Hello! My name is Joshua and I am a Newbie

[Seattle_tobias]

So I just started looking into alliance LARPing and am finding it to be exactly what I am looking for.

I won't be attending anything until the March Event as my wife and I are having some remodeling done to our floors and that is taking up most of our time.

I have some questions while I wait for the Rulebook / Player Guide.

1) Campgrounds - I hate camping, but as I have been table top gaming for over 20 years, I LOVE LOVE LOVE RPGs and my desire to become a Zombie/Warrior/Wizard/Goblin etc is overriding my hatred. One of the reasons for my loathing of camping is that I have sleep apnea which makes me snore like a chainsaw caterwauling to elephants. I do have a Cpap machine which completely eliminates my snoring but that of course needs electricity. Am I out of luck before I start? I could be a dwarf with a head cold. :wink:

2) Weapons - Is it boffer only or are latex weapons allowed depending on their construction? I am looking online at the different material available.

3) My wife isn't into the idea of the fights, but love to dress up when we go to Ren Faire's. Does she have a place? Consistant NPC or Maybe a healer for after battles??

4) I have 4 other friends interested in going and we are planning on coming as a group of NPCs (As suggested for our first couple events). What is the ratio usually for NPCs vs PCs? Should some of us be PCs instead?

I look forward to being impaled/evicerated/incinerated and generally having a great time!
Joshua

 

[Alavatar]

Lets see if I can help you out.

So I just started looking into alliance LARPing and am finding it to be exactly what I am looking for.

I won't be attending anything until the March Event as my wife and I are having some remodeling done to our floors and that is taking up most of our time.

I have some questions while I wait for the Rulebook / Player Guide.

If you won't be playing until March I recommend waiting on purchasing the rulebook. A new edition of the rules will be coming out soon and it would suck for you to buy a rulebook and then have to buy another one because of the edition change.

Don't buy the Player Guide unless you really want to. It primarily concerns the HQ Ashbury chapter (over on the East Coast) and most of the history and whatnot is not applicable to our chapter. At most, it would be useful to understand some of the races.

1) Campgrounds - I hate camping, but as I have been table top gaming for over 20 years, I LOVE LOVE LOVE RPGs and my desire to become a Zombie/Warrior/Wizard/Goblin etc is overriding my hatred. One of the reasons for my loathing of camping is that I have sleep apnea which makes me snore like a chainsaw caterwauling to elephants. I do have a Cpap machine which completely eliminates my snoring but that of course needs electricity. Am I out of luck before I start? I could be a dwarf with a head cold. :wink:

Over here in the NW we normally use campsites with Cabins and electricity. So people that require electricity for health reasons should not have a problem.

2) Weapons - Is it boffer only or are latex weapons allowed depending on their construction? I am looking online at the different material available.

Alliance is boffer only. There are basic instructions in the rulebook you can use or perhaps you can meet up with someone sometime to try and understand their construction. But, NPCs use monster camp weapons so you should not have to worry about it for your first event.

3) My wife isn't into the idea of the fights, but love to dress up when we go to Ren Faire's. Does she have a place? Consistant NPC or Maybe a healer for after battles??

Boffer larps tend to be combat heavy, but there are generally places that are considered relatively "safe". If nothing else, she can work with plot to try and find a role that minimizes combat.

4) I have 4 other friends interested in going and we are planning on coming as a group of NPCs (As suggested for our first couple events). What is the ratio usually for NPCs vs PCs? Should some of us be PCs instead?

That is great that you and your friends want to come play! NPCing is the best way to learn and more NPCs are always useful and appreciated! Generally, PCs outnumber NPCs (sometimes as much as 5:1), but plot tries their best to break the PCs into more manageble chunks so as to not frustrate the NPCs by constantly being surrounded.

I look forward to being impaled/evicerated/incinerated and generally having a great time!
Joshua

We look forward to meeting you in person!

 

[Sarah]

Playing a strict healer or even an artisan is a good way to avoid most of the combat. However, combat does still occur. We try to keep this to a touch game so any hits your wife would take shouldn't be very heavy, and there's nothing to say she couldn't just fall down and play dead! (In fact, it's a great tactic for a healer.)

