{"id":1520,"date":"2026-08-01T18:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/?p=1520"},"modified":"2026-08-01T18:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:36:52","slug":"red-lights-and-talismans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/red-lights-and-talismans\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Lights and Talismans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Lights<\/h1>\n\n\n

Many people have been using red light sources at our events to navigate or read lammies at night without disrupting everyone\u2019s night vision. We think this is a great idea, and the event team will be getting a supply of red lights for refs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also wanted to provide a heads-up, during a Season of Delving for one of the night slots, monsters will be briefed to hunt players based on their light sources. However, they will not<\/strong> react to red lights.\u00a0 We will have some static red lights in the area, but players are also free to bring IC red light sources for extra visibility. For safety reasons, do not use any light source with glass elements or a real flame. If you have an existing lantern IC, red acetate sheets can be used to change the colour temporarily and are pretty inexpensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are affected by any form of Colour Vision Deficiency or Colour Blindness, we would suggest that you make this known to our event team when checking in to the event, and we will work with you to minimise the impact this might have on your game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll let you know which slot this will be when we announce Thane’s schedule and monster sign ups.<\/p>\n\n\n

Talismans – the Why, the What and the How<\/h1>\n\n\n

One of the big changes in the Second Edition of the Five Oaths rules was the introduction of Talismans, which replace crafted magical weapons with crafted magical accessories that you add to an existing weapon. To help people prepare for the game, we wanted to talk once again about why we made this change, but more critically what kind of things we see as options for talismans, and how we expect them to be used in play.<\/p>\n\n\n

Why Talismans?<\/h2>\n\n\n

It\u2019s common practice in field LARP to use lammies to represent items being something more than what they appear to be, having special rules, or otherwise needing more information. This system works really well on the whole, but it does fall down in certain areas: When the numbers get big, and when ownership\/possession changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first one is pretty clear – if you have an armour lammie, a weapon lammie and a shield lammie, you just attach those to your armour, your weapon and your shield before you enter play, and it\u2019s not a big deal. But if you have 19 armour lammies, 7 shield lammies and 32 weapon lammies\u2026 that doesn\u2019t work so well anymore. This is a common problem with groups, people who do crafting and try to sell the produce, or centralised repositories of gear (like the Quartermaster of Cumhact na R\u00e9ig). There are workarounds to this (hessian bags of styrofoam to represent \u201carmour\u201d, etc.), but realistically what tends to happen is a deck of magic item lammies, and that just feels kind of naff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other one is what happens when you want to give someone your masterwork Armour, but not actually give them the Armour you\u2019re wearing. Or, for that matter, when you don\u2019t want to but they\u2019re robbing you anyway. What tends to happen in scenarios like this is that the lammie will be removed and handed over, but then you\u2019re still left wearing your\u2026 spare armour? Meanwhile the other person is attaching that lammie to their item, or if they don\u2019t have a usable item, just running off with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar element to this is the fact that some peoples weapons or armour represents a personally meaningful item to their character, so they might not want to stop using their grand-uncles sword just to instead use one that lets them do extra Shatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switching to Talismans is a way to marry what\u2019s actually happening (an OC object that makes the item better has been attached to it) to what\u2019s happening in game (an IC object that makes the item better has been attached to it). Only needing some small doodad to attach your lammy to instead of a large, expensive physrep means that we can enforce the rule that all lammies must<\/strong> be attached to a physrep without unreasonably punishing players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, it provides a possible way for crafter characters to make their work distinctive – typically the swords and armour produced by \u00c1ine the Smith would all have \u00c1ine\u2019s distinct style, but under Rules 1 \u00c1ine just gives someone a lammie to go on their physrep. Whereas now \u00c1ine can (if they want to!) provide talisman physreps so that it\u2019s clear to see who is supplying arms to who.<\/p>\n\n\n

What Talismans?<\/h2>\n\n\n

So what is a Talisman supposed to look like? The short, and very unhelpful answer, is any non-fragile item that you can safely attach to a part of the physrep it is enhancing. In all cases, \u201csafely\u201d would include not having sharp edges or points that could damage a person or LARP weapon that were to come into contact with them. In the case of LARP weapons, you should keep them at the handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more useful answer here is to talk about the two designs of talisman which we intend to supply in Games Ops, and what kind of things we expect people might use beyond that.<\/p>\n\n\n

CnR Medallions<\/h3>\n\n\n

Branding is very important, so we’ll be making a bunch of these 3D printed medallions for talisman use<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This first design has 2 parallel tunnels through it, allowing a leather lace to run through it twice and thus keep it tight to what it’s attached to. I also made a second design that\u2019s suited to use with armour or shields:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This one doesn’t have the tunnels through it, because it has a large washer that was added part way through printing, which gives it a very satisfying weight.<\/p>\n\n\n

Woolen Favours<\/h3>\n\n\n

Inspired by the ubiquitous county colour plaits GAA fans attach to everything, and a desire to have some soft options for delicate physreps or people concerned about using more solid Talismans, we\u2019re raiding our craft supplies for odd bits of yarn to make braids, i-cord, macrame, etc.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Obviously this is just the kind of thing we can produce in bulk, but hopefully it provides some idea what kind of thing we\u2019re imagining. Strings of beads, fake flowers, medallions, tablet weavings are all within the space of what we\u2019d expect, but if you have an idea for something that you\u2019re unsure of, go ahead and email us at info@fiveoaths.com<\/a>, or bring it up on the Discord – we\u2019ll kick off a thread for Talisman Ideas, and monitor it more than usual, although if we aren\u2019t getting back to you there, email is always the best way to get an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n

How Talismans?<\/h2>\n\n\n

I\u2019ll admit this is partly me wanting to add a 3rd question word, but I did want to touch on how exactly the practical mechanics of Talismans should work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you open your pack and it has talisman lammies in it, you should attach them to a talisman physrep before time in. We would recommend that you use a cable tie for this (and we\u2019ll be supplying some at Games Ops), as lammies should typically not be moving from one talisman to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When attaching a talisman to an item, you should do this in a way that can be removed with <5s of effort, so that if you are being searched you can have your talismans ready to hand over to foe. If the talisman design doesn\u2019t lend itself to being tied onto an item, hair ties or elastic bands can be a good solution here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, when attaching talismans constructed from solid material to weapon physreps, care must be taken that the talismans do not swing freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you are giving a talisman to another character, we would ask you to remove the talisman from the weapon\/armour\/shield it is attached to and pass it to the other character. If this character is a member of our monster crew, and the talisman isn\u2019t one you got from Games Ops (we\u2019ll make sure to label\/mark all of ours for clarity, and recommend you do the same), then we\u2019ll collect it from them at debrief and have it waiting for you at Games Ops as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you plan on passing a talisman to another player, we\u2019d recommend using a physrep provided by us, or which you accept the risk of losing (much like if you\u2019re loaning any item to another person) – you\u2019re always welcome to nip over to Games Ops and swap the lammie over to one of ours, or duck into a tent and move it to another talisman of yours or one belonging to the other player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Lights Many people have been using red light sources at our events to navigate or read lammies at night without disrupting everyone\u2019s night vision. We think this is a great idea, and the event team will be getting a supply of red lights for refs. We also wanted to provide a heads-up, during a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,16,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiveoaths.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}