Curious Pastimes (sometimes abbreviated to CP) is an organisation that runs one of the best-known Describes Curious Pastimes as one of the “most well known” providers.

live action role-playing A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

campaigns in the UK. CP is a private, profit-making company headquartered in

Moreton Moreton may refer to: People Given name * Moreton John Wheatley (1837–1916), British Army officer and Bailiff of the Royal Parks Surname * Alice Bertha Moreton (1901–1977), English sculptor, draughtsman and artist * Andrew Moreton, a p ...

in the Wirral in

Northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

. Lists CP as a local business. The company was formed in 1995, as a break away group from the Lorien Trust. Curious Pastimes’ ongoing LARP

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

is called ''Renewal.''. The campaign uses its own set of LARP rules, adapted from the Lorien Trust Rules System. Renewal is a "Fest" Game, in which large numbers (typically hundreds) of players interact with one another and with a small number of briefed

non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...

s, climaxing in pre-arranged mass

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

s between roughly even numbers at the two longer events. These battles represent one of the major variations from the ''Gathering'' parent-game, being exclusively Player-versus-Monster battles (the ''Gathering's'' battles are chiefly

Player-versus-Player Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents. The terms are mos ...

). With approximately 800 players attending the main event in August, Renewal is the third-largest fest campaign in the UK, behind the ''Gathering'' Battles at the August event field "over 1200 a side", therefore overall turnout is 2400+. and Profound Decisions' ''Empire''.

Events

The Renewal Campaign comprises four events each year, culminating in the flagship event, also called ''Renewal'', held every year over the August Bank Holiday weekend. All the events take place on weekends; two of them run from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, and two, occurring on

Bank Holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...

weekends, run to Monday afternoon. Curious Pastimes also runs a system for formally approving smaller events (see '' below'') staged by the various participating groups and '' factions'' throughout the year. The events vary in size from 100 to 1000 people and present different aspects of the ongoing Renewal Campaign. The events are: *A battle event (variously titled ''Crusade'', ''Bastion'', ''Invasion'' etc.), traditionally on May Day Long Weekend, which will be held on Easter Weekend at Paccar Scout Camp, Chalfont Heights in 2011. The event emphasizes two mass battles against an identified game-plot enemy. The event normally attracts about 400-500 players. *A plot event (titled to give some hint as to the details of the event, as ''Heart of Darkness'', ''Great Council'' etc.) on the second or third weekend of June at Barnswood Scout Camp in

Leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus ''Alli ...

. The event emphasizes introducing new plot elements, giving players access to significant

s, and distributing in-game information. The event normally attracts about 250-300 players. *''Fayre'' (generally named after the hosting nation, as ''Fayre of Albion'' etc.) on the second or third weekend of July at Woodhouse Scout Camp in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. The event is an almost wholly player-led opportunity to trade and interact in-character, and several games and contests are held. The event normally attracts about 250-300 players. *''Renewal'' on the August Bank Holiday weekend at Paccar Scout Camp in

Gerrards Cross Gerrards Cross is a town and civil parish in south Buckinghamshire, England, separated from the London Borough of Hillingdon at Harefield by Denham, south of Chalfont St Peter and north bordering villages of Fulmer, Hedgerley, Iver Heath and ...

. The event is promoted as a "catch-all" event with two mass-battles, heavy interaction with plot and non-player characters and extensive opportunities for players to interact with one another. The event normally attracts about 700-800 players. The May battle event was staged at Bispham Hall Scout Camp in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

until 2009, and ''Renewal'' was staged at Phasels Wood Scout Camp in

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...

from 1998 to 2007. Both events were moved following negative customer feedback regarding the sites. Two smaller-scale events (40-70 players, peaking at 100 in April 2002) entitled ''Prelude'' (in March/April) and ''Aftermath'' (in September/October) were discontinued after Prelude 2002, due chiefly to rising venue costs. Curious Pastimes classes itself as a "family-friendly" event, allowing parents to bring along children of any age. All children are entitled to full characters, though only those 16 or over are allowed to participate in the mass battles.

Sanctioned Events

Curious Pastimes offers formal "sanctioning", allowing affiliated groups (generally groups who also participate in the Renewal Campaign) to run their own events within the ongoing Renewal storyline. There are degrees of sanctioning, ranked from ‘Level 1’ (lowest) to ‘Level 3’ (highest); lower-sanctioned events have little effect on the main Renewal storyline but can be organised and run with minimal involvement by the company, while higher-sanctioned events may have a concrete effect on events at main events but need to be extensively co-ordinated with company staff.

The Game World

The game's

setting Setting may refer to: * A location (geography) where something is set * Set construction in theatrical scenery * Setting (narrative), the place and time in a work of narrative, especially fiction * Setting up to fail a manipulative technique to eng ...

is a unique unnamed fantasy world. The world is more or less Earthlike, and the known, populated continent that hosts the

player characters A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

and their communities is a

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

-to-

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Generally, ...

landmass broadly equivalent to

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

. There are nine intelligent

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and ''-oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20t ...

races in the CP setting: ''humans'', ''

elves An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes " ...

'', ''dark elves'', '' dwarves'', four "greenskin" races (''

orcs An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, ...

'', ''

ogres An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...

'', ''

goblins A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on t ...

'', and ''

trolls A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

'') and a variety of animal-human hybrids collectively known as ''beastmen''. All are more or less evenly-distributed across the world's population (and thus player base), with some variation among the different factions.

Factions

The known continent is populated by a number of monarchies,

nation-states A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may i ...

and

confederations A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

known as ''Factions'', modelled very loosely on various real-world historical communities, with influences from fantasy literature,

films A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and other sources, as well as original ideas. The majority of

belong to one or other faction, with the exception of a group of non-aligned players collectively labelled "mercenaries." The factions average about 100 in size at ''Renewal'' (i.e. 1/8 of the average ''Renewal'' turnout of 800), but are presumed to govern (or at least represent) populations in the hundreds of thousands, appropriate to those of equivalent

pre-Industrial Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forums of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. ''Pre-industrial'' refers to a time before ...

states. In real-world terms, each faction is run as a more or less independent

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

, with a small administrative team assigned by CP and internal In- and Out-of-Character hierarchies. Many of the factions host websites for their members, and several of them stage small-scale "sanctioned" events set in the ''Renewal'' continuity. At events, members of a faction camp together; the factions' communal In-Character camps are the major focus of the game, with attacks against fortified camps and

diplomatic missions A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

between camps providing much of the storyline at each event. Within the broad faction concepts stated above may be found a broad spectrum of characters, from the comical, describing "bible-bashing nuns" at a CP event. to the serious, from a range of historical (or pseudo-historical) backgrounds, and from the mean and humble to the high-heroic. Formally, Renewal is an "Open World" campaign setting, so players are permitted to submit any concept they wish, with the exception that neither gunpowder-weapons nor any more advanced technology are permitted.

References

External links