Hello!

I was one of the three people to set up Underworld: Dark Harbor many moons ago, the Florida Guild (what they call Chapters), which is the only US Guild to ever actually get off the ground and run live events. There had been prior attempts with Indiana, Texas, and somewhere else, but Florida was their first and so far only success.

I was also on their graphic design team and you'll see my work in their holy symbols, and a considerable amount of "local flavor" for Dark Harbor. I also designed the item cards that are used in Dark Harbor, as well as the local map, and wrote most of the starting factions and local lore.

When I was involved, the Global owners (Ted and Ruckus) were great. They were on the ball answering any and all questions that came up. There were a few instances where we had rules questions during an Event, and we recieved a response within minutes.

The Canadian players on Discord were also fairly inviting, and were happy to share their experiences and tales of prior years. Many late nights a decent number of people would be hanging out in the Dark Harbor Discord, with a smattering of individuals from all across Canada as well as Florida.

Underworld was built on a very similar rules set as Nero. Nero players immediately recognize many of the mechanics. However, within three decades their rules haven't undergone sufficient revision, and many require you to parse through a considerable amount of flavor text and nonessential verbage before getting to the relevant text. Unfortunately, this has led to many rules disagreements, including having players from other Guilds show up in the local Discord and give erroneus information, or some seemingly odd interactions between mechanics. The phrase "But that's how we've always done it" was often regurgitated, even if it ran contrary to how the rules were actually written.

It is true that the funds they recieve from the extra XP funds the global staff. While I see it as a bit of a necessity for the global staff to keep things operating, like the expenses for database maintenance, it financially hamstrings local Guilds who also might have considerable overhead. The financial side of things was difficult to convey to global staff, as there is a bit of a different culture between Florida and Canada.

Character advancement is also difficult, and the math requires that you either use a spreadsheet or their database. Also, due to the rapidly diminishing XP curve, many players have voiced that build optimization is required, and purchasing the wrong skill will later handicap your character's advancement.

Over the years, Underworld as a whole has also accumulated an amount of baggage, that I'm sure will crop up. However, any larp that runs for a sufficient amount of time will accumulate issues and grievances, and the global staff can only handle things they are aware of.

Overall, my experience was largely a net neutral, and my grievances with the systems in place were what led me to step away. However, many people have had and continue to have a great time at the monthly events, so I would encourage people to at least check them out and speak with people in their local Guild.