Newbie Alert Options

Hey there,

As the screen-name suggests, my name is Kelly, and I'm totally new to LARP. I've looked into it for ages, but just never really pursued joining a group. Now, I'm hoping to finally get into the game.

I'm 23, and have never taken part in a LARP group before. My main hobby is costuming, however, so I'm certainly looking forward to the costume and roleplay aspect of the game! I'm looking into attending the trial event in April, but having trouble getting through on the phone line at the moment, it seems!

To those of you who have been attending Labyrinthe events for some time, how easy is the game system to get the hang of? I've downloaded the handbook, and boy do I have some homework to do!

Oh, if I do attend the trial date, I'll also have a couple of friends with me who also are really interested in starting LARP.

Another newbie, part of the Kelly-crew

Just been having a hard read of the handbook *information overload*

[Kirsty]

Whoo! More girls!

My biggest hint is don't try and learn the whole rule book.

Pick a class & race you'll think you'll enjoy playing and just learn the rules for those, as well as the basic rules for how damage works.

Thanks for the tip, Kirsty! Dani and I are looking over the classes/races now.

Hey there,

As the screen-name suggests, my name is Kelly, and I'm totally new to LARP. I've looked into it for ages, but just never really pursued joining a group. Now, I'm hoping to finally get into the game.

I'm 23, and have never taken part in a LARP group before. My main hobby is costuming, however, so I'm certainly looking forward to the costume and roleplay aspect of the game! I'm looking into attending the trial event in April, but having trouble getting through on the phone line at the moment, it seems!

To those of you who have been attending Labyrinthe events for some time, how easy is the game system to get the hang of? I've downloaded the handbook, and boy do I have some homework to do!

Hi Kelly. Always nice to see another female player.

How easy is the game to play - depends on how easy you want it to be really. For starting characters, if you pick one of the basic classes (Warrior, Pathfinder, Warrior Priest or Wizard) relatively easy - your basic choice depends on whether you want to hit people or learn verbals to cast spells. However, the system is huge and has 25 years of history and development in it, so can get very complex later on, to a point where no one person actually understands it all. It really depends what you want to do - play a simple and straightforward character, or dive into the complexities of politics, religious debate and the really esoteric character classes.

Feel free to ask questions. We love answering questions here... in fact, you are in danger of being overwhelmed by responses rather than the opposite.

Lucy

Thanks Lucy! I guess, being an utter noob, it'd be best to start as one of the basic classes you mentioned and work up to something more complex as we get more confident in the system. Don't want to get overwhelmed too early!!


Gotta say that I love how active this forum is. I really wasn't expecting such fast responses, or to see so many users online! That's always encouraging

[Kirsty]

More basic tips.

1) Join some guilds. They can give you extra benefits and abilities. You can find a list of these in the Almanac which you can buy from the caves or the Primal Forge website. Or pop down the caves and borrow one for an hour!!! There are 3 types of guilds and you can choose 1 of each type to claim the benefits of for your adventure, as long as your character can actually join (some are for evil people only, or for elves only for example).

2) When you start a new character you need to book onto a pre-8th dungeon (which it sounds like you've already done). You will also start at level 4 ( a recent change that hasn't been updated in the handbook).

3) Don't worry and have fun!!!

1. Understood!

2. Trying to book into the April trial... but no one is picking up the phone! Will keep trying.

3. That I can do!

[abyatt]

Hi Kelly and Dani,

Firstly welcome, great to hear that you'll be coming along on a trail event.

Apologies for the phoneline being unavailable at the moment - we've just been moving the Labyrinthe office and the phone line is being difficult to get organised. If you do have any specific questions or concerns then these forums are a great place to ask, or e-mail Jo on bookings@labyrinthe.co.uk (our self-professed "admin chick") who'll be happy to help out.

We usually try to get a few helpful experienced players onto the trial events to help any new players along (often its either Phil, Jo or myself), so one of us will probably be on-hand on the day. Other than that I'd agree with what's already been said about not trying to learn everything straight away. Just figure out what class you fancy trying first and concentrate on that.

The labyrinthe system and gameworld is absolutely huge (after 25+years of development) which is one of the great things about Labyrinthe - but you can keep it simple to start off with and get deeper and deeper into it later if you want to.

Andy
CMT (Caves Management Team)

Hi Andy,

Thank you! I'll drop Jo an email now about the trial date and try to get us booked in.

Dani and I are just looking into class/race combos we like the look of now with our experience (or lack thereof!) firmly in mind. We don't want to jump in completely over our heads, get madly lost and end up losing interest!

Humans all the way for now! xD

Seriously though it's amazing how active the community is here, it's really encouraging!

[OxMatt]

Welcome to the club! As was being said recently on another thread, pretty much everyone is happy to answer any and all questions, so don't hesitate to bung them up on the forum and someone will probably answer them within a few minutes or so.

Matt

[Stuart]

Seriously though it's amazing how active the community is here, it's really encouraging!

You have no idea...

Humans are a great place to start. While it can be exciting playing a snowman ice warrior or whatever, it's much easier to play something straightforward where you can know what you're doing for the first few times.

There are loads of people here who will bend over backwards to help you, and doubtless offer equipment and some in-character spending money (grulls) for your first adventure once they know what your characters are. If you want to sketch up some ideas and post them, you will get a bunch of suggestions about how to refine things to get the most out of your day.

Stuart

Thank you, Matt! And you, Stuart!


At the moment, we're probably going to have our little group of 4 as Imperial Humans, as it seems the easiest way to go for now. We're still chatting out classes, but we're thinking a warrior priest, wizard, a pathfinder OR warrior.... and our fourth person isn't here so she hasn't looked at the classes yet.

I went and printed out the handbook. Much easier to read on paper

I've got my notebook out, scribbling various notes to help me out xD

I like warriors, but dislike plate armour... Decisions decisions!

[abyatt]

I've got my notebook out, scribbling various notes to help me out xD

I like warriors, but dislike plate armour... Decisions decisions!

You won't need plate armour to start off with (and we don't keep any at the caves because of the humidity). Far more likely to be chainmail, and we do have a few suits of chain that we keep by behind the desk for new players (including one suit of light alli chain for a "softer start").

Andy

I've got my notebook out, scribbling various notes to help me out xD

I like warriors, but dislike plate armour... Decisions decisions!

Look at some of the warrior priest as they are restricted with wearing armour (depending on which version of priest) and you get some spellcasting .

Chris

I'll probably be taking on a warrior priest myself.... unless our fourth group member wants a fighter type, in which case I'll stick with Pure, I reckon.

[Stuart]

Pure priests are great generally - I have a few myself. They work best where you have a solid group ready to look after each other because you can't really defend yourself when someone runs at you with a sword. You have to rely on your warrior buddy to leap in the way and keep you alive.

In return though, you keep him alive all day long so it's only fair!

Warrior priests are a good half-way step, where you can defend yourself pretty well but don't have as much power to keep your friends alive all day long.

Stuart