Newcomer with a bagful of questions

New Players
#28

My own take on fighting as a battle mage. A shield can help with not dying. But as you don’t wear armour, being close to the enemy is bad. As is being slower. Shields cause both these things. Staffs keep you fast and out of the reach of most enemies in my opinion. though not if you are planning on holding it by the middle all the time, other issues with this darth maul style of combat would be that you have to keep both hands on the staff at all times and both hands must be atleast 18 inches apart. So I’m not saying don’t do it… but if you are aiming for effectiveness then it’s putting yourself at a disadvantage.

As for the crystal implement, if it was more octangular and didn’t have such a ‘sword’ looking cross guard then maybe it would work.

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#38

Ok we’ve removed a bunch of posts as the thread was rapidly heading off topic and had stopped being constructive.

Please don’t accuse anyone of cheating in public, this is against the game rules, contact a ref or PD directly about this.

Also if you think anyone is breaking the game rules or moderation rules on here, please flag the post to the mods by clicking the three dots under the post and then the flag icon. We’ll take it from there.

You can read the Rules about combat here and the event safety rules are here, it’s best to quote and link to the wiki when making statements about the rules so there’s no confusion.

Now let’s get back to Furiora’s questions :slight_smile: .

Thanks

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#40

@Furiora could you possibly make the “hilt” longer? One of the things that tends to make rods look more “rod”-like, is they are more like shafts with some kind of topper. Or is that too far away from the aesthetic you’re hoping for?

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#41

Thats a pretty good idea actually, if it was 1/3 crystal, 2/3 haft i think it would work even with a guard

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#42

@Triska @Noserenda That’s a point, I’d likely go half-and-half handle to blade, but I’ll keep that idea in mind. Thanks both of you.

@Smason I’m not a small person, in fact I’m rather large (25" shoulders and a 58" waist) I lack the ability to be fast, So I might as well get the extra defense of a shield.

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#43

@Smason I’m not a small person, in fact I’m rather large (25" shoulders and a 58" waist) I lack the ability to be fast, So I might as well get the extra defense of a shield.

@Smason Were you referring to hand speed, footwork, or positioning when you were talking about fast vs. slow with shield vs. spear?

1 Like
#44

A combo of the lot really. The longer weapon means you can move the pole to threaten diferent parts of the body with smaller (and faster) hand movements due to the way it’s held.

Being 6feet away from your opponent gives you better ground for positioning and foot work. Time to notice their charge and either back up, counter, or use magic. Plus having the advantage of them literally not being able to hit you unless you can also hit them.

Plus shield size matters. If you want to not have a large cumbersome plank of latex strapped to your arm then the small light shield offers little protection. Particularly to your legs. Or you are made less able to manoeuvre by the Large shield. In a game where a single cleave means death for an unarmored mage.

Big upside would be arrows though.

I know people do use the shield. So it might just be my anecdotal experience.

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#45

Describing a larp shield as a ‘large cumbersome plank of latex’ seems a bit strange, they’re very light and easy to move around. Staff and Shield Battlemages are both viable and capable builds, and have different advantages and penalties in different contexts. Having a staff for reach is great, but if your opponent has a polearm and cleave that advantage is negated, and a shield battlemage is more likely to be able to close and have an effect without being dropped. Staff mages are great when you’re fighting the Jotun, against the Druj they can end up eating arrows and being a healing sink. I play a heavy clank, but when I’m leading a skirmish or a unit in battle I like a nice balanced mixture of shieldmages and staffmages as part of the combined arms force to give us flexibility to deal with different situations. If you want to see a badass shieldmage, take a look at General Nicassia of Urizen, sure that’s a high XP character but she survived and got to that stage of development by correct situational awareness and understanding the different strengths and weaknesses of her weapon set & spells.

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#46

Hi there! Just a quick note

“Wanting to include a feathered mane as one of my trappings, is there a way I can avoid making it too Stormcrow-ey while still using black feathers?”

Your feathered mane as a Naga should be brightly coloured, rather than black, as is written on the lineage page here:

This should solve your problem.

(Also as a quick aside, a Stormcrow’s defining clothing piece is a long tattered robe, I saw someone that the feathered shoulder mantles are what they wear. They are a thing that have appeared in play for obvious reasons, but doing the robe from the brief and a mantle is a great look)

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#47

Yep, you’re completely correct. Saw a couple of pictures of Naga with duller, brown feathers and assumed black was a compatible colour, but it does say “brightly coloured” in the brief.

@Bradstyley @Smason So it’s pretty much down to user and situation, I need Battlemage to wear mage armour there’s no reason I can’t have both a staff and a rod+shield and take whichever onto the battlefield depending on the situation.

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#48

Sounds like a great plan to me!

