Cambridge University Treasure Trap

A LARP group based, surprisingly enough, at the University of Cambridge (though open to non-student members), CUTT is set in Grantabrugge, a low-to-medium-fantasy analogue of late-13th Century Cambridge and the home of the Brotherhood of Magic, Albion's most prestigious centre of arcane learning. Play centres around the Wessex Arms, a pub notable for its free beer, diverse clientele and unregulated ritual circle; a pub session every Friday is followed by a smaller group of characters going on a more standard RPG adventure, such as dealing with bandits or hunting down a dragon, on the Saturday.

More detailed setting information, and a history of TT both in and out of character, can be found (among other things) on the society website.


 * Awesome McCoolname: Invoked; when a mage reaches the rank of Journeyman, they are allowed to choose a new name. This results in (PC) luminaries with names like Master Tremor and Master Blackheart.
 * BBC Quarry: Nearby Grantchester Meadows have represented everything from the Grantabrugge Fens to planes full of demons.
 * Bondage Is Bad: Certainly the opinion held by many IC; Sordan, the god of pain and enlightenment through suffering, is one of two whose worship was, until a recent divine intervention mandated otherwise, illegal- the other being Vivamort, God of the Undead. Since his strictures are not widely known, it's difficult to say how accurate on opinion this is.
 * Building of Adventure: A lot happens on Friday nights in the Wessex Arms. It probably doesn't help that there's a ritual circle that not infrequently explodes or spews out demons or whatever.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Vivamortian and Sordanite priests can swing this way- when you serve the God of Undeath or the God of Pain, it's easy to drop into cackling villainy, though it's far from mandatory.
 * Carry a Big Stick: The usually choice of weapon for Brown Mages, who can empower blunt weapons to hit harder.
 * Cast from Hit Points: Dark Magic has a slight tendency to give the user a nasty case of frostbite.
 * Church Militant: The Children of the Light in particular, with their military ranking structure, although most if not all churches have some sort of warrior.
 * Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Both Elemental Elves and Uruk come in types coloured according to the element suffusing them- there's even the occasional Elemental Human.
 * Cool Sword: Very common; of particular note is the Dark Magic spell Blackblade, which makes your sword so cool it hurts. Literally.
 * Corrupt Church: There used to be some necromancers using the Church of St John, the God of Healing, as a handy way to get hold of vulnerable people. Since necromancers are now legal, it's less of an issue...
 * Dark Is Not Evil: While the College of Darkness and the Drow have a bad reputation, Dark magic is actually the easiest to use to win fights nonlethally.
 * Demon Slaying: Not uncommon in the Wessex Arms, due to the aforementioned ritual circle.
 * Elemental Powers: The six Colours of Magic.
 * Filk: There's a page of them on the society wiki, of varying degrees of I Cness and ranging from dour Humacti hymns to a version of Still Alive from the point of view of a PC who became a vampire. Oh, and Humact's Mighty Sword of Smiting.
 * Functional Magic: Comes in three types. Magic, as taught by the seven Colleges of the Brotherhood of Magic, comes in six elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Light and Dark), as well as Grey Magic, a mixture of all six; there are Spiritually Awakened priests capable of calling on the power of their god to perform miracles, anything from healing injuries to smiting foes to raising undead servants, depending on the predilections of the god in question; and Alchemy, the creation of potions and poisons, mainly used for healing and improving one's capabilities.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: This is what's going down if you ever hear the words "I OVERCAST" or "BY MY ULTIMATE FAITH" in play, as they wring out every last scrap of power/call directly on the power of their god to make something big happen.
 * Holy Hand Grenade: All but three of the currently-existant gods grant access to Smite Body miracles- including St John, the god of healing.
 * Language of Magic: Tengwar, played entirely straight (but also useful for secret mage-chatting).
 * Light Is Not Good: Light magic is just as amoral as any other kind, while the Children of the Light, a religious group, are dedicated to protect the populace from misuse of magic and evil gods, and often edge into Well-Intentioned Extremist territory.
 * Logical Weakness: Uruk and Elemental Elves are vulnerable to magic of the element that opposes theirs- Fire to Water, Earth to Air, Light to Dark.
 * Necromancer: CUTT necromancers, though referred to as such, are not mages but priests- specifically of Vivamort, the God of Undeath. Priests of Balance can also learn to raise the undead.
 * Our Angels Are Different: They're fragments of Gods (and also the souls of dead priests), with appropriate powers. See also Our Vampires Are Different below.
 * Our Elves Are Different: Nearly all elves have had half their soul replaced with pure elemental magic due to a ritual long in the setting's past. More recent events temporarily changed them to the race's original state, and a few chose to remain as True Elves.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: They're technically angels- specifically angels of Vivamort, the God of Undeath.
 * The Paladin: The term's used rather more broadly, to refer to any warrior-priest- a Paladin of Vivamort is as simple an idea as a Paladin of St John- but Paladins of St John, Humact and the Light fit the trope description.
 * Ritual Magic: Will either do something interesting or explode. Either results in fun.
 * Rubber Forehead Demons: There's only so much you can do when everything the PCs meet needs to be represented by another society member.
 * True Neutral: In-universe with Balance and its priesthood- and aggressively so. If crime is rife and the people are afraid to leave their houses, they'll be crusading for peace and lawfulness- but when everything's calm and safe, Balance will stir things up a little...
 * Turn Undead: Subverted. The Undead are no easier to kill than anything else for the average priest- but a sufficiently high-ranking Priest of Vivamort can command them. Unfortunately, some undead are sufficiently high-ranking Priests of Vivamort.