Saving the world on a Sunday afternoon
BathLARP run four types of games throughout the year.
Our normal games run for an afternoon (or occasionally an evening) and consist of a series of encounters – combat, puzzle, roleplaying or a mix of the three. They can be ‘linear’, meaning that the encounters are set up like beads on a string for players to do in order, or ‘sandbox’, meaning the encounters are set up and the players have to go find them, or bits of both. Our regular Sunday games are run on the NT land behind the University of Bath.
These are no-combat events focussed purely on roleplay. Normally only one Character Point is earned for showing up as it’s low risk, but there can still be Plot and shenanigans galore. It’s normally a good opportunity for characters to get to know one another better with lower risk of death than on a normal game.
36hrs start on Friday evening and finish around Sunday lunchtime with breaks for sleeping and (often) food, but otherwise are very similar format to normal games. The low-level 36hr finishes off the low-level campaign, the high-level 36hr can be a standalone or part of a plotarc (a series of games that make up a single story). How much of the weekend is In-Character depends on the GM; sleeping is generally Out Of Character, but mealtimes can vary.
The 24hr starts on Saturday lunchtime and finishes around Sunday lunchtime. It’s also normally a residential like the 36hrs, but follows a different format. The Tournament of Arms concept is that it’s the one chance in the year where characters can fight against each other with minimal consequence as long as the In-Character rules of the event are followed. There are often, but not always, additional elements of Plot going on around the Tournament that lead to encounters, and sometimes the Sunday follows the normal game format. It may not necessarily be billed as a Tournament of Arms – we’ve also had training weekends, engagement parties, demonic circuses and other shenanigans.
BathLARP hold three residential events each year where we go camping and LARPing for a whole weekend on campsites around the country (but generally within a couple of hours drive of Bath). Time In is rarely for the entire duration; at the very least there is generally a Time Out overnight or a dedicated OOC sleeping area. Group catering may be organised for meals, and there may be a glamping option (i.e. pre-arranged yurts or similar) at some sites.
The following guides are provided to help make the most of these events. Note that they have been written by members of the club and may not reflect the current views of the Committee.
Every year BathLARP aims to run a low-rank campaign of normal games spanning from the start of October to the end of May plus a residential 36hr finale. The campaign is set up for rank 2.0 characters to join and progress through to high enough ranks to be viable in non-campaign games (i.e. rank 10 or more), normally around 10 – 16 normal games.
The campaign is chosen by the Committee based on submissions by Experienced GMs, normally some time in early summer. The GMs involved are given the title of Campaign Ref – they have no other extra responsibilities than running the campaign, but that’s more than enough!
Campaigns can also include a number of IC Meals and ‘downtime’ (roleplay between games), but that’s up to the Campaign Refs and is not obligatory to be included or to be involved with.
The 2022/2023 “Woodshire” campaign is being run by Emma M-S and James W see the campaign information page for more information.