A Plethora of Questions - OR - Guidence is Appriciated.

I

Inkfingers

Newbie
Hello.

So, I'm gonna be showing up at the Seattle game at the end of March. This will be my first time every doing such a long LARP, and my first time ever boffing (sp?) - though, based on conversations I've had about character construction, I shall probably be avoiding the fighting as best I can, and praying to whatever gods that exist that I make it out alive.

So far as I can tell, I shall be playing a fun little caster, Earth magic, I think - human, with some points in some things that I really don't understand the meaning of. I've been trying to get a hold of the rules so I can ken what's going on, but apparently, they must be purchased, and gods know I had enough trouble finding my way here properly, much less ordering something off of the internet from you guys.

I understand I'm supposed to send emails to people, and pay some folks on Paypal. I'm in the process of making sure that works. However, I have absolutely NO idea how the whole character creation process works, and while I have a name (Anandreas Carver), a personality (Conflict of Practicality and Showmanship, among other things), a vague origin story (Son of practical human tradesman and flamboyant spellcasting elf. Mother - the elf - kicked him out to find his fortune, as that is very appropriate thing - in her mind - to do. Father grumbled, didn't disagree, taught son how to cook.), and a theme (Fixing things, and making life easier on everyone - not a heavy combatant, very into practical solutions to otherwise violent problems), I have little concept of what this means on paper. My friend, who introduced me to this, was kind enough to make a character thingy for me:

With a character history you get 20 build points
Staff costs 4bp
Read/Write costs 3bp
First Aid costs 2bp
Healing Arts costs 2bp

Earth Lvl 1: 1 1 1 1 (1bp per casting spot)
Spells are:
Cure disease
Cure light wounds
Detect Magic
Disarm
Endow
Earth Lvl 2: 1 1 1 (1bp per casting spot)
Bless
Cure wounds
Magic armor
Pin
Repel
Earth Lvl 3: 1 (2bp per casting spot)
Bind
Harm undead
Sanctuary
Shatter
Weakness

It looks cool and all, but honestly, I'm thinking I might just scrap the whole Staff thing and try for completely defenseless.

Question: How likely would that make me to die horribly? Assume that I am an incredibly fast sprinter and a solid mile-runner, but have a very bad startle reflex, bad night vision, and a poor reaction time.

Also, when, precisely, do I choose which spells I have memorized? And when would I get them back? When I get them back, do I have the opportunity to change them?

I understand that I have to have a spellbook. What are the minimum requirements for what has to be in it?

Also, what precisely do the spells I have access to do? I get a general idea based on their names, but the specifics and their precise utility elude me.

In terms of character history, is there anything specific I need to be aware of? Any rules that I am flagrantly disregarding in my ignorance? Any rules I'm rubbing up against awkwardly in my ignorance? How detailed does it have to be? Who needs to know? Where should I put it?
 
I'm going to skip a whole lot got right to the meat and potatos for you.

Question: How likely would that make me to die horribly? Assume that I am an incredibly fast sprinter and a solid mile-runner, but have a very bad startle reflex, bad night vision, and a poor reaction time.
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Starting out? You fall down a lot. You make friends, you run away a lot, you do what you can and you'll generally be alright. I'd personally recommend picking up the staff skill myself.
Why? Staff is changing with these new rules here to be usable with one hand for blocking purposes. It might mean the difference between running away and falling down for someone who professes a very bad startle reflex.
BUT, that's a decision you get to make on your own. Play 1 event and see how you like going weaponless. You get a free rewrite after your first event. If you don't like not having a weapon, you can pick it up then.

Also, when, precisely, do I choose which spells I have memorized? And when would I get them back? When I get them back, do I have the opportunity to change them?
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Multipart answer here:
1st: As a starting character, you get to choose any amount of spells of the appropriate level as slots as you can cast and those spells are in your spell book. You always have access to them for purpose of memorization (unless your book gets stolen!) So, if you have two level 1 spells, you can choose to have cure light wounds and disarm in your spellbook.
2nd: Memorization is the act of choosing your spells for the day. This is when you go through your book and pick what you want to cast. You don't have to take every spell, and you can absolutely pick multiple castings of the same spell. The only limit is how many slots you have.
You first get to memorize your spells at logistics the first night. This is where pre-registration comes in. People who have pre-registered have asked for their spells ahead of time and just go in, show their book tag to logistics (important!) and get their spells.
The next time you get to memorize is typically around 6pm the next night. You go in to logistics when it's open, show them your book tag (trend? yes!) and change out any spells you want that you haven't cast, and get new ones if you need them.

