LARP

Stay Warm and Dry in A Wool Cloak

Much of the fun of attending a Renaissance fair or festival comes from dressing the part. Donning period-appropriate footwear and garments helps attendees immerse themselves in the moment while bringing the past to life. Nothing spoils the illusion faster than modern raincoats. Protect yourself from the elements with Medieval cloaks.

Fabrics

You have three options when it comes to rain gear: Water-resistant, water-repellent and water-proof fabric. Water-resistant fabric offers the least protection while water-proof materials are safe from heavy rain. Water-resistant, hooded cloaks should protect you from fine mist or drizzle; a strong downpour will leave you soaked. Select fabric with a tighter weave so the rain is less likely to penetrate your cloak. Spray your cloak with a fabric-safe water repellent for better protection from rain.

Considerations

Base your fabric choice on when you plan to wear your cloak. Select Medieval cloaks made from wool or velvet for chilly weather. Stick with lighter fabrics, such as cotton, for summer. Wear an unlined, twill traveler’s cloak during changeable spring weather. Match your cloak to your clothing. Wear a luxurious cloak if you’re a lady. Simple cloaks with serviceable fabrics, on the other hand, are more suitable for country maids.

Be aware when you LARP

When we attend a LARP event or a Renaissance Faire, we literally take ourselves out of out daily lives and put ourselves into a world of fantasy, where adventure awaits. For a weekend, the Faire grounds turn into an actual kingdom; the camp site turns into a frontier town just waiting to be explored. It is truly an entertaining experience.

However: No matter how imaginative our minds can be, the faire grounds and camp sites are still locations in the real world, which means that certain dangers may exist. This time of year, one of the biggest dangers are ticks, who can potentially spread the dangerous Lyme disease. Below are some tips you can follow to minimize your chance of coming into contact with a tick.

• Ticks live in humid and wooded areas. If you are walking through brush, tall grass, or near trees you maybe in area where ticks are located. Whenever possible stay in the middle of the path or trail.
• Insect or tick repellent with DEET can help keep the parasites away.
• Wear long sleeved clothing, such as Medieval Shirts, long pants that are tucked into boots, long socks, and some sort of cap if possible.
• After being outdoors, check your body for ticks either in a full length mirror or have a family member check for you: Under the arms, around the ears, inside navel, behind the knees, between legs, around the waist, and in and around hair.
• Always shower shortly after you’ve left the woods, as showering helps reduce the chance of being bitten.

Hopefully with these tips you will remain tick-free while you explore the country side.

What? There's nothing stashed in my boot!

Half the fun of creating a character for a LARP is to try to accomplish feats that you otherwise couldn’t in  your normal life. Heading out to a LARP event and role playing as a gallant warrior, a studious mage, or a skilled artisan can provide a lot of entertainment.

One character type that people would like to play, but find it difficult to pull off, is the rogue. Now when we say rogue, we find that most people automatically think of the type of spy who moves around at night and tries to sneak into places where they don’t belong looking for valuables. Although this can be a fun character to play it isn’t the only type of rogue.

Some of the most successful rogues do not need to operate under the cover of night. In some cases they are the most boisterous people in town. Here are some tips you can follow if you’d like to give this type of rogue a try.

Wear long Medieval Boots: If you are able to gain people’s confidence to the point where you can lift a few coins, you need someplace to hide them that isn’t obvious. A pocket full of coins not only bulges, but makes noise as well. Sliding a few coins down the side of your boot is a quick and easy way to stash your cash.

Never work alone: Most rogues usually operate in pairs or small guilds. It can be difficult to pull off a successful heist by yourself. Work with some friends so that you have a few options when making your plans. Also, it is convenient to have someone who can hide you while you’re under the watchful eye of the law.

We wish you the best of luck if you plan on going this route. We hope you have fun!

Get your costumes ready for this LARP season!

This is the time of year when most Live Action Roleplaying Games, or LARPs, start to have their kick-off events. LARPers start getting their Medieval costumes back together, practicing with their weapon skills, and planning out their character’s path as they progress.

Since it has been a few months since most of us have attended a LARPing event, we wanted to put up a list of a few tips to keep in mind as you are packing for your first event of the year. These tips are handy reminders for veterans, and excellent bits of information for those planning on attending their first event ever.

