Carolina Radlands LARP FAQs

Our fully-immersive Fallout LARP is set in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of South Carolina. It is a heavy contact melee and nerf blaster style LARP following the safety and damage rules of Dagorhir battle games.

LARP is an acronym that stands for Live Action Role Playing. It is kind of like a combination of live theater and traditional tabletop role-playing games, where instead of rolling dice at a table, players physically play out their characters’ actions. We put on costumes, fight battles, and collaborate to reach common in-game goals, such as looting for treasure, defeating monsters, or solving difficult puzzles.

LARPs are organized by a team of volunteer crew members (often called Game Masters, or GMs) who work with players to create a fully interactive, immersive world for everyone to play in. NPCs – or Non-Playable Characters – give out quests, share intel, attack players, organize shops, and perform other important tasks to keep a game fun and interesting for everyone involved. Where most players have their own ongoing original character, some players volunteer to NPC as special, temporary roles to keep the game going.

Fallout is a highly-popular video game series based in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the United States. Since most of the Fallout games are set in areas outside of the Southeast, we have been able to use this series as a loose setting for our Fallout-inspired LARP, which is set in post-apocalyptic South Carolina.
Although we highly recommend you pick up a Fallout game or two, it is not required. Anyone interested in post-apocalyptic themes are welcome to play with us. In order to understand our game setting, however, you may want to review some general Fallout lore.

THE FALLOUT UNIVERSE
The Fallout universe originates in the 1940s, during the real-world events of World War II. When Hiroshima was destroyed, the U.S. government decided to focus its nuclear research on consumer technologies instead of bombs, which leads to an alternative universe where everything – from cars, to robots, to alarm clocks – is developed with atomic electrical power. With this divergence, many analog technologies become prevalent long-term, thus creating the retro-futuristic 1950s style that the game series is known for. In the 2050s, oil reserves begin to run dry world-wide, creating a third world war over resources. Much like the real-life Cold War era, an air of paranoia sets in, which causes a series of nuclear-proof bunkers called Vaults to be built all over the country. Nuclear war begins soon after, and in 2077 a series of nuclear events occur, causing the world to fall into apocalypse. A century passes before the underground Vaults first begin to open, thus exposing Vault Dwellers to an entirely different world full of raiders, ghouls, and mutated creatures.

Like Fallout, Carolina Radlands takes place in an alternate version of history where 1950s aesthetics, design and technology advance in the directions imagined at the time. The resulting universe is thus a retro-futuristic one, where the technology has evolved enough to produce laser weapons, manipulate genes and create nearly-autonomous artificial intelligence, but all within the confines of 1950s solutions, like the widespread use of atomic power and vacuum tubes, as well as having the integrated circuitry of the digital age. The architecture, advertisements, and general living styles are also depicted to be largely unchanged since the 1950s.

Our game takes place in 2282 — 5 years before Fallout 4, and one year after the events of Fallout: New Vegas.

A fresh Vault-Tec contained living space, Vault 50, has only recently unsealed after mechanical problems, and Vault-dwellers new to the wasteland are slowly venturing out into the ruined world. Crazed Raiders roam the Out-Lands marauding on the search for victims, and rabid Feral Ghouls lurk in the shadows. Local factions want to claim ownership over the now-abandoned Vault, while faraway factions such as Caesar’s Legion and the Brotherhood of Steel are interested in what pre-war resources the region has to offer.

Opportunity is ripe for the taking, whether it be exploring and scavenging the wastes or kicking back in town and gambling your way to victory.

Our LARP events are at Eastwind Castle, a medieval-style themed campsite north of Aiken, SC (just over the GA/SC border). It is less than a hour from Columbia, and a 2 1/2 hour drive from downtown Atlanta. Our LARP events are usually 3 days, starting Friday afternoon and ending Sunday morning. Players are encouraged to come early to socialize and set up their camps before the game starts. More event details can be found on our Event Calendar.

Our main LARP venue — Eastwind Castle — is a medieval village-style campsite that has experience hosting several large role-playing and battle game events, which made it a perfect place for us to grow. Their community of players have also been an incredible addition to our group, and we love playing out there!

