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What the Press is
Saying - Welcome to the Adventure!
Hey, who needs reality all the time? Certainly not members of the New England Roleplaying Organization, who believe that regular doses of fantasy, preferably large and colorful doses, make the pressures of real life a lot more bearable. It's a game with complex rules that blend elements of Robin Hood, classic fantasy fiction such as "Lord of the Rings," improvisational theatre, the epic of King Arthur, table games like Dungeons & Dragons, a Renaissance fair and maybe a little psychodrama. The game is propelled in unpredictable directions by players ranging in age from 14 to 60 who create and act the roles of assorted fantasy characters such as magicians, princesses, alien creatures, noblemen, dwarfs, gypsy seeresses, knights and warriors.
NERO is a classic and the first American live action roleplaying game to set major trends. NERO has a membership of around 5,000 nationwide and runs events through numerous chapters throughout the country.
Mortals who never set foot on a real stage are playing out a fantasy of medieval life as they would prefer it to be....The action never stops!
To the heart of the woods and in the dark of the night they come - chemists, construction workers, and computer programmers - living out a fantasy full of monsters and magic, heroes and villains. Armed with duct tape and foam rubber, they gather to battle monsters, magic spells and the occasional tree stump.
In the NERO world, everyone is a player. For an entire weekend, over 300 players fill the town with barons, knights, squires, wizards, thieves, healers, gypsies, merchants and beggars - each with his own personal goals, quests and desires. NERO games and live-action games like them are certainly the next wave of roleplaying games.
NERO's emphasis is on character interaction in a well-developed setting, with a single, coherent world background which allows for more player initiative. You can go as far as your imagination and your physical endurance are able to take you. - Renaissance Magazine NERO is dedicated to running a game that is as realistic as possible while still being easy to grasp.
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Although there are no scripts and players have to improvise, the adventurers are guided by plots devised by NERO's plot committee; these include fighting monsters, solving puzzles, and casting spells.
NERO was founded in 1989 with the idea that the less seen of dungeon masters and dice the better. Free will is encouraged and nurtured and a policy of "the more the merrier" rules at its events. Each player is encouraged to create their own goals and aspirations to encourage as many different plots to be going on all at the same time. Some players want to pass the tests of the Court of Chivalry to become knights, some want to join the thieves' guild and make their fortune that way, some want to become powerful wizards - and there is no one there telling you that you can't. Add to this the myriad other plots that are always going on and it's a guarantee that the only reason for being bored at a NERO event is because you aren't taking advantage of all that is going on around you.
In many game systems, the way to earn Experience Points is to kill monsters. In fact, some games only allow you to use your real out-of-game skills when fighting. This means that the biggest toughest athletes always get to be the heroes in the game, while those of us who are of a more normal body type end up merely being their followers. NERO is a fantasy game which means that (as the slogan goes) you can "Be all that you can't be." Your character can learn skills to make him or her a better fighter despite your out-of-game skills (or lack thereof!) So you don't have to only be a fighter to advance in this truly roleplaying system. In fact, many of the most powerful characters in the NERO game are the merchants, gamblers, and entertainers - and the fact that NERO rewards this sort of playing adds greatly to the atmosphere and feel of the game as a whole.
The experience of forty eight hours of constant roleplaying is not one easily conveyed on paper. Tabletop players who are used to knowing their character's percentage chances of hitting with a sword or a spell, picking a lock or sneaking up on someone: get ready for reality (sort of). There is a saying [at] NERO that you can't be paranoid since everything is out to get you. This is the last aspect of the game which you have to experience to understand: the intensity. Adrenaline-induced exhilaration, rage, greed and fear (always fear) are not common in tabletop games. A weekend in NERO will keep you on your toes: you may not sleep, you'll run yourself ragged, you won't want to put your sword down to eat, and when it's over you'll be eagerly waiting for the next weekend to do it again.
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