New to Alliance

[Ashe]

Hello all,

I am moving to Oregon, and unfortunately, my home LARP has no chapters on the west coast yet. As I have become irreparably addicted to LARPing, I have decided to look into other LARPs in the area to which I will be moving. Alliance seemed to be similar to what I am already used to, and therefore not as much of a shock to my system. As I will be unable to buy a rulebook for some time while I get my feet underneath me and get to a steady point in which I can come to a game, I would like as much information as possible beforehand. I find it odd that you have no free access to things such as races and classes to help new players along in their creation of a character, or a listing of some of the more basic rules for new players seeking to join. This is simply something that I am unused to, and will have to adapt to in time.

I'm going to assume that you have races and classes very similar to my home LARP, Shadowmoor. We have humans(both regular variety and Gypsies), elves(multiple flavors... ^_^ ), dwarves(again, multiple flavors), drae, unseelie, bright fae, Sylvan fae, Sylvani, Fendari, and Arcane, and the bestial races (Sarr and Wilder). We have Templars, Scholars, Rogues, Warriors, Knights, and Rangers as far as classes go. I believe I can safely assume that there is something similar with this LARP. I've done a basic look-through of the forums, and the Alliance: Oregon site, and while it's helpful, I still feel a little lost. I guess that would be more alleviated if I could at this time order a rulebook and have it in hand.

But as I have more free time than I care to have until I board the flight to move out there, I would like some basics on the races and the classes that Alliance has, and what some of the requirements might be, such as make-up, role-playing requirements, and whether or not you have a build point system or something else that I am unfamiliar with. In addition to that, any help on what weapons you use and skills that are available for characters to purchase would really help me get a feel on the game system here. I have played for a year straight with SOLAR: Shadowmoor, and plan to play many more. I have scoured my LARP's rulebook, and know the basics of each class and most races, even if I have only played a select few. I currently play a Sarr Templar, and an elf (Sampan, in particular) Rogue in my home LARP, and will be playing a Human Rogue in a sister chapter in a few weeks. In time, I plan to also play a Sylvani Acid Rogue (which for that race can be fairly odd, especially with her weapon choice of an axe).

I know that this is incredibly awkward to ask and will completely understand if I am told to do the research myself. I will gladly do so, as soon as I am established in my new home and can do so. I simply wish to do some planning ahead of time, and maybe get a feel for your game before I grace your doorstep, so to speak. Not to mention, entertain myself on the plane ride over.Thank you very much, and I hope that this isn't too much difficulty for someone to help me out with.

Thank you,

Ashe
Currently, SOLAR Shadowmoor and Clanthia
Hopefully soon to join the Alliance:Oregon family.

 

[Druk]

Welcome to Alliance! Oregon just started a new campaign in October and we have a gameday on December 4th and our next event in January. Many of us in Oregon also play in the Seattle chapter, which is having a 3 day event in Feb, so there's plenty of events to keep you busy.
The best way to learn about the classes and races, is to pick up the rulebook, the E-Book is only $6. It's a pretty hefty book (160+ pages), but no one expects new players to have every thing memorized their first event and all the players are very helpful and understanding of new players.

As far as races go, in Alliance we have:
Barbarians, Biata (think tweety bird with a superiority complex ), Dark Elf, Dryad, Dwarves, Elf, Gypsy, High Ogre, High Orc, Hoblings, Humans, Mystic Wood Elves, Sarr, Stone Elves, and Wylderkin.

For classes we have 3 standard classes, 3 hybrid classes and Artisans. The three standard classes are Rogue, Fighter and Scholar. The hybrids are Templar (Fighter-Scholar), Adept (Rogue-Scholar) and Scout (Fighter-Rogue). Artisans are a crafting and RP class.

If you have any chapter specific questions, you should head over to the Oregon section of these forums and introduce yourself, we'll be glad to help.

~Joe

 

[SkollWolfrun]

Howdy!

You can get a downloadable electronic rule book version here for under seven bucks, and peruse through it. You can also purchase a hardcopy through our site. The rulebook has a good introduction to what a game might be like, tips on costuming and designing your character, as well as the nuts and bolts of how to play. Mike V (the owner of the whole shebang) has even posted up some sample pages in this post.

