New Player (Seattle)

mnpankow

Newbie
Hi My name is Megan and I am new to larping in general. Does anyone have any tips for a new player? Oh and, are their healers in this world. Because if everyone automatically regenerates, I don't see how they would be useful.
 
Greetings from way up in Canada!

A few general tips for Alliance:

1) The more you can get into the headspace of the game and your character, the more fun you're going to have; costuming and armor can go a long way to help with that, and you can find some great deals on simple costuming at thrift stores if you don't have the skill to create your own from scratch. If you've got some spare cash, you might also commission a fellow LARPer to make you a few costuming pieces, or order something online.

2) Your first few weapons should probably be boffers (there are some simple instructions for making them in the rulebook) if you plan to make them yourself and haven't done so before, as their construction tends to be more forgiving of mistakes; people from your chapter can probably provide tips and assistance if you ask, and there's lots of stuff on weapon crafting here on the forums, too.

3) Metal armor is likely to be expensive to put together all at once for your first time, but like costuming you can find some suitable items at thrift stores to make into cheap leather armor; a decently thick leather jacket with some modifications to make it look period-appropriate can be worth several points of armor on its own, plus maybe a couple extra bonus for costuming. Unless you're dead-set on showing up to your first event decked out in plate mail and can afford to do so, in which case more power to you. :)

4) You're not expected to memorize all the rules right off the bat, so don't feel too bad if you flub a call or don't remember what a spell does your first few events. People in my chapter are pretty good about clarifying rules and such if someone's having trouble even mid-combat, but if that's not possible you can always clarify with a marshal at a convenient time.

5) If you chapter has them, I highly recommend attending a combat practice day or two at some point before your first event, or maybe asking a fellow PC to spar with you in-game. Combat can get pretty hectic and loud when almost everyone at the event is involved, and it can be overwhelming the first few times (especially if you're prone to sensory overload or have an auditory processing disorder); if you've got some practice with combat already it can really help to keep your brain in a manageable spot.

Healers are SUPER important in this LARP, as far as I'm concerned. While you probably won't be up against anything too tough your first event, you don't regenerate Body Points in-game without healing of some kind; if you end a Friday night with 3 Body, you have 3 Body come Saturday morning. Don't heal by bedtime Saturday and you're still at 3 Body (or less) when Sunday morning rolls around. Healing comes in three basic forms (Earth spells, potions, and alchemy) and in varying strengths, though, so finding someone capable of healing you might not be such a big deal. Paying for it, on the other hand, might be a bigger issue depending on who you talk to. :p

You resurrect if you die, yes, but you can only do so a limited number of times before your character is dead for good; 2 for free, then you have to start playing a game of chance to see if you can come back after that, and each death after the 3rd increases the odds you'll permanently die. You also resurrect with no gear (you have to leave your in-game items behind), so unless you have people on the mod/patrol with you who are kind enough to haul your stuff back you might end up starting your new life with nothing to your name and very few means of getting more.
 
Thank you so much! That was really helpful. I have one more question however. I wanted to be an elven healer and since elves tend to be more feminine in nature, I chose a green dress as my attire. Its light weight, not to flashy, and easy to run around in. But, with that said, I have no idea where to put the armor. Up until this point, I did not realize that healers would need armor. Which was silly I know. But do you know any good places that sell cheap leather or perhaps do you know how I could "have armor" without actually having to "wear armor"?
 
So there is something in the game called "Arcane Armor" which is a ritual spell that gives you an invisible field of resistance that acts just like armor. However, the rituals need to be found in game and they are rare and tend to be rather expensive.

You get Armor points for having a good looking costume/kit. As for cheap leather armor, you can look on etsy with searching for "Leather LARP armor" although finding 'cheap' will be a bit hard. Also, if playing a healer (normally an Earth Scholar/Caster in the game), you'll only be able to have a total of 15 armor points as a scholar. If you download the rulebook, you can see what pieces of what material will count towards the points and what you could be comfortable making. For example, calf high leather boots will count as 2 points of armor. Making a canvas padded vest will give you 6 points and if you can find rings that are at least 14 gauge metal (they don't mention maximum diameter of the rings but I'd say keep it under 2") and attach them 1" apart or less, you can double those points.

Technically though, you do not need armor. Most of my character's don't wear any or very little armor. And there are spells that also increase your hit points, give you extra armor points and one that will negate the very first physical attack made against you. An earth caster has access to the extra hit points (bless) and the negate first attack (magic armor).

You can also learn later to make potions via crafting and make potions that mirror a lot of the spells you can cast.

Also, outside of this, I'd suggest finding/requesting the chapter's Elf racial packet so you can learn a bit more about the local elven culture.
 
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Glad to help!

I'm going to echo Markusdark on the not really "needing" armor; I play a character who devotes almost all of my build to the Create Potion and Alchemy skills, carries no weapon, and wears no armor, and I haven't died yet after a year and a half of events.

Whether or not you "need" all the armor your class will allow is really dependent on the characer you play and how good you are at dodging weapon swings and packets, in my experience; I spend most of my time heavily involved in the role play aspect of the game and really only see combat in the large town fights, plus I'm quite nimble and rarely get hit by much of anything, so I can largely get by with the 4 armor I've had since day 1. Take your own ability into account when deciding how much armor you want to rep.

On that note, mobility in your arms is SUPER important to consider when choosing armor; you don't want it to be uncomfortable to throw a packet or swing a weapon, or you're going to get really annoyed by it really quickly. Likewise, you might end up wearing your armor for upwards of 10-12 hours at a time (some people in my chaper wear theirs from the time they get up until the time they go to bed, which can easily be 15 hours), so you'll also want to consider it's weight and how comfortable it is to move around in.

Also consider armor that can be worn under your costuming, with a tank top or similar underneath to prevent chaffing, if you don't want your armor to impact your character's aesthetics.
 
Hey Megan! I'm the New Player Rep for Seattle!

So, I would heavily caution against not wearing armor in Seattle. In my experience, the Plot team is good about making sure there are monsters that players are capable of fighting by their level, but many monsters have "carriers."

For example, a creature that uses claws might do a Disease effect to anyone that it hits. That Disease is delivered if damage is dealt to their Body points. So having 75 Body won't stop that Disease, but some Armor will.

It's true that Arcane Armor is an excellent way to have Armor that isn't Armor (it's magic!), but it'll probably take you time to acquire Arcane Armor, since it's expensive.

That being said...by all means, feel free to give the no-Armor option a shot, and see if you need it. Heck, if you're really good about being aware of your surroundings, and you're fast, you might never get hit. Healer characters usually fix people, they don't necessarily need to be in the thick of a fight.

-Evan
 
I have no idea where to put the armor.

Hi Megan! I play a Celestial Scholar MWE in Oregon. I wear dragon scale pauldrons for my armor since I'm crunchy. I also wear a green dress lol. But depending on how your dress is designed, and if you physically want to wear armor instead of going the Arcane Armor route, you can easily wear pauldrons (shoulders), a breast plate, greaves (shins), bracers/gauntlets (arms/hands) or even tassets (upper hips/thighs) --- or any combination there of!

Hopefully that helps?
 
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