New player, general questions

New Players
#1

Completely new to larp but not new to rp. I want to attend empire hopefully once i start university or during the summer
i have alot of questions but most questions i assume can be found on here so ill save this post for some more obscure questions.

  1. Is there a way to rent tents? and is there a size limit. I have a tent but its not canvas or anything that would be considered authentic and fit in character but id love to camp in character but canvas tents are often quite expensive (for a student) and quite big. Renting them on site would be ideal but i havnt seen anything about it online.

  2. Do you start with a certain amount of in game money? and (i doubt you can) but can you exchange igm for real money? I 3d print and make alot of my own stuff and id love to sell it at the event but im just wondering if id actually make real money from it or just igm.

  3. How many arrows is recomended for an archer and how much do they cost? Im still torn between archery and melee (i dont think ill dabble in magic until im more experienced) but atm archery is my favourite so far but having seen arrows online from £2-£20 per arrow im not sure if its an economically viable decision lol.

  4. age requirements or limitations. I am 17 and will be 18 in july but if i come in the summer ill still be 17 because the july event finishes 1 day before im due to start uni lol. Is this a problem? Iv heard that if you are over 16 its fine but iv seen other people say that most larp events are 18+

  5. finally, if you stay in the in character campsite, how IC does the interior of your tent need to be. E.g. can i have a modern sleeping bag or a big bottle of water or must it all look IC. also is there lockers or a place to store valuables like phones and keys etc or do you just put it in your tent too.

Thanks so much in advance for your help and im looking forward to attending my first event asap. Im already putting together a Steinr Wintermark costume :slight_smile:

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#2

Welcome to the fun! And yes lost of questions have been asked, and there’s some on the wiki too but we’re always happy to help!

  1. yes there are some tents to rent, but not many, and they tend to go pretty fast when the tent hire goes live (usually about a month before the event). If it’s your first go we tend to suggest camping OOC, the tent is cheaper and easier to shift, and you won’t be that far from the main field anyway and it’s quieter for sleeping. Plenty of group tents available for hanging around in in character, you don’t have to have your own.

  2. Everyone gets 18 rings in cash (about 5 pieces of cake or drink, or 3 booklets form the library),plus your resource in your player envelope each event. Your resource could be money (business or farm) or mana crystals, crafting materials etc which are worth in game money and can also be traded. You are welcome to make things that suit the IC game items, certainly people have 3d printed magic light stones, bird skulls and various other things to sell for IC cash, and there is a flourishing economy in cake and home brew. You can’t buy IC cash with pound stirling. If you want to make things and sell for actual british cash there are various facebook groups you can advertise on but best done outside events.

3 Usually recommend a dozen arrows, with the expectation of possibly losing 1 or 2 an event. It isn’t the cheaper end of the hobby! Arrows on the battlefield can be picked up and shot back if intact, and at the end of the battle all arrows not yours should be dropped off at GOD and then you go back a bit latter and search for yours in the barrels (Label the ends clearly!). Most are returned but as they do end up on the floor in the middle of alot of people some don’t survive. It is brilliant fun though as an archer myself! You could be both and archer on the battlefield and a mage off the battlefield if that suits? plenty of people happy to help explain things if you are a bit lost.

4: You don’t need a guardian on site once you are over 16, but we have babes in arms on the field, and a thriving Academy (in game school) full of the most cut throat traders you’ll ever meet. The current Gatekeeper of Courage is 12, and has held the position for 2 years. At your age you can take full part in the whole game no problem - you just can’t get served in the pub.

5: I camp IC because my group uses my tent during the day. I have a bell tent, my bed is a camp bed with a modern sleeping bag, and modern sleepwear. During the day I shove all my out of character bags and stuff under the camp bed and drop a bed sheet over it so it becomes a bench. Sorted. I have never had an issue with valuables. if you have your car on site lock them in there, the rest stays in my tent. If the tent door is done up then no-one should enter it.

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#3

Hello and welcome along, to the game, and these forums :slight_smile:

CharlieP has answered well, I’ll just confirm that you can’t get served in the pub at your age (as they take real cash for alchohol), although you could likely get something at many of the in-game bars if desired. Don’t go crazy.

If camping IC, no-one should be going into your tent unless invited. So you could keep friends out and have your stuff strewn around, or make it look pretty IC and invite them in, your call.

For set dressing, I can reccomend light throws or woolen blankets; cover stuff up if you think it’ll stand out too much. For bottles of water, a hack that has come up repeatedly is stick a sock over it, with just the lid sticking out.

Internal set dressing of a private tent is as much or as little as you want: My family uses a large dutch pyramid tent, and while we have the front carefully decorated with flags, wooden camp furniture, a couple of pewter goblets etc, if you stepped inside you’d find the gas stove, LED lantern, and carrier bags of stuff…

Group tents, deliberately intended for social interactions, tend to attract most of the set dressing.

Storing valuables: Either in a locked car, or in a bag stuffed under your sleeping bag (or wherever) should be fine.

