We are a high-fantasy LARP (Live Action Role-Playing) group that is currently based in Southeast Michigan. You may already be familiar with tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons and Dragons or White Wolf products. If you are, the difference between an RPG and a LARP is that RPGs consist of half a dozen or so players sitting around a kitchen table with dice and a single Game Master, whereas a LARP is a cross between an elaborate theatre production, live combat, and a hike in the woods. LARPs such as ours have costuming, boffer weapons, and dozens of players whose actions influence not only what you can accomplish but the course of an entire fantasy world. If you aren't, well, them's the basics ;)

We currently hold weekend-long events (Friday night through Sunday afternoon) 6-8 times per year at campgrounds such as Brighton State Recreation Area, Bald Mountain Recreation Area, and Camp Kiwanis. See Event Dates and Locations for more information.

Combat Overview:

For non-political conflict resolutions, we have real-time combat fought via boffer (padded) weapons. Under our rules, your out-of-game (OOG) skill with a weapon does not determine how powerful or skilled you are with a weapon while playing the game. You become more "powerful" with a weapon by using the character points (experience) you earn by attending an event to buy in-game weapon skills. The more events you have, the bigger and better your skills become. This way, a 5-foot-tall woman straight out of high school can stand toe-to-toe with a large man with years of real-world swordfighting experience. After all, what's the point of fantasy role-playing if you can't be something you aren't in real life?

Types of Characters you Can Play:

Just about anything you can concieve, as long as it's appropriate to the game setting. We don't force players to be a standard fighter, healer, thief, or mage. We are a skill-based system, not a class-based one. By purchasing the relevant skills, you can be a mad scientist, an alchemist, a fence, a politician, a woodsman, a beast master, and so on. Check out the Character Archetype section in our rulebook for more examples.

Races of Characters you can play:

A beginning player can choose to be one of several fantasy races: a dwarf, high elf, dark elf, wood elf, Avayana (bird-man), gnome, guthrie (halfling), any number of human/animal hybrids (cat people, lizard men, and so on) or, of course, human. Advanced players may choose to play a wider variety of races with GM approval.

CARPS was founded by Chris Nicholson, Wayne Overla, William Pemberton, James DeWald, and Robert Osterman over 10 years ago. They created the game while attending Central Michigan University, hence the name (Central Action Role-Playing Society). They ask that we call ourselves "CARPS: Ironguard Campaign" in case they ever feel like running other CARPS worlds. The game is currently run by Doug Fesko. The website is currently run by a cantankerous little redhead.