Introduction

The Fallen Empires is a Live Action Roleplaying community that is currently in its second campaign named “Nexus.” Fallen Empires or FE is a "Boffer" LARP that has been operating for over 10 years, during that time through the countless hours of work and tireless dedication of both staff and the players we have built a strong supportive and inclusive community that successfully survived the Covid-19 Pandemic through a temporary rework that allowed a shift to online games during the pandemic with a return to live games towards the end of 2021.

Our goal is to provide a fun and safe story centric game environment for players and staff alike. Currently there is roughly 75 years of LARPing experience present on staff. In an attempt to utilize that wealth of knowledge and experience, our plot team is set up slightly different than LARPs I have seen in the past, in that there is not a set person in charge of world story; rather world story progression and development will be based on a group conversation with the entirety of the full-time plot team.

For New Players

First things first: Don't get intimidated by the rules. There are a lot of them, they reference each other, and it's easy to get caught up in the interactions and definitions. It's not as thick as it looks, and most people learn the rules well enough to play in the first couple of events. Some of those things make a lot more sense when you can see first-hand how they're deployed, how they're countered, and how they're modified. You also don't have to know all of these rules to get through your day. You'll want to be familiar with the skills your characters and loosely familiar with the more common effects that character may experience.

Socializing

LARPs, at their core, are social games. That's why they're still here in a world full of tabletops and MMORPGs. Any LARP is more fun if you have people with whom to play. If you've got a group coming out with you, that's probably the optimal experience. If you don't, that's okay too - one of the most successful groups ever in LARPing were a bunch of people that didn't know each other when they started - and it's easier to meet people during events than you might fear. We've taken pains to cultivate a playerbase that isn't prone to discrimination on any out-of-game grounds; no one will come for you about race, religion, sexual orientation, or any of the dozen things I'm not thinking of. We have zero sense of humor for this. I don't pretend that we have a legion of saints as a player base. It's a fairly large group of people and personality clashes are inevitable. Some people are just naturally jerks or standoffish but no one (to date) has been accused of getting aggressive with new players or harassing them. Once you're in the game and playing, you might get some in-game sass from people, but please know there are at least a dozen highly-skilled veterans that show up to every game hoping they get to punish someone for this. If you're facing harassment, it's overwhelmingly for one crime: Pretending to skill you do not have. If you strut like Bruce Lee and tell people you're the deadliest warrior that ever lived, someone's going to put that to the test. Taking yourself Very Very Seriously isn't great. Insisting that everyone else take you Very Very Seriously is going to get that superiority challenged and I have never seen this work out well for the VIP.

I put this up at the top because it is more often than not the difference between a game you can enjoy and a game where you end up bored and feeling overlooked or ignored. It's also the easiest thing to overlook. There are a lot of rules, there's way more game lore (it's not published for obvious reasons but it's there and I know because I stay up nights writing and expanding just my bit of it), and they don't cover socializing. They can't. Staff can't and shouldn't be in the business of telling player who they have to associate with or why they should associate with anyone. We can and do encourage it where we see opportunities. We can't legislate it.

Character

Your character is probably the most important bit of your game. Certainly at the beginning, when it's the only connection you really have to the game yet. Play what you think you'll enjoy. Don't worry about pure mathematical superiority. The classes are by design all at least reasonably effective at their roles. If you like throwing stuff at people (I love throwing stuff at people) Mage and Ranger are here for you. If you liked dueling with wrapping paper rolls every Christmas, Champion, Warrior, and Trooper are here for you. If you like sneaking around, Rogue is here for you. The major consideration is whether or not you want to be in melee or at a distance. If you're a high-energy type, you'll be bored out of your skull with a Mage. If you're not, you'll be exhausted playing a Warrior or a Rogue. Pick something that sounds fun and give it a shot. We'll allow rewrites for three games, if something turns out to be less fun than you thought or someone sold you on some other class.

Don't get too wrapped around the axle of skill points and character builds. Take skills you like that you think you'll have fun with. If you like tightly optimized characters, there are a number of players that take a sort of sadistic delight in squeezing every single ounce of utility out of every single skill point. Most of those people are happy to help streamline your character sheet as tightly as it can go for whatever purpose you want. Not every player you talk to is a vicious numbermancer, but every person you talk to you can point out or introduce one.

There's also another bit of making a character, one that's frequently and easily overlooked. Your Class tells you what your character can do. It doesn't tell you who they are. That kind of insight and depth go a long way towards making the game more fun, too. There are always stories going on (that's why we're here) and if we know who your character is, what they want, what they hate, it's easier for us to find spaces they'll fit neatly into and you'll enjoy. Out of the gate, you probably won't have enough game lore to get into the details of where they're from in specific, but the usual tropes are all here and your Background can suggest some possibilities. It doesn't have to be really deep or detailed. Some of us can do an awful lot with very little. One of my favorite stories started with a Paladin and a little yellow bee on her armor.

Packing

If you're coming out for a weekend event, you'll want to bring some stuff with you. You will forget something. It's as inevitable as sunrise. My first LARP event was in September of 1995 and I have never once arrived at site with everything I intended to bring. The mission critical things, though, I can usually manage. Things like (in no particular order):

• Costuming, whether it's my tunic and some pants stuffed into a backpack or an Aladdin-style parade of porters lugging your wardrobe
• Boots. Footwear is crucial. You'll be on your feet a lot and you want boots that can handle it. Good fantasy-styled boots can cost a fortune, but you can get good tactical boots at reasonable prices.
• Water. We make every effort to have a bottomless well of water available at every event. You'll still want a bottle on you. It is very, very easy to dehydrate under the Southern sun and no one wants that.
• A pillow. Campsites are equipped with rudimentary sleeping cots. They're not (usually) awful but they're not (ever) amazing. Taste in bedding varies from person to person but everyone likes a pillow and they're easy to forget.
• Gear. If you're a fighter, you'll want your weapons, armor, and/or shield. If you're a caster, you'll want spell packets. I am here to tell you life is miserable as a caster with no packets.
• Deodorant. I don't really have a sense of smell but please think of the poor people that do. It gets real sweaty real fast fighting under the sun.