If it's a big concern because of medical reasons or summat, than I'd make it a point to have a conversation with the owner and rules about it. We do have multiple levels of combat involvement, generally reserved for the very young or injured/disabled that may be an option for her.

 

[Seattle_tobias]

Lets see if I can help you out.

Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.

If you won't be playing until March I recommend waiting on purchasing the rulebook. A new edition of the rules will be coming out soon and it would suck for you to buy a rulebook and then have to buy another one because of the edition change.

Don't buy the Player Guide unless you really want to. It primarily concerns the HQ Ashbury chapter (over on the East Coast) and most of the history and whatnot is not applicable to our chapter. At most, it would be useful to understand some of the races.

Thanks, I'll pick it up in February then.

Over here in the NW we normally use campsites with Cabins and electricity. So people that require electricity for health reasons should not have a problem.

Excellent! My wife won't have to smother me in my sleep.

Alliance is boffer only. There are basic instructions in the rulebook you can use or perhaps you can meet up with someone sometime to try and understand their construction. But, NPCs use monster camp weapons so you should not have to worry about it for your first event.

Is for safety reasons? I am just wondering. With the emphasis on constumes/make up etc.

Boffer larps tend to be combat heavy, but there are generally places that are considered relatively "safe". If nothing else, she can work with plot to try and find a role that minimizes combat.

If nothing else, she can stand behind me casting spells. I do a good meat shield impression.

That is great that you and your friends want to come play! NPCing is the best way to learn and more NPCs are always useful and appreciated! Generally, PCs outnumber NPCs (sometimes as much as 5:1), but plot tries their best to break the PCs into more manageble chunks so as to not frustrate the NPCs by constantly being surrounded.

Cool - I want to see what's all involved from spells to melee to tavern crawling

We look forward to meeting you in person!

I bet you say that to all the newbies

Seriously though, it's really nice to see other more experienced people willing to take the time to answer questions they probably answered many times before.

We all started at the beginning and many people out there tend to forget that, and if you are an example of the type of people we'll be meeting at the event we may become lifers.

 

[Seattle_tobias]

Playing a strict healer or even an artisan is a good way to avoid most of the combat. However, combat does still occur. We try to keep this to a touch game so any hits your wife would take shouldn't be very heavy, and there's nothing to say she couldn't just fall down and play dead! (In fact, it's a great tactic for a healer.)

If it's a big concern because of medical reasons or summat, than I'd make it a point to have a conversation with the owner and rules about it. We do have multiple levels of combat involvement, generally reserved for the very young or injured/disabled that may be an option for her.

Nah nothing like that - she just doesn't like people swinging stuff at her But mostly because she fears injury - and from what I can tell on the website it's pretty safe. Though I will bring down the hammer of Thor should I see her cry (Thor is my 2yo nephew... so it's not really a hammer, it's more of a plastic spoon).

Though she may pick up a mace or sword if she is so inclined. Otherwise, that playing dead thing may work!

Thanks!

 

[Alavatar]

Alliance is boffer only. There are basic instructions in the rulebook you can use or perhaps you can meet up with someone sometime to try and understand their construction. But, NPCs use monster camp weapons so you should not have to worry about it for your first event.

Is for safety reasons? I am just wondering. With the emphasis on constumes/make up etc.

Yes, it is for safety reasons that Alliance strictly uses non-latex weaponry. I don't know the whole history of the subject, but essentially the argument is that not all latex weaponry have thrusting tips which is a requirement for all Alliance weapons. And a lot of people complain about getting hit by a latex weapon in the winter months where the sting of the contact is considered to be more then if it were foam and cloth/tape.

It's actually subjective as to how safe they are, though. It is just that the owner(s) and a vocal group of players do not like the latex weapons. Beware the politics surrounding these!

Boffer larps tend to be combat heavy, but there are generally places that are considered relatively "safe". If nothing else, she can work with plot to try and find a role that minimizes combat.

If nothing else, she can stand behind me casting spells. I do a good meat shield impression.

If she is afraid of being hit then she can relegate herself to Page status. Basically, that means she can cast spells and/or throw alchemy, but cannot swing a weapon or be struck by a weapon. If a person wielding a weapon wants to damage her they must be close (I think 10ft), point their weapon at her and state "Page <damage call>" and she takes it and can use any appropriate defensive spell or ability.

We look forward to meeting you in person!

