre of mass and accepting that you’re only ranged in comparison to someone with a sword, you can get a little distance but you’ll be within easy shouting range of your targets. Some arrows will be trodden on, some will just vanish, you’ll have no opportunity to search for them mid battle so you’re praying they get found during post-battle cleanup.
That’s not to put you off larp archery, just warning you of the realities 
You’ll probably want a sword or similar to use when you run out of arrows and are hunting for more, or if someone gets too close for a safe shot - the larp blunts are good but a very close shot is still dangerous so you’ll need to stop.
If you’ve never done larp archery before make sure you talk to weapons check regarding safety (which is conveniently set in Wintermark), as Ariadne said there is a lot of bounce in arrows at close range so you don’t give a full pull. Yes your skills will translate over but it’s not the same.
Lastly make sure you mark your arrows clearly, a lot go missing purely through people getting them muddled up. I make my arrow heads yellow and red to stand out as you have to go through a big bunch of lost arrows to recover your own and there is a 100 in there easy.
Thanks for the replies everyone!
As to the bow, I kinda guessed I need one specifically for LARPing. Even if the rules did allow it, I certainly wouldn’t want to get shot from 10 yards with a competition bow, so there’s no way I’d bring one. (The cost/risk of damage to the thing is another, lesser factor).
(Just to check, poundage limit is 30 pounds at 28 inch draw, and you are expected and required not to pull to full/excessive draw within 10 feet approx?)
Thanks for all the advice on weapons and armor. I’m not really going to have the time or the skill to make anything in the near future (other than maybe some arrows), so where’s a good place to start for new-level kit?
Finally (I know this is a chopped up, slightly long post), with marksman only being 4 points, what’re good routes to spend the other 4 down? I was thinking maybe chirurgeon/physick to do a bit of herb based healing on the battlefield, and some more serious healing off, or throwing all four into artisan and try and make some money in the world. Is marksman good enough as a combat skill to stand on its own, or are there other skills I’ll need before I’m useful in a skirmish/battle?
All of them really, the most effective combat ‘skill’ by far is having a heavy armour phys-rep (and it will make you more resistant to counter archery.)
Any combat skills aren’t going to make you a better archer (aside from possibly the ability to bleed for longer, it will help you if you ever need to switch to a sword for close combat. I’m personally not the greatest fan of cleave, but your milage may vary.
Artisan can also be used for boosting your own combat prowess (it isn’t hard to get more than 4exp worth of combat skills out of magical items.)
Healing is always useful, in any form whether heroic, surgery or magic. (Probably the main disadvantage of Physik is you can’t go for a military unit and have herbs, and military units can be quite fun.)
Artisans who can put the items they can make to use themselves are the best artisans in my opinion - it means that you understand your target market! Archers are already excellent, so it’s hard to conceive of magic items that make them better, so there aren’t many that exist - for this reason I don’t recommend being an archer who’s an artisan…
Archer/physick gives you one very solid off-battlefield skill and two very solid on-battlefield professions - I don’t know to what extent you’d be tempted to end up trying to be in two places at once and to what extent that would bother you. Feels a bit like buying a midfielder a really good set of gloves, but physick is a damn fine skill.
Have you thought of being an apothecary? Archer/apothecary (and then take one set of recipes) means you have something to do in battle, something to do on the field and an in-demand skill. If you’re joining a group, then talk to them to see if there’s anything that their apothecaries specifically don’t have (it’s not worth doubling up). And of course, apothecary comes with chirugeon, which is a great on-battlefield skill in itself.
On the other side of things, Hero Points are great - what about Hero Points, Get It Together and Chirugeon? Now you are a miracle-working first aider who is also somewhat resistant to the foul influence of magical auras and the like.
If you’re interested in being a magician, I’d recommend Magician, the Mend or Heal incantatiosn and a point of Summer Lore, mastering one of the magnitude-4 combat buffs: now you can empower two or three friends before entering battle (or sell enchantments), you can repair shattered weapons (which, when it’s useful, is ludicrously useful) or heal injuries (and you WILL use all your personal mana points on that) and you can play a magician and attend Conclave (the magicians’ debating society) if that’s your idea of fun.