Welcome aboard.
-JP

I just started with the Oregon group this past October. Great crew.

Weapons: standard boffer & most the latex types tend to be acceptable. They do need to be reviewed prior to acceptance though.

Build: based upon the Build Point System. Rulebook has more on it, but it is typical type of stuff like weapon skills are cheaper for the fighter types, spells are cheaper for the caster types.

 

[evi1r0n]

The game is essentially a Tolkein-esq high fantasy world. Every chapter is on the same planet but every land is a very different entity with local rules and conflicts. Your character can transfer fairly easily between chapters (takes 2 emails). I actively play in SEA and OR as do a lot of west coast folk.

Any class can buy any skill in our game by spending build points (gained through experience). XP is given as a static amount per event based on your current build point total (or BPs). If you want to have a fighter and buy magic slots you can, however it will cost you an arm and a leg. Maybe your soul too... Not sure on that one. Classes are fluid meaning you can change class at anytime your BP would benefit. Example my earth templar has far more scholar skills than fighter skills, I could move to scholar and have more free build. Hit points are based off of class and your BP total.

Each race has a number of strengths and flaws (reflected through purchased racial abilities). Humans are baseline and get no advantages/disadvantages. The harder the race is to costume the better the advantages.

One of my favorite things about Alliance is: after you first game you can keep any earned XP and completely rebuild your character from scratch.

Alliance is a good mix of RP and fighting. Fights are resolved using boffer weapons and packet (small bean bag) delivery system. There is little to no player on player physical contact unless permission is given.

When you join make sure to so hello, I am the really large human with the leather helmet. Look forward to meeting you at a game.

 

[iWolfe]

As a player who's been in the game for a few years, here's a suggestions for you. Firstly, I'd suggest you NPC. It allows you to get to know the system better, get to know plot and PCs, and get a feel for the in-game plotline. I NPCed for Oregon for a year, and it taught me a lot. Also, since it's free in our chapter, it gets you a lot of bang for your buck.

Secondly, I'd suggest that when you do decide to play a Player Character, decide on your race and make sure you pick up the race packet. When I made my gypsy there wasn't a racial packet for me, so I ended up having to learn as I went, and I had to adjust my character background to make up for it. You can pick up the race packet of for your character from the plot team.

Another thing that you may want to consider is the spread of character races. In Oregon we have a decent sized group of humans, an equal sized (or larger, can't remember exactly) group of Gypsies, and the rest are sparse. We've only got one local dark elf to my recollection, but a large crew of them travels down from Seattle every once and a while. There's only one, maybe two of the regular elves at the moment, and we've got about three or four mystic wood elves. We have one local biata, with one more I know of who travels from Seattle, and there are several resident dryads. Of the dwarves, we've got one local but he usually only comes to day mods. We also have two wylderkin (anthropomorphic animals), and two Saar (cat-people). Oh, and we also have an orc. To my knowledge there are no local Stone Elves, Hoblings, Barbarian or Ogres, but I've heard rumor that Barbarians are going to be showing up sometime soon.

And, like Ron said, feel free to say Hi. I'll be the loud Gypsy named Itzack. Look for the purple-blue headwrap, you can't miss it even if you wanted to.

 

[Talen]

SOLAR's one of those systems that split off from NERO (like Alliance did, only earlier...SOLAR did it around the 3rd edition rules, though)- so a lot of it's going to be familiar territory for you. Just familiar enough to get a lot of stuff wrong at first!

You'll pick it up pretty fast given an Alliance rulebook, though- download an electronic copy and go over it. Jennie "Talia" Breeden does just fine with the NERO Cinci crew, and the differences between that and SOLAR vs. Alliance and SOLAR are just about equal.

 

[elliotbay]

Hey-o. I'm going to echo briefly what some of my colleagues have suggested.

Game play will probably feel familiar to you, but if you're itching to learn about races, classes, and experience mechanics beforehand, $6 isn't a bad buy for the electronic copy, and you won't have to wait for it to ship

I definitely understand wanting to get your feet under you in a new location, but don't consider putting the time and money into a PC to be your only option to come out and play with us. My first event as an Alliance PC was in October, but I've been playing since February of '09, before I had a car. NPCing is a much more cost-effective way to get your game on , and we'd love to see you at Oregon's 1/28-30 event.