Category: New Player FAQ

So you’re ready to create a character for Last Hope! Let’s check off a few boxes and then get down to the brass tacks.

First off you’ll need to make sure that you have played at least one Non-Player Character (NPC) role. All players are required to NPC at least once before they are allowed to create a personal Player Character (PC). This ensures that you have a chance to see how the game operates so you know how your new character will fit in. You are also welcome to NPC many times before making a character. NPCing allows for a unique experience of trying on many different hats that you may not have considered when writing your character. The greater your experience the more you can put into a new character.

Secondly you’ll want to make sure that you’ve read up on the lore as much as you can. Dive through the Wiki, especially the pages about Races and Notable Groups to get a baseline and never be afraid to ask questions. You can e-mail questions to lasthopelarp@gmail.com and staff will get back to you with answers as quickly as we can (we all have real jobs, it may be a little bit).

Now you can get to creating the actual character! You’ll want to write up a backstory for your character. These stories should have depth that explains the origins of your character, or at least explains how they ended up in the life that you will be portraying in game. If you have questions feel free to send a bullet point break down of your story to the Last Hope e-mail and our staff will look it over and give you pointers or directions based on the game lore.

We have a Player Backstory Template that you should fill out with all the pertinent information and narrative backstory. You can find that here. Once that’s filled out e-mail it in and our staff will go over the process of approving your bio. If everything looks good we will let you know and we will create your character in our registration system and post your bio to the website. If your bio needs a few tweaks here and there we will reach out to you with suggestions on how things could be changed to fit into the game lore. Once that’s done we’ll create the character and post your bio.

Congrats! You have made your first PC! Get your garb and potential prosthetics ready and meet us on Mardrun!

• LARP Weapons
• Low Fantasy Character Creation Guide

A player contract is a document that is supposed to signify an understanding between the heralds and their players. The player contract details what can be expected of players, storytellers, and of the game itself. Last Hope strives to stand apart from it’s counter parts in american culture, and as such, sometimes it can be hard to know what games will be like, or what a player will need to do. When you sign a player contract, a herald will sit down with you and discuss any questions you might have about the game, and what the rules mean.

Without telling our players how they are expected to act, how can we hope for you to act how we expect? A player contract is a two way agreement. We as heralds are committed to crafting a certain kind of story and setting for you to play in, and we expect that players treat this with respect.

When you finish a contract, you will know what kind of game you are playing in-it’s themes and settings, what is appropriate conduct and appearance, as well as what you can expect to treated like. A player contract is not meant to exclude anyone, but to merely make sure that everyone is on the same page before playing. If you have any questions of concerns, please feel free to address them to any of the herald staff!

A full immersion larp aims to create a setting in which you can feel like you are really there in a scene, it means the feeling you get when roleplay flows naturally and you really, truly feel like your character. In a full immersion larp, you are in character for all of the game. You eat, hang out, get bored, and talk all in character.

Many larps frequently go in and out of character with handsignals — often a closed fist atop the head. But in a full immersion larp, going out of game for minor clarifications is frowned on. If you don’t know the answer, just make it up. If needed though, there is an off-game area where players can go when they need a break, before stepping back into the action.

The game scenography strives for realism, something called 360 illusion. So a bouquet of flowers is represented by a bouquet of flowers, and not a card with “flowers” written on it, and so on. Part of the idea is that pretending a card is really a bouquet of flowers on it takes one out of the game world and inhibits immersion.

We typically use latex and injected foam weapons. These weapons are safe to use in our system, and their looks are up to par for the standards we have in our larp. It’s hard to make your own weapons that are both safe and look the part. We do not outright reject the idea, but every weapon will need to be looked over, tested, and approved before going into play.

The easiest way to try out the system is to attend a practice. We hold weekly or bi-weekly practices in Baraboo and Kenosha. Check out our Facebook Event Page for the most up-to-date information

If you want to try out the larp, but you are hesitant to spend money and resources on weapons and garb, there are options! Ask the heralds about the event you wish to attend, we have many options for people to play NPCs. We will have extra garb and weapons for NPCs to borrow, and you will be handed a basic role to play, so you don’t have to worry about creating a character right away. Regular town NPCs get a reduced price for their entry fee. If you chose to monster, entry is free! Monstering is a very physically demanding and RP heavy role, but it can also be extremely rewarding.

