Dunedin by Night

In case anyone wanders in looking, there does appear to be a Dunedin by Night

(And other than that, I know nothing. I just found it and thought it was worth sharing)

Might be worthwhile for the society to contact them, to see if they’d like to affiliate or to be in the larp guide at least.

firstly spam and 2ndly wow theres another vampie game in NZ…we got to meet up with these guys.

Hey

I have just moved down to Dunedin, and I find myself getting involved with the only larp to be found down here - Dunedin by Night (oWOD, with lots of modifications). It seems to reboot every year though, so the website posted above is way out of date. There is apparently a new one, but I have yet to find out where it is.
No one down here has heard of nzlarps, but I will spread the good word and see if they’re interested. Unfortunately, I can’t see any benefit at this point for them to join… especially as there’s no tradition of paying for larps down here. Still they have on occasion had characters move to other cities in NZ, so maybe some kind of crossover can be done?
Also, I will try and persuade them to come to chimera :slight_smile:

Or you could try and persade them to go to other cons as well. Though I understand there was a tradition of a road-trip to Christchurch for Buckets…

Sure, but I don’t see how that’s particularly relevant to nzLarps…

Well, Buckets has a larp and a grand strategy, KapCon has a larp. And the more people who larp, the better.

What’s a grand strategy? I’ve heard about it - it’s some kind larp/wargame I think?

Pretty much. You combine a larp with a simple wargame, with the latter providing some outside events to drive the larp action. They’re mostly a Christchurch thing, though there have been mutterings about running one in Wellington.

The reason NZLARPS started was to provide a pool of funds and gear for games to draw on. It has lots of other uses too, but those are still the core benefits that make people want to run NZLARPS projects. If a region doesn’t have any games that require significant funds or gear, then the benefits of running as an NZLARPS project are limited.

It’s more likely that what Dunedin by Night wants is players, not funds or gear. Becoming an affiliate of NZLARPS and becoming active on Diatribe will help with that, because it will make more people aware of their existence and what they offer. There is no downside, so you could suggest becoming an affiliate of NZLARPS to them.

The other way NZLARPS could be useful in Dunedin is if someone there wants to run a game that requires up-front funds and equipment, but they don’t want to invest their own money in it. Starting the larp as a project of NZLARPS will enable that. That would also get a local gear pool started, which other local larps could benefit from. It might be that there are people in Dunedin who would like to do this, but haven’t done it yet because they just didn’t have the spare cash or the desire to invest money into a game. I guess keep your ears open and make people aware of the option. NZLARPS is a national society, it will fund anyone in NZ so long as the project is reasonably well thought out.

EDIT: or you could start running some games as projects, and see if it spreads. You’re welcome to run Camelot if you think there are 20 or so players you could gather. I have rules for running it with RPS if there was a lack of foam swords (or a local disdain for foam swords). I also have instructions on how to run it. And the props are currently in Wellington, so they’re half-way to you already.

Watching the positive feedback cycle in Wellington, the best way to build an audiance and a local community is to run games. Good play experiences leads to enthusiasm leads to commitment and word-of-mouth advertising leads to more good play experiences…

Absolutely, spreading the word is all about running good games.

NZLARPS helps making running good games easier by assisting with money and gear.

Once you’ve run some good games, it’s nice to have somewhere communal like Diatribe to froth about them, to amplify the word-of-mouth effect.

Hmm, that sounds like a great idea! Unfortunately, in my few days down here I have only met about 4 larpers, but they’re definitely enthusiastic. RPS might be best - there’s no boffer larp down here, so probably very few foam swords. I’m in Dunedin by Night, starting up this wednesday, so once I meet more of them I can introduce myself and look at running Camelot!
Could you send me the write up please? :slight_smile:
I’m excited now - I’ve never run a larp myself before! It’ll have to soonish, to take advantage of the fabulous weather we’re having…
Is it possible to post the props down? If necessary I could probably find/make a lot of stuff, although it would be way less cool. Medieval costume should be relatively straightforward…

continues plotting

They’re readily available over TradeMe, and people may be inspired to purchase them, especially if there are other larps where they can be used as props. And theoretically you only need two (and a pair of shields) to run the game, since the only combat is usually duels.

