/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

I've been in these threads once or twice but never enough to actually retain anything. I recently bought a bow at my local pawn shop for about $20 (I posted about it on /out/ https://boards.4channel.org/out/thread/1990405#p2000568)) and I never really saw myself as an archer type in the days that I would lurk here, but now that I've got a bow I figure I might as well incorporate it into any LARPing I do. The thing is I don't know much about LARPing, I would mostly pop in here and browse as opposed to actually getting involved but now I want to learn more. One thing I've been wondering is what sort of gear my character would carry, along with what weapons besides the bow. I was thinking something along the lines of a short sword and punch shield, or at least a small shield/buckler.
As for gear I have the mindset of making things practical in the sense of if I wanted to larp into the woods for a week/month and survive with what I've got on me I could actually do it, yknow? I've got a good idea for what to have gear wise in that sense because I've been looking into that for other reasons, but for this loadout I guess historical accuracy would be cool, like a modern day ferro rod/striker set amongst other modern day gear would sort of stand out I suppose.
In general I don't know if I would want this character I'm making to be more history based or fantasy based. I don't live anywhere near any sort of large scale larps and no one I know would want to, so it would mostly be for me.
Another thing I've wondered is clothing, some posts in this thread have mentioned reliability for online sources which is a problem I've run into, in the sense of I don't know what's reputable and whats garbage.

I know most of this probably seems scatter-brained and all over the place, but like I said I've got lots of questions, lots I don't know, and not a whole lot of organization as to what I'm asking.

Pic related is the bow