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#49

We’ve removed a few posts here regarding hand hits in Empire. We just want to make it clear that the rules explicitly allow for hand hits - so if you get hit on the hand it does count as a hit. You don’t have to aim for the hand - but if you get hit on the hand and you don’t take the hit then you are breaking the rules and will get pulled up by our refs if they see you doing it"

The rules also allow for head hits - but they do state that you should avoid aiming for the breasts or head where is an alternative target and you must avoid the face, groin or neck in all cases.

The rules for safe fighting at Empire events are here:

Graeme Jamieson
Head of Rules
Profound Decisions

8 Likes
#50

Hey @Furiora spotted This post of Rods and Staffs by Irregular Props and thought i’d post it as inspo :slight_smile:.

#51

Wow, tempted to drop the whole mage idea and get them to make me a flamberge! XD
Pretty sure I’ve run into their work on Deviant Art or some place similar, I’m 90% sure I’ve seen that dragon costume before.

#52

Back again, really didn’t want to double post but a few more questions came to me.

  1. is this too “lizard” for a Naga?

    image
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    Honestly I think it’s a beautiful piece. Talking about the face prosthetic here.

  2. We’re allowed actual wooden staffs and sticks in Anvil (not the battlefield) as walking aids, correct. While I do not medically require a cane, something to lean on when walking for a long time is always a blessing.

  3. When it comes to the Eternals a magician might seek to gain favour with/invoke/worship, are there any, like, rivalries between them? Like, for example, would “Night Eternal X” be annoyed at a character if they also invoke “Day Eternal Y”? On a similar matter, what happens to characters who worshiped an Eternal that no longer exists; are they expected to instantly convert or can they keep their previous ways?

4.On the subject of costume, how little is too little when it comes to fabric? I get that a body suit is to be treated as bare skin, so female breasts (although I’d argue that in a gender neutral setting, it should be all chests or no chests, but I get it, kids come to these events) and all groin areas must be covered. But how much would, say, a high linage naga get away with showing off their scales? I’m not planning on like beach wear, don’t worry.

1 Like
#53

1: too lizard. At that point it looks like another race, not a magically touched human.

2: absolutely!

3: first thing, worship of an eternal is super heresy and will definitely get you excommunicated and executed if discovered and proven. Not that characters don’t do that. In terms of preferential treatment, some eternals do have rivalries e.g. Rhianos and Siakha, the two major sea eternals.

4: that’d be up to whatever the rules are

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#54
  1. I personally think the mask may be too lizard, the Lineaged are all Human first, with realm attributes, they’re not humanoid animals. Also note while your lineage can get stronger with time as you play the character, you cannot lose trappings. So if you start very high lineage you need to be sure you can cope in that gear for the whole weekend in any weather.

2: yes wooden staffs for walking with or leaning on are fine. If, in the very rare occurrence something kicks off, in Anvil you are expected to back up and stay out the way if you have non larp safe items. Not usually an issue and most altercations in Anvil are short lived and generally only involve the instigators.

  1. Do not Worship Eternals - very quick way to get dead for the safety of your soul! Think of them like royal Fae - they are more or less interested in our realm, but quite often see us as play things. If you can come up with something that they are interested in you may be able to get their attention and get a bargain for yourself out of it - please note the ‘may’! They definitely have rivalries between realms, and even within them. The Whisper Gallery (Night) like secrets and hate Phaleron (Day) who like knowledge. The Summer eternals Jaheris, Eleonaris and Cathan Cathae love and hate each other in varying amounts depending on who is ‘winning’, and the Thrice Cursed Court (winter) mostly work against each other.

4: Some of the Navarr and the Brass Coast end up close to beach wear on really hot events, certainly sports bra coverage and short shorts. Your main criteria for this will be the british weather. It is rarely warm enough to show off that much skin, and even if it is hot in the day it’ll be cooler in the evening. The April and September events are usually below 20 degrees for the whole weekend, and the farmers field we are on can have quite a breeze over it depending on wind direction. To some extent also your costume allows people to place you in as to which nation you come from. Stripping off that far would generally not be considered appropriate in Highguard, and probably not the League either. Stripping down to just your shirt would be better for those to show you’re relaxed / off duty.

3 Likes
#55

@Ezro @CharlieP

  1. Yeah, thought so, hence why I asked before I bought it. Save it for the Argonian cosplay.
    I’m mainly worried about makeup sweating off because I do sweat like a bugger, so kinda wanted something I can slip into the OOC area and take off for a bit when needed. Can I ignore the “signature” trapping if I have at least one of the others? (IE, not have scaled brows/eye sockets if I’ve got scales all over the rest of me, fangs and slit contacts?)

  2. Good to know.

  3. Almost makes me want to. You get used to this kinda stuff IRL if you’re a Satanist like me.

  4. Yeah, that makes sense, I know full well what British weather is like. Another reason I kinda wanted to go with a mask over make up; 90% of the time it’s raining.

#56

1: Yes. I’ve got just the fangs.

#57

There are lineage groups on facebook if you do that who will be happy to offer suggestions on makeup that will cope with sweat and long term wear.

This is the Naga group if that helps.

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