Combat

Combat

Renewal is a light contact game, in which participants fight with specially-made weapons, following strict rules to minimise the risk of harm.

Every character can automatically fight with a single small or one-handed weapon. Fighting with other weapons or a shield, or using a bow, a crossbow or thrown weapon, requires the relevant character skill.

Fighting is a “hard” skill: to inflict damage, the attacker must physically land a blow on their target’s body, and to prevent injury, the defender must physically parry or dodge the attack. There is no one correct technique, although participants are expected to fight theatrically. Over-rapid “drum-rolling” in particular is not permitted; a good guideline is to launch one attack per second or so with a melee weapon (or every five seconds with a touch attack).

Participants must fight safely, including pulling their blows before connecting, so that the weapon lands with a light but perceptible tap; thrusting attacks are strictly forbidden except with approved “stab-safe” weapons. A list of behaviours considered dangerous is provided.

Players who are new to LARP or unsure how to fight safely, as well as attending the new player briefing at their first event, can ask a referee to provide or arrange some basic training.

LARP Weapons

Combat in the Renewal campaign uses special foam and latex melee weapons and low-power bows and crossbows, collectively known as “LRP weapons.” These weapons must be constructed to strict guidelines, which are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in the industry. Guidelines are available on request from Curious Pastimes, either in person at the Game Organisation Desk or by email.

Suitable weapons are available to buy from traders on site at every Curious Pastimes event. They are also widely available online, although players are advised to visit one of Curious Pastimes’ social media spaces to be directed to known and trusted vendors.

LARP weapons degrade with use and over time, eventually becoming unsafe. To maximise their lifespan, weapons should be cleaned and protected after every event and stored flat in a cool, dry place.

Special Weapons

Specific safety rules apply to the following weapons:

Bows and Crossbows: Every bow or crossbow must be tested for draw weight and issued a poundage card, which must be affixed to the weapon at all times.

Flails and Exotic Weapons: Any flail or other non-standard LARP weapon must be examined and approved by the head weapons checker before it may be used at any Curious Pastimes event – even if identical to another weapon that has previously been approved.

Stab-Safe Weapons: Any stab-safe spear or polearm must be weapons checked and issued with a white ribbon by a referee, which must be affixed near the head at all times.

Thrown Weapons: Special rules apply to the construction of thrown weapons; weapons suitable for melee combat are never suitable for throwing, and vice versa.

Forbidden Weapons

The following weapons are not permitted:

Cold Climate Weapons: Weapons made for the Northern European market are typically made of lower-density foam, for outdoor use in a colder climate. These weapons are unsafe for use in the warmer British summer.

Comedy Weapons: Even if constructed to the required standards, unrealistic weapons such as rubber chickens, fish or wedges of cheese should never be used in combat. This restriction doesn’t apply to unlikely but plausible weapons such as LARP-safe frying pans or broken bottles.

Guns and Black Powder Weapons: Black powder doesn’t – and will not ever – exist in the world of the Renewal campaign.

Stab-Safe Swords: Regardless of construction, no swords – nor any weapon not properly weapons checked and tagged with a ribbon – may be used for thrusting attacks.

Weapons Checking

Every weapon must be examined by an authorised weapons checker every event before it may be used in combat, and again immediately before every skirmish or battle. Staff members will coordinate a general check of all weapons in every camp at the relevant times. Weapons cannot be approved outside events, based on a photograph or description, but must be checked in person.

If a weapon is found unsafe, it will be returned to its wielder with a red tag affixed to it, with an explanation of why it has failed. The weapon must then be put safely out of reach (ideally out of the play area entirely) and may not be used in combat until it has been corrected and re-checked. Any decision may be appealed to a weapons checking lead; ultimately, the head weapons checker has final authority over all matters of weapon safety.

Note that weapons may become damaged, or degrade to the point of becoming unsafe, during the course of the event. It is the wielder’s responsibility to get their weapon re-checked if unsure, or simply take it out of play immediately, even if it has previously been passed at the same event.

Hit Locations

For combat purposes, the body is divided into six locations:

• each of the arms up to the shoulders,
• each of the legs up to the hips,
• the head including the neck, and
• the torso.

Damage to each location is tracked separately, and persists from one encounter to the next, unless healed or repaired.

