Live-Action Reborn

"The light...it's brighter than you thought it would be. Brighter than you thought any light ever could be. Your hand goes up defensively, to no avail; as the light reaches its epoch it passes effortlessly first thru your flesh, then thru your bones, and then into your very being. Blinded, you can not even perceive your sense of self. In this state you hung; it could have been a moment, or it could have been as long as all the moments before your first, but they passed as quickly either way."

Bringing New Life to Larping

Avalux imagines a community-driven, nontoxic larp that create a world without kings or emperors and all the trappings of hierarchy that come with them. Power hungry rulers were long ago driven out of the very structures of society for reasons that quickly become apparent as you discover the nature of the world you suddenly find yourself in.

You died. Somewhere, somewhen, far, far from here. For reasons not apparent to anyone, you awoke here, in a strange land of swords and sorcery, which may or may not be anything like where you came from. It's not the afterlife, there's people here that were born here, lived here, and die here. You age, grow hungry, and need shelter at night. Yet you, and the few here that arrived as you did, can't die of mortal hand...at least not for long. After a few moments your body and equipment sublimates and is reformed nearby, made whole and refreshed.

Naturally, over the centuries of immortal people just showing up out of nowhere, the locals have realized a few things:

The immortals are great at handling the various threats that come on a weirdly regular basis from monsters, beasts, dragons, bandits, megalomaniacs, and conquerors.
The arena and tournaments are never better than when people like you are present on the field. Blood sports, sans the guilt!
Unkillable kings are bad in ways you can't imagine, so no kings. Anywhere. Ever. If you see one trying to rise, kill it. If it comes back, throw it in a hole and leave it there forever.

Avalux is a world to populate and explore, and in the spirit of that sentiment, is built and learned in layers, each of which are available to you to interact with (or not) as you please, in a cooperative effort with others who share the same interests. It's a sandbox, not a directive. Every player is welcome to interact and chip in as they please. Currently only the first layer is fully developed. However, there's much more to come, and while the foundations are laid, the rest of the rules will come from the growing community itself, as we explore the possibilities together.

The Books of Avalux

Day 1

Everything you need to know to just take part in Sparring, Training, Skirmishes, and Tournaments, and make a persona that fits right in...or tells a good story of not fitting right in (isekai style). This is the basic game play layer...just enough to get started. It includes equipment rules, garb, and basic social safety mechanisms, such as the Code of Conduct and Flagging mechanism.

Persona Guide

A list of the available Tropes, along with their progressions, and explanations of the abilities they have. This includes attributes such as their wealth, connections, upbringing, and metatype, as well a more in-depth details about the nature of the world your Persona finds itself in. Essentially, everything a player needs to know to participate in Parlors, the Arena, and Battles. Also featured will be the basic Accomplishments: how to earn them (objectively) and what they are. We also include import mechanisms for bringing in your Personae from other games without losing everything you've worked so hard for (as applicable). Finally, it will have detailed guides, instructions, and patterns for common equipment and garb builds.

Building and Exploring Guide

Every Chapter is, fundamentally, a small outpost of metahumanity in a larger world of dragons, goblinoids, hungry beasts, unkillable villains, ancient ruins, and unclaimed (and sometimes claimed) resources. This is everything players need to take part in building their Chapter, going on Adventures, both self-directed and MapKeeper directed, as well as engage actively in the economy of the world as appropriate for their Persona, from running a tavern to making a potion to building a fortress. Your imagination is the guide...tell a grand story.

Governance & Guilds

Chapter formation procedures and policies that are meant to be inclusive and as unrestricted as possible within the parameters of our shared narrative. Chapters are independent and self-governed, organizing regionally only by voluntary and democratic cooperative means. A Chapter is managed by 4 distinct Guilds, entry into which is limited only be meeting certain basic requirements. Members of the Guilds act semi-autonomously, with mechanisms for collectively acting to accomplish larger goals. Also included are guides for each of the Guild members on how to do their job well as a MapKeeper, Arbiter, Curator, or Herald.

Various thematic expansions, Adventure modules, and guides are all set for future development, and your involvement, as little or as much as you like, will be appreciated and rewarded. Avalux is, literally, what you make it: the safe place to wear awesome clothes and act a different way with like-minded people.

Community Funded, Community Led

The trade-off for a decentralized, non-hierarchical larp is you can't depend on somebody else to do it. We all have to chip in our portion to make this happen. Right now, our needs are many: we're only starting this journey. We want to come to you now, before it's complete, so you can help, so you can have a say, so you can bring your unique perspective and history to bear on a project larger than any one person or group of people. If you are a long-time larper, practiced game developer, artist, or writer, your skills are of particular interest, but if not, don't be discouraged: your voice is important to us as well.

The most important things you can do today, to help get this started, is:

Get in on the conversation - much of it has been IRL, but to broaden our horizons we've implemented a Discord server. You'll find it simple, friendly, and accessible. Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/Q3aeemhqaS
Spread the word - tell your friends, and just start meeting up. We can work out the formalities later, together.
Chip in - spinning up a 501(c) and getting insurance for us all has a cost in both time and money. Chip in what you can. Run fundraisers. Take collections. Whatever it takes, if we work together, we can move mountains.

Avalux: A New Beginning