Role game Folio Livoniae
- Overall Description
- Economics and Item Acquisition Rules
- Costumes, Style & Entourage Rules
- Genre and Mythology Rules
- Combat rules или LARP Combat Rules
Our game is not a historically accurate re-enactment, but the events are taking place during a defined historic period. For this reason, special Rules of Costume will be in effect, limiting the use of contemporary clothing details, fabrics, and weapons and armour that do not correspond to the established historic setting. At the same time, these Rules will not be as strict as during re-enactment festivals. For example, the use of cotton and 50% wool fabrics of natural colours will be allowed, as well as artificial fur, etc.
An important part of the costume will be the so-called “markers” indicating the person’s belonging to one or another nationality, so that from the first moment it would be clear who’s the person before you: a Livonian, a Curonian, a Semigallian, a Latgallian, a Selonian, an Estonian, or a Lithuanian.
Each player’s costume will be evaluated by the Regional Master, in complicated situations – by Costume Master, but if you have any doubts regarding your costume, we advise you to solve them before the game.
Only padded weapons (LARP) will be permitted. General requirements regarding the weapons: safety and visuals (a wooden club must look like an imitation of a wooden mace, instead of a plastic tube wrapped in rubber and duct tape). The Regulations established by MG KRAFT that have already shown a good viability in Russian games, will be taken as the basis.
It is worth noting that the majority of European manufactured weapons will be permitted in accordance to the aforementioned Regulations.
If you have any questions regarding the permission of weaponry, it is advisable to contact the Fights Master in advance.
All the characters, except the NPCs, will only have one hitpoint. Armour and helmet provide additional hitpoints. Armour can be worn one on top of another, the only limitation will be the availability of such set of armour for the character of the given nationality and social standing.
All one-handed weapons will take one hitpoint, two-handed weapons (the exception being copies) – two hitpoints. It is not possible to improve a weapon’s characteristics, but it is possible to obtain artefact weapons that are only going to have special properties in battles against magical NPC characters.
To kill a character in-game, after all the hitpoints are gone, one more hit will have to be made accompanied by the word “kill” (it will have to be decided on the language to be used for this).
If a player has lost his armour’s hitponts, he will have to take that armour off, and the hitpoints can be only restored in the smithy. If a player’s hitpoint count has dropped to 0 (zero), but he hasn’t been killed, his hitpoints can be restored by healers and Wise women, until then he’s considered wounded and can’t take active part in any play activities: fight, work, and even run.
The modelling of war activities will include storming fortresses built according to certain rules, ensuring the safety of the participants, as well as violent clashes between armed groups, when the one dying is not the player himself, but his “virtual companion”. In those cases the character does not die and after a while enters the play once more. For knights, elite warriors, and monsters, a duel mechanism will be introduced (fight to death, and not) in order to increase their special characteristics. The game world is inhabited not only by regular mortals, but also by mystical and magical creatures.
In every location, rituals will be taking place (both pagan and Christian), and their success will determine the economic development of the community in question, the sturdiness of its walls, and its defences from harmful entities. The rituals and their effects will be evaluated by the respective Regional Master after consulting the Mystics Master. Within settlements, witches and sorcerers might reside. That can happen either openly or covertly, as there is no inquisition in pagan societies. Those characters can have special powers or magical objects of different properties: in the case of their use, the recipient of the effect will be given a special card with the description of the effect. How the witches and the sorcerers have achieved their powers, is something only they themselves know (Closed Rules).
However, also for regular players, it will be possible to achieve magical knowledge and artefacts. They can receive blessing from Laima or Staburadze (maidens), or trick or fool Velins, while Christians can gain this kind of properties through prayers and fasting. Knights and elite warriors can obtain weapons with special properties from Perkons or Christ respectively, without those weapons it will be impossible to beat the monsters demanding special tributes form settlements.
Economy will be playing an important part during the game. Stronger rulers will collect taxes from villages, priests will demand sacrifices for gods, warlords will gather resources to organize skirmishes… We’re planning to introduce models for collecting produce from agriculture and handicrafts that won’t be encumbering for gameplay, but will provide those engaged in those activities with bonuses. Raising sheep and producing wool, harvesting crop and grinding the flour, beekeepig and waxmaking for peasants; and buying and trading those goods for merchants – all these activities will be naturally integrated within the gameplay. Additionally, players can suggest their own models for business activities that will be integrated in the game as well as possible, especially if arranged in timely fashion.
It so happens that characters die. In this case, they end up in the Land of the Dead (Limbo). There, the player can rest, choose a new character, get the Masters’ approval, and return to the game. The time spent in the Land of the Dead – three (or two?) hours. That time can be shortened by playing an NPC character or by helping the Masters Group in some other way. Players who have died as members of a warband rest only for an hour before returning to their warband as the previous character.
Witches and sorcerers die and return to the game according to special (closed) rules. NPC characters enter and exit the game as is deemed necessary by the Masters Group.