To be a priest, take Dedicate and two of the priest skills - I’d recommend Exorcism as being generically useful and Testimony as being an excellent way to generate a nice bit of roleplay - I’d also recommend not choosing a Dedication (thus, being a Priest of the Way) till you hit the field and meet the different assemblies. This gets you into Synod politics, if you like philosophical discussions.
Make sure to have your personal resource fit with any resource-consuming skills you take, so, herb garden for a physick, mana site for a magician, congregation for a priest.
I’d recommend something that helps you restore your own limbs. You are unlikely to have full heavy armour on your arms and need both to shoot, so some self reliance may help.
Dre- That sounds perfectly logical. What self restores limbs though? (Other than the potion that does it)
Iulian - I like the idea of magician, but I’m not sure how well it’s going to swing in with the archery. I’m unfortunately not affiliated with a group, and so (barring turning up on the day and tagging along with whoever will have me, which seems a bit chance-the-wind, ad hoc, play by ear), the summer magic isn’t too effective, nor is the extra recipe going to be able to fill a specific niche.
I hadn’t really thought about hero points, I was under the impression the heroic skills were for front line fighters and canny personal combat individuals. Is get it together+chirurgeon that good compared to healing through physick+chirurgeon? Because they seem quite similar, apart from the herb path takes one more experience, but uses herbs instead of hero points (and 5 more seconds RP). With only two uses of get it together a day, and as many uses of physick as you can source the herbs for, physick initially seems stronger.
McGonigle - Are archers in heavy armor a feasible build then? I’d have thought plates or heavy mail would impair your draw and limit visibility as well as maneuverability (Might just be my naive target philosophy, I’m still getting used to shooting in sleeves!). Admitted, the advantage over other archers is immense, is that sufficient to compensate for the other issues?
It either requires being a mage with Restore Limb, drinking an appropriate Apothecary potion, or having one of the magic items that lets you restore your own limb in some way (sometimes spending a hero point, I would find the links but am on my tablet atm). I had thought that being a Physick and using Cerulean Mazzarine would work but I only just spotted that you cannot use any surgical skill on yourself…
I play an archer, and it depends on what you want to do, Apothecary, Artisan and the like are all good, Endurance IMO is not as useful, as if you’ve been caught out you’re going down (as it’s likely you’ve been jumped).
As an Archer you’ll be running around a lot, more than the average fighter, as you’ll try to manoeuvre into getting a shot, or get arrows especially in forested areas (if the site has any). With that in mind if you can run around with Chainmail on it’s great, I don’t wear it because it slows me down too much and I’m not fast in the first place! I have hero points and unstoppable which has saved my characters bacon so many times, I also have stay with me as I’ve found that as a character moving around the battle field a lot you come across others who are downed so its a quick way to get someone up.
Problem is on Anvil a straight fighter if you don’t have something to do can sometimes get boring, so it’s important to have a “backup” plan between battles, the aforementioned Artisan, Apothecary or mage skills hit these well (if you’re in a group with a Coven and you spend a point on Ritual Mastery they’ll love you if you pick the right spell) as these give you something to do with your skills (which push you into trading, Conclave etc. etc.). However these things being said, I’m a straight archer and my thing is politics in game, which requires no skills, trading requires no skills, being a priest needs a congregation (which is fun), being a big mouth archer challenging other archers requires you to be… well an archer (I heartily recommend this 
bring a target with you so they have no excuses).
We need more archers in Wintermark, there is a lack of Archer captains, I’d love to see someone challenging other archers outside of battles, due to aforementioned politics I have no time to wind people up.
Now I’ve never done this myself, but there are definitely heavily armoured archers on the field. As mentioned it’s probably more how much the extra weight would slow you down verses the extra protection, although choosing armour that won’t get into your way while shooting would be something you bear in mind when you take the skill.
If you want to play an archer/healer physik or mage is defiantly the way to go. Depending on whether you have an armour phys rep or not. Heroic healing is more limited, the only advantage being that it’s economically free, whereas herbs have an IC cost or take up your personal resource.
That being said as mentioned unstoppable is really good for an archer, and if you don’t have heavy armour is very likely to save your life. I’d actually suggest Unstoppable/chirurgeon over get it together. You can slowly pull people up and save your own skin.