I understand that I have to have a spellbook. What are the minimum requirements for what has to be in it?
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The tag you receive from logistics. Everything else is flavour. Go nuts!

Also, what precisely do the spells I have access to do? I get a general idea based on their names, but the specifics and their precise utility elude me.
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Earth Lvl 1: 1 1 1 1 (1bp per casting spot)
Spells are:
Cure disease - You can run again (necromancy is no running)
Cure light wounds - Heal 2pts of damage (get up and run kmart!)
Detect Magic - Removed from the system
Disarm - drop it!
Endow - 2 pts of physical dmg, rip free from an Entangle effect, pick someone up and run (otherwise limited to walking)
Earth Lvl 2: 1 1 1 (1bp per casting spot)
Bless - 5 points of health, used first. Will absorb nasty effects that would otherwise hurt you
Cure wounds - 5 points of healing
Magic armor - negate next phsyical blow
Pin - root the right foot
Repel - hand out (the one you cast with), target stays 10ft away, period.
Earth Lvl 3: 1 (2bp per casting spot)
Bind - arms at your sides
Harm undead - damages undead only (necromancy heals them)
Sanctuary - hand clasped above head, immune to physical melee attacks from undead
Shatter - break something (shield size or smaller)
Weakness - target losses 5 points of damage from their swing, to a minimum of 0

In terms of character history, is there anything specific I need to be aware of? Any rules that I am flagrantly disregarding in my ignorance? Any rules I'm rubbing up against awkwardly in my ignorance? How detailed does it have to be? Who needs to know? Where should I put it?
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Histories go to plot. You can absolutely claim half-elven or anything you want. The only rule here is you may only present yourself as ONE race. So it sounds like you've got that just fine if you're going to play a human from a mixed race parentage. Make it as detailed as you want, but try to keep it to 1 to 2 pages. Once you've got it done, you can PM it to someone on the plot staff (they have green names) or email it to them. The address is around here somewhere.

If you've got further questions, feel free to PM me or, if you prefer, we can meet up and you can pick my brain apart. I don't have the new rules yet, but I'm aware of most of the basic changes they've put in it, so I should still be able to reasonably answer your questions.
 
Sarah said:
You first get to memorize your spells at logistics the first night. This is where pre-registration comes in. People who have pre-registered have asked for their spells ahead of time and just go in, show their book tag to logistics (important!) and get their spells.
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So, does this mean I should hold off on registering until I know what my spells will be? Or can I send another email to them after the fact?
 
As a new player, you're not required to preregister for an event. Preregistration gets you a discount, but the discounts don't stack, and the new player one is better.

(Matt can correct me if I'm wrong since he handles this stuff.)

So, until you have your spell book finalized (which won't happen until you officially build your character with logistics) you don't have to worry about it. :)

Edit: If I may make a recommendation...

In your book, take all 4 level 1 spells, take magic armor and cure wounds on 2 and pick a third (probably bless), and take weakness on 3. 3 is kind of a poopy level.
 
Wait, so does that mean I shouldn't bother to pre-pay? Paying at the door would be much easier for me at current time, and if it costs the same either way, I'll probably go for that option.

Also, I wont be required to have a character up and running before the event? Or will I, if I want plot-backstory-history stuff?
 
Inkfingers said:
Wait, so does that mean I shouldn't bother to pre-pay? Paying at the door would be much easier for me at current time, and if it costs the same either way, I'll probably go for that option.

Also, I wont be required to have a character up and running before the event? Or will I, if I want plot-backstory-history stuff?
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Get your history together and submitted! You can always change things, but you don't get the extra build to spend at creation unless plot approves your history.

Get a rough idea of what you want for skills, write it down and bring it with you. The logistics staff can help you out. Or email them ahead of time and sort it out before you get there. Either way is good. I'd actually recommend trying to get in touch with them ahead of time once your history is approved. They tend to be rather haggard on opening night and I'm sure they'd appreciate the time to sit down and *really* help you out.

*shrug* I don't know about the prepay. You should probably still prepay, since they like it when folks do that. But I'd really get in touch with Matt Oostman on what your costs and such will be. He's the GM. I'm just a Marshal.
 
Okay, that all makes a good bit of sense.

So... Last questions before I run off and try this for myself. Who do I send history stuff to? And how do I get in contact with this mythical Matt?
 
