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.

There is no one correct fighting 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 at the end of this page.

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 arrange some basic training.

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
• The torso

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

By default, a single blow from a weapon that lands on the target’s body inflicts one hit of damage to that location; damage is inflicted to the target’s armour hits first, then to their physical hits. Some special attacks may inflict more damage per the relevant damage call.

Physical Hits

A character’s physical hits are 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, Greater Body Development and Exceptional Body Development skills grant additional 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 are the number of normal blows their armour can absorb before becoming useless. There are three levels of armour. Wearing armour of any weight 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 Proficiency 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 Greater Body Development and the Heavy Armour skill and wears plate armour, giving her three 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 inflicts two hits.

She now has one physical hit left on her head (having lost two 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.

Example

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 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 Healing 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.

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 by anyone trained to wear the armour, knocking out dents, tugging torn edges over holes and retying broken straps, etc. 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 is reduced to zero physical hits, it is incapacitated. Some effects (such as Beggars Poison) may incapacitate a location without inflicting damage.

A character whose arm is incapacitated must immediately drop anything held in that hand (or place it safely out of the way if items cannot be safely dropped, e.g. a fragile object 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), 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, for example, 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 two hits 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.

An arrow hit will break the concentration of any magician who is casting a spell. The spell is uncast, but the magic points are not lost, as the spell has not been completed. If not incapacitated, the caster may start casting again, but any interruption of this type will take 5 seconds of recovery time before a new spell can be cast.

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.

See LARP Weapons for more information on Bow Safety.

Thrown Weapons

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

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: 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.

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. Most calls take effect on any successful (i.e. not blocked or parried) blow, but poison and disease calls (other than Acid Kiss) only take effect on a blow to an unarmoured location – or a location with no remaining armour hits – while Strength takes effect on any blow, even if blocked or parried! In all cases, a blow that misses altogether has no effect.

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

Some bestial monsters have claws as part of their costume, which function as weapons. Curious Pastimes’ LARP 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.

Examples

• 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 or otherwise acting unsafely, 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. Note that a bite attack can only be administered to a helpless (e.g. grappled or paralysed) target.

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.

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 ineffectually struggling if appropriate, but may not physically resist in any way.

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. 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 and can’t move with the blow), 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, 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. It is never permitted to dismember another player character in this way, unless the player specifically requests it (e.g. making a sacrifice to their god).

Spellcasting in Combat

To cast a spell, the caster must recite vocals of suitable length and including the appropriate components, usually ending in the name of the spell. They must clearly indicate the intended target, by pointing and if necessary by verbal description (e.g. “The person in the red tabard!”). Every spell has a casting cost in magic points; spellcasters must carry some visible way to track their magic.

Spells that are frequently used in combat (tagged as “combat spells” in the spell description) end in a relevant damage call or effect call.

Ranged spells automatically hit the indicated target (i.e. ranged spells cannot be “dodged” or “blocked” except by certain special abilities) and always have the specified effect unless the spell is countered or resisted.

Touch spells require the caster to successfully touch the target at the end of the vocals, or in the 15 seconds after the vocals are completed, to have the specified effect (similar to a touch attack), and can thus be dodged or blocked.

Spells can be countered by other spellcasters, or resisted with skills such as Fearlessness, Iron Body or Iron Will. See Countering, Resistance and Immunity, below.

Striking a caster a blow during the casting of a spell does not automatically disrupt the spell: provided the caster has enough hits to withstand the attack, and can complete the spell’s vocals without interruption, the spell is still executed. The exception is hits from bows and crossbows.

A caster may choose to stop casting a spell in the middle of vocals for any reason (e.g. to counter a spell from an enemy caster). The caster need not pay any magic points for the discarded spell.

Countering, Resistance and Immunity

There are three main defences against spells and effects: countering, resistance, and immunity.

Countering

Spellcasters can counter spells and magical effects with the spells Countermagic, Greater Countermagic and Nullify. It is not possible to counter mundane effects.

The caster must perform the vocals before or immediately after the target spell or effect call is completed, clearly indicating which spell is being countered. It is not possible to counter two simultaneous spells. If successful, the target spell does not occur at all, although the opposing caster’s magic points, if any, are still spent.

In the case of mass spells, the spell is countered only for one target; other targets are still affected.

A caster can counter a spell or effect that would have rendered them unable to cast if not countered (e.g. by silencing or mortally wounding them), since if successful the effect does not occur.

Resistance

Various skills allow the character to resist spells, effects, poisons and diseases, including Fearlessness, Iron Body, Iron Will, Resist Disease, Resist Poison, Resist Magic and Resist Exalted Magic, or more specific abilities like Sturdy Shield.

Note: The skills Resist Magic and Resist Exalted Magic do not defend against mundane effects.

The character is automatically aware of the effect (although not necessarily the source) and may choose whether or not to resist it. They may not resist two simultaneous effects. They must invoke their resistance before or immediately after the attacking spell or effect call is completed and record their use of the ability (all such abilities have a certain number of uses per day). If successful, the spell or effect is still executed, but the character is unaffected.

As above, a character can resist an ability that would otherwise render them unconscious.

Immunity

Some skills temporarily or permanently grant the character total immunity to one specific spell, effect, poison or disease (e.g. the spell and effect Fumble, or the poison Bitter Kiss). Some supernatural monsters may have broader immunities (e.g. constructs have no spirits and thus cannot be affected by mind effects of any sort other than Possession). The exalted spell Reflective Shield grants a special form of immunity, returning effects to their sources.

A character with immunity is simply unaffected by the named effect, calling No Effect. They cannot choose whether or not to be affected, and their immunity extends to any number of simultaneous effects.

Dangerous Play

All participants in any combat at any Curious Pastimes event must endeavour to fight safely, maintaining awareness of their environment and following the directions of all Referees and the Event team.

Any player or staff member found behaving unsafely in combat will be pulled out of combat; any weapon or prop being misused may be confiscated until after the combat has finished. In extreme cases, the offender may be sent off the field or even barred from future events.

Below is a list of examples of dangerous play. Note that this is not an exhaustive list! All participants should exercise common sense – if unsure whether an action is safe or appropriate, don’t do it.

• Colliding with or leaping at shield users. Line charges are permitted, but attackers must pull up short of collision.
• Striking or parrying with anything other than a foam weapon. Bows and crossbows especially must be used exclusively for ranged attacks.
• Any form of physical combat. Kicking, punching and martial arts are expressly forbidden. Friendly grappling (p. 00) may be permitted in a controlled environment, but never in a skirmish or battle.
• Thrusting with any non-stab-safe weapon. Thrusting attacks may only be made with properly checked stab-safe weapons with prominently displayed ribbons.
• Persistently striking other combatants on the head. The head is a legitimate target, and Curious Pastimes recognises that sometimes it’s the only target, but persistently and unnecessarily targeting the head is unsafe.
• Engaging in combat while intoxicated. This includes the use of alcohol or any narcotic substances. Intoxicated players and staff members may be asked not to get involved in combat until sober.
• Arguing with staff during combat. Staff direction should be followed immediately and without question. Staff are there to ensure the safety and smooth running of combat and will likely have information you do not. It is fine to ask for context after the battle has finished, but in the moment, please do as asked.

Thankfully dangerous play is a rare occurrence at Curious Pastimes events, and is more often the result of genuine ignorance or inexperience than malice. We ask that all customers are aware of how they conduct themselves events, for everybody’s safety and enjoyment.