Add to that list I made earlier that some way of limiting permanent character death. Most fests with big battles have that. Not Maelstrom, but I think that may have more specialist appeal as it doesn’t have big battles.
Which is the kind of thing I mean about some of the characteristics of populist larp not appealing so much to me.
Hmmm you guys keep mentioning Mordavia as the big LARP for NZ, yet it is gone now. I would lend my hand to a rules update (if necessary) &
re-release & support a combined Orkland/Hamiltonia game.
If the events were regular, ie monthly, bi-monthly etc with several formats, ie feast, massive campaign, smaller day games you could potentially have a broader player base.
Food for thought?
PS I like fantasy, were mages are on equal footing with the trained swordsmen out there, with pseudo instant clerical healing & ressurection.
Mordavia’s gone by choice, not because it collapsed. The campaign finished.
Yep I know. I am suggesting a new campaign, since it was so popular.
We already discussed this at length last december.
I missed that talk. So why not?
Read the thread on the Mordavia website so that we don’t have to rehash the discussion here.
Or was it here on diatribe?
Anyway, the point is that Mordavia is over as a campaign and as a story and that it was decided, almost unanimously, that there is no point in churning out a sequel.
The ‘fantasy/Mordavia will attract lots of people!’ discussion is an old and boring one. If someone strongly feels that a big fantasy game is going to be the instant and roaring success that we need, then they need to get off their ass and actually write and organize a good, original, interesting setting and set about running it.
GMing is just as fun as playing, shit or get off the pot. Better yet, get toilet trained.
Basically, Ryan wants to draw a line under it.
The Dark One, and integral component of the mystery and excitement in the game, was defeated once-and-for-all, so a huge aspect of the game was resolved.
Running a game in the without the Dark One would be, frankly, lame.
I like your idea about a game that spans Orkland and Hamiltonia. I had the good fortune to spend some time in Memorial Park a couple of weeks ago, hadn’t been there since I was a kid. What an awesome place to have a larp !
Ok so re-use of the ruleset is not out of the question? I’d personally love to help run a game but barely have time to play myself.
I like generic high magic fantasy over virtually all else, it is maybe old & over used but I like it damn it.
Adapting the rules is fine. 2014 uses an adapted version of the Mordavia engine.
So does St. Wolfgang’s.
But the crux of the matter is, does anyone want to run a fantasy game of some type, since this is a highly favored genre, all else aside? I’d love to but don’t have much time to do so.
Mordavia based rules or Quest or something new is not the real issue but do people think Mordavia sized turnout is possible if this was to be attempted?
This is, again, treading over old ground. Several ideas for new fantasy campaigns have sprung up, received attention and promptly vanished into obscurity without a word from their organizers. The issue is not lack of desire to run a new fantasy game, it is someone coming forward who is willing to lobby an interesting idea for a new campaign and then stick with it for more than a few weeks.
These are valid points. I’ll have to network this line of thought further I guess. Generic high fantasy here we… err… come…
I think if you want to have a really big larp battle in NZ you need it to be as simple and encompassing as possible. It needs to be attractive to as many of the existing larp and re-enactment groups as possible. There are dozens of groups all over NZ that would probably participate if it was billed correctly.
I believe that you could pay for the whole event from food and beverage sales.
I’d suggest that you could probably get a lot of the existing groups attending if you offered the following:
Many existing events require pre-booking and/or charge a premium for door sales - this is a barrier to attendance. It mitigates risk, but it is still a barrier to attendance.
The venue would have to be pretty cheap for that to work, I think. Basically a big field somewhere hired for the campout. Facilities would be the major issue with a venue like that. I’ve looked into hiring whole camping sites, it’s tricky as most of them are open to public bookings and don’t do private functions.
One problem with your suggestion is that when people are camping, many of them are happy to cook for themselves and bring their own alcohol. That’s what most people do at the big larps in the UK, although there are restaurants and bars on-site as well. So the income from sales might not cover the venue. Also, it woudl be easier to let third party “vendors” do catering than try to organise it all centrally.
In my first three years of LARP in the UK I played Lorien Trust games (Simple system)
Lorien Trusts Game world is massive and supports a player base of over 5000 people.
The Main Event 'The Gathering" Is always the same time each year is a four day event culminating with a huge battle of up to 1500 - 2000 people one each side. There are an amazing array of side p[lots going on dues to the size of the event.
In the year leading up to the event there are faction Moots, smaller events that each faction has of their own with their own faction side plots. All culminating with “The gathering of nations”
This style of system would work splendidly in New Zealand. Localised LARP groups using the same game system would be the equivalent of a Faction in The Lorien Trust game. With their own agenda’s. Players would have the benefit of being able to transfer characters to other groups because the system would be the consistent with each other. (Skills, Experience). Social Organisations could be the same across the country etc.
A Church could have yearly conclaves, Mages Guilds could meet, Assassins could meet in secret with their own plots.
At a particular time of the year all groups across the country could meet at a place that never changes for a gathering, culminating in a large battle. It gives everyone time to save for travel and take leave from work for the event.
The Localised/National nature would allow for bigger games but still allow local Identity and game uniqueness as each area would have their own plots. There would have to be collaboration between the games masters though.
What do you think?
Hamiltonia Forever
Count Drax D’Armagnac Out….
I think … I think, you’re nor really a ninja! 8)
Yeah a big open park area was where the Gathering was. It had Portaloos, Food, In character inn and Tavern, Merchants. Each Faction had their own area to camp. There was an in character Jail, Summoning circles etc. Very fun
But was a little expensive.
We would need a farm that someone did not mind us using and would need to be central to all groups. Maybe Wellington/ Taranaki etc. Although with the number of players in Auckland It may make more sense there since plane travel is reall inexpensive nowadays to that Hub.