Hi I’m Paul, I will be moving to NZ from the UK in a minimum of two years, to help some kiwi mates set up a full time LARP village, among other things.
In the UK I’ve played and crewed a lot of different systems, from Iron age celts to futuristic mobile infantry.
Which brings me to my question…
What styles of games do you have running in NZ?
How are rules systems different to UK ones?
What sort of age groups play, and where would we find the best player base?
Most of the games we will be running are tried and tested adventures, that us old hands can run with our eyes shut. And as such, we’ll not need any plot help, nor do we really want to adopt a new rules system. (We tend to go for a “no-rules is good rules” approach. “If you can do it, do it, just don’t take the p1ss.”). However, we still need to know if this fits in with NZ LARP ethos, and if we’d bring in the players we need with our games.
Just bear in mind the far lower population density in NZ. There’s a smaller pool of potential participants. On the other hand, there isn’t a lot of competition.
There’s the usual split between live combat and abstract resolution (freeform-style games and WoD). Popular genres are fantasy, vampire, horror, and some SF. The non-combat games have a wider range of genres, with recent/modern/near future not being uncommon.
Game sizes range from around 10 to 100. Games are either one day or a weekend (Fri night to Sun afternoon).
Mordavia, a fantasy campaign running in Auckland, has two weekend events per year and several one-day events.
The live combat systems are mostly simpler. I’ve never seen lammies or anything like them here. Never seen locational damage with multiple HP per location here either, it’s mostly non-location HP. Combat effect calls are less common, and in some games like Mordavia we’ve done away with calling out damage amount - all weapons do 1 damage.
Auckland has the largest population in New Zealand, and game hobbies are pretty popular here. Wellington, Christchurch, and possibly Dunedin might be able to support you too.
That’s the style I prefer, and I think you’ll find plenty of other people interested. There isn’t a culture here (like there is in USA live combat LARP) where most players want to be immortal characters with uber-powers. Never seen a “dodge” ability here, or anything like that, and I don’t think I’ve seen character levels either.
Note that there aren’t any professional LARP prop makers here. I import and sell some latex weapons (see www.paddywhack.co.nz ) and everything else is home-made.
If you’ve got your rules online somewhere please point them out. Always keen to look over another system, especially if it may turn up on my doorstep as a new game to play.
You might also want to talk to us at the newly-formed NZ LARP Society. We’re a charitable organisation due for official incorporation next year, and as well as being a parent organisation for several games (eg, Mordavia) we are also affilliating to various other groups (eg, Skirmish, Paddywhack) to gain member discounts and so on.
If your new group affilliated to NZLARPS, we’d all benefit from support and assistance, and it may be easier to find a player base.
