Getting Started

WELCOME TO RENEWAL

Renewal is a live-action roleplaying game run by Curious Pastimes Ltd. It is a long-running fest campaign, staging four major events every summer since 1996 and supporting about a dozen smaller events a year through the autumn and spring.

What is Live Roleplaying?

Live-action roleplaying (or LARP) is a form of collaborative storytelling, in which players take on the roles of heroes in a fantasy world and act out their stories. These player characters quest, scheme and strive, interacting with each other 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 LRP events take place every year across the United Kingdom, most of them 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 organised into distinct factions, competing and collaborating to achieve their goals.

The story runs continuously, with characters persisting from one event to the next (barring death or retirement) and stories unfolding over months or years. Characters in the game grow and develop over time, learning new skills and acquiring new powers, as well as forming friendships and alliances, accumulating experiences and earning titles and accolades.

LRP or LARP?

Some people call it LRP (for live roleplaying), some call it LARP or 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 [world] of the game and familiarise yourself with the setting, the factions in the game, and some of the creatures you’ll meet on the way.

Head over to Character Creation (link to be added) and start planning a character. You may have a group of friends you’re planning to attend with, or at least have a faction in mind to play in, which could inform the type of character you create. All of the factions have social media spaces, at least on Discord and Facebook; pay your prospective new home a visit and get to know them.

Read the Rules of Play (link to be added) and the Combat rules (link to be added) and brush up on Calls (link to be added). It’ll be useful to familiarise yourself with all the rules, eventually, but those three sections, plus whatever sections are relevant to your character’s skills, will be enough to get you started.

Source yourself some costume (link to be added) and weapons (link to be added). It can be daunting to get started putting your kit together, but some tips are listed in these sections, and you may be able to borrow or scrounge stuff to start with.

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!