Though it was amazing how much kit appeared in Wellington when a concrete game it could be used in eventuated. People bought stuff, people made stuff, and a couple of people revealed that they had large arsenals sufficient to equip a small army…

So far, the few people I’ve talked to have never even heard of boffer larp. It’s quite possible there might be some with arsenals of fantastic stuff, and I will definitely to try to find those people if they exist. I can probably make a couple of swords from foam, pvc and duct tape though - won’t be pretty, but at least functional.

Ryan’s right, this is exactly what nzLARPS was invented for. We’re able to help you out with things like gear and funds, it’d be so awesome to see larping start up again in Dunedin. We can courier you down some weapons, if need be :slight_smile:

In addition to Camelot, we have some other scripts on hand to run as well. The Final Voyage of the Mary Celeste is good for anything between 13 and 18 people, and is buckets of fun. Breakout Day is a very easy, low-costume, low-set dressing requirements game that can be played by between 30 and 43 people. We’ve got other scripts kicking around as well, to suit numbers. Definitely let us know how your scouting mission at Dunedin by Night goes!

Wow, really? That would be so awesome! People down here seem to be sick of paper, scissors, rock but have no other alternative. I think if they get to try out some really good weapons, it’ll make all the difference :slight_smile: The larping community seems to have about 20-25 people. The GM’s goal for DBN was to get 20 people on the first game, and retain about 15 as regular players. Something like Camelot, or any other chimera-style game can probably run no prob if there’s a good turnout.
Scouting is tomorrow night :slight_smile:

For sure. Playing with foam swords is a universal kind of fun - when I showed my family the Ex-Caliber weapons when I first got them in, they all had a go and were just about falling over laughing. This is true with home-made weapons too, but the latex weapons do make an extra impression that helps people get over any concerns.

Hopefully the Camelot materials I sent you make sense - probably helps that you’ve played it.

I reckon Camelot is quite suitable for widening the scope of people who’ve only played WoD, because it’s all about intrigue, resources, and relationships so the play style will be familiar. That familiarity should ease the introduction of the new features of genre, costume, set-dressing, and physical combat.

So - I went along to Dunedin By Night yesterday. There was a group of about 20-25 people there, ranging from 17 to mid-thirties. Fairly typical as far as roleplayers go - I recognised the telltale signs in some of them as I passed them in the street, even.
Some people made a real effort with costuming, others less.
As I suspected, there’s no boffer larp down here, and some people hadn’t even heard of it before. There really only seems to be the one vampire larp. Other larps have been run before (including a Discworld larp, apparently!), but all theatrestyle. The uni roleplaying group (OURS) holds informal weekend conventions every now and then, where larps are sometimes run on the friday or saturday night.
I talked about Camelot to various people, and they seemed interested. Most people suggested running it at a convention, and seemed less open to the idea of running it as a standalone event on a weekend in a park. I didn’t get much time to talk about before the larp started though, so I will hop on to their forums and try and gauge interest. The numbers are definitely there, I just need to get everyone enthusiastic.
I also joined the medieval guild at Otago - there might be some crossover there, and hopefully I can ask them for help with props, set dressing. costuming etc.

Cool, interesting info.

I reckon you can’t always just go by what people say, people tend to suggest what they’re already familiar with. A bunch of people in Auckland thought that Chimera should be run as part of Battlecry, but that didn’t make it a good idea. If the Dunedin conventions are indoors, then that won’t be as nice a setting for Camelot. You’d also be competing for players which is harder work when you’re doing something novel. On the other hand, I’d advise against running it in a public park, some private land without passers-by would be better. It’s not “a weekend”, it’s only about 4 hours, so it can be run on a Sat or Sun afternoon and leave both evenings free.