Vet Larper looking to get back into it, considering KR. Got some questions

Hi everyone. I've been larping for a good 20 years but marriage and a little boy had me put it well on the back burner for a few years. I'm getting back into it and have been getting my garb, armor and mindset ready for a return. I'm a few pounds heavier and a bit greyer but still a larper at heart. I've a few questions if any of you don't mind a newcomer rattling a few off Sorry for the abundance of them, I've checked out the site pretty well but there's a ton to learn and not all can be found easily. I appreciate the help!!

1) I've seen some games allow backbuying events so as to start with a little bump up as a new player. Does KR have any such method of entry beyond just the 10 starting build. I intend to npc at least the first event to get more familiar with the system, but curious about this even so. Do things like donations of things help in this and if so, what kinds of things would help the game and would KR be looking for? I didn't see a section on that, but I may have missed it on the site.

2) Is there a most recent update to the rulebook I can download or purchase at the event?

3) I've never had to npc as a requirement of the game, nor has a cleanup job been a requirement. I don't mind the npc'ing, infact, I love doing that anyway, but I would rarely be able to stay on Sunday's till the end of an event. I'd most likely need to leave very late Sat or dawn on Sunday so I can take my son to activities that happen nearly every Sunday. Is this a big deal? Further, I might also not sleep on site if the events are close to home (I see some NJ camp locations are very close to me). This is just a must-do in order for me to secure time and avoid wife aggro at times, and will allow me more flexibility to be at every or most events.

4) Is there a public history for races and the world? Something to use as a guide that all new players can read and that characters int he game would inherently know? I'd like think about a background and take a look at the various classes but I get the impression that alot is 'find out in game' and that won't help me with some basic info to write a reasonable histroy of my pc Apologies if there is one for each race, and if I missed it on the site.

5 )Is there a system for diminishing returns where new players gain build and level up slightly faster than players who are uber level? I'm certain that someone playing regularly for a few years will never be caught up in build total by a new player, but I've been at systems that are very newbie friendly and early on its quicker to 'xp up' than when you are a high level. I just wonder how the system works in that regard.

6) Is there a minimum I would need to NPC in order to get credit for a full event, if I'm also not able to be at the game the full event? I'm not talking about showing up for 2 or 3 hours and ditching, but again, Sundays are likely a no go for me 99% of the time. I'd be happy to try to fill in, in other ways

7) How many people usually do you have at an event, total. I've played at games with a few hundred pc's and nearly a hundred npc's on the field in huge wave battles and/or doing various things about the site at one time. I love that, but I've also played smaller games where there's much more intimate and intense plot and such. I'd love to get an idea of how populated the average event is

Do you normally have events on major weekends. LOL I got reemed recently for being away for Mother's day and since I have a family (with a wife who has no interest and a son who will one day but is long away from legal age to join in his dad's obsession) I'm just curious about the general scheduling I'm sure there's a lot of this diplomacy going on with anyone else with a family, heh.

9) Are there any older players? I'm not ancient, lol, but at 42 I wonder if I'll be the grey haired grandpa-looking fella that stands out among a player base that is 20 years junior to me. I don't mind that, but just curious if there are others in the geriatric club out there heh.

10) I'm leaning towards playing a Smith, at least early on. How reasonable is it that a new player can enter the game economy or is the place saturated with Smiths? FYI, I'll likely go Dwarf too, but I'll make that decision when I get more info on the races. I would otherwise play a Viking/Celt theme'd character but sorry, not kilt for me

11) Can a solo player survive and acquire 'things' like rare components and items at all, or is the game so dangerous that even walking across town without a team/crew is a death sentence? I'd love to crew up if I mesh with a team that exists in the game, but that usually takes a bit of time when you are a new player.

12) I'm unfamiliar with how plot works and how many people are involved in the ongoing writing of the game. I wonder if a new player can get into the ongoing (and new) plots with reasonable ease and if plot has enough resources that they try to bring out things in players backgrounds and such. I'm well aware it takes time to get in the goings on but curious if anyone can give me an idea of the landscape. I'm sure I won't know fully till I start playing and get a good feel for the game.

13) How deadly is the game? Is death common at each event and are character perms common or rare?

14) How common or rare are magical items and the components for items and rituals? Is it a magic abundant game or is magic pretty rare.

15) I see you have merchants setup and sell stuff on saturdays. I'd love to come and npc the next event, and visit the merchants and see if people are selling things that I need to complete garb and such. How would this work?

16) How long has the game been around for? Whats the average level/build for a player and what's the highest?

