It's been over two centuries since the world of Orn was torn asunder. Shattered, yet whole, mysterious spans formed through the void, reuniting the shard realms and the previously unknown shard that is now home to the city of Jastrey. Lost lands, wondrous treasures, and vicious monsters await anyone daring or foolish enough to answer the call of the Spanner's Guild. Set out and forge a name for yourself as you become an adventurer in the Shards of Orn!
Shards of Orn has been in operation since 2009! It is a nonprofit and operated by the Living Action, Inc. Board of Directors. All staff, narrators, and writers, are your fellow players!
What is LARP?
Live Action Role-Play (LARP) is a game in which participants assume the identity of a character of their own creation to interact with other players, go on adventures, and fight monsters!
LARP is a hobby for former theater-kids, lovers of the outdoors, nerdy jocks, and storytellers of every kind. The Shards of Orn is a light to medium-contact boffer combat LARP which means that as a hero you will be engaging with combat while calling your unique combat abilities. Jastrey is a land where you can embody an adventurer and define heroism through your unique journey.
Our community tells its stories together through both in-character roleplay and through player written content. And together we forge alliances not only against the evils of Orn, but extending beyond the game as a tight knit community.
Your First Game
So you’re ready to start LARPing! But where do you start? Below are several links that will help you prepare for your weekend in the woods on the Jastreyan shard.
- How Does This Work?
- What Makes This Game Special?
- Who Can Play?
- When and Where Are Games Held?
- How Much Does It Cost?
- What Should I Bring?
Before you come to your first game, you will need to create a character, put together a costume, and RSVP for the event to choose your adventures. Also check the website to sign up for catering if it is offered for this event.
On Friday night, you need to be checked in and in character before Opening Ceremonies begin at 8:00 PM. After Opening Ceremonies, you will have a New Player Tutorial to ensure you know how to use your abilities, respond to game calls and mechanics, and have your first adventure with your fellow new adventurers. You must be in-play for the Friday Night shift as a new player. While it is not required, it is recommended that new players monster the Saturday night shift.
Play officially ends after the Saturday night shift. Players are expected to pack and sweep out their cabins before leaving or undertaking any additional clean-up tasks they may volunteer for.
Character Creation
3-Event Process
Shards of Orn strives to be an easy entry for anyone wishing to participate in our LARP experience or try LARPing for the first time. Players are welcome to join us with full backstory, professional-level kits, and lovingly-crafted boffer weapons. But sometimes your friend invites you to an event happening next weekend, and we want you to have fun no matter what your level of preparedness.
So here we have included a basic prepared backstory, premade classes, and information on boffer weapons along with guidelines for players who want to arrive at their first game with a fully realized character concept.
A player may re-spend (or re-create) their character for free (no karma required) after their first and second events (until they have earned 60xp), so it is okay to take the first few events to learn lore and mechanics before determining a long-term character.
Backstory
Quick and Easy
The Shards of Orn has a lot of lore! The two questions newcomers receive to help begin roleplay are a character’s name and land of origin. If you want a quick and easy backstory here are some steps:
- Pick a Race and familiarize yourself with their lore page and costuming requirements. Most Race lore pages will have some information to point you in the right direction geographically.
- See our Geography page and pick a continent to hail from: just read that one lore page and familiarize yourself with any lore around your specific area of origin.
- Pick a name! Be sure not to use copyrighted character names or give yourself a noble or regal title. While you’re career as an adventurer will surely lead an illustrious name and story, everyone has to start somewhere!
- The reason you have come to Jastrey is that you are a potential new member of the Spanner’s Guild. The Spanner’s Guild registers and regulates official adventuring groups through its branches located all over the world. It's possible for adventurers to find work without registering, but all official work in the area goes through the guild and, from the looks of the guild house and the groups inside, those jobs are quite lucrative!
In-Depth
If you want to come to your first game with a full character concept that you expect to play for the duration of your time with Shards of Orn, that is amazing! We love to see players that have invested in learning the lore, crafted their own weapons, and created show-stopping costumes! Please read the lore for your chosen Race and land of origin (Geography).
If you want to write an in-depth character backstory for your first event, please take the time to run some of your ideas by others in the Discord server. Most players are able to give good guidance and game officers will be keeping an eye on the chat for tough questions. If you send your backstory to anyone for review, please be courteous and send a version that is less than 500 words. By running your concept by the community you can avoid investing hours and dollars into a character concept that may not be compatible with lore or Content Standards for the Shards of Orn.
Lore
The Shards of Orn has now been running for over fifteen years! This means that our community of writers have wildly expanded the lore of our lands, realms, peoples, monsters, immortals, and magic. There is a truly daunting amount of lore on our website; it’s your choice as to how much lore you want to try and absorb, but no one at the game knows all the lore off the top of their head, so rest easy!
All lore within the Lore tab on the website is “common knowledge”. There is much to know about the world of Orn and those who call it home. Your character is permitted to know anything you can read and remember in play, so the only price you pay is study. When you sign up for adventures your first event, it is not unreasonable for you to do some research on the website based on the hook for the adventure. However, because Jastrey is a flash point for events of significance, you may discover that “common knowledge” is not always entirely accurate: sometimes things are more complex than history remembers…
Class Building
Class-building can be exciting! However, given the versatility of our class-building system it can also be incredibly daunting. In our current version, any player character can have nearly any combination of skills that seem appropriate to their character or fit their desired play-style. See the rules for class-building for more information.
Given our 3-Event Process, we suggest that you choose one of the Starter Class Packages for your first event. This will ensure that your class at level one is functional and well-tuned for participation in Shards of Orn and reviewed by veteran players.
After attending the first event, sparring with other players, fighting monsters, and fighting as a monster, you will likely have a better idea of how you want to build your own class and have made some friends to help you with the beautiful, rage-inducing process of bringing a new class into the world!
Weapons
Any weapons you bring to the game will need to be checked by one of our prop inspectors. Here is the basic information on how to craft an Orn-safe boffer weapon and additional rules regarding weapons.
There are several commercial manufacturers of LARP boffer weapons that range from budget conscious options to realistic replicas of weaponry. These must also be checked by a prop martial yearly for safety, and we cannot guarantee that any weapon from any manufacturer will pass our safety checks, since there are variations in foam density and manufacturing even within the same model weapon. We check each weapon, and there is never a promise something will pass, even if we say it probably will when asked without seeing it. Common LARP weapon providers are listed below:
- Epic Armoury is the most often approved. Most of their weapons will pass as long as they are the correct length for you.
- Ateliers-Nemesis weapons are hand-carved and often pass as well, though they are very expensive.
- Calimacil passes more often than not if you buy one of their newer models, but these weapons are most subject to scrutiny out of the three listed.
The Shards of Orn will loan you a weapon befitting your class for your first game. After that, you will need to bring your own, rely on the kindness of strangers, or play a very defensive game that requires physical dodging.