Potential new player!

Hey, folks!

A few years back I was considering throwing in my lot with you folks and giving LARPing a try; I've been table topping since I could hold a dice and despite dabbling in just about every form of geekdom possible, I never tried my hand at this. I'm curious, though - how active is the community? How many people tend to show up for these events? Not that it's going to factor into my decision to give it a go, but I am curious. I'd be coming from Virginia, so it'd be nice to know there would be more than just me and five other guys running around whackin' each other with padded sticks!

I've also always enjoyed playing the more morally ambiguous types of characters. Neither evil nor good, per se, just... flexible. I know there are obvious ramifications for messing with the wrong people, but how viable is it to play a character that isn't wholly wonderfully good? After looking at some of the spell lists and skills (particularly the Psion), it seems like it would be easy to abuse powers that force characters to declare their alignment and intentions.

Also, I'm curious about the warrior monk class; as an avid practitioner and appreciator of various martial arts, I was thinking of giving this one a go. I'm a little confused as to how practical those 'baton fists' are, though. How do you guys tote those things around? Isn't it just like fighting with little swords rather than actual fists? Wouldn't that put you at a severe disadvantage in just about every melee confrontation?

Anyway, I'm happy to be here (again... I think I posted twice a few years back), and I hope I get a chance to jump into the fray with you guys.

Hey, welcome!

Our community is very active, with monthly games (even in winter) and between-game activities ranging from posts to private messages and festivals..there is even our yearly masquerade ball this weekend. In winter our attendees range around 80-110, in summer it can get up toward 150+

I'm Rachel, one of the new player marshals. there are a bunch of us here to get you started and answer questions. Feel free to message me or simply ask additional things on here.

Let me try to answer a couple of things to start you off!
There are plenty of characters who are neither good nor evil, and the only time I really see that grey area less is during big main mod battles (the giant weekend battle for furthering the whole of the storyline - usually saturday night). Often people are interested in protecting the town and/or the world and are more friendly/helpful during that. There are, however, characters that will rob your bloodied body and then heal you and walk away in the chaos. You get to be what you want, but there are, of course, ramifications for being found out if you are outright evil.

As for fists, they are much like swords. Our swords are side hits only, no thrusting like a punch, so same goes for 'fists'. Usually these are about dagger size (maybe a bit shorter or longer) and must be in white or flesh-colored tape, so it is obvious that it isn't a sword or dagger. They are very effective, but the fighting style won't be like something in a dojo. I suggest you come to game early sometime and ask for demonstrations, or we can find someone who uses boffer fists to try to answer more specific questions.

Hope to see you at game

Hi, I'm Will, the mage with the arm (Long, long story behind that 3rd severed arm.) and I am hear to say that there were at least 50-75 people last time I was there, and there will probably be more due to this one hell of a storyline. A trick for "impartial" characters is to pick specific classes and skills that wouldn't be considered outright evil or good, (like Gambler, Archer, Psion, Swashbuckler, etc. Mages could be impartial but it would be complicated if you knew something like Necromancy.) and try to not act or dress good or evil either. It's not hard to look evil if you accidentally walk around in a black cloak all the time and use an ominous, creepy voice.

Honestly you'd be surprised at how rarely people take you for "evil" even if you wear a face mask made of the flesh of your foes. Then again most people just assume you're a tough guy. It's all about how you carry yourself really, that and not wearing holy symbols of dark gods or something.

Welp, I think these posts seem to answer all of your questions.
Come frolic in the woods with us and hit stuff with fake swords!

From the perspective of another Oog martial arts practitioner who went warrior monk: if you are familiar with paired short weapons (kama, jitte, butterfly swords, etc.) it should fit like a glove.

Quick heads up though, get iron palm. A bit of a pain to take damage on blocked shots...