Mage and the Restore Limb incantation. Also very useful.
Nearly any ritual coven will jump at the chance for a new member. Friends are the best buff to your magic.
Summer 1 - remember that the Regio gives you +1 and mastery doubles your contribution - means that you can cast one or two of the magnitude 4 Summer buffs on your own. I’d recommend taking either Strength of the Bull or Swan’s Cruel Wing and then either joining a coven and learning something they want you to cast or learning to cast whichever of Hammer of Thunder or Leaping Hare suits your friendship group the best. A lot of people still go to battle un-enchanted, and the game is set up such that the small buffs are the best buffs - diminishing returns on buffs is so punishingly sharp that it’s almost always better to buff more people than to buff people more.
In terms of how well magic swings with archery - the Imperial Warmage is an archer, so clearly it’s quite do-able.
[quote=“Iulian”]Nearly any ritual coven will jump at the chance for a new member. Friends are the best buff to your magic.
Summer 1 - remember that the Regio gives you +1 and mastery doubles your contribution - means that you can cast one or two of the magnitude 4 Summer buffs on your own. I’d recommend taking either Strength of the Bull or Swan’s Cruel Wing and then either joining a coven and learning something they want you to cast or learning to cast whichever of Hammer of Thunder or Leaping Hare suits your friendship group the best. A lot of people still go to battle un-enchanted, and the game is set up such that the small buffs are the best buffs - diminishing returns on buffs is so punishingly sharp that it’s almost always better to buff more people than to buff people more.
In terms of how well magic swings with archery - the Imperial Warmage is an archer, so clearly it’s quite do-able.[/quote]
If you are going to be joining a coven in game you could take it a step further, and leave one point unspent - then pick up whichever lore is appropriate for the coven you join. Or learn another spell, if you decide not to join a coven. Or pick up Chirurgeon, so you can do mundane first aid as well as magical healing. Or…
Iulian has covered Summer pretty well, but you may also want to consider:
Spring - allows you to cast Heal and Restore Limb on multiple targets at once. Probably less useful than the equivalent incantations at level 1, but worth considering if you are going to be close to other members of your coven on the battlefield and can pull them off at higher magnitude between you. If going down that route I would probably swap out Restore Limb for Purify, or a direct combat spell like Entangle.
Day - gives access to Horizon’s Razor Edge (extra cleave for a day) and Illuminate The Higher Mind (share spells you know with other members of the coven) at Magnitude 3, so well within the Solo range (provided you are using the Regio). Also gives you access to some useful divinations, if you want to play a more scouty archer.
Night - LOTS of useful spells at Magnitude 4, so again they would be solo-castable using the Regio. At this level they are mostly focussed on stealth, so this would make an interesting sneaky archer build.
Autumn - has a mass version of the Mend spell, which is always useful on the battlefield (though as with Spring 1 you are better off using the Incantation unless you know you are going to be near your coven-mates). Also has some very useful resource buffs, so 1 point spent here will give you plenty to get involved in off the battlefield.
Winter - probably the lore that synergises least well with Archery, but may be worth considering if the coven you want to join is set up for it. I can think of some interesting strategic uses of ranged weapons with the warding rituals, but those are way out of reach for a solo caster so you would be dependant on the rest of your coven.
I don’t play an archer, but I do habitually monster as them.
Having a buckler, a one-handed weapon and heavy armour means that you can always default to heavy infantry.
Having lighter armour means you can whoop around better as a scout or messenger in between shooting people.
Scavenge arrows, SAFETY CHECK EACH ONE, and then stick them in your quiver. I have gone out as a monster with 0 arrows and picked them up as I went. I recommend either ignoring EDIT: Fibreglass arrows or wearing gloves, as the splinters from those are horrible.
Since you’re near the back anyway, you’re not taking someone out of the front line to go and fix problems. Chirurgeon and possibly Physick are nice backup plans for if you run out of arrows. Putting one of your people back into the fight for sure is better than probably taking down one of theirs, most of the time.
Apothecary is not a skill I’d recommend because it doesn’t do anything interesting. It lets you turn Thing A into Thing B but since you can use it an unlimited amount, someone else can always do it.
