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King Kong

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Hi, I'm King Kong. I'm brand new to this thing so I thought I would introduce myself and get some questions asked.

I live about 60 miles from Portland, OR. I'm 17 years old, and a Junior in High School. I heard about LARPing on some G4 video games award show when I was in middle school, but I thought it was just a joke. Then after watching Role Models, I was kinda like, "Woah, this is real?" so I investigated. I am an athlete and a couple of kids from my sports teams said they'd be interested in going to one of these with me.

My questions:
Can someone give me a link to some good resource on weapon and armor building?

I want to build a trident for a weapon. Would it be out of place or illegal?

Do you use an in-game currency, real money, or a combination? If in-game currency exists, what kinds of things can you do with it?

I noticed there are things like armor tags and levels. How are these figured into a battle without stopping the action? And how much of the battle has to do with the players actual skill in handling the fake weapon?

Is alcohol present at these events?

Also I need a copy of the rule book. Is there a pdf file I can download?


Thanks for putting up with my general not-knowing.
 
Welcome aboard! I just left the Portland area about a year ago, so I know exactly who you'll be dealing/playing with, and you're in good hands. I can tell you that there is a pdf version of the rulelbook available for $5 to download here:

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

A lot of your questions can be easily answered in here, and there is a very good step by step tutorial in it about how to make weapons for yourself. I can tell you that a trident would be a very difficult weapon to make on a first try, and I don't think it'd work the way you hope in our system. I would highly encourage you to try a sword first, then see what you think. The good thing about it is, as a brand new player after your first game if you don't like the type of character you made for your first game you can re-do all your skills before you play the second time (like say you tried a mage and hated it, and wanted to make a fighter instead).

We do have our own money in the game, coins in copper, silver, and gold. All things in the game are bought and paid for with this coin (or you can barter goods for goods too), and all items in the game have a rough value based on what they cost to make (we have player blacksmiths, potion makers, alchemists, etc).

The whole armor tags/skill in battle thing is very thoroughly covered in the rulebook, and is very easy to pick up quickly.

No alcohol or drugs of any kind are allowed. Smoking of regular stuff is okay in limited areas, usually dictated by the camp we're using for the game.

Hope that was helpful, if you're still interested or have more specific questions about the where/when stuff's going on around Portland, the owner of the Oregon chapter's name is Cymryc and his email is cymryc@comcast.net. Feel free to contact him with any other questions or post up here with more of em.
 
Thanks, man.

To download that book, I need a credit/debit card. I have money in my PayPal available but for some reason that site wont accept that. If someone can help me with that it would be great.

I think I should be OK as soon as I get my hands on the rules.

Edit: and one more quick question.

I know that a white headband makes you OOG. But what about other headband colors? Are they OK to wear?
 
I believe all other colors except white and orange are ok.... white is for OOG and orange is reserved for pages(people who can't be a part of full combat either to health restrictions or age restrictions)
 
That's odd because I bought mine through paypal. Might send them a contact if you can't figure it out.
 
If you arent using a verified paypal account (has a bank account linked) you may be at your monthly limit for sending funds. Even if you have money in the account (say from something you sold, and the buyer sent money through paypal) You still cant send it if you are at the monthly limit.

Of course if you arent at the limit ($2000 most likely), or are already verified, ignore this post. :)
 
OK, nevermind the problem. I figured it out. I just didn't quite understand that DoubleDragon website. I got the book saved to my email and I'll start studying up today. Thanks. Oh, and a question for maxondaearth, how many people go to the Portland events? And I'm sure that most the people there are white males. Are there any females that attend? or any minorities? and will I be the only teenager there?
 
Hmmm, currently I don't believe there are any "minority" players based in Oregon, but we have had in the past and there certainly are throughout the Alliance. I'm hoping you're asking because you yourself are one and are wondering if you're going to stick out, and not because you don't wanna play with non-whites ;). There are many lady larpers, several of them even help run the game. There are definitely some younger players, not sure if they've all graduated high school lately but I know we had a couple still in a year ago. As for attendance numbers, it depends on the event. We run some that are just for an afternoon at a local park in Portland, and those tend to be anywhere from 8-20 people, just depends on who can make it. Weekend long events that get held at youth camp sites around the area tend to draw people down from the Seattle chapter and sometimes up from Cali (most Portland players tend to drive up to the Seattle weekend events too which are held just south of Olympia usually) tend to be anywhere from 35-60 people.
 
