The Game

Swordcraft is Australia’s largest live-action battle game, combining medieval fantasy with fast-paced, large-scale combat. Players engage in immersive battles using foam weapons, wearing detailed costumes, and embracing the world of LARP (Live Action Role-Playing). The game is designed for both casual and competitive play, offering a rich experience that includes weekly battles, large-scale Quest Events, and deep lore-driven narratives.

Introduction to Live Action Roleplaying

Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) is an immersive form of roleplaying where participants physically act out their characters’ actions in a live setting. Unlike traditional tabletop RPGs, where players describe their characters’ actions, LARP allows participants to experience the game world firsthand by wearing costumes, engaging in combat, and making decisions that affect the narrative.

Getting Involved

Getting involved in LARP is easy and fun. Whether you’re drawn to epic battles, character interactions, or simply enjoy stepping into another world, LARP provides a fun experience of escapism. It’s a chance to leave behind the stresses of the real world and embrace a new identity, whether that’s an honourable knight, a nefarious bandit, or a fledgling spellcaster.

Battle LARP

Swordcraft is a battle-focused LARP, meaning that combat plays a central role in the game. However, fighting is not the only way to participate. Players can still engage in the game without focusing on combat by taking on non-combatant roles such as merchants, diplomats, crafters, or quest-givers. Once a you join a warband you can work with them to help find your role in the world of Swordcraft.

Weekly Friday games provide a variety of opportunities for social interaction, event planning, and community building with the friends you have made in the game.

For those attending Quest events, there is even more opportunity to excel in roleplaying situations, as the world expands with political intrigue, faction disputes, and grand storytelling. Whether you thrive in the chaos of battle or prefer to engage through storytelling and diplomacy, there is a place for everyone in Swordcraft.

Weekly Games

Swordcraft runs weekly battle games in various locations across Australia, offering players thrilling combat experiences all across the country. On the field, your warband may choose to engage in shield wall formations, flank enemies as skirmishers, or take on a supporting role by acting as healers, spellcasters, or operating war machines that can wreak havoc upon the battlefield.

These battles are inspired by both historical and fantasy warfare, allowing players to hone their sword fighting skills, work together as a team, and develop valuable teamwork strategies. Each chapter also has its own ongoing narrative, the outcomes often shaped by the result of the battles - when a warband wins, their story may progress.

So, whether you are a seasoned player or new to LARP, the weekly battles provide an incredible experience that blends sport, storytelling, and friendship-building, all within the immersive world of Swordcraft.

Quest Events

Quest Events are Swordcraft’s immersive, large-scale LARP experiences, bringing together hundreds of players for up to a week-long adventure. Each chapter runs its own Quest Event, featuring a range of unique and exciting elements such as:

• Expansive Stories: Deep, evolving narratives that influence future events and shape the world.
• Faction Warfare: Large-scale battles where players fight for glory, survival, and valuable rewards.
• Roleplaying & Politics: Beyond combat, players engage in trade, diplomacy, espionage, and intrigue.
• Custom Costumes & Immersive Camps: Players create detailed medieval-style encampments, bringing their characters to life through costume, props, and interactions.

These events focus heavily on roleplay and diving deep into the ever-changing narrative of the Principality of Sudenburg. Quest Events serve as the heart of Swordcraft’s living world, offering players the opportunity to leave a lasting impact on the game’s unfolding story. Whether forging alliances, making new friends and rivals, or vying for influence and control over the Principality, Quest Events provide a rich, immersive experience for all participants.

Joining Swordcraft as a New Player

New players are always welcome at Swordcraft, with our new player training occuring at our weekly games, players are taught the necccessary skills and guidance from our trainers for you to get right into it and join the battle. Here’s what you need to know:

• Provided Weapons: For your first night, you will be provided with a foam sword and shield.
• Joining the Militia: You will join the new player militia, a group of new players like yourself, where you will be shown how to fight together as a team and learn the basics of swordfighting.
• Combat: Combat is based on a hit-point system – the damage you take and deal depends on the weapon hit with and location. Your trainer will go over the rules with you on the night.
• The Battle: You will then join the battle on one of the teams and fight to win the night!
• End of Game: If you enjoyed the night and think LARPing is for you, then at the end of the night, you will have the opportunity to talk to some of the leaders of warbands in the community about playing with them.

Character Creation

Once you have joined a warband you will be able to chat to them about creating a new character. Each warband has its own story and self governed rules about character creation and they will all be more than happy to assist you with your LARP journey!

You can also read about the world setting and character creation if you are interested in learning more about general guidelines for character creation.

Chapters

Here is a list of all the chapters in Australia. Each has its own take on how weekly games are run and its own story at their Quest Event. Select the chapter closest to you from the list below to learn more about its game:

• Melbourne (Sudenburg)
• Brisbane (Helsreik)
• Ballarat (Kriegstor)
• Bendigo (Stromstadt)
• Gippsland (Braylong)
• Geelong (Handelsdorf)
• Mildura (Bracken)
• Newcastle (Ritterstein)
• South Australia (Iron Triangle)

See Also

• Home
• Combat Rules
• Creating a Character