Welcome

Welcome to Renewal, a live-action roleplaying game (LARP) run by Curious Pastimes Ltd since 1996.

Welcome to the world of Curious Pastimes. We’re a high fantasy Live Roleplaying Game (LRP) set in our own universe with a rich history and a vibrant, living world filled with gods, monsters, magic and mayhem.

Easy to play but with a huge amount of depth, there is almost every type of game you might want to experience from heroic warrior to ambitious politician, arcane mage, alchemist, crafter, priest and just about anything else you can imagine.

For those who love lore and crafting and magic, there are games and secrets and mysteries to uncover and solve but the world and the game are ever dangerous. For those who love battles, death stalks our players and even the most powerful might find themselves dead in a ditch with no one to hear their final (heroic) words.

For us death is a feature, not a bug. We run big battles that arise out of player action as much as they do from the antagonists and enemies the world puts in the way.

But at the heart of our game is roleplay – the chance to be someone else for a while. To experience a world from their point of view and, regardless of what happens, to play out their choices, their challenges, their terror and their triumphs among likeminded friends.

Beyond our love of battles and roleplay as its own joy, the game offers the chance to develop new ideas, areas and abilities – whether it’s learning how to raise the dead, make deals with demons, build magical constructs, perform rituals that can change the world or simply stand in battle no matter what the world throws at you, one you’ve found your feet there is an almost unlimited world to explore and adventures to have.

Each year we welcome new players and veterans back to our persistent world and we hope you’ll come and join us.

What is Live-Action Roleplaying?

Live-action roleplaying (or LARP) is a form of group storytelling, in which players take on the roles of heroes in a fantasy world and act out their stories. In the game, you will interact with other players as well as with a variety of non-player characters – friends, foils and foes – played by members of staff (or other players volunteering a little of their time). Think of it as a huge game of Dungeons & Dragons, where you get to dress up as your character.

Scores of LARP events take place every year across the United Kingdom. Most of them are one-off events (or short campaigns lasting a few events) for just a few dozen players. The handful of fest games, like Renewal, are larger-scale events with hundreds of players. Fest games organise players into distinct factions, competing and collaborating to achieve their goals.

The story runs continuously, with characters persisting from one event to the next (unless they die or retire). Stories unfold over months or years. Characters in the game grow and develop over time, learning new skills and acquiring new powers. More importantly, they earn titles and accolades, form friendships and alliances and accumulate experiences.

LRP or LARP? Some people call it LRP (for live roleplaying), some call it LARP (for live-action roleplaying); some people have extremely strong opinions on the matter, and will give you detailed arguments why one is more self-evidently right than the other. We call it LARP, just because we had to choose one for consistency, but you can call it what you want – we’re more concerned with playing it than arguing about the name!

How Do I Get Started?

• For starters, read about The World of the game and familiarise yourself with the setting.
• Head over to Making Your Character and start planning a character. You may want to plan your character with the friends you’re planning to attend with, or with a faction in mind!
• Then, if you haven’t already, go to Character Creation for the actual nuts and bolts.
• Read about The Factions and decide which one is right for you. All of the factions have social media spaces, at least on Discord and Facebook; pay your new home a visit and get to know them.
• Read The Rules, especially the Combat rules, and brush up on your Calls. It’ll be useful to familiarise yourself with all the rules, eventually, but those sections, plus whatever sections are relevant to your character’s skills, will be enough to get you started.
• Source yourself some costume and LARP Weapons. It can be daunting to get started, but some tips are listed under Sourcing Phys Reps.

And then come along. Don’t worry about learning everything or feeling completely prepared; just have fun and you’ll figure the rest out. Welcome to this strange, silly, wonderful hobby!