Thanks again. I look forward to hearing back from any and all who are willing to respond. I'd also love to connect with whomever is your chief armor evaluator. I do leather work and some metal work and I'd love to get some ideas beyond what I've read on how my current kit will fall into the point system you have. I know that it would have to be seen in person for a true evaluation but I'm currently modifying it (IE, letting it out a bit lol, and while at it updating some things) so some guidance would be SO appreciated so I could adapt to get the most of the rep when I do come into game as a PC.

Cheers,

Mitch

I'll let the proper people answer most of your questions, but as to age, there are at least a dozen or so older than you.  Five or six in their 50's and several in their 40's.  This doesn't even count the younger ones who act like old ladies.

We get anywhere from 60 to 125 per event, depending on a lot of factors.

Build is loaded heavier for the first 10 events.

If you are going to play a PC, you must NPC a full 4 hour shift, even if leaving early.

Camp cleanup can be arranged to take place early, usually in the kitchen.

If you are not staying on site (it is a non-stop experience, i.e., 24/7) you would not have a cabin to clean up

I have no idea how old your child is, but when I played in an adult themed vampire game, my then 10 year old son came to a few games.  He wore a tag that said "Six feet two inches, 225#, built like a linebacker" and played my bodyguard - he had a very good time.

Thanks Geezer, and btw, I love the handle.

What do you mean by build being loaded heavier the first 10 events? Can you explain that in more detail?

BTW, how do I upload a pic for the profile?

Hi Mitch!

You've got a LONG list of questions, but skimming most of them, I think I can assure you most of the answers will be positive.

If you drop me an email () with a pic of yourself, I can make an Avatar for you.  We have a set of rules for the forums to allow the community to be more personal, such as your Avatar being an actual photo of yourself - any time we've tried to allow people to upload their own, someone decides to ruin it for everyone else, so we keep the selection screened by the Webmaster.

The Online Rulebook has a PDF version in the "Downloads" section that is current as of about 6 months ago.  Some things have changed, as we're in the process of overhauling things to get a final version we can put to rest (Please don't ask when this will be ready - it's been a loooong process, and we're still working out some major points).  That PDF should be enough to get most of your questions answered.  All of the same content is also on the Website to the right, under "Online Rulebok," and will ALWAYS be current, and searchable.

Let's see what we can do with your specific questions:

1) You cannot back-buy events you never attended, although you can buy events you missed.  This prevents someone from paying for a powerful PC outright and bypassing other players, making the game more fair - everyone has to progress at the same rate.

2) Has been answered.

3) NPC and Clean-Up duty are part of the community of the game, and how everyone chips in.  If you're on site for less than 24 hours, you can speak to the Director to let him know, and he can sign off as needed on these.  For Clean-Up, if you arrange ahead of time to do something like help in the kitchen post-feast cleaning up, that can fulfill your requirement - other people have the same situation.  As long as your are doing your part like everyone else before departing, it's not an issue.  (We just don't want people skipping out at 6:00 AM on Sunday after a full weekend and leaving clean-up to everyone else, that's not cool.)

4) Check the In-Game section of the site, and there's some world history as well as the local history of Travance.  The scholar that wrote the local notes hasn't picked up the past few years, but I've been working on trying to find someone In-Game who can fill in the missing notes.

5) You gain build faster for the first year of play, although it gradually diminishes the more events you play (Detailed under "Advancing  your Character" in the Rulebook).  By the time you reach your 11th event, you're at the same rate as the veterans.  One of the best ways to gain extra build early on is through Service Points, which allows donations to the game to be converted to build at a limited rate - see the "Logistics & Errata" part of the rulebook for more information.

6) See #3.

7) As noted by Charlie, population varies, usually dependent on things like the timing of the school year, weather (summer vs. winter), location (NJ vs. PA), and such.  Usually it's 60s, but during "fair weather LARPing" times, it can spike up to 140+.

Our schedule is usually set by the parks and the weekends made available to us, so sometimes we do get holiday weekends.  Easter & Mother's Day are the notorious ones it seems, but we understand Real Life comes first.

9) Charlie handled this one pretty well, I think.  Take a look at our photo gallery for some ideas of the ages of people who play.

10) As the player of one of the most experienced Smiths in town, I can tell you that even with 8 smiths in town, we can ALWAYS use more!  Last event, I sat down with two of my In-Game students to do a production line of smithing, and even with two more helping out (and a Priest of Brazen too), we got tapped out of Crafting Points.  There's actually an article that addresses this under "Advanced Play" on the links to the left.

11) Going solo isn't impossible, but a crew certainly helps.  The In-Game politics system (4 lands with their lords, knights, and vassals), and the In-Game economy system, help balance things out.

