Friday Night Larps

Auckland
#1

Hi all,

We’ve got a lot of new people we’ve won over to our excellent hobby through events like Teonn and Chimera, and they (as well as the old hands) are chomping at the bit for more larp. In addition, we generate a heck of a lot of new games every year for Chimera, Hydra and similar - and people would like to see them rerun. And thirdly, nzLARPS desperately needs to raise funds to pay for storing our voluminous gear collection. And going to the movies is starting to get really expensive…

To address these things, I’ve had an idea! :smiley:

For next year, I’d like to organise a small (15-20ish, up to 30 player) games to run on every second Friday, at a conveniently located council hall. Like with Chimera, I want to organise it so that it’s easy as anything for game organisers to book into a time slot and run their game. I’ll organise a rolling booking at a conveniently located council hall, organise a pretty website people can sign up through throw name badges and soft drink money at it, and square everything with the treasurer so you don’t even have to do any nasty book keeping.

If you’re interested in playing, it’ll cost $15 on the night, you fill in a questionnaire, and get cast. You can attend as many or as few as you want, whatever takes your fancy - it’s designed to be a casual larp night, with no more stress than going to the movies. It’ll give players a chance to play those games they missed out on at Chimera, it’ll give game organisers a chance to see their hardwork in the spotlight again, and it will help raise the money the society needs to comfortably pay for gear storage.

Like the sound of it?
If you do, contact me (PM, email, or post below) to let me know there is interest. If you have a game you’d like to run, let me know. If there’s a game you’d like to play, post below and say flattering things about the author so they’ll be chuffed enough for a rerun!

I will be posting a schedule of game dates for the next year tomorrow evening. In the mean time, I invite people to start offering games.

Also, I welcome feedback :slight_smile:

#2

Like the Oslo Larp Factory, but more regularly.

I love this idea. I’d offer to run games, but I live in Wellington. OTOH, my games are generally available, so if anyone wants to run them…

(Meanwhile, Wellington people: 1st Saturday of every month has very few clashes with existing events - possibly Day of games, and NatCon. Should we look at doing this in Wellington?)

Edit to note that games are available

#3

Anna, this is a fantastic idea! I’ll be happy to attend, though may be sometimes unavailable due to work late shifts, but I’ll try to arrange it. If the timetable is known couple of months in advance I should be able to handle it. Knowing you I’m sure it will be organised with enough time to arrange for things:)

My list of stuff I was at any point interested in playing but this never happened:

The Dance and the Dawn
For Those In Peril
13 Angry Men With Guns
One Night in Heaven
Snow White
The Scummit
Betrothals and Betrayals
Much Ado About Something
The Curse of the Pharaoh
The Final Voyage of the Mary Celeste

(if this looks like compillation of chimeras bits - it’s because it is :smiley: )

#4

I’d be more likely to come on a Saturday than a Friday night (I’m usually pretty knackered and peopled out on Fridays.)
Having a “it’s the beginning of the month, what’s the larp?” thing could be pretty nifty in terms of having something regular to look forward to.

#5

Is there suitable space there for a bit of one-on-one combat?

This looks like the ideal framework for running Dark Hart like I promised I would in November :slight_smile:

#6

[quote=“Derek”]Is there suitable space there for a bit of one-on-one combat?

This looks like the ideal framework for running Dark Hart like I promised I would in November :slight_smile:[/quote]

Ahead of you :wink: I’ll make sure to sort out an apt venue for this :slight_smile: Did Michelle contact you about the proposed date?

#7

Sounds like a fantastic idea :slight_smile:

#8

Great concept, I think the regularity of this will really work in its favour. If there’s one thing that draws in more players, it’s having options for great events to attend.

And they do say if you want something done, you should find someone busy to do it. :wink:

#9

it sounds good but i will point out that both my friday night larps have only 2 people signed up…um…not sure if PC laziness, poor LARP choice or if it’s me but…you seem to get the crowd, i’dd come.

#10

Excellent work, Anna.

I can see this being a great way for people to learn about larp, and also for more regular larpers to catch up on those games they missed at Chimera. I’m certainly down for running Sabretooth again :slight_smile:

#11

Here is my suggested schedule for this project:

2012
October 12th
October 26th
November 9th - The Scummit (tentative)
November 17th - The Black Hart of Camelot (tentative)
December 7th - Bad Dreams: Trust

2013
February 1st
February 15th
March 1st
March 15th
March 29th
April 12th
April 26th
May 10th
May 31st
June 14th
June 28th
July 17th
July 16th
July 26th
August 9th
August 23rd
September 6th
September 20th
October 4th
October 18th
November 1st
November 15th

#12

i can delay a serpant of ash and speed dating to fit those times if you like, all 12pc games.

#13

Thanks Zanni, I will email you tomorrow (or Saturday - after Delicious Friends, at any rate)

I’ve emailed some people to ask for larp reruns, but it would also be great to have some Auckland volunteers to rerun games that were run by Wellingtonians. Specifically:

  • The Dance and the Dawn
  • Quick Bright Things
  • The Bell
  • The Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon
  • Much Ado About Something

Betrothals and Betrayals, Down and Out in Middenburg and Snow White would also be awesome but we need at least 15 players per game, so we may have to do a double feature (i.e. two games in one night side-by-side) to get numbers for the smaller games.

#14

This is a great idea Anna!
I’m keen to join up when back in the country- late october until early november.
Where would you look at holding it? Some place central?

#15

This is indeed an excellent idea :slight_smile: I’d be down for helping to run something at some point, but I’m completely devoid of ideas as to what. As for games I’d like to get to play in, from the last Chimera the three that leap out in my head as ones I wanted to play in but missed out on were three of the surprise combining games (Alamo, Heart of Darkness and Galaxia 20), so I’m not really sure about their re-run-ability.

#16

I reckon this will be a good opportunity for new larps too, not just reruns.

I have some ideas that I wouldn’t run at Chimera because there is too much setup or whatever, and I’ve learned to keep things simple when running at a con.

I find that knowing the date the game is running and writing a game to that deadline is more motivating than writing a game that might run sometime, somewhere. I think having this regular meetup that you can schedule to run a game in will work well, saves on worrying as much about venue, advertising and getting players, etc.

What would be super awesome is if some people put their hands up not to run games, but to do set-dressing, graphic design, special effects, makeup, lighting, sound, music, and that kind of thing for Friday Night Larps. Then Anna could match game-runners with those people, because the two skill-sets don’t always overlap.

Having a regular venue means that we could acquire lighting & sound equipment that suits it, and we would learn how to get it set up there and achieve various effects. There’s so much you can add to atmosphere with that kind of thing. Of course some larps work well in a bare room, but it’s nice to have the option.

#17

Also - a while back Scott pointed me to meetup.com

Friday Night Larp would be a perfect thing to have a listing on that site for, in terms of advertising to a new network of people who want to turn up to live events and give something different a try.

#18

Ambitious much? :wink:
I suggest we try out some baby steps first and make it work simply. Nice idea though.

#19

[quote=“Anna K”]Here is my suggested schedule for this project:

2012
November 17th - The Black Hart of Camelot (tentative)[/quote]

I can commit to running that on that date.

#20

We all expected Alamo and Heart of Darkness to merge somewhere a long the line, so it wasn’t really a surprise. I can’t personally vouch for Heart of Darkness, but I found Alamo to be a very enjoyable and well-executed game and see no reason why it would be any less so on a rerun (assuming the GMs were keen).