What is Gothic: Age of Ashes?

The experience of LARPing at Gothic: Age of Ashes is intended to be a collaborative one as you participate in storylines meant for small to large groups, and sometimes specifically for your character. You will attempt to solve problems and achieve objectives as your character would, and at times you will suffer losses and frustrations as your character would. The staff at these events will be providing story and plot, delivered through NPCs (non-player characters), props, and interactive mysteries, discoveries, and events to be encountered throughout the game site. Ultimately, however, this is a collaborative storytelling experience where the staff is creating the framework of the narrative, but the story itself is told by the interactions of the players and what you create together.

The setting of Gothic: Age of Ashes is a dark, grim, post-apocalyptic, pre-modern fantasy in which personal choices must be made, and those choices will have consequences. The world is rich with history to discover and mysteries to uncover, and difficult challenges to face. It is designed to be a dark, high-stakes, character-driven roleplaying experience.

What is the world of Gothic? And what is Age of Ashes within it?

The world of Gothic is a home grown setting with a vast history spanning many ages, each epoch with its own particular characteristics, conflicts, and culture. It is primarily the story of humanity, and how it perseveres in a cruel world that forces hard choices and actions. It is about the incredible importance of one individual, and the immense power of many. Gothic stories tell of the burning force and unquenchable drives of the soul, and the infectious corruption of wrongs done that have yet to be made right. The world itself is defiled by the Night Malefic, supernatural creatures and monsters formed by grievous transgressions, and the only way to heal the world and give these creatures peace, is to right the wrongs which created them in the first place.

The Age of Ashes is a particularly sinister and grim age, taking place in a future after the events of the Lion Age. The Lion Age was a time of conquest and the unification of mankind under the banner of the Throne of God on Earth, while the Age of Ashes that follows tells the story of the world after this empire has fallen.

Never heard of Gothic or The Lion Age before? That’s ok! Knowing about or playing one Gothic game is not a requirement to play the other. Their settings are different enough and are separated by enough time that they can be treated as unique games by those who have never played one or the other.

Key Ideas and Design Philosophies Behind Age of Ages

• Character driven drama and development
  • This LARP is intended to be an exploration of personal stories, character-driven drama, and hard decisions. When the law and lords have been stripped away, what drives your character? Who are you, and what matters to you, when it’s you against the world?
• Setting
  • The setting is post-apocalyptic, pre-modern fantasy with technology and fashion roughly similar to the 1600-1700s without much concern for historical accuracy. The setting is a fictional world with elements from history to influence and ground players with some sense of familiarity.
  • This is a “medium fantasy” setting where magic exists, but is constrained.
• Mysteries
  • The world is full of mystery and things lost, wrongs to set right, and decisions with consequence. The focus of the game experience will be at events, with treasures and lore to find, Malefic to solve, and hard truths to be faced.
• Downtimes
  • Downtimes (FAQ) will be designed to add to the at-game experience, increase your sense of player agency and accomplishment, but are built to be simple and reduce between game non-roleplay activity.
• Roleplay focused
  • Roleplay, mood, and story are the primary objectives of this LARP. We will strive to have combat be meaningful, intuitive, and deadly – for all actions have repercussions, and to have both combatant and noncombatant characters feel as though they have viable and solid roles within this “medium-fantasy” world, where magic exists, but is constrained.
• A challenge
  • While the world is against you, and the odds are meant to feel desperate, there should be a balance of hope and hard-earned wins – some light amidst the horrors of the dark. We will utilize our morality and depravity systems in tandem with a unique death and dying system to allow players to feel they have a greater sense of ownership over the story they desire to tell with their character, and when it ends.

Overall, this game is set in a far darker and more grim era of the Gothic universe, but it is a story of hope, triumph, and the power of the human spirit which we believe our players will craft.

Other Important Things to Note

• Our game is 18+
  • This is a mature game of dark themes in which no subject is banned.
  • We will not accept players under the age of 18, even if they have parental consent.
• We are an infinite run game
  • We plan to continue running Age of Ashes for as long as players continue to want to play it.
• We have PVP and PVE combat
  • Players should expect that their characters can be threatened and attacked by other characters and the environment alike (FAQ).
  • Death is not often final in Age of Ashes and there is a strong element of player choice in a character’s story and ending. You can read more about our Death & Dying system here.
• We care deeply for the well-being of our players and place an emphasis on personal comfort
  • We want our players to have fun and feel safe while they are in a game of personal horror and grim themes. Therefore, we utilize systems of checking in or signaling to others if you are starting to grow uncomfortable with a scene, and “fade to black” (FAQ) if you or another player no longer wishes to participate in a scene.
  • While we are a high-immersion game and it is expected that players will be in character while on the “stage” of the LARP, we will also provide safe spaces to decompress if the action gets too intense.
• We have a robust Code of Conduct
  • All players and staff must sign our Code of Conduct (located here).
  • We will have a reporting system for all concerns, complaints, and reports of Code of Conduct violations, and we sincerely hope that our players will speak up if something is bothering them.
• We expect players to follow the Spirit of the Rules
  • This is covered in our Code of Conduct, but we felt it was worth mentioning here. No matter how much time, effort, and testing we put into our mechanics and rules, we are sure that players will find unintended loopholes that can be taken advantage of. We expect our players to follow the “spirit” of the rules, meaning that they should not take advantage of any loopholes they find. If at any point a rule is unclear, we expect players to ask a staff member, rather than assume.
• We emphasize at-game plot
  • We have designed Gothic: Age of Ashes to be an experience where your activities, challenges, and story happen at the event. While we do have downtimes, and encourage between game roleplay, staff plans for the main action wherever possible to take place at events.
• Character sheets are designed to augment a person’s natural abilities
  • We place a heavy emphasis on activities and actions being portrayed physically. So, if you are sneaking, you the player need to sneak, but your sheet may provide some additional boosts, abilities, or powers so that you can still roleplay as something besides yourself.
• Starting characters are designed to be slightly better than the standard person
  • Additionally, characters who have received specialized training as part of an organization can be portrayed either by joining such groups in-game or as already established in such a group at character creation by spending Glory (FAQ), an out of character currency.
• We expect players to be costuming in the event space
  • We do not have strict requirements, but players should do their best to represent the setting. The setting is a post-apocalyptic, pre-modern fantasy.
  • Props, objects, weapons, and anything that has an in-game effect need to be represented by a physical object that staff will provide an item tag for, as appropriate.

Have more questions?

We’re sure you do! We invite you to check out our various pages to find out more about our world and our rules! Keep scrolling down this page to learn more about our upcoming events, or check out the bottom of this page for our FAQ.