For GMs who are interested

Community
#1

Just something for GMs who run games set in modern or recent time eras (im looking at you Nexus GMs) to mull over.

I have (through my job) the ability of getting in to completely empty houses all over Auckland, which i though would be cool for a group of characters doing some kind of investigation?

I don’t know reeeally how it could help but pretty much i can get in to about 20 - 30 different empty houses (some of which have holes in the walls and other cool effects).

If it suits an idea you might have, feel free to let me know!

#2

Maybe I’m paranoid, but this sounds really dubious to me. Please confirm the legality of these potential visits, and how the GM’s would go about getting the owner’s permission. Please remember this is a public forum and comments made here are accessible to anyone and will be for a very long time. I’m sure NZlarps doesn’t want its good brought into disrepute.

#3

I agree. If its with permission, that’s great. If not, then its really not a good idea. I’d like to avoid an association of “larp” with “trespassing” if we can.

#4

Oh it’s not trespassing, it’s entirely legal.

I should’ve specified that i’m a project manager for my families company who does housing maintenance and repairs.

I’m not stupid, i wouldn’t go “hurr durr here lets be illegal on a public site for everyone to see” sheesh.

#5

Who owns the houses? Presumably you’d need their permission to do something other than maintenance and repairs in their houses.

#6

A firm called DTZ, they’re a property management company and they hand us the keys when they need the repairs to be done, i’ve asked them if they mind if people go in it for a little while, they don’t mind. It wouldn’t be for running a full game, more like for running a short scene from a game or something along those lines.

#7

Cool, sounds like an interesting resource then. Could be good for something like a World of Darkness larp where people visit an empty house for a scene, or a Ghostbusters larp where the players roam around the city in a vehicle and visit different places, or any “roaming” games like that.

#8

Yeah that’s what i was thinking, i just joined world of darkness LARP and thought it would be like a cool thing to do to run a scene in, helps set the scene and some of the places are in the city - so central as well!

#9

I presume you need to have a paper that confirms it, with exact description of how long is little while, what exactly people are allowed and not allowed to do when they are inside, and what exactly it means “they don’t mind”?

Can GMs please make sure that if they use this suggestion as part of their game settings they make it clear to potential participants before people sign up for the game? Just for those of us who paranoid about legal stuff without any “maybes” (cheers, Hannah :slight_smile: ), so that we don’t have to leave the game half-way through if a shade of doubt occurs to us?

Thank you.

#10

I can make it much easier for you, if there was anything that could go wrong - i say it like this because there isn’t and i have made it all legal, but it would seem to me that people think i want to trick them in to breaking the law because that’s how i roll - it would fall entirely on a fault of mine, my company and my reputation. In no way would the reputation, merit or even name of NZLARPS come under scrutiny or attack nor have any reason to worry about it doing so.

The only thing i could see going wrong is one of the players damages a house we are repairing, and i tell the firm that this happened and i personally pay for the repair - which i am more than willing to do considering i personally trust members of NZLARPS.

I also would have thought that people would be more open to ideas like this, as opposed to jumping straight to the “it can’t be done” more to like a “it could be done, but can you make sure you have this and this covered?”.

I didn’t think trying to help out GMs would throw everybody in to a corner of legalities and i sincerely apologise if i have insulted anyone with my rant but i feel a wee bit insulted.

#11

:slight_smile:

Look at it this way. I think you caught everyone by surprise with it. It’s such an awesome offer it just HAD to be too good to be true :slight_smile: Personally I think it’s awesome and would rock … but I’m not a GM any more lol. runs off doing Mel Gibson impersonations Freeeeedom!

#12

It is an awesome idea mate :slight_smile: and as long as writen concent was given then all is cool. The issue is that in some places people have not done it by the book and the reprocutions have left role-play in general at a heavy disavantage, with it getting bad name in teh press, schools, and the public eye in general… that leads to venues closing thier doors, people causing truble at events (outsiders gatecrashing etc) and less favorable treatment by the authorities that are then called… I have seen it happen, and I’m sure many other have heard or can tell tales. It makes us all very paranoid about the image of Role-play… But the offer is awesome and it is a dream opertunity if all the i’s are dotted and the ts crossed :slight_smile:

Also never forget that writen word always comes over as more harsh or cold than intended so always give a sentance a benifit of the doubt if it can be taken in a more negative way it probably wasn’t meant that way :slight_smile:

#13

Yeah i figured that out last night about how it might look different to how it’s said :blush:

#14

Good on ya for actually putting your idea out there. Even if there might be some fishhooks in any given idea, I think it’s good to put it up for the community to discuss.

#15

This is awesome! I was thinking of doing a one off CSI type game but had no idea where to use for a venue. Now I have to think about it again… :slight_smile:

#16

[quote=“Helikaon”]I can make it much easier for you, if there was anything that could go wrong - i say it like this because there isn’t and i have made it all legal, but it would seem to me that people think i want to trick them in to breaking the law because that’s how i roll - it would fall entirely on a fault of mine, my company and my reputation. In no way would the reputation, merit or even name of NZLARPS come under scrutiny or attack nor have any reason to worry about it doing so.

The only thing i could see going wrong is one of the players damages a house we are repairing, and i tell the firm that this happened and i personally pay for the repair - which i am more than willing to do considering i personally trust members of NZLARPS.

I also would have thought that people would be more open to ideas like this, as opposed to jumping straight to the “it can’t be done” more to like a “it could be done, but can you make sure you have this and this covered?”.

I didn’t think trying to help out GMs would throw everybody in to a corner of legalities and i sincerely apologise if i have insulted anyone with my rant but i feel a wee bit insulted.[/quote]

What you need to learn is that the first people to reply to your post will be forum snipers - who are on the forums alot. These are mostly negative or nit picky people who I have found take a while to warm to an idea or a joke. Take nothing said until a low post count member says somthing as ‘‘a dig at your idea’’ usually these people are just tired from life and should probably be resting rather than submarining on a forum.

Your idea makes alot of sence and will help keep budgets down on larps! I would agree that somthing in writing would be nice but not essential.