New Player Guide
Going to a new LARP can sometimes feel overwhelming. That is okay. The Mythic Adventures LARP community is known for being extremely helpful and friendly. We take pride in having a welcoming community for new players to explore and create their LARP experience. Our players have nurtured a strong community and we are proud of them for that. We also cannot wait to be proud of you too.
This guide is broken into three sections: The Basics, Creating a Character, and Character Creation.
Listed on this page are the absolute basics of LARPing. If you are not new to the concept of LARP, please feel free to skip this section and move onto our Informational page listed on the left and the Character Creation section on this page below. The purpose of this page is to greater explain both LARP and our LARP to those who wish to learn it, as well as go over the basics of how to create a character sheet at Mythic Adventures LARP
In addition to the information below, make sure to reach out to our New Player Advocates, who are here to help guide you along your journey! Our current new player marshal team is: John Dandle, Crystal Clark, Steve Conover, Drew Herbst, Wesley Carr, Greg Incog, and Caitlin Pearse. You can reach them on Facebook, or via email at mythicnpl@gmail.com! The full list of mythic adventures Staff and Marshals can be found on our Mythic Team page.
The Basics.
The first question that we have to answer is what LARP means. LARP is an acronym for Live Action Role Play. There are many different types of LARPs. These can range from pure role-playing (acting out a character) to pure combat (actual fighting) to something in between. Here at Mythic Adventures LARP, we sit at the somewhere in between. We classify ourselves as an immersive, boffer-combat LARP. This means that we really care about the props, costuming, and makeup of our site and non-player characters (NPCs) that we present to you. You might hear the words low fantasy, no not the genre though we are a fantasy game, from players or staff. We try to make it as easy for you to experience our game and try to remove as many suspension of disbeliefs that we can. Low fantasy means just that.
Non-player character, as mentioned earlier, is a character that has limits placed on them. These characters are used for the purposes of story. Your character that you will level, grow, and take part in the story with is what is called a player character (commonly abbreviated to PC). A few other acronyms you may want to be aware of are: out of play (OoP), out of character (OoC), in play (IP), and in character (IC). These are really just different ways to denote when someone is referring to something that is a part of the game or is not a part of the game. Metagaming is taking OoP or OoC knowledge, knowledge that you have not learned while being your character, and bringing that knowledge IP or IC. For example, if I as a fighter were trying to find a secret about another PC, I could not ask around OoC for this information. Me, the player, could learn the secret from my friend, but unless my friend both knows the secret IC and tells me the secret IC, I do not know it.
Marshals are people who are selected and given a certain amount of authority. All Marshals can check the sheets of any player. Field Marshals have the authority to tell players that they are doing a skill or violating a rule. Monster Town Marshals help keep Monster Town (that is what we call the area we get our monsters and NPCs outfitted and prepped) in working order. A particular Marshal or set of Marshals will be selected from them to guide the monsters on the field and change the scenario based on the player's reactions. Race Marshals and Profession Marshals are in charge of enforcing genre and costuming requirements of the Race or Profession they are in charge of. Staff is broken down into individual administrative jobs. The Game Managers (GM) have the ultimate say on any call. A Marshal or Staff can say one thing, but if a GM contradicts it, the GM has that right. This doesn't happen very often. The Game Operations Director has authority over everything and oversees the GMs.
A note on Race and Profession Marshals: due to role playing and/or makeup requirements, some Races and Professions have additional requirements, expectations, and oversight. These Marshals exist to help players ensure they maintain those high standards with makeup tips, advice on history and expected behaviors, etc. If your Race requires approval from a Race Marshal, you MUST work with your Race Marshal in addition to the The Hero's Library during character generation. After character generation, your Race and Profession Marshals will become a resource throughout your Mythic Adventures LARP experience.
Please visit the Mythic Team page to find our Profession and Race marshals.
Creating a Character
There are many ways to create a character. The one that is listed is just a single way, so go with what you feel most comfortable doing. We at the Hero's Library often get questions about where people should even start when designing a character. This guide answers that question.
- The first step in creating a charater is to contact our New Player Team! This team exists to guide you through the character creation process, get you in touch with the appropriete marshals, and help answer any and all questions you may have. Once you contact the new player team at mythicnpl@gmail.com you will be assigned a New Player Advocate! Note: this step is mandatory for all new players!
- The next step is to look over our rulebook (available below). No, we do not mean to memorize even a quarter of it at this stage. Just read it over and get a feel for the game, maybe poke around on our Facebook Page.
- Set aside all concepts and ideas of a character sheet. You will be building your sheet around your character concept.
