I'm new to LARP and had some questions

New Players
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Hi everyone,
I’d like to thank everyone in advance for any help you can provide. Me and my partner are both new to LARP we have started to make characters but did get abit overwhelmed and confused about all the options. I was wondering if anyone could give me a simplified run down of what the choices actually mean? The wiki is a tad confusing and doesn’t cover everything.

Any tips for newbies would be much appreciated too.

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There are three main choices to make.

  1. Which nation appeals to you most? You should both pick the same one. All nations can do anything but they have different styles of dress, typical personalities, attitudes, etc

  2. What sort of game do you want? If you’re going to go on the battlefield then you might want to consider some combat or hero skills. If you like the idea of trading (which gives excuses for conversations with strangers) then you might want to consider artisan. It’s expensive, but you get free magic items if you start with it (not if you take it later). They might help you on the battlefield or with trading. You don’t need to spend all of your starting experience points before you arrive, so artisan is the only one where I’d recommend you make a definite choice. If you want to cast rituals or be involved with conclave politics you need magician. If you want to be involved with religious politics you should probably take dedication.

  3. Why are you in Anvil? Have you just come to see the sights or do you have a particular goal or reason?

I trade and run a café but don’t fight which means I rarely use any of my skills.

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When it comes to picking a Personal Resource each, I recommend one of you opts for a Farm or Business so that you have some ready cash to go be a tourist with.

That said:

  • To have votes in the Synod (religious-political game, you will need to take a Congregation.
  • To have votes for electing Senators, some nations require you to have a particular resource.
  • If you are interested in doing ritual magic then having a Mana Site will save you from having to buy mana crystals to power those rituals.
  • If you want to try out trading (and/or the Artisan skill) starting with resources from a Mine or Forest is easier than having to buy first.
  • The Apothecary skill requires herbs from a Herb Garden. Herbs also expand what the Physick skill can do.
  • Fleet and Military Unit resources have more flexibility in downtime but for your first event, you receive roughly the equivalent of one of the other Personal Resources picked at random.

Money and Mine/Forest resources are provided as official phys-reps (physical representations), liao, herbs and mana crystals are cards to be torn on use but you are expected to carry phys-reps of those objects along with the cards (when trading, players often keep their own phys-rep and the onus is on the buyer to have their own).

With the whole of character creation, PD allows new players to change any of your choices after your first event. You can also drop one skill between events for a skill point refund and spend them elsewhere, while personal resource or home territory can be changed for in-character coin. Even your character’s nation can be changed in play (start by speaking to one of the new nation’s Egregores) so the hardest thing to change about a character is the reputation they aquire on the field.

Prime tips for newbies:

  • “It’s my first time at Anvil.” This is code for being new and most people will stop to answer whatever question you have or explain what’s going on, so long as they have time.
  • If you want to buy LARP weapons, buy them in person at the event because not everything available online will pass the safety checks. If a new weapon bought at the event fails the check then you can take it straight back to the trader. Also chances are good that you’ll pick a weapon up and it will just feel right.
  • A lot of traders will take card but connections can get spotty in the field so have real cash with you for food as well as stuff.
  • If you haven’t bought your tickets already, existing players get recruitment codes to give new players (and themselves) money off the ticket price for that booking.
  • Kit is aspirational, you are not expected to show up to your first game looking like you’ve stepped off an RSC stage or a reenactment field. Do what you can with the time and money available to you and then improve on stuff when you can.
  • Prepare for British weather; evenings can get unexpectedly cold so bring a cloak and/or thermal underlayers whatever the forecast says. Pack extra changes of socks - cold/sweaty/unhappy feet can spoil the fun. Then pack a few more pairs, just to be sure.
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@Neptune Welcome to the forums Everyone on here drop some great knowledge bombs as a newbie who has yet to attend anvil myself too everyone has been super helpful @Unslain has helped me tenfold to round out my Navarri character and my family’s background, my advice for the Wiki would be take it in small doses

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First up, welcome to the hobby, the game and these forums!

By choosing Empire for your first LARP you have definately jumped in the deep end of the pool… but to extend the metaphor, the wave machine is off and the lifeguards are on duty :slight_smile:

I’m going to assume that your confusion is from the character creation…

You’ve got the complete list of skills etc on the wiki:

https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Skills

But as noted that may not be helpful.

So, creating a character:

  1. Have a look at the top (and only the top) page for each nation, and see which ones jump out at you. Make a list of any ideas that grab your attention.

  2. Investigate those nations on your shortlist in a little more detail. Don’t try to read up on everything. Stick to the “Look and feel”, “culture”, “people” pages.

  3. Decide what nation you want to play in, and approximately what sort of concept you want to play in it? I advise at this point a quick check on whether it “fits”, asking either here or in the Facebook pages for the relevant nation. At this point feel free to go on a wiki-walk :stuck_out_tongue:

  4. Having got nation and concept sorted, pick out some skills that fit the character, if needed. Note you don’t need to spend ANY points at the start: the skill Apprentice is for those who have spent 0 and allows you, under supervision, to try out all sorts of things. Or you may only want to spend a few points: also fine, the rest are saved up till later.

If you need guidance on any particular skill combination, ASK HERE. We’re happy to help.

Also something to think about is personal resource: the source of your characters wealth and standing, Unslain covered that pretty well.

  1. Having got your ideas, take them through the character creation process on Profound Decisions webpage (create empire character, button on the right)

  1. Once you have a character on the system, and have booked an event, at your next event there’ll be a little pack waiting for you at the Games Operation Desk (aka GOD). This will have a character sheet summary for you, any items generated by your resource (and /or skills) and a little starting cash.

  2. (for always are there Seven) Go! Have fun! Try stuff and be unafraid! We were all new once, and love to introduce new players to the game and the world!

Re new LARPer tips, several have been covered by others, and you can get more tips and advice here and here:

But if you’d like a few more voices of enthusiastic newbies explaining things, here are several! :smiley:

Here’s a basic video re LARP and Empire:

Some first impression and introduction videos:

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Thank you for all the help it has helped me out alot. I have now made my character and joined the Navarr nation as a apothecary. Unfortunately because of my work I may not be able to attend this year but will use this time to build up my kit and camping supplies.

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That’s exactly what I have done built my soft kit first and if you need areas of help feel free to message me and I can ping plenty of info or ideas

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Keep an eye out here and on Facebook for advertised “sanctioned events”.

These are smaller scale games, run by players, and canon in setting; a local hunt, festival, training exercise, military patrol…

They run over the winter period, and as they can be an easy, local, small scale entry into the game.

If you need any assistance in collecting kit, camping stuff, or indeed apothecary stuff, feel free to ask here. Plenty of advice and likely some spare stuff to sell you :slight_smile:

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Knowledge bombs from @Geoffrey_Willoughby are also very useful as well as some of the YT videos he posted flicking through some of those who do podcasts like Larp Noobs and 2have 2role so on Eldons and even yet another Larp podcast from @Thiromar are all helpful some of the podcasts grace us with @Geoffrey_Willoughby on them too which give some great little tips too everyone is ridiculously friendly and helpful but also the forums are better than Facebook purely because it’s not Facebook :grin:

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I will keep an eye out. I have joined the unofficial empire and Navarr discords too and getting alot of tips from there about kit and camping stuff all very helpful.

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