-Pack extra socks: Whether you step in a puddle, you are sweating a lot, it is very cold, or there is nothing but rain, it is always a good idea to have extra pairs of socks. It will be much more comfortable for you to  put on a nice dry and clean pair of socks.

-Pack extra costuming: For all of the same reasons as the socks. In addition, if you are required to play a NPC (Non-Playable Character) you may need different clothes to make yourself stand out from your usual character.

-Snacks: A LARP weekend can be very physically demanding and you’ll need to refuel and recharge. Protein bars, fruit, and other quick snacks can help keep you going in between meals.

-Plenty of Water: Dehydration is a LARPer’s greatest enemy. Always make sure to bring plenty of water, and to drink water on a regular basis.

-Watch out for weather: Weather can be dangerous on a number of levels. A sudden thunderstorm, intense heat, extreme cold, a lot of rain when you’re situated near a river, are just some potential threats. Always make sure to keep your eyes open and take the proper precautions so that you stay safe.

Get ready for LARP season with renaissance costumes

The end of February is not too far off, which means that Live Action Role Playing (LARP) season will be here before you know it! Many groups like to hold their first events of the year during March. This means that it is time to dig out your Medieval costumes, oil up and polish your Medieval armor, and to start practicing with your boffer or latex weapons.

What is LARPing? LARPing is a type of roleplaying that takes you away from a gaming table and actually places you inside the role of your actual character. When you create a character, you actually come up with their personality, put on a Renaissance costume, and head out to a location, such as a campsite, to act out how your character would respond to the situations that are presented to you.

In most cases, there is a game staff that comes up with the story, villains, and other characters to help immerse you within the world of the game. Then you spend the entire length of the event acting out your character as you come across various scenarios. It is both a unique and entertaining experience.

If you are thinking about attending a LARP and are in need of a costume or armor, make sure to visit our site to see all of the fun options we have available.

"What? Me hungry!" said the barbarian

As you may know, in the past we have had some of our readers submit their funny LARP stories to us so that we can share them with everyone. For newer readers, LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing, and it is a game where you actually become your character and roleplay him or her out in a physical setting. Depending on the organization you are with, there can be combat with safe-for-combat weapons, while other games use other methods. It is a great place to utilize Medieval and Renaissance costuming.

This particular story starts in the town’s Medieval Tavern. Most of the players had gathered for the Saturday afternoon feast and were enjoying merriment and games. Since everyone was going to be in one location, the game directors had organized a valuable piece of information to be released to the players by way of a good old fashion tavern fight.

While everyone was enjoying their meals, the two people who were “staging” the fight were throwing taunts toward each other, gearing up for this elaborately planned affair. The tension was running high as the players were waiting to see what exactly would happen in the following altercation.

Just as one of the participants got up to draw their sword, something unexpected occurred: A player, taking the role of a barbarian, did not wish to have his meal interrupted by petty barroom antics. Before the person initiating the fight could even draw their weapon, this barbarian picked up his club and used a skill that knocks someone out for ten minutes, thus adverting the fight.

Once complete, the barbarian sat back down, looked up, and realized that everyone was looking at him. He simply shrugged his shoulders, that were covered by his Medieval Barbarian wrap, and said, “What? Me hungry!”

Please feel free to share your own funny LARP stories in the comments section!

Baby, it's cold outside

Last time we wrote to you about how if you belong to one of the LARP groups that continues to hold events well into the winter, that there are certain precautions that you need to take. We gave you tips such as how you should bring extra socks to wear under your Renaissance boots, or bring some coffee or tea to drink to stay warm. But since newer LARPers can overlook what is needed to stay warm and safe during the winter, we thought of one more tip we wanted to pass on.

-Space Heaters: Some camps have cabins with electricity. Even though the aspect of most LARPs is to maintain the most authentic feel as possible, nobody will fault you for keeping an electric heater in your cabin. It is an excellent idea to warm up and dry off when it is cold out. However, you must always remember to keep flammable materials a distance away from the heater. The heater should be kept in the middle of the room and things like paper, cloth, leaves, and so forth should be kept away so that a fire doesn’t start. If you want to use the heater to dry out clothing, lay the clothing on the ground or over a chair but keep them far enough away so that they don’t get hot. Consider unplugging the heater when not in use. Also consider not leaving the heater on all night or when you are not in the cabin.