Physical Hits

A character’s physical hits is the number of normal blows required to incapacitate a given unarmoured location. By default, every character has one physical hit per location; the Body Development and Greater Body Development skills each grant one more physical hit per location, while Exceptional Body Development adds an additional two hits, as follows:

Level of Body Development	Physical Hits per Location
None	1
Body Development	2
Greater Body Development	3
Exceptional Body Development	5

Various enchantments, potions and other enhancements can add further hits.

Damage Immunity

Some rare monsters are magically protected – or even physically intangible – and cannot be hurt at all by mundane weapons. Such creatures can always be hurt by some means, usually magical damage or weapons made of particular metals.

More monsters have partial immunity; it’s much easier to kill them with the right source of damage, but enough mundane damage will eventually wear them down. Participants playing such monsters will be briefed on how to track damage.

Armour Hits

A character’s armour hits is the number of normal blows their armour can absorb before becoming useless. There are three levels of armour. Every character can automatically wear light armour; wearing heavier armour requires the relevant skill.

Level of Armour	Armour Hits per Location
None	0
Light Armour	1
Medium Armour	2
Heavy Armour	4

The skill Armour Mastery increases this protection, as do various potions, enchantments and special crafting techniques. “Stacking” armour (e.g. wearing a chain shirt over a leather jerkin) doesn’t grant any extra protection – only the heaviest visible layer applies.

Example: Renna the Relentless has Body Development and the Heavy Armour skill and wears plate armour, giving her two physical hits and four armour hits. In the first wave of a battle, she sustains one axe blow to the head, damaging her helmet, and is shot in the head with an arrow, which bypasses her helmet and damages her.

She now has one physical left on her head (having lost one to the arrow), and three armour hits on her helmet (having lost one to an axe blow).

Representing Armour

Players must wear a physical representation (or phys rep) of their armour on each location in order to receive protection. Armour must be clearly intended for the purpose – there is no minimum coverage, but it must be obvious to a casual observer that the location is armoured. Protection applies to whole locations, i.e. the whole of any visibly-armoured location is protected, while the whole of any location not obviously armoured is unprotected.

Examples: A breastplate protects the whole torso, including the back, as it is obviously intended as armour, while leather trousers do not protect the legs at all as they may be intended merely as clothing)

Armour should be of safe, suitable construction, with no sharp edges or protrusions. Helmets must be worn with adequate padding to ensure a secure, comfortable fit, and must not impair the wearer’s hearing or vision – a player whose helmet prevents them from hearing calls or referee instructions may be asked to remove it.

Damage Calls and Armour

Note: Some attacks – including arrows and crossbow bolts, most offensive spells and various damage calls – either bypass armour, or do additional damage, or both.

In turn, enchanted or specially crafted armour or certain skills may negate or modify these calls (e.g. when under the spell Magic Armour, arrows, mundane Through and Smite attacks and the spell Elemental Bolt all damage one’s armour rather than bypassing it). Refer to the spell, skill or item description for relevant effects.

Healing and Armour Repair

Lost physical hits can be healed by the corporeal spells Lesser and Greater Healing and Total Heal, and by various potions and special abilities that mimic their effects. A character with the Surgeon skill can restore an incapacitated location to one physical hit in thirty seconds, consuming one bandage.

Note: In many cases, injury from diseases, poisons and curses cannot be healed until the affliction is removed, although some forms of healing overcome this requirement.

Lost armour hits can be repaired in the field, knocking out dents, tugging torn edges over holes and retying broken straps, etc.; this requires training in wearing the armour one is repairing (p. 00). A character can repair another character’s armour while worn, but must remove their own armour to repair it. Repair takes about two minutes’ suitable roleplay and restores a whole suit of armour to full effectiveness.

A character with the Blacksmith skill can repair the armour on one location to full hits in fifteen seconds, consuming one Armour Staple, or a full suit of armour in thirty seconds, consuming three armour staples. The elemental spell Mend restores the armour on one location to full hits instantly, and the spell Repair restores a whole suit.

Incapacitation and Death

If any location (see above) is reduced to zero physical hits, it is incapacitated. Some effects (such as Beggar’s Poison) may incapacitate a location without inflicting damage.

A character whose arm is incapacitated must immediately drop anything held in that hand (or placed safely out of the way if they cannot be safely dropped, e.g. in a battle), and must allow the arm to hang limply at their side, not using it for any purpose, until healed. If their leg is incapacitated, they must immediately fall to that knee. They may not hop, but may crawl, or hobble slowly with another person’s support. If both legs succumb, they must fall to the floor, and are reduced to dragging themselves along the ground or being carried.

