Concord events are quite strenuous camping weekends including many hours of intrigue, combat and socialising. Expect to spend a lot of your time talking to other players, spending many hours in-character and also experiencing a wide variety of social situations.
Expect some frantic combat at both the large and small scale. The combat of Concord is intended to provide a fun physical challenge, an immersive experience and also a chance for the story to come to a head in a single decisive at-game moment. Combat is dangerous, but also incredibly fulfilling, both in and out of character.
Expect a weekend of camping, with its included challenges. Currently showers are not easy to come by and your bed is as good as you can bring down. But for a lot of our players camping is a part of the appeal all the same.
Concord is also a game with an expansive lore that is interwoven with the experience of playing the game. Expect a world with dedicated storytellers and writers, with a chance to read, explore and learn about a fantasy land.
See also Event Information for further specifics and check out the excellent Character Creation page for advice on creating a character.
How do I play?
As a LARP, Concord has a series of rules, guidelines and advice that must be followed to allow the event to run enjoyable and safely.
These rules are designed to offer depth to combat, but be easy enough to pick up and learn for new players. These range from how you cast powerful spells, all the way through to when vehicles are allowed on site for drop off and pick up. We ask that everyone make the time both in the lead up to the event and between events to look over these rules and guidelines so that everyone can have a safer experience.
All players must undertake a Player Brief in order to play Concord LARP
Players also get a chance to be a Non-Player Character (NPC) for confluxes - we have a dedicated page on this! See How to NPC at Concord
Children at Concord
Concord LARP is an event that aims to be open to LARPers of all ages, with the idea that having children and young people present in a world adds not only authenticity but also variety to the experiences of all involved. We encourage younger players to involve themselves in the world, to experience the story, and add to it in their own way, with the expectation that will do so to their fullest and with the support of the community and their guardians.
There is a whole page on this. Check it out if you are interested in bringing a future Concordian Citizen to Concord.
Confluxes
Each event is set during a Summit, a time when heroes, influential individuals and hopefuls attend the newly constructed Concordian Capital of Passage. Here they hope to change the course of history, make great wealth, meet with allies and ensure the survival of their people. Passage itself is home to powerful arcane stones known as Waystones. These Waystones allow mages to open temporary portals to locations held by the Concord or near to them. These portal events are known as Confluxes and occur in a variety of forms throughout the Summit.
Minor Confluxes - A small party of adventurers exploring a recently discovered tomb, assassins striking at an exposed general, or priests conducting a distant ritual. Minor Confluxes are short and moments of import.
Skirmish Confluxes - A band of warriors striking a foe where they are weak, the last holdout of the final defenders, the mass meeting of strange shamans. Skirmish confluxes are larger events for between 10-30 people, sometimes organised by realm, but other times not.
Strategic Confluxes - The might of the Concord brought to the field. Half the players field as their heroes against the other half giving life to the Concord’s foes in battles that determine the fate of history. Twice an event, once on Saturday, once on Sunday.
A word from the team. If you play your PC in one Strategic Conflux, you must be available to NPC the other. You can go to 0 Strategic Confluxes as your PC, and 0 as an NPC. You can go to 1-2 Strategic Confluxes as an NPC, and 0 as a PC. You cannot go to 1 as a PC and 0 as an NPC. If that happens, we just won’t have enough people to have the fights.
There are also options to opt to NPC for Skirmishes as well – depending on PC numbers we may need additional NPCs for these as well, which will be signposted at game with the times and NPCs needed. Volunteer now! The Concord needs you!
We will be providing basic costume to set apart NPCs , as well as some loaner equipment, but if you are able to bring spare armour/equipment you don’t mind using we would appreciate it. Armouring 50+ NPCs is beyond our budget at this point. If you are able to bring different kit to wear to set yourself apart as one of the NPC groups, there’s a short list below of general themes for the NPC.
The Drowned:
Lots of armour. Shields, archers and strange magic. Blue or sea colours. Viking raiders with an oceanic twist.
The Severed Lords:
Lots of armour. Greatweapons, shields and illusions. Grey with dark base colours like black and brown. Viking raiders with a psychic twist.
The Zekartaal:
Lots of weapons or magic. Green or woodsy colours. Forest savagery (bones!).
The Onyx Aristocracy:
Dark, drab colours. Ruined or torn clothing. The dead.
The Trade Principality of Aprivano:
Lots of varied weapons, armour and colours, but leaning towards oranges and yellows. Regular people, many with a greedy twist.
It is worth noting that these groups might only appear in small numbers, or even not at all depending on PC choices – the strategic confluxes are your choices to engage in after all. But if you can bring extra equipment (especially armour), we appreciate it.
Please also check out Rank and File - NPC Stats for some more information.
Non-combatants
What does being a non combatant character mean at Concord?
Concord is designed as a game where you never need to participate in combat, and you will have a full game. You can participate in surgery (Traumatic Wounds are great fun), Ceremonies, making potions and items, trading, spying, magic, and there might even be some politics going on. None of that involves combat, without even mentioning just roleplaying, which will also likely occur at Concord.
More than just not actively participating though, some players would prefer to opt entirely out of combat, and so we are making allowances for Non-Combat characters. Note that this doesn't mean just "I'm not interested In combat" but "I do not want to do combat at all, even in my own defence". You can leave your options open and just not engage in fights with any character, a Non-Combatant is a rules enforced choice for you and other players that interact with you.
Being a Non Combatant
Any character can choose to be Non-Combatant, and they can engage fully with the entirety of the (non-combat) rules. We suggest if you make this choice, don't then take skills that require combat - weapon proficiencies are obviously a poor idea, but also some spells require you to engage in combat even if you don't want to use a weapon (offensive magic, and healing to an extent).
- Any Non-Combat character should not attack, either with melee or ranged weapons, or with combat spells.
They can be defeated, if you approach to within range where you can clearly strike them, announce clearly you are doing so, and they immediately reduce themselves to 0HP, with standard Bleed Out rules. It is up to the Non-Combatant to monitor the situation around them, and drop to Bleed Out if it looks like combat is likely to approach them. This can be difficult to ascertain, but as we do not have markers to differentiate types of combatants, it is important for the Non-Combatant themselves to stay aware of potential oncoming combat and act appropriately.
This places an extra level of interaction that all players must be aware of - however for our non-combat players, please be aware we cannot absolutely guarantee you will never be struck. It is unlikely combat outside of organized duels will happen in Passage itself, and it should be clear to players engaging in it that non-combat characters can be interacted with, but not struck.
- Non-combat characters may not enter Strategic Confluxes or Skirmishes, unless specified otherwise.
Both of those types of Conflux are essentially battlefields. They will frequently have 30+ combatants on the field, and likely a lot of them hostile and fast moving. Many Minor Confluxes will not have any, or heavy combat, but if unsure please check with the Marshall running the Conflux and they should be able to assist in deciding if you should attend. The In-Character responsible party for Skirmishes and Minors is also provided with an Accessibility notice for the conflux itself, to assist in prefacing what kind of content to expect.
Otherwise, as above, you can engage with a large portion of the game, including all the politics and drama and story, while never fighting. Hopefully this will allow players who are not interested in or unable to engage in combat a measure of out of character safety in our game.