I would not want to be associated with an event that takes its best practice from an underground rave.
Have you ever attended an underground rave ? Take the Entrain/Gathering series, for example. They took place on top of Takaka Hill, in between Nelson and Golden Bay, over the New Years period. No glass or alcohol* allowed, 5-10k people, 3 days. No fights occurred. Meanwhile, down in Nelson, there would be street riots with police and arrests - and the violence was always sheeted home to alcohol, a drug with which you seem unconcerned.
- In practice, this meant that only those who were clever enough to hide their alcohol would be able to bring any in (there were car searches etc). The upshot is that the munters didn’t bring any alcohol, and the responsible ones did (well, those who wanted too, anyway). Ergo, no problems.
Anyway, I think we have covered ways in which we can let our participants know about the consequences of using illicit substances at larp venues.
One area we could include in the CoC is player/GM communication. Perhaps looking at concrete ways of implementing Stephanies “resolving OOC disputes gracefully” idea.
I like her Spirit of the Game list, and think we could use this as a basis for developing a CoC.
No, if I had my druthers I’d keep alcohol out too. “Getting stoned or smashed” is very far away from “what I want out of a larp”. And drunk people are really annoying.
Okay, I take back my words about “best practice.” But still, if I thought there was a chance of drugs at a larp I was going to be attending, or that people were planning on getting themselves smashed on liquor, I would not attend. That would not be a place where I would be comfortable. I do not think I am a freak in feeling this way. (Though I may be wrong. 
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And I repeat, it would be bad for the public image of larpers in New Zealand.
Fair enough.
2 reasons why i feel this would potentially be an incorrect assumption:
1: Drinking culture in NZ is super huge… I mean MASSIVE. There is a drinking culture in the UK that consists of - lets go to the pub for lunch and a pint (during working hours) and thats ok (apparently). However the culture here seems to be split - Drink on occasion mostly at home or with close friends - and - GET SMASHED - WHY ARE YOU NOT UNCONCIOUS YET! (this seems to be ok anywhere… apparently)
and - most importantly
2: Drinking culture at UK larps (for those that attend re-enactment) I would put as being closer to the re-enactment style of drinking - where the game ‘event’ goes time out at midnight and people sit round a campfire - sing songs, chat be merry and get drunk. Time in is normally around 10am so you don’t need to rush to get up in the morning (the facination with being up before the birds in this country still escapes me… sure for hunting go for it but EVERY DAY?) I would frequently take a 24can Box of cider to a weekend larp and go home with none left at the end (friday to sunday evening) and I would not drink it all myself but I would drink other alcohol. We had a great weekend - plently of time to catch up out of character after dark and loads of crazy larping during the day.
So no - I do not and will never think that drinking is a bad idea at larps.
However… this is my opinion and I am informed that you are entitled to one as well - you may consider youself informed of mine
While I prefer to larp sober, neither do I. More importantly, I don’t think its NZLARPS to be the morality police. The society’s interest in alcohol at larps is confined to preventing it from being a safety hazard, preventing it from annoying venues, and possibly preventing it from intefering with games (though really that’s a GM call).
I don’t have a problem with people drinking to “happy and relaxed” stage. Getting smashed and incapacitated seems like a waste of a good larp, though. 
[quote] Drink on occasion mostly at home or with close friends - and - GET SMASHED - WHY ARE YOU NOT UNCONCIOUS YET! (this seems to be ok anywhere… apparently)[/quote]I never really understood why people would want to do that. I mean, it’s not like they can remember the good times they had.
Anyway, I’m little enough that people who are very drunk with poor impulse control think it’s OK to body slam me, or grab my bike helmet and yank it down when I’m walking past, or just generally getting handsy, and this is all crap that my 6’2" boyfriend coincidentally never has to bother with. So I’ve got a bit of an interest in what ‘other people’ do at an event I’m attending. Could the code of conduct have a line like: “if you’re going to drink, be responsible about it, and responsible about your behaviour with other players” ?
For the drug one, could you put in a line like:
- I understand that illegal activity, such as the use of prohibited drugs, is not acceptable at a larp event. I understand that if I am caught in an illegal activity at a larp event, this may result in the entire larp community being banned from that venue.
Something like that? If someone really really wants to smoke a joint, they can go off site to do it and not do the whole “bringing the larp community into disrepute” thing.
Drinking by underaged people would also count in this category, no?
So it can be said as “what is illegal in New Zealand - is STILL illegal in NZ larps, because they happen in NZ. You must not do that when at larp.”
By the way, how often does it happen that at events or in groups where teenagers are allowed to attend and have fun together with grown ups, the rule is accepted “no adults should drink alcohol because this will upset kids who can’t do the same”? Just wondering how typical that situation is…
Quite frankly, I think that any mention of use of illegal and/or illicit substances should be of the following form:
“Illegal and/or illicit substances are NOT acceptable and should NOT be brought to an event of NZLARPS.”
As a public society, we need to follow the law. Simple. Whether one agrees with law or not is a debate for outside of the events we run.
A code of conduct does seem like a good idea, even though most things will be ‘common sense’, a good deal of the time people forget how common they are.