Artisan’s a better pick, as each Artisan only has 3 months of craft time, meaning your time is valuable. There are plenty of good archer items. +1 Hit heavy (you’re a priority target for arrows), self limb fix (same reason), a Cleave sidearm for if you get rushed, etc.
Short-sleeved chainmaille (A haubergeon) doesn’t interfere with your draw, as chain moves with you and you won’t have it on the lower arms to snag. Plate will restrict your movement more, unless you have a crazy-expensive custom set. Chain’s also cheaper and less bulky. You can also shoot fine with just a breastplate. Even if that’s the only heavy armour you wear, you can have +2 Hits from Light Armour under it and not fall over to being shot in the chest. Heavy is nice because you know you can take a shot from an enemy archer, but you’ll probably drop them.
Magician and Battlemage will suck up all your points and mean that you will need to get hold of an Enchantment or Mage Implement of “You know this spell”. It will mean you have some hits, but they won’t help if you’re shot in the chest. Unarmoured isn’t as bad if you’re far enough back your main problem is arrows which instadrop you anyway. Try and get an extra hit on you in case of close combat or leg shots, there’s rituals and potions for this.
You can also decide “Archery is my battle skill, magic is my off-battlefield one” Buy Marksman, Magician, Lore 1. Buy Lore 2 with your extra XP from your first event. Wear armour to battle, it is Big and Clever.
Hero Points, Unstoppable, Cleave is a nice 4 point spend as you can wear Medium armour to cleave proof your chest, and if you have to, sling up your bow and go shanking. People don’t always expect the archer to draw a sword and cut their leg off. If you’re out of arrows, having a backup plan is handy.
On armour, I’ve personally shot a lrp bow in full plate. It’s possible, but a touch more awkward. A mail vest or brigandine and a helmet is definitely workable, though, and will give you plenty of hits at fairly low weight, and the all-important torso Impale protection.
If you take Artisan and Marksman and go for wearing heavy, you can wear the Defiant Steel crafted item, which lets you spend a hero point to self-repair a broken limb. Will need to get a hero point from somewhere, though (but you can buy that with XP after your first event, and perhaps wear the light equivalent (Jack of Irons) at your first event, which is one free use a day).
Specifically on the archery side of things:
I don’t believe we allow carbon fibre arrows. Fibreglass or wood. (Not sure about alloy either).
You can get rather good lrp arrows from Twisted Flax (run by a trained fletcher). In Your Dreams FX is another popular choice. Expect to pay £8-10 an arrow, depending on various factors.
Bows need to be max of 30lbs at 28" draw, as noted, and much lighter is perfectly usable. I’ve taken a 20lb bow to battle and not had issues with lack of power. You will need to start reducing pull quite a bit further out than 10ft or so, down to barely a few inches at 10 feet. Cheap starter bows (e.g this, with decals removed), horse bow style bows, and rattan longbows are all popular choices. You can pick up a very usable bow for LRP for comfortably under £50, and that gives you more money to spend on arrows 
Basic technique is similar - a bow is a bow, after all. But your targets are larger, closer, and moving. This means you a) don’t need to be as neat, but b) want to be fast. Things I practiced before events I was playing a serious archer at:
Set up a buckler or other smallish target perhaps 10 yards away. Arrow nocked: draw and shoot as quickly as possible while still hitting. For the advanced class, start to work on doing so from e.g. facing the other direction, or while walking/running.
Start with one arrow nocked, second held in the bow hand. Draw and shoot as quickly as possible against a similar target, then reload and shoot again, as quickly as possible. Just two shots, but very quick, is often incredibly handy.
Similar target: empty quiver as fast as possible. Niche use on the field, but being quick to reload from a quiver is never useless.
Practice shooting at part draw: work out some body-indexes for lower draws, and learn how that affects your arrow flight. Being able to intuitively draw to a reliable 3/4 power and shoot from there is incredibly helpful.
Every time you pick up an arrow, weapons-check it - it’s a really good habit to get into. Never put an arrow into a quiver without personally checking it.
That all sounds like solid advice tea, my thanks!
I do all of my own fletching already, so I’ll probably be more comfortable making my own arrows, and will (hopefully!) work out slightly cheaper.