12) I'm actually not a Storyteller (and choose to be willfully ignorant of such things, for my own enjoyment of the game), so I'll take a pass on this one, other than to say that plot will NOT be hand-fed to you on a spoon.  Good RP is encouraged, and the game is what you make of it - if you don't interact with other PCs, don't expect to be entertained for the weekend.  I commonly miss most weekend plots because I spend more time RPing the business of being a smith than a combatant of any sort.

13) This varies with the plot for each weekend, the caution with which you play your PC, and the planning of the PCs each event.  Some plots have been bloodbaths because the PCs goofed and made life difficult for themselves, resulting in trips through the Healing Focus for many townspeople.  Other plots that could have been deadly have been mitigated by good RP and planning by the PCs.

14) Trinkets are fairly common, and merchants sell items as well, for the right price.  Components can always be acquired with Service Points if you want to get specific ones you can't find In-Game.  More powerful items do come out as treasure as well, and items can ve created In-Game if you have the resources or funding to make this happen.

15) Just NPC, and ask if you can play something that interacts with the Merchants during that shift.  Just remember to keep IG and OOG separate if you're shopping OOG (i.e. - don't make an OOG sale, and then steal from them IG while you're paying, etc.).

16) Knight Realms has been running since April 1998.  A small handful of the original PCs from the first game, or even the first year, are still alive, although not many.  The mix of high vs. low level PCs tends to vary game by game on who is present.  We've recently had an influx of new PCs, which means the balance is currently heavy on the low-level side, but there's also a good number of veterans about that are in the 30+ level range.  The Storytellers have doe a pretty good job of keeping things interesting for both sides of the scale.

Hopefully this helps!

Just to add a bit to what Geoff said about the level mix, there have been many recent innovations that provide the new players with ways of getting into things, without having them become embroiled in impossible situations.  Many of what can only be described as powerful players make the time to spend with newcomers, although due to political realities (IG) not all the well placed characters have the time. 

You will NOT be bored.

If you pay attention, you will not be hung out to dry (don't walk around far from people by yourself, do not sleep in a cabin by yourself, try to stay in a cabin/statehouse with some "stronger" people at first).  Common sense stuff that will be handed to you IG if you let it.

Think of orientation at HS or University.  The important IG mechanics will be explained by Brendon, our New Player Officer, who doubtless will chime in shortly.  Every Event there is a one hour session in which he explains everything necessary to new players.  The difference being, no one will try to sell you a pass for the elevator to take you to the basement swimming pool.

I actually was in on that scam in HS, selling passes to the 5th floor pool (there were only 4 floors) but only as a goof.

Thanks to you both on the answers. As I said, I've larped a ton, so I have much of the common sense stuff, but each game has its own dynamic. I played a game were death was extremely common and the town got rolled often, but perma death was extremely hard. I've also played the opposite. I've played where there was immense pc vs pc attrition and also where the entire game and plot seemed to encourage cooperation of all the players. You can't tell the atmosphere from a rulebook I'll just have to find out in game. I'd hope to link up with a crew, but I'll need to get to know people, in game and out of game first.

I'm still a bit confused about a few things. I'll check out the links and sections Geoff suggested and again, much appreciated for the time to go thru my list (you get a cookie! lol). I'm unsure what the difference is between not being able to buy events in the past (something I doubt I could do anyway, I was just curious if there was an option for one or two that I missed that just passed because I was too slow, or busy, to get on board the last few months) and buying events you missed. I missed the last few events I'm guessing you mean that if you registered for them but were unable to attend, you could pay and still get the build as if you showed up. That correct?

Also as far as accelerated build growth for the 1st ten events. That sounds great, at least to get into a level with some depth of skills. However can you describe how this works? It sounds like you only get say 5 or 6 build an event, so how is this more for newer players than for vets?

Glad to hear that there's been a surge of new players. That means I'd be in good company. Its tough sometimes starting from scratch in an old game, but if there's alot of other newer players, that makes it far easier. I've been the uber level guy many times, but there's nothing like the angst of starting anew heh.

Also glad to hear that smithing would be something I could contribute to and make some coin early on. I love combat, but I've read the smithing section and I reeeallly like how that is fleshed out.
I need to read up on how to switch to another class or multiclass, but I think I'll start out for awhile as a pure smith.

Lastly, (for now lol) could I send you some pics Geoff of the armor I'm reworking for some thoughts on how they might be evaluated in game? I'm not asking for an official ruling,  I know I'll need that onsite at an event, but would like some opinions that might save me some work and time and help me achive the kind of armor I'm going for. I'm resizing (gained a few lps since I last wore it) and taking the opportunity to do some custom work and replacement on my armor and kit overall. Gettng an opinion before I put a ton of work in will help guide me I only use real materials so I won't be doing costume armor.

Thx again!