I bet you say that to all the newbies

Seriously though, it's really nice to see other more experienced people willing to take the time to answer questions they probably answered many times before.

We all started at the beginning and many people out there tend to forget that, and if you are an example of the type of people we'll be meeting at the event we may become lifers.

This is a relatively friendly community. Silent a lot of the time, but generally friendly. And we appreciate new people coming into out community!

 

[Seattle_Dave]

Welcome, Joshua!

I am Dave, and I am the owner for this chapter of Alliance. I would like to welcome you to our chapter and re-state that we are looking very forward to meeting you and yours.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions, though the people who have answered your questions so far have done an excellent job at evangelizing the chapter for me! (Thanks, guys!)

 

[MoonKitten]

Nah nothing like that - she just doesn't like people swinging stuff at her But mostly because she fears injury - and from what I can tell on the website it's pretty safe. Though I will bring down the hammer of Thor should I see her cry (Thor is my 2yo nephew... so it's not really a hammer, it's more of a plastic spoon).

Though she may pick up a mace or sword if she is so inclined. Otherwise, that playing dead thing may work!

Thanks!

Hi Joshua and your Wife and friends!

I have been playing this game since 2001 and I like your wife was unsure about the combat in the game. In fact I and my best friend at the time both paged our first Faire Day and found out that it was nothing like we had feared/expected. After that first day we never Paged again.

There is combat but it is generally fairly easy to put someone else between you and the monster/npc that is coming for you.

Hope that helps alleviate some of her concerns about combat.

Looking forward to meeting you all! If you or she has questions I would be more then happy to help you guys out!

-Leigh-Ann

 

[Seattle_tobias]

Welcome, Joshua!

I am Dave, and I am the owner for this chapter of Alliance. I would like to welcome you to our chapter and re-state that we are looking very forward to meeting you and yours.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions, though the people who have answered your questions so far have done an excellent job at evangelizing the chapter for me! (Thanks, guys!)

Thanks for the offer - I may take you up on that.

Backgrounds/Histories - I am looking into designing our backgrounds but want to wait until we attend to actually formalize it.

I was looking at another website for another LARP organization in the area (Which haven't been nearly as responsive - I don't know if they exist any longer) and the character creation they had seems to be pretty complex as well as the "tags".

Am I, for example, supposed to remember I have 20 Armor Points, 10 body points while in combat. Mentally deducting the other person's attack?
i.e.
Goblin - 3 Normal
*My Brain - That's 27*
I attack - 2 normal
Goblin - 3 Normal
*My brain - That's 24*
etc

Also along the combat line - Spells. Is it strictly a "Fighter"/"Wizard" you're either one or the other. Or, as a more melee fighter, can I learn spells if I choose to spend my blanket/exp points that way?

Thanks again for the polite and fun responses!

 

[Maxondaerth]

To answer the first question, yes you do have to do math in your head while fighting to keep track of damage totals and such, but it becomes automatic pretty quickly even if you're not too good at math. A lot of people are daunted by this at first, but you pick up little tricks along the line to keep track easier.

As to skills, there are seven classes in the game:
Fighter= FIghting skills
Scholar= spell casters
Rogue= extra damage from behind, poisons, traps, etc.
Templar= Fighter/mage
Adept= Rogue/mage
Scout= Fighter/rogue
Artisan= Craftsman

Now, no matter what class you take, you can still buy any other skill in the game as long as your character is not prohibited from buying it due to a racial restrictioni (example: Dwarves can't use two handed swords) it just costs you a whole lot more of your build points to get them. Fighters get fighting and weapon skills the cheapest, but spells or alchemy would cost them a ton, while the opposite is true for scholars. Templars, however, pay a little more for both than a pure caster or fighter, but are designed so that down the road you pay far less to be able to do both well than either the fighter or the scholar would have to get the same skills. Same for adept and scout, both are also meant to be hybrid classes that pay more for their skills overall, but less for a more diverse selection of skills.

There's a really good chart in the rulebook that shows each skill and how much it costs for each class that gives you a much better idea of what I'm talking about but would take a loooong time to copy out. The best way to build a character is to figure out what you want that character to ultimately be able to do, then sit down and write up those skills at both 100 build and 200 build, and see which class would allow you to accomplish where you want your character to go.