FinalHavenLarp.com

Although PCing lets him learn his PC better, NPCing lets him learn LARPing better. If he had LARPed before and was just changing games, I would say PC and learn the system. But this is his first LARP and in my experience its like falling down the rabbit hole to PC...on your own for the first time ever, unless you have seen the framework first, in action.

good point it is going to be the one day though so everyone will be in the same room.

WHAT?!?! we have to be in the same room as NPCs? Unacceptable!

So WyrmWrath, when you rewrote that Character sheet, can I print that off and that will be my Character Sheet? Should I laminate it?

I'm going to reccomend PCing as well. Mainly due to the fact that it helps to play the game before you try and help run it. It will also be more fun.

Since this is getting off topic it might need to be moved.... *pokes the GMs*

So WyrmWrath, when you rewrote that Character sheet, can I print that off and that will be my Character Sheet? Should I laminate it?

I dont think laminating is needed, since the next event you attend you will need a new sheet anyhow. What I posted inst a PC sheet, but since we will be picking you up for the event I will make sure I have blanks to help you fill one out.

I'm going to reccomend PCing as well. Mainly due to the fact that it helps to play the game before you try and help run it. It will also be more fun.

For the first LARP event a player attends, I cannot agree that PCing over NPCing is automaticly more fun. I have seen first time LARP players get very frustrated and dissapointed because they had no frame of referrence when PCing, since they had never seen a LARP in action. Some can do it, some cant. Hence the safe bet is to suggest NPCing.
I wasnt reccomend he try helping run anything, simply volunteer to NPC and play the bad guys, so that he gets a glimps of how a LARP works.
Somewhere along the evolution of FH/WH the terms NPC and GM got blurred I think, since others have used them in ways around me that make it aparent they thought they were intechangable.
DM/GM is a label for the event orginizers and moderators, NPC is a lackey/volunteer. Some players that NPC have the chops to perorm DM/GM duties, but that isnt the same thing.

I think that I am going to try out PC'ing. I have been reading the rules over and through, and as I will be low level and maybe a nuesence, I understand the rules. GM Chris said that NPC'ing was tireing and I wouldnt want my first event to be one that I did not enjoy.

I am kind of confused about the skills/Discipline skills. I dont know when you can get them, what you buy them with, etc.

Well, at Level "0", which you will start your first event at, you will automatically get these:

1: An "Essence" Boon. There are several to choose from, starting on page 17 at the bottom. Any race can have any boon.

2. Basic Path (4 basic skills) for the path you choose for your character. 4 of the skills for each level of any Path are listed in the main rulebook, and several more are listed in the expansion book. You can use any combination, as long as you only have 4 total and they're all from the same path.

(There is a Path in the expansion called "Jack of all Trades", which allows you to buy a mix of skills from all the other paths, and each level, (basic, advanced, master) lists where the 4 skills can come from. As a new character, it would still be 4 basis skills, just they can be from all over.)

But to be simple I'll use a Warrior:

Warrior Basic Path (any 4 of the following)
-Determination
-Vigor
-Combat reflexes
-Hold Ground
-Use Bow
-Last Stand (Have to also have Hold Ground to have this skill)
-Use Shield

3: Choose a Discipline that you like, as long as you have the lifestyle that is allowed to buy it.
-You get the first level of that Disc. for free (each one has 4 levels).


After your first event, you get '4' levels, equaling 170 total character points (page 56, main rulebook, just after all the disciplines)

With those points, you can buy three forms of skills:

1: more skills for you character's chosen path . You can do 1 of two things:

- Either buy them by the level (basic, advanced, master) in that order. You get them as a chunk of 4 skills at a time (4 advanced skills at 60 points, 4 master skills are 90 points, so 150 points to get both levels). Choose 'em all in kind, just like you would the 4 basic path skills. You have to have the advanced "chunk" to get the master "chunk". Several skills for each path's level are in the expansion book.

-Or, if you already have 4 skills of a certain path level, you can buy more skills of that level. They are 20, 40, and 60 points for basic, advanced, and master skills. So to get a 5th basic path skill on top of your starting event's 4, you pay 20 points. As long as you have 4 skills of any of the three levels, you can buy more skills for that level.

2: Skills from a path you didn't choose as your starting one. So, if you are a warrior, you can buy some Rogue skills. There is one restriction: You can only buy the ones in the main rulebook, and you have to buy them in the order they appear, from Basic all the way up to Master. So to get 'Basic Critical strike' from Rogue, you have to first buy "Spot" from rogue.

3: More Discipline skills:

-You can either buy more of the skills in the discipline you started with, or you can start an entirely new discipline. The points go up with every level, and also with each new discipline. The best way to see this is to take a look at the character sheet at the back of the main rulebook. You have to buy them for each chosen discipline in numerical order, so 1, 2, 3, 4.

There are also several Disciplines in the expansion book you'll see that are labeled as one of the races of the game (ex. "Guthrie"). You can only choose to buy skills from these if you are playing that race. There isn't a basic human one.

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That's it!

The usual beginner way to buy skills after the first event is to either get the advanced and master skills for your main path, and a second Discipline skill for your 1st discipline, or alternatively, get the 4 advanced skills for you main path and the next three discipline skills, and you have 20 points left over to buy another basic path (or the first level of a 2nd discipline) with.

That way you either get the cool Master Skills for your path, or the 4th level of your First discipline, which are almost always the best ones, too.

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There are other skills that you get for free at higher character levels, but not until level 20 at the least, so it's not something to worry about right now as a new player.

Oh man, That helped me so much, Thanks! Can you shoot me a message of things I need to bring to Final Haven events? Kind of nervous, I feel like I will be a major noob, Heh.

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Also, do I need to bring my character sheet to each event? What does Check-In and Check-Out date mean?

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What are Support Points, Guild Membership, House Membership, and Hero Points? Thanks! Got this character sheet from the FH rulebook at the bottom.

-If you've ever been camping, that's the basic stuff you need, plus in-game stuff. So: any kind of clothing and costuming stuff that you need to wear as your character, your weapon(s) and packets (if you take a build that will even use them) all of the food you think you'll need to eat, plenty to drink. A sleeping bag or blankets and a pillow. After your first game, make sure to remember money to pay to play.

-Yes, you need a character sheet on you at all times while playing. They probably won't have any at the Winter-one day, but most of the time GM camp has blanks to fill out if you need one. But if you can print one out, do it to make sure you have one.

-Check in and out just means the times where we do some before-game bookkeeping. You sign a sign-in sheet to show the game who's at the camp, and once you've been playing a while, some characters get in-game coins and tags that represent resources before the game officially starts.

-The stuff like Support points, house membership and such are just old info that doesn't matter to the game any more, especially to a new player/character. Hero Points can be rewards given once in a great while for being cool in-game, and you get them from hitting some of the higher character levels. They are just one-time buffs that let you be a little bit cooler during a scene, for instance they give you +4 Life Points, or let you swing +1 damage (so usually "2" instead of "1"). Not a huge deal to worry about.

you will be a noob..its cool. It is only over night, but honestly you will probably not sleep much so a change of cloths is optional.

What he said. Especially for the one-day.