- What sounds interesting to you, as a player? Do you enjoy being in combat? Solving puzzles? Sneaking around? Singing and dancing and crafting? Ask yourself these questions and come up with more. This game has a 20 year story arc so it is important that you as a player enjoy the game with a character that you could be playing for 20 years.
- Start narrowing your list down based on what you think would work well in this world that you could play, feel free to check the rulebook for story references. Are you a scholar who studied at a magic school and has a burning passion to learn about the different planes? Are you a roving fighter determined to eliminate all necromancy? What do you do as a character?
- Start asking yourself questions about your character like: What are some goals? Did you have parents? Are they dead? Were they killed by Undead? Were they loving? Did they teach you their trade? What is your trade? How do you make money? How did you come across this skill? Do you travel a lot? What do you like to eat? Why do you like to eat that? Are you a hunter? Do you fish? What do you like to wear? Is it practical? Is it pretty? Why do you wear it that way? What do you do when you are bored? Why do you do that? What is a hobby? A passion? Why is it this way?
- Look at the different Races and Professions and see which of each is a good fit for your concept. Keep in mind the forbidden and preferred sections for each. If you are playing a Race other than Kingdom Human, contact the Race Marshal in charge of that Race to see if there is anything you need to know about playing that Race. For restricted Races, ask the Race Marshal what you need to submit in order to play that Race. A good base to start with is a character concept and your character's costume/makeup.
- Remember the concept of a character sheet? It is time to bring it back.
- Look over the different skills listed in the back of the book and see which ones fit your character.
Character Creation
Check to make sure the Profession you have selected is not forbidden by the Race. Make sure you have Race Marshal approval on all Races that require it. Once you have selected a Race and Profession, note the Advantages, Disadvantages, and skills/trees that are forbidden. These may augment your skills or keep you from pursuing a skill. Example of this are Knights. They cannot purchase any Backstabbing related skills. On the Profession page, look up to the level you are building and note skills and point costs. Note any Affinities.
Go to the Experience Chart and record the starting experience for the level you are starting as. Also record the total number of skill points you get at your level (level 1 gets 20 skill points, after that it is 10 skill points per level so a level 5 character would have 60 total skill points). Experience is how you level and skill points are how you spend your level. There is free experience and character experience. Free experience is on you as a player and can be spent on a character or on an experience point store to purchase items in game. Record your life total (level 1 gets 3 starting off, level 2 gets an additional life for a total of 4).
Go to the Skill Chart and start browsing through the skills. It is a generally good idea that the first three skills that you get are a combat skill, a skill that helps you make money (Crowns), and a skill that is a requirement for your Race/Profession or would make sense for your Profession. Our game lends best to characters that are well rounded and are created as an actual person instead of numbers on a sheet. I promise you, seriously. But look through all the skills and if you need to know what a skill means, there will be a description listed before the skill chart of all of the skills. Your Profession specific skills will only be listed on your Profession's page. Each page is broken up into skill name and the skill point cost per profession. The far right of the page will have any special notes like restrictions. Always look there as there are some skills that can only be purchased when previous skills are purchased. An example is that a Knight cannot purchase in skills relating to Backstab.
At character creation, everything is open except for certain restricted lores and ritual magics past level 1. After character creation a teacher is required for any new rank or level of a skill. Rank 1 of Blacksmithing requires a teacher, but not rank 2. The first purchased second level spell requires a teacher, but the second purchased second level spell does not.
Magic must be purchased as if you were walking downstairs. The first third level spell can only be purchased after two second level spells and three first level spells have been purchased. The first fifth level spell can only be purchased after two fourth level spells, three third level spells, four second level spells, and five fifth level spells have been purchased. A helpful diagram is located in the rule book. If a Profession says that they can learn up to a 7 column in a 5 column format, this means that you must purchase your fifth ninth level spell before you can start purchasing your sixth of any level. This means that you will have five available spells up to level nine (five 1st level, five 2nd level, five 3rd level, five 4th level, five 5th level, five 6th level, five 7th level, five 8th level, and five 9th level).
Production levels are individual levels set up so that in most cases it will cost 30 skill points in order to be eligible for the next rank (Apprentice, Journeyman, Master).
RP and Craft Skills can be individualized, but must be approved by The Hero's Library.
We recommend to list all of the skills you could possibly want and whittle the list from there. It is better than realizing a skill exists and regretting not purchasing that skill. Otherwise make your character and double check your math that you are within the skill points you have to spend. If you have any questions, feel free to email The Hero's Library (MythicadventuresHeros@gmail.com)! It is easier on us and faster for the other players if you have an idea of how you want to spend your skill points before you arrive on the game floor. Do not feel pressured to choose before then however, as we are more than willing to help.