The Balance – English

Welcome on the website of Larp event ‘The Balance’.

The next event is:

The Balance 18:

6 – 8 september 2019

What type of an event is The Balance? What makes it different from the events that I know?

We play in a high-fantasy setting. This means that there are many different kinds of creatures in our world.
Moreover, magic is well known, although not everyone really understands it.
There are also different kinds of gods that people can believe in.
The world of The Balance is on a medieval level of technology. Gunpowder has not yet been invented which makes bows and crossbows the most advanced long-distance weapons.

There are many other live roleplay groups in the Netherlands. Each group offers its own type of play. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way but some might fit better with your taste as others. There are a couple of ways in which we try to distinguish ourselves from other events.
What you prefer is highly personal and only you can choose where you want to play. The only thing we can do is provide as much information on this website and via e-mail as we can. The best way to find out if you like it, is to come and play…

We try to be different with a couple of things:

• First, we try to portray a realistic world. I can hear you think: “but it’s a fantasy setting, right?”
  Yes, it is, but even in a fantasy setting things have to be right. Everything that we as SL (Game Master) let happen are thought through. We will not suddenly send a group of healers into the village if the players have sustained massive injuries in a fight against some NPC’s (non-playing characters).
  We will also not send more monsters to attack because the players can handle them easily. The amount of monsters and why there are that many  is decided beforehand. There is a story behind everything. Things that happen are story-related and not from OC (out of character) reasons. What we try to achieve with this is that we do not protect the players, but that smart solutions are rewarded. If you do something stupid, your character can die from that. If you thought of a good solution for something, we will not sabotage that as SL.
  Of course there is also always room for improvisation with the SL.
• Second, we do not have a linear plot. This means that we do not send the players in a specific direction. You are free to do what you want as player. Of course there is a plot and some important happenings, but you are never obliged to do something. Each action (or lack of action) has consequences. The plot is written with this in mind.
  There is a specific situation and different outcomes have been taken into account for different choices that players can make. “You can surely never work out all options?” – No, that is impossible. What we can do is work on the most obvious options and sketch large lines for other options. From that we can easily work with and anticipate on the actions of the players.
  We have a fully IC (in character) village, composed of log cabins with a large tavern, a stone building with space for 40 people. There is also have a very large forest that we can use.

For whom is The Balance suitable?

We think that good roleplay is the most important. If you only like to fight, the Balance might not be your event. There is enough opportunity to fight, don’t worry, but you can also survive a whole weekend without fighting. However, without roleplay, you will not get very far.
To promote high quality play we have  a minimum age of 18. This is also because our world is fairly realistic and can be quite grim. We do not want younger players to be unable to fall asleep at night ; ).
Next to that, you can go in any direction you want. You can learn a profession and keep yourself occupied with that for days. You can extend your skills as mage, priest, fighter or monk or look for adventure.
The things that happen can not only be solved with fighting, but you will also need to use your brain to solve certain situations.

How large is the event?

There is room for about 100 participants. We try to have 1 NPC for each 2 players.
this will ensure that we have enough NPCs to create a lot of plot.

Where can I find more information?

Since our event currently has mainly Dutch participants, the information on this website is in Dutch. However, non-Dutch speaking players are welcome too. If you speak English and are willing to play a character that speaks Elvish (IC we use English as the language for Elvish) you are welcome at our event. Please send us an e-mail to receive information on the rules and skills in English: balance.larp@gmail.com.