If their head or torso is incapacitated, they are mortally wounded and dying. They fall unconscious, immediately collapsing to the floor, and must start a silent two-minute death count. After two minutes, unless they are being kept alive by some means (such as the corporeal spell Sanctuary or the equivalent use of the Surgeon skill) or their mortal wound has begun receiving some form of healing, the character dies. A referee may mark the player’s character card on their character’s death, particularly during battles or skirmishes, but this isn’t necessary.

The player may represent their own corpse for a short while, so that their friends can react to their death (unless instructed otherwise by a referee, e.g. after an assassination, p. 00), but should withdraw and go out of character as soon as practical. At that time all items and in character money on their person should be handed to a referee or taken to the Game Organisation Desk.

Multiple Mortal Wounds

If a character has mortal wounds to both the head and torso, their death count continues until both locations have begun being healed. This generally doesn’t concern greater spellcasters or more skilled surgeons, who can heal all locations simultaneously, but less skilled healers may have to choose between healing one location or keeping the patient alive per Sanctuary, if time is pressing. It is entirely possible for a character to e.g. die of a chest wound even as a healer tends to their split skull.

Specific Combat Rules

Specific rules apply to attacks with certain weapons or special abilities, or actions other than standard attacks such as grappling an enemy, or finishing off a fallen foe.

Bows and Crossbows

A successful blow from an arrow or bolt inflicts one hit of damage that bypasses ordinary armour. This applies to any arrow or bolt, i.e. the archer need not give – and cannot use – any attack calls.

Every bow or crossbow must have a poundage card affixed to it at all times. Other rules apply to archery, including safe bow use and good conduct, which are available through bow safety training (below).

Bow Safety Licences

Anybody wishing to use a bow or crossbow of any description must possess a bow safety licence, which they must carry on their person and present on demand. Licences are awarded after a bow safety test, which takes the form of a short training session and a demonstration of safe bow use. Sessions take place at every Curious Pastimes event; players may enquire at the Game Organisation Desk for times and locations. Licences last for a maximum of three years.

Any member of staff can assign an archer one or two strikes for unsafe bow use, which they will record on the back of their licence and report to the bow safety team. An archer with two strikes may no longer use a bow or crossbow of any description until they have attended a new bow safety test. In extreme cases, an archer may be banned from using bows and crossbows altogether.

Thrown Weapons

A successful blow from a thrown weapon inflicts one hit of damage. Unlike arrows and crossbow bolts, armour protects against thrown weapons normally.

Thrown weapons may use attack calls, but only with special abilities or weapons that explicitly say so.

Stab-Safe Weapons

Specially-constructed stab-safe weapons with collapsing heads may be used to make thrusting attacks in combat, provided they have been checked and issued a white ribbon. It is the wielder’s responsibility to ensure that their weapon has been checked; they may not assume a weapon with a ribbon is safe to use. Standard rules for skill and handedness apply, and stab-safe weapons may also be used for swinging attacks or to parry attacks as normal.

Thrusts should be pulled, as with any other attack, and the wielder must keep control of the weapon; neither hand should slide along the shaft, and deliberate “pool-cueing” especially is forbidden. The head is a legitimate location to hit, but the wielder must avoid stabbing targets in the face if possible. If in doubt, do not make the attack.

Special rules apply to wielding a long weapon with a shield.

Spear and Shield

A character with the Shield skill may wield a stab-safe weapon of between 42”/102cm and 72”/180cm length one-handed, holding the weapon roughly halfway along its length, with a shield in the other hand.

When fighting with a weapon over 42”/105cm long held this way, the wielder may only make thrusting attacks, and may not use it to parry.

Siege Weapons

Siege weapons have special requirements to use, including minimum crews and the skills Siege Weapons and Siege Engineer, detailed on a card attached to the weapon. In some cases, interested players will be asked to attend a short training session ahead of a battle before they may crew the weapons; this will be communicated to faction camps beforehand. Siege weapons inflict significantly more damage than regular attacks, and may have other effects. A referee will always be on hand to give damage calls and otherwise convey effects.

Monster Attacks

Most monsters are armed with weapons as above in the same way as player characters, but a few make attacks in other ways, including with claws, magically-charged touch attacks or other ways.