One of the unique thing about Last Hope is that the player base is deeply involved in building and shaping the world we play in. There is quite a collection of player written lore and stories available on this wiki. If you would like to contribute check in with the staff with your story idea. If your ideas are approved then you are free to write up an in-character story and e-mail it in at Lasthopelarp@gmail.com and we’ll post it to the wiki.

Additionally check out the section of our Rulebook about the “Resources” skill!

This page contains many outside links to the popular websites to purchase weaponry!

For a more complete run-down of some of the available weapons, take a look at LARP Weapons

Most events cost from $20 to $50 (the average being $30 per player), depending on how long the game is. In 2018 Last Hope switched from a “Cost of Entry” model to a Membership model. The different membership levels are listed below:

Membership Subscriptions for Last Hope LARP

The membership fees listed below are for record keeping, management, communications, equipment upkeep, insurance, site maintenance, and outside larp services (Such as exp tracking, character updates, etc) and are NOT required to participate in Last Hope LARP but are required to participate in certain ways/in certain roles.
There are free or low cost options at all events; simply contact us at lasthopelarp@gmail.com to learn more!

If you purchase a membership subscription and decide that you want a refund, simply email us at lasthopelarp@gmail.com.
The deadline for membership refunds is the current month’s event date as we are updating our membership records after that.

SPECTATOR/HELPER

DEDICATED MONSTER

• No-cost membership.
• Pre-packaged Food/Drink provided at “Monster Camp”
• Added to Event Prize Giveaway

  • Must sign up by “Event Cut-off Date” to be eligible
• +3 exp (may be added to the exp earned from any other membership)

BASIC MEMBERSHIP

• $20 cost (Includes tax and all processing fees)
• 1 Event NPC Role

  • Must sign up by “Event Cut-off Date” to have a detailed NPC role prepared
• 4 exp
• Added to Event Prize Giveaway

  • Must sign up by “Event Cut-off Date” to be eligible

STANDARD MEMBERSHIP

• $30 cost (Includes tax and all processing fees)
• 1 Event PC Prep -OR- NPC role -OR- NPC/PC Split

  • Must sign up by “Event Cut-off Date” to have a detailed NPC role prepared or guaranteed PC bag/role prepped for event
• 6 exp
• 1 silver added to attending PC (If NPCing, then PC of choice)
• Added to Event Prize Giveaway

  • Must sign up by “Event Cut-off Date” to be eligible
• One Membership Perk (Choose ONE)

  • 1 PC Resource skill unlock (Starts the NEXT month for 2 months)
  • 1 Organization Exp
  • 1 silver

PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP

• $50 cost (Includes tax and all processing fees)
• 1 Event PC Prep -OR- NPC role -OR- NPC/PC Split

  • Must sign up by “Event Cut-off Date” to have a detailed NPC role prepared or guaranteed PC bag/role prepped for event
• 8 exp
• 2 silver added to attending PC(s) (If NPCing, then PC(s) of choice)
• Added to Event Prize Giveaway

  • Must sign up by “Event Cut-off Date” to be eligible
• Two Membership Perks (Choose TWO)

  • 1 PC Resource skill unlock (May be chosen two times for two different PCs; Starts NEXT month for 2 months)
  • 1 Organization Exp (May be chosen two times, for separate or the same Organization)
  • 1 silver (May be chosen two times)

Last Hope holds a game once per month. We’re proud to be one of the few story driven LARPs that manages to consistently have a monthly game for our players! For information on upcoming events check out our Facebook Page! We strive to get out a schedule of events that lists our dates for the entire year so players can plan accordingly.

We also occasionally host an event called Old World. The Old World event is a bit different than the other monthly events. Instead of taking place in the Colonial timeline, this event takes place in the Old World timeline, before the continent fell to the plague. Players have a chance to write history, and take part of a more military style campaign.