You will have plenty of company as a new Stienr Wintermarker, they’re pretty popular. Have you found the Wintermark Facebook group yet?

#4

Thanks so much this is really helpful.
Im interested by your suggestion about being an archer in battle and a mage out of battle, im assuming that would cost extra xp points in character creation so what would be the best way to approach that. Also what type of non combat magic is best for new players?

#5

Well you’ve got 8 XP for a new character. Marksman for archery will cost you 4, but you can wear any armour and still use a one handed weapon with no extra XP so you’ve got enough to be going on with on the battlefield.
Still got 4 to spend, 2 on the Magician skill, which lets you get into magical politics in Conclave, bond items, detect magic and open portals, useful skills in themselves. And 2 more points to possibly spend either on a bit of ritual lore for one of the realms, or a couple of spells or something else entirely. You gain XP at the rate of 1 per 2 events so you can always expand your ritual lore later.

Do remember the battles are Saturday and Sunday morning, play one, monster one (decided by the military council on Friday, based on your nation). You’ll be back in Anvil by 1pm at the latest even including de kitting from monstering or a brief sojourn at the hospital as your character. Then you need something to do for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Mage skills are useful and another lever into game plot. Off the battlefield a lot of the magic will be rituals, 2 mins of improv to do something, bigger things if you can join a coven of mages of the same realm, and adding more people to a coven is the best way of doing bigger magic so I can pretty much guarantee you’ll get offers if you want them! Feel free to pick the realm after you have hit the field, or pick the realm but don’t specify the rituals you’ve mastered until you can see what might be useful. Might be a useful character hook - you’ve come to Anvil to find mages to learn from or help you decide what direction to go in if you wanted?

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#6

Also, PD will allow you to re-spec your character after the first event, so if you take something then find it doesn’t suit you, you can get the XP refunded.

As @CharlieP says, taking the magician skill gets you three basic spells and access to Conclave, where magical politics takes place. Beyond this, you can spend XP to take more spells (you can see all the choices here https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Spellcasting), but most of them are more useful for battle.

Rituals are how most magic outside the battlefield is done. There are 6 different realms you can take rituals from, each of them with a different ‘flavour’ (e.g. Spring focuses on healing, Autumn on Prosperity, etc.), though not exclusively. Different rituals have different power levels, so might require working with others, which is where the covens come in. You can read more about the realms and their rituals here https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Rituals.

Wintermark is the biggest nation so will likely have a range of covens available, so by all means see which realm(s) interest you but, again as CharlieP says, you might want to hold off on choosing until you hit the field and see what covens are out there!

#7

So my brain is fitzing so apologies if the other responses answered any of this but…

First welcome aboard!

  1. PD do do a tent hire scheme but its pretty over subscribed and aimed more at group tents, they have probably lost a bunch over lockdown to wear and tear too so i wouldnt count on it, watch the PD facebook page though, they announce it in the run up to the events and a bell tent is around £!00ish from (awful) memory.

  2. Everyone starts with 18 rings plus income of some sort from a personal resource. Its against the rules to exchange real money for IC money but there is certainly a thriving market in selling stuff on the field for IC cash. If you want to see stuff for real money id suggest the usual channels online as theres also a good market for that if you want real cash, its more complicated in the field!

  3. You dont neeeed arrows if you fight mostly Druj and grendel, the barbarians shoot their own at you :smiley: But with Jotun and Vallorn being increasingly common as enemies i would recommend at least 5 personally. Cheap arrows often fail weapons check so are a bit of a trap, but as they are handmade you can often get a discount in bulk if you can find others to club together with. Ive not bought any for years so not sure on prices, i can recommend the Empire Larp Archery group on facebook as a good source of advice though!

  4. Im assuming someone linked relevant pages but from memory you might need a guardian or similar at 17? Its on the wiki anyhow.

  5. If you keep the tent sealed noone should be going in there unless you let them so set dressing is nice, but optional. Mine tends to start alright and get horribly messy :smiley: Certainly people recognise that some stuff is going to be a bit modern and gloss over it.

Obviously if you want to be hosting people rather than just kipping in there a few cheap throws or canvas kitbags are a good idea to hide stuff away with :wink:

Hope that ramble helps!

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#8

1 - You absolutely don’t need an IC tent to start with, people will give you hospitality and a place at their fire to start with. I definitely would recommend spending what money you have on your personal kit to start with. If you’ve got modern camping gear already just use that, you’ll only be going back to it to sleep probably. See what the game is like and what the level of effort to get a decent IC tent sorted would be for you.

3 - The Empire LRP: Archery group (not run by PD) can give you more advice, but like people say it’s a more expensive option than a sword and buckler to start with.

4 - Age guidelines for 16-18 year olds from the wiki, you don’t need a guardian and you shouldn’t try to buy booze basically. It also points you at PD staff and the player support team if you need support.

5 - There aren’t secure lockers so you can either put stuff in your tent or have a belt pouch or bag with space for things like phone, wallet and keys. PD do have security who patrol the site but I’d still recommend keeping stuff on you.

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