It’s possible for player characters to acquire some of these attacks in play, including through special research or training, ritual enchantment and other means.

Claws

Bestial monsters such as werewolves, joinings or hellhounds have claws as part of their costume, which function as weapons. Curious Pastimes’ LRP weapon construction guidelines include guidelines for claws.

Claws are part of the creature’s body, and are unaffected by the spells Shatter, Fumble, Magnetise and Heat Object, unless otherwise specified. The striking part of the prop can parry attacks as a weapon, takes no damage from weapon blows and is unaffected by poisons etc., but any blow to the rest of the prop (i.e. where it straps to the forearm) counts in all respects as an attack to the limb.

Touch Attacks

Some magically powerful creatures can inflict harm with a mere touch. Such attacks will always be accompanied by a call. Note that as with other types of attack, any effect call (other than poison or disease) affects the target regardless of armour. Unless accompanied by a damage call, touch attacks inflict no damage.

Example: A fire elemental touches for Elemental Through, inflicting a single point of damage (as the touch is accompanied by the damage call Through) that ignores armour. A lesser ghoul touches for Paralysis, which does no damage (as there is no damage call).

Touch attacks should be exaggerated and deliberate, and much slower than weapon blows; a good guideline is to launch one touch attack every five seconds or so. Touch attacks should make brief contact, keeping conscious of safety and personal comfort. Participants found slapping, poking or clutching their targets may have the privilege of using the attack withdrawn.

Non-Standard Attacks

A small number of monsters are briefed with unusual attacks, such as a vampire’s bite or a water elemental’s drowning power. To make such an attack, the monster places a hand on (or over) the target hit location and mimes the attack, describing what they are doing and stating any relevant effect.

A referee will usually be on hand to clarify the effect and answer any questions. If not instructed otherwise, assume any such attack inflicts one hit of damage, per a normal weapon blow.

Attack Calls

Exceptional attacks – e.g. by very strong, highly trained or supernatural combatants, with specially crafted or enchanted weapons, or by weapons carrying blade venoms or infections – may be accompanied by some combination of calls.

Different calls take effect on any successful (i.e. not blocked or parried) blow, on any blow to an unarmoured location (or a location with no remaining armour hits), or any blow, even if blocked or parried! In all cases, a blow that misses altogether has no effect.

Grappling

In most circumstances, real-life grappling, wrestling or manhandling is strictly forbidden at Curious Pastimes events.

To simulate grappling, three characters must place their hands on (or over) a target character’s arms or shoulders and declare that they are grappling them. A grappled character must willingly accompany their grapplers where taken, even if asleep or mortally wounded. A conscious character may roleplay struggling if appropriate, but may not physically resist in any way.

Note: Special grappling rules apply to characters with the damage call Strength.

Friendly Grappling

Curious Pastimes understands that some players feel that a degree of contact enhances their immersion. As such, provided all participants give their explicit, mutual consent and no-one else is close enough to be impacted, players may engage in safe, restrained physical grappling.

Note that physical grappling is never permitted in any battle or skirmish, even between consenting participants.

Execution

Rather than waiting for them to expire, a character may dispatch a dying foe with one dramatic, simulated blow to their head or chest (taking particular care given their opponent is already on the ground), coupled with the call Execute. The target, provided they are already mortally wounded and not under the effects of the Sanctuary spell, is immediately killed with no death count.

If the target is not mortally wounded – e.g. grappled, playing possum, unconscious, paralysed or similarly afflicted – they take a single hit as normal but are otherwise unaffected (a staged scene in which e.g. a convicted criminal is beheaded before a baying crowd may ignore this rule, with the victim’s permission). Creatures with damage immunity are unaffected unless the Execute call is coupled with the appropriate damage type.

Note: Execution must be by a standard (simulated) blow; “throat-cutting” is strictly forbidden.

Dismembering Live Victims

It is possible to sever one of a living monster’s or non-player character’s extremities, or cut out an organ, with suitable roleplay (see Bloodletting and Butchering), provided they are helpless or unresisting. This reduces the location to zero physical hits; the damage may be healed normally, but the dismembered part remains lost until surgically transplanted or restored with the spell Regrowth or equivalent. Note that removing the heart or head instantly kills the subject, regardless of Sanctuary or equivalent effects.

A player must never dismember another player character in this way, unless the player specifically requests it (e.g. making a sacrifice to their god).