Hi everyone - I’m looking for a larp for 20-30 people that I can run for Buckets of Dice in Chch this year. Any suggestions?
Ideally something that we didn’t have to pay to use would be good (also this will not be an NZLARPS event, so I’m not sure what the rules are around using scenarios NZLARPS owns). Something that’s 3-4 hours and has a broad appeal would be good. We should have a venue of several rooms, but I’m not sure what the budget on set dressing is (minimal, if I recall).
Thanks!
“Breakout Day” is good for modern settings as it takes place at a corporate team building event. It was great fun. 
Nzlarps doesn’t own any larp scenarios, the ownership of the script remains with the author even if the game is run as a project. So it isn’t an issue
Breakout Day is a lot of silly fun. Rowena, Blair and I fid a significant rewrite of the original script by Morgan Davie and others. I’m happy to supply it or send a blurb if you like.
You could look at the rpg.net wiki of larp scenarions. Though many of these will have problems with gender ratio.
I don’t know what the gender ratio will be - Chch appears to be relatively new to the larp scene. Breakout Day sounds promising though!
The society purchased some Freeform Games scenarios (like A Dead Man’s Chest) and The Final Voyage of the Mary Celeste. So there might be a question about who the society should lend them to run. Presumably we wouldn’t lend them to just anyone, especially if “lending” means emailing PDFs. Arguably the society could be justified in lending them to any member to run, so long as it was not-for-profit? That would also effectively includes projects, which are run by members.
The society purchased some Freeform Games scenarios (like A Dead Man’s Chest) and The Final Voyage of the Mary Celeste. So there might be a question about who the society should lend them to run. Presumably we wouldn’t lend them to just anyone, especially if “lending” means emailing PDFs. Arguably the society could be justified in lending them to any member to run, so long as it was not-for-profit? That would also effectively includes projects, which are run by members.[/quote]
I think those must be the ones I was thinking of…
Also I’m not sure I’m technically a member currently.
[quote=“Anna K”]
Breakout Day is a lot of silly fun. Rowena, Blair and I fid a significant rewrite of the original script by Morgan Davie and others. I’m happy to supply it or send a blurb if you like.[/quote]
If you could send me through a blurb that would be great 
The society purchased some Freeform Games scenarios (like A Dead Man’s Chest) and The Final Voyage of the Mary Celeste. So there might be a question about who the society should lend them to run. Presumably we wouldn’t lend them to just anyone, especially if “lending” means emailing PDFs. Arguably the society could be justified in lending them to any member to run, so long as it was not-for-profit? That would also effectively includes projects, which are run by members.[/quote]
I think those must be the ones I was thinking of…
Also I’m not sure I’m technically a member currently.[/quote]
Sorry Ryan, you’re right. nzLARPS does own copies of those scenarios. They were dwarfed in my mind by the quantity of really good scenarios that the community has produced over the last five or six years, which the society doesn’t own and can be rerun so long as you convince the original author to let you
Daphne, neither of those games has enough player spaces. Dead Man’s Chest maxes at 16, and Mary Celeste at something like 18. Mary Celeste is free on the web without illustrations anyway. DMC is excellent and well worth paying for.
I am sure if you asked Zara and Clare nicely they would let you run one night in heaven (has been very popular and run at least twice).
I edited down The Flight of the Hindenburg to run with 40 players for the recent run in Auckland, and I think it would be possible to trim it down to 30. It takes a surprising amount of work to rewire things to avoid removed characters and plots though. So that could be another option - 1930s pulp is a very accessible genre. I have the characters in Google Docs so they’re reasonably easy to edit to make revised PDFs.
Have you had a look for other NZ-written larps that have run at Chimera and elsewhere? There may be a few at the 20-30 person size. Although, I think it’s pretty rare for people to write up instructions on how to run their larps if they’re planning for them to be a one-off.
Not new to it… just like Wellington was until recently: 1 Larp a year at the main con.
The Larp I ran at buckets a few years ago had a 17:9 gender split, so I think it might actually be consistent with some of those rpg net ones.
How many characters does it have? I remember it struggling to fill spaces at Chimera, and I’ve learned my lesson about trying to run games that are too ambitious in terms of numbers 
[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]I edited down The Flight of the Hindenburg to run with 40 players for the recent run in Auckland, and I think it would be possible to trim it down to 30. It takes a surprising amount of work to rewire things to avoid removed characters and plots though. So that could be another option - 1930s pulp is a very accessible genre. I have the characters in Google Docs so they’re reasonably easy to edit to make revised PDFs.
Have you had a look for other NZ-written larps that have run at Chimera and elsewhere? There may be a few at the 20-30 person size. Although, I think it’s pretty rare for people to write up instructions on how to run their larps if they’re planning for them to be a one-off.[/quote]
The impression I got was that 30 might still be pushing it - and I wouldn’t want to put you to all that extra effort.
As far as other NZ-written larps - I’m not really sure where to find them, short of asking around. Is there a library somewhere I could look at, or even just a list of one-offs that have been run?
How many characters does it have? I remember it struggling to fill spaces at Chimera, and I’ve learned my lesson about trying to run games that are too ambitious in terms of numbers :/[/quote]
30 spaces:
nzlarps.org/chimera/larp-one-nig … eaven.html
There were a few other larps on at the same time that had good numbers: Star wars - Asterix etc.
[quote=“No Rectangulars”]The impression I got was that 30 might still be pushing it - and I wouldn’t want to put you to all that extra effort.
As far as other NZ-written larps - I’m not really sure where to find them, short of asking around. Is there a library somewhere I could look at, or even just a list of one-offs that have been run?[/quote]
There’s a list of the big ones here, which I should update sometime. For ecent ones, check out last year’s Chimera lineup and try askign GMs.
There’s a list of existing games upthread, and some first impressions of them here.
I think you can find something for 20 players relatively easy. But there’s a gap in the 20-30 zone; Chimera (and IIRC Intercon) standard was less than 20, while flagships have tended to start at 40.