Just show up! Our logistics crew (the people who handle player information) will help you set up your character sheet, as well as give you the starter items you need (caps, chems, ammo, etc). If you’d like info on how to build a character before arriving, see our guide here.

Anyone! At your first event, all new players must sign a liability waiver. Minors are also allowed to play, but must have a waiver co-signed by a parent or guardian. We also ask that for safety purposes, children should not go unattended at any Carolina Radlands events.

Funny you should ask — we actually have a list. 😉

Bring a tent. At this time our main LARP venue (Eastwind) is mostly camping-only. While the site does have several buildings, most of them are privately owned and not available for rent.

Bathrooms, hot showers, water fountains, electricity and sinks are available for everyone’s use. Eastwind does not have a public-use kitchen, but there are several fire pits to cook your food over.

We usually provide one main meal Saturday night for everyone for free. Otherwise, we have a couple of food vendors on standby. Food vendors take cash payment, for usually just a few bucks per meal. You are also welcome to bring and cook your own food over one of several firepits on-site.

Foam weapons and nerf guns are allowed, but must be put through a safety inspection before they go into play. Our LARP follows the safety and damage rules of Dagorhir battle games. You can read more about these guidelines in our rulebook.

Bottle caps are the in-game currency used for our LARP. All new players start off with a certain amount of caps. Logistics will help you make some purchase decisions at the beginning of your first game; beyond that, the wasteland is yours! Participating in quests, collecting bounties, gambling with other players, claiming loot from loot boxes and dead bodies, stealing from NPC shopkeeps, capturing and sell prisoners, and selling to merchants are all ways to earn caps in-game. You can also donate props and crafting supplies to the crew, and they will be happy to give you caps for your donations.

We also sometimes have a shortage of NPC players, which is when we will open up NPC shifts. Players who volunteer to NPC at certain times have the opportunity to earn caps for their regular character, if they’re willing to put in a couple hours of work. NPC shifts include monster shifts (play as a raider, feral ghoul, etc.), shopkeep shifts (run one of our main NPC shops), module shifts (help plot crew set up play areas for game mods) and other miscellaneous needs, as they pop up.

Yes, please come! Full-time NPCs play at a significantly reduced rate and eat for free.

Yes, please! Non-combatant characters and NPCs are integral and add a special element to all our events. You can play your own original character, or you can volunteer to NPC. Non-combat NPC roles include shop vendors, player registration assistants, traveling merchants, reporters, wanderers, and more. Get creative!

A faction is a group of characters who have banded together over similar goals. Joining a Faction in Carolina Radlands is not required, but is certainly encouraged. Factions can provide you with extra items, protection, and assistance during quests. In order to join a Faction, you must convince them in-game to let you enter their ranks. To form a faction, please refer to the Faction Creation section of our Rulebook.

Characters who die have two options to respawn: you can do one “monster” shift (a brief NPC shift where you play as a monster, such as an evil raider, feral ghoul, rogue robot, etc) or pay the death toll (pay caps to the NPC doctor). Please refer to our Rulebook for more information.

Players are encouraged to bring their own padded melee weapons (Dagorhir style), or their own Nerf guns. We also have several loaner weapons available for new players. All weapons need to be safety checked before entering the game.

As for props, you an encouraged to bring your own to help build the immersion of our game, but consumable/purchasable items – such as components, bandages, chems, etc – are provided in-game to you for free. All props that belong to the game masters must be turned in at the end of the game, to help keep our admission prices low. (It costs money to buy these things. Please be nice and return them!)

Probably! We have a few dedicated food vendors, but are always looking for more. Contact us directly via Facebook message or email us at carolinaradlands@gmail.com and our founder Steve will be happy to get you more info.

We sometimes do, depending on the venue and the availability. Contact us directly via Facebook message or email us at carolinaradlands@gmail.com for more info.

Yes! It depends on the venue we are at, but most of our large events are at EastWind Castle, where there are plenty of buildings, flat paths, and clearings for wheelchairs, canes and other mobility devices. Assistance will also be happily provided to players with vision, hearing or cognitive disabilities.