Getting Started

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

What is Live-Action 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. 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 (barring death or retirement). 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 and the Combat rules, and brush up on your Calls. 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 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!