By keeping all of these things in mind while you are at and event, you will be taking steps to prevent fires through improper use of electrical heaters.

Does the weather stop your LARPing?

Now that we are well into November, most Live Action Role Playing or LARP groups have packed away their gear for the last time until the spring arrives. However, there are some groups that trek well into the winter to partake in this fantasy gaming hobby. If you are part of a group that still has events lined up for the year, we wanted to take some time to give you some winter LARPing reminders:

-Wool Cloaks: Renaissance wool cloaks are your best friends for the winter. Not only are they a dashing costume option, but they will help take the chill out of the air.

–Extra Socks: Nothing is worse than cold feet. Take several extra pairs of socks with you in case you step in a puddle, it starts to rain/snow, or you are just moving around a lot. The last thing you want to do is wake up and have to put wet socks back on.

-Coffee/Tea: Packing some sort of hot beverage is an excellent way to warm yourself up. If your camp has a “Tavern,” you can ask the person tending the tavern to heat it up for you then serve it to you in a period-appropriate cup. They also make those self heating drinks now that you can keep with you in your cabin before you go to bed.

–Fire Consciousness: Although a fire will keep you warm, just make sure you follow safe procedures. Keep everything in a fire ring, pit, or place, don’t go to bed leaving a fire unattended, and if you are having a dry winter, make sure that sparks don’t catch your clothing or dry leaves on fire.

Hopefully with these tips you’ll stay warm and dry while LARPing in the winter.

Direct hit! ...Oops.

Every so often we hear from our customers who love to Live Action Role Play, or LARP. LARPing is an activity where you actually become your character and physically go to a camp site to role play out the scenarios your character encounters. You even wear Renaissance costumes to help create the atmosphere of a long ago age. Sometimes people share LARP stories that are a bit on the humorous side with us, and now we want to share them with you.

At one LARP, a small army of vampires wanted to attack the tavern where most of the towns members were. Knowing that they were outnumbered, the vampires tried to thin out the town’s numbers with some basic artillery.

As they emerged from the woods in the dead of night, they started launching waterskins full of acid at the town. This is of course what they were called in game, in actuality they were water balloons. As the attack commenced, the vampires sent forth a wave of zombies to help mop up what the artillery was hitting before the main force of vampires attacked. Unfortunately for the vampires, the launcher wasn’t working properly an a number of the water balloons exploded well before they made it to town. Near the end of their ammo supply, one balloon went flying and scored a direct hit, completely dousing one of the players. However, the vampires later discovered that the only dead-on hit they scored was on one of their own zombies.
At least he was already “dead,” right?

Do you have any stories? Share them with us!

If you are thinking about going to a LARP, you are going to need to develop a character. A LARP is a completely immersive gaming experience where you literally become your character and go to a camp site and to act out what your character would do. It can be a very entertaining experience that gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people.

When developing your character, you will normally have decide upon a character class or a skill path. A common skill path found at LARPs is a Wizard or a Mage. Below is a list of pros and cons that you can consider if you were thinking about playing a Mage, so that you can make an informed decision.

PROS:

-You have access to spells. The further down the path you go, the more powerful these spell can become.

-Spells are essentially a ranged attack, so you don’t have to be right next to the enemy to hit them with the spell.

-You will be highly valuable in specific situations depending upon the type of spells you can cast.

CONS:

-Most LARPs represent a spell being cast by throwing “spell packets.” Spell packets are little squares of fabric that are filled with bird seed, then tied off to form weighted packets. Since you can’t actually make a fireball come out of your wand, you have to throw these packets instead. Throwing these packets in a combat situation makes it difficult to effectively wield your weapons.

-You won’t have a lot of access to skills relating to fighting as they are reserved to fighting classes.

-If you can cast spells designed to protect players, you may be pestered a lot by other characters.

Every class is going to have its ups and downs. So long as you have fun playing the character, you can always work around the cons. If you are in need of a Medieval wizard costume, we’ve got you covered here at Pearson’s.