So, what’s the cheapest/lightest way of getting into the heavy armor category, making sure chest and preferably upper arms are covered? Because that certainly seems the way forward, particularly in archer vs. archer. Kinda rules out the magic build, so am now torn between regular healing (gives me more to do off the field), or heroic healing/self-preservation, which seems to be more effective, but means I’ll need to be creative in my LARPing away from battles.
I play a heavily armoured archer with maille hauberk (think long sleeved “t-shirt” that comes down over your thighs) over an thinnish arming jacket and greaves (think shin pads) and mostly that doesn’t limit my mobility much at all. Though there is a fitness factor to take into account there. It’s definitely doable and gives you an advantage of barbarian archers. I personally don’t wear a helm as a) I haven’t found a good one and b) everyone knows that real heroes don’t wear helms.
If you want the hits, you’ll need to cover a fair bit (helm and t shirt does it) so a chain hauberk and helm is probably your cheapest and lightest option - but it does have to be steel (look it up on the wiki)
In terms of armsI I tend to take a dagger and sword out as well. Cos you never know.
In terms of skills, I’ve found unstoppable very useful, and have stay with me to get others up. As mentioned before, frankly if you get put down you’ll probably going to die anyway. That said, I did pick up cleave and that saved my life last event when I temporariliy ran out of arrows!
In terms of poundage, you’re correct though most people go slightly under - 28 or so, just to be safe.
Arrows - I’d strongly recommend NOT making you own arrows, at least to start with, LRP arrows are notoriously easy to get wrong and have nasty consequences. Please, please, buy some. I’d personally recommend the “golf ball” ones from twisted flax (they are on Facebook) though there are plenty of options.
Talk to other archers - I was a noob LRP archer at my first empire event, and I found just talking to people a huge help. The main thing is to get into the TOTAL habit of always checking arrows. If there is nothing else from this ramble - this is the one to remember.
Hard skills - if you can shoot, you can shoot - however it’s a lot more akin to field archery than target. But perhaps the best way to think of LRP bows is that is a melee weapons with a 10 yard range. 15 at a push. They fly quite slowly so at a distance an aware target is likely just to side step.
[quote=“063whii”]That all sounds like solid advice tea, my thanks!
I do all of my own fletching already, so I’ll probably be more comfortable making my own arrows, and will (hopefully!) work out slightly cheaper.[/quote]
Aha, that also works. I’d suggest buy your heads (Twisted Flax sell golf-ball heads sans shafts, I believe), as they’ll fly much better and be less likely to be misconstructed. LRP arrow heads are notoriously difficult to learn to make well, and most of the homemade ones lose out somewhat on accuracy and range.
Cheap butted steelmail shirt - short sleeved, waist length. You can get one from Mytholon for around £60-70. Pair with vambraces or a helmet.
I really like helmets (mine saved me from a concussion once on the field), but they’re a bit more of a faff to find. Expect to pay about the same as the mail shirt at a minimum.
One interesting way to split the difference can be a steel mail shirt as above, and a leather or polyurethane helmet. You’ll lose one hit, but still be fairly resistant to damage, and get the impale resistance on the torso which is nice.
Note that heroic healing is faster, but resource limited. You can use Chirurgeon, and several of the bits of physick, all week (in particular, the free limb fixing and traumatic wound fixing). By contrast, 4xp gets you 3 uses per day of Stay With Me.
It’s not very clear which is ‘more effective’, in short.
Ohkay, it sounds like purchased arrows are going to be the safer bet, I’ll buy some and leave my fetching for pointier matters. Thanks to everyone who’s pointed this out, and giving it some thought, given the choice between me saving £20 on arrows and someone else losing an eye, I’d rather they kept their eye.
And on a similar point, I will be making a universal habit of checking nocks on recovered arrows, I assure you
I’ve shot field before, not really my thing, but I’m not too bad, so that should be solid.
I’m leaning toward the (cheap!)heavy armor/ heroic builds suggested at the moment, although would still need a team to go about with to be entirely comfortable. Worst comes to worst, I’m sure there’s some medium through which first timers coming without a group can hook up?
Doesn’t give any immediate/obvious RP options off of the field though 