About NERO. . .

The NERO Live Action Roleplaying Game was founded in 1989 in Massachusetts.  It is now the largest fantasy LARP in North America, with over 50 chapters across the United States and Canada.  There are thousands of members across the United States and Canada.  Chapters are as far south as Florida and Texas, and as far north as New Brunswick and Maine.  You can go out west to California and Colorado, or to the east to Washington D.C and Boston.   You can play your Character in any one of these chapters, this is truly a national game. 

There is no "rock, paper, scissors" in NERO.  If you want to fight someone, pick up a harmless "boffer" weapon (made of PVC pipe covered in foam and duct tape, they really are quite safe) and hit them with it.  The amount of skill your character has bought with that weapon determines how much damage that attack did.  Every character has a certain amount of points of damage they can take.  It's just a game though, you only need to swing hard enough so that they know they were hit, don't swing your sword like it was a baseball bat.  Also, for safety reasons the head, hands, and groin are not legal targets.  If someone hits you with a weapon there, you don't have to take the damage. 

If your character is a Mage, then you can cast a spell to hurt or help someone.  Spells are cast by reciting a short phrase, which represents your character's spellcasting and lets everyone know what you cast, and then throwing what we call a "spell packet" which is a small bag of birdseed.   If you hit your target with that packet, then the spell worked.

If your character is a Thief, then you actually have to hide in the shadows to be unseen, there is no "pretend you don't see me" skills or spells in this game.  To disarm a trap, you'll actually have to get out some tools and keep that trap from going off, to pick a lock you'll have to get out some picks and try and open it yourself (not modern warded locks, simple old-style locks that are much easier to pick).   For safety purposes things like climbing walls and swimming aren't allowed and we have rules to simulate them.  We try to have you do everything yourself except when legality or safety make it impossible.

The setting of the NERO campaign is the world of Tyrra, a medieval fantasy world combining historic re-enactment and mock-combat with high-fantasy and roleplaying.  The Tyrran setting is at a level of technology roughly equivalent to the late Dark Ages or Early Renaissance, although there are no firearms in the world of Tyrra.  A dozen fantasy races interact with countless monsters, dragons, elementals, and undead.  The continent of Avalon (where all the various areas represented by chapters are) is a busy place, with ancient kingdoms, ominous empires, anarchic wilderness settlements, tainted swamps, and a rich patchwork of realms.

We don't want to offend anyone's religious beliefs, so there is NO religion allowed in NERO.  We are very serious about this, there are no gods or demons, no angels or devils.  Please don't use any religious titles or symbols in your character's name or costume.  There are no Priests or Clerics in this game (magical healing exists in this game but it is strictly non-religious).  Characters are also not allowed to create any religion or bring one in-game.  Yes, we know that a religion could add a lot to the game, but it could also offend people or be misunderstood by people.  It's just simpler to leave the entire issue out.

Your character can be human, or any one of 12 races, including Elves, Dwarves, Half-Orcs and other fantasy races, even a race of cat-people called the Sarr.  There are 4 character classes to choose from: Fighter, Rogue, Scholar, and Templar (a spellcaster with slightly better combat skills but worse spellcasting than a Scholar).  However, character classes aren't as important as the skills you take.  This is a skills-based game, every character begins with some points to buy skills, and every event you attend your character earns some more points to get more skills and abilities.  Character classes mostly determine what different skills cost for your character, magical skills will be very expensive for a Fighter, but they can learn weapons and fighting skills very cheaply.   Sometimes what race your character is also affects the cost of a skill, making it more or less expensive.  Any character class can learn any skill, it might just cost a more Build Points, and some combinations are highly impractical.

The NERO Game is designed to require as little help from a Gamemaster to function as possible.  Interaction, combat, and most game scenarios can be performed seamlessly by player characters without a gamemaster (called a Marshal in this game) following them around.  They are only required in special circumstances, like powerful magical rituals (to ensure that all rules are followed) and thieves breaking into someone else's cabin to steal in-game items (to make sure that only in-game items are stolen, instead of someone's out-of-game property).   There always are Marshals available to make rules calls, supervise those few things requiring a Marshal, and to properly run the NPC camp, where all the NPC monsters and townsfolk are costumed, equipped and prepared

All things said, NERO is a very fun way to act out those adventures you only read about in novels or played out in tabletop games.