Yeah, I'm white. But one of my friends, and my brother are both black. So they were joking around like, "there ain't no brothers in the Alliance!" and so I just wanted to find out about that. Definitely not a racist.
 
The owner of the NJ chapter is black, and a woman, and as far as I know she's the highest level character in the entire national game. NO-body messes with Erica, either in game or out ;).
 
I wish we had more minority players in the game. When we were in NYC, the number was higher than it is now, but it's never been in proportion to the population, and I'm not sure why.

The Alliance does have a fairly high female to male ratio compared to other LARPs from what I've seen though.
 
Fearless Leader said:
I wish we had more minority players in the game. When we were in NYC, the number was higher than it is now, but it's never been in proportion to the population, and I'm not sure why.
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Because brothers aren't geek they're gansta!

Okey, that was a wee bit racist and I apologize but I think that for the most part that they don't typically explore fantasy based recreational activities. All the conventions I have been to have a much higher percentage of white people compared to the local demographics.
 
There is also a certain stereotype that is supported to an extent of pasty white boys playing video games and other fantasy games that I think may influence our unfortunately poor diversity... :?
 
one of my favorite shots in that Wreakreation Nation show on Dagohir was of a bra on the ground, and the voice over of the announcer saying "Barbarians, Orcs, Humans all abound. One type of creature I have yet to see? A girl."

Most girls I know wouldn't want to run around in face paint, and get dirty, sweaty, or swing weapons. It takes a special breed, and I think the LARP girls are waaay better than regular girls ;)

I didn't notice anyone saying something about a trident, I'd ask your local marshals about one, because it's really easy to trap someone else's weapon in the tines of a trident and it becomes an unsafe situation.
 
phedre said:
I didn't notice anyone saying something about a trident, I'd ask your local marshals about one, because it's really easy to trap someone else's weapon in the tines of a trident and it becomes an unsafe situation.
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I've seen a boffer trident that was either used and a spear or a polearm. The "head" was solid, the tines suggested by depressed areas of foam rather than completely cut out. The shaft of the weapon was the center tine and the outer tines ran exactly up the edge of the shaft. It was nice to look at and you knew what is was supposed to be right when you saw it.

If I made one to my own use I'd make it as a polearm, for the extra damage.
 
Alright. I'm really starting to understand the mechanics of the game. The only thing I am confused about is the armor. To get a good armor rating, you basically need to wear a real suit of armor? Why is this? If we are going to use weapons out of pipes and foam, why can't I replicate some armor with similar materials?
 
I'm not sure what you mean by "similar materials". The armor system works so that if you use lighter metals or lighter weight leather, it's just not quite as protective as someone who wears heavier materials. There's different schools of thought on the armor as it is anyway, and the basic gist of it is this: some people prefer to make heavier suits to max out the points while others go for mid-range armor values in order to stay nimble and be able to avoid taking the damage in the first place.

If you were to wear a medium weight shirt of chainmail with sleaves that came down to your elbows, that would give you 14pts of armor, add a pair of studded leather bracers for 2 more, a pair of studded shin guards for another two, and a light leather skull cap for 2 more points. There's 20 pts right there, and if you have decent looking costuming with no out of period parts to it (like no sneakers or black jeans under your armor) you can get up to 6 points of bonus armor for looking good, so there's 26 pts pretty easily. You could even get a leather vest with studs or rings instead of the chainmail and still get 12 points for it (losing 2pts for no sleeves unless you also got spaulders for your shoulders). Really, though, other than fighters no one else can even wear more armor than I described without paying some build points to do it, so that's a pretty common "max out" combo set.

Hope that helps give you some perspective of what it's all about. Playing once or twice will give you an even better insight too :D.
 
King Kong said:
Alright. I'm really starting to understand the mechanics of the game. The only thing I am confused about is the armor. To get a good armor rating, you basically need to wear a real suit of armor? Why is this? If we are going to use weapons out of pipes and foam, why can't I replicate some armor with similar materials?
Click to expand...

Honestly, because that's the way the rules are written. They don't take into account the actual protective ability of the armor at all, just how nearly it mimics something that could theoretically be called armor, from a few feet away. The materials are mostly there to insure that there is somewhat of a tradeoff between high-point suits of armor and having to lug the weight of them around, much like the real world trade between the protection of plate armor and having to haul it. :D
 
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