At the bottom of the main forum page, you can click the groups labeled plot and staff. Matt should be under the blue group (user obcidian). Anyone under the green one is Plot. I recommend Nightstorm (which is Chris) since he's pretty regular about the forums. Or Dave, since he's also the owner (his shows up orange.)

Or, just wait for them to be awake (it is rather late) and they'll probably pop in here and say hello themselves.
 
On a side note, look for something big and green at the event, I'll be flying in from the wastelands of Minnesota for some Larp fun on this weekend and I play a moderately beefy turtle scavenger fighter, he's a great friend to have because I enjoy getting beat on for your benefit, and I'm not very attracted to loot. :mrgreen:

In my personal opinion I'd advise keeping the staff skill, especially as a low level casters those spells per day disappear quickly, and while you can always be a first aidder to keep people alive, you'll want something to block with guarnteed at least one point, if for nothing else then to give people time to get to you.

As for spells, personally I recommend taking cure lights (to pick people up quickly) or disarms (To keep people from falling down in the first place!) for level one, I'm a huge fan of repel for level two slots (few things are resistant to it, and unlike most binding it can't be ripped from) Although magic armor is nice, it takes a little practice to use right (generally you don't want to cast it right away, but save it until somethings using a 'big hit' ability like slay etc.) Pins also nice, but alot more things can rip from pin (break the spell due to their strength) then will be able to cancel a repel. Level three is usually a weakness (-5 damage per swing, great for things swinging say, 4 death) or a bind.

Whether you prep repel or not, put it in your book, its far more effective to stop the troll swinging for 10 in his place, then it is to add 5 extra body.

Although the above is personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt, my earth scholar was a big believer in preventing damage, not healing it.
 
As far as pre-pay, that is up to you. As a first time player you get a significant discount (50%) on the event, so the pre-pay discount is less (as Sarah mentioned).

If you bring your history to the game, a plot member can read it and approve it before we enter the character into the DB. This will give you the extra build for your character.

Honestly, Sarah seems to have answered most of your questions. Are there any not covered thus far?
 
Lurin said:
Although the above is personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt, my earth scholar was a big believer in preventing damage, not healing it.
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I've always been a fan of "live to fight another day" at the low levels myself. Thus, I usually take Bless for a new character over Repel. Let the big nasty troll swinging 10s hit the magic armor, hit the armor and bless, and keep running for the skirts of the big boys. :p
 
I think the only questions I have left are the really basic ones - What is the world? - and - What is the system? I get some things about it, and have had the races explained to me several times, but really dont get how everything fits together, especially on the mechanical side. You guys are throwing phrases like "Swings Death 4 at you" - Death 4? How can there be a degree of death? Either you're dead or your fighting it off.

Keep in mind you're talking to someone who has never even SEEN the rulebook for this game, and while I have played a great number of RP systems in the past, I generally need to know the rules before I can figure out what's going on, what's dangerous, etc.

However, I doubt the lot of you are going to throw me into all this blind - I assume that there will be a crash course on this at game. However, any other info that would be useful before then, I would appreciate.
 
The newest edition of the rulebook is so new the hard copy isn't even out yet (matter of days week at the most till it is) but an ebook format is available right now for like $5 if you want to download it and start finding out for yourself. Here's the link:

http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/sin ... x=55&y=103

Feel free to keep posting up questions, but as you said a lot of it you really won't get until you give the rulebook a read. A lot of the fundamentals of what you are asking about will be answered and you'll be able to see how the pieces fit together much better. Welcome!
 
Inkfingers said:
You guys are throwing phrases like "Swings Death 4 at you" - Death 4? How can there be a degree of death? Either you're dead or your fighting it off.
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There's different damage-carriers for melee/ranged (Non-Magic) combat. Death can be one of them. If a carrier effects your body points, if you have no armor (or no armor left), you take the carrier effect. If a carrier such as Death effects your body points, you take that effect.

If it's Death, you well... Die. And start your death count (5 Minutes) before your body disappates and you have to find an earth circle to resurrect in.
 
So if he gets weakened by -5, he'll be swinging for 0 Death, which will never affect your body, so you don't have to die.

As a relatively new player myself, I can tell you that a read-through really helps, even with the crash course they will give you at the beginning. At $5, it's the price of a Subway footlong, so it shouldn't break the bank.
 
Jeff's link is broken... there's a post in the announcements thread with a working one. I'd repost it myself, but I'm busy wrapping up at work at the moment.
 
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