Lite-larps club

Community Larp discussion
#1

Assuming the timing is good

  • I’d come!
  • I’d sometimes come

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I’m keen to run this so I’m testing the waters for attendance.

The idea is for a monthly “lite-larps” club. Once a month we’d meet and play a lightweight, easily organised larp game for about three hours. The focus would be on developing interesting setups, effective representation and good acting. We’d be playing home-brewed and professionally made games favoring the situational and dramatic. Executive Decision, Couples and 1984 are good examples. MAY DAY is a bit on the heavy side but could be watered down and shortened to suit. I’ve got a bunch of ideas for little games like this so I’d be first in the queue to run.

The game would change most months but some could take up to three meetings. The club would also serve as a testing ground to try out scene concepts for events like Nibelungen, Border Princes and Ravenholme. I reckon we’d want a group of around a dozen and we’d each pay $10 a month to take part.

Rules:

  • Nights have a budget of $100 each
  • You can allow people to contribute with their own costumes/etc but not require contribution for participation
  • Half-hour time limit on explaining rules, writing characters, etc.
  • Talk about larp club
  • $10 per event to play
  • $15 for non-nzLARPS members
  • We get access to the gear
  • Anyone can run a game (there’s a queue).
  • Games must be over within three nights (most would be 1)

I’m thinking second Tuesday of every month at this stage… how’s that sound?

#2

I’ve got a larp book with a couple of published scenarios that would suit this, and a couple of scenario concepts of my own.

I’d be up for this on an ad-hoc, non-regular kind of basis. I.e. decide whether I’m interested in this month’s event (or am running it), see if time is available, come along if those lights are green.

Were you imagining that the scenario runners would decide the venue for each one?

#3

Usually yes, but there are a few good venues around we could fall back on, eg. MN8 gallery (new art gallery in Victoria Park market) is big and fairly cheap, the Treehouse Gallery might let us in depending on their exhibition, Carlile House is worth a try, there are a number of halls around and there’s free outdoor locations galore in Auckland eg. North Head, the domain, Mt. Eden…

I figure venue is quite an important part of any event we’d be doing so it should usually be up to the creative control of the organiser… but there’d be organisational mentoring to take advantage of, too.

Three hours is about long/short enough to not need too many facilities or get too much in the way, so we might be surprised who’d let us in.

#4

My possible contributions:

  • There are one or two 6-person larps in the “Book of Larp” that I’d like to run.
  • Tryst, which is adaptable to any number of players
  • I’ve been meaning to finish a small Arthurian scenario for a while, written for 6-7 players. It could be expanded with secondary roles, but I think it would work best small. Again, a short concept with only an hour or two of play. Would work well in a candle-lit medieval pavilion in the woods. This could be run more than once for different groups of players.
  • I’d like to run a larp, possibly a series, in the style of “Unknown Armies”. It’s about nasty street-life arcana, weird magical occurances in a modern techno-grunge sort of environment. I imagine it staged with 20-30 players across multiple sites in the city.

I think one difficulty will be getting a suitable number of players for each month’s event. Some will be written small, some larger. This is especially important for scenarios where each character is pre-written by organisers, which is true for a lot of published scenarios.

Not a major issue, but something to be aware of. I guess limited numbers would be on a first-booked basis?

#5

This sounds like a great idea! when can we start?:smiley:

If people were encouraged to bring friends along it could also be a good way of promoting NZLARPS and larping in general.

#6

I agree on the numbers (attendance) game. I reckon 12 would be a good norm, but if some games can muster more or some games want to limit it at 8 then so be it.

I’ve personally got a stack of little military scenarios I want to play out, as well as some boardroom dramas, court-room stuff and some low-fantasy scifi’s.

#7

[quote=“Andrew McCartney”]This sounds like a great idea! when can we start?:smiley:

If people were encouraged to bring friends along it could also be a good way of promoting NZLARPS and larping in general.[/quote]

You bet it would.

I’m thinking August!

#8

I love it!! Because I work shift work Ill only be able to make some nights but I am very much interested. This could also be a great way for some potential GM’s out there to have a swing at running a game.

#9

Me too, I’d really like to try out this sort of game.

#10

Did you have anything in particular in mind for it, Matt?

There’s a free introductory download of Unknown Armies 2nd Edition here: atlas-games.com/unknownarmies/ which makes for some interesting reading.

I’m sure if I’d want to exactly follow the UA setting. Need to read it more closely, see what it needs to make it more suitable to larp. I’d definitely do away with skills and challenges as much as possible and make it WYSIWYG.

#11

I have a candle lit medieval pavilion. :smiley:

#12

Really? What a wonderful coincidence. 8)

#13

Carig are you going thinking of one large project for this, or a seperate small project for each Larp?
And are you going to have forms etc for next weeks meeting?

#14

I’m thinking it would all be run under the same project header. Might have forms, count your lucky stars.

#15

I would expect this to be a project with multiple events. Therefore, one project document, plus a monthly event/financial document pair for each event (although after the first one it would be more of a formality I think). You could probably do a generic monthly form, although since the game would be different each month I suspect the expected numbers of players and associated costs could vary wildly.

I like this idea as a framework for mini-larps, and also for new GMs to receive help in running a small event.

#16

:smiley:

#17

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Did you have anything in particular in mind for it, Matt?

There’s a free introductory download of Unknown Armies 2nd Edition here: atlas-games.com/unknownarmies/ which makes for some interesting reading.

I’m sure if I’d want to exactly follow the UA setting. Need to read it more closely, see what it needs to make it more suitable to larp. I’d definitely do away with skills and challenges as much as possible and make it WYSIWYG.[/quote]

I was thinking a similiar setting but a differnet story line. Also I’m keen to try a a setting similiar to Urban Arcana for D20 Modern. Where creatures of fantasy roam the modern world disguised by the veil of the shadow which means most people just see them as noraml people.

#18

I’m keen! This sounds great, I’ve been missing LARPs recently.

#19

Curious. I’ve read some Urban Arcana material. It has quite a different flavour to Unknown Armies (which has quite a different feel to Mage, which has quite a different flavor to Kult, etc…), but I can see the parallel. I suspect I’d just take the bits I like from various sources and make something new that’s easy to larp.

Unlikely to have beholder crime lords and gnoll pimps in it. But I can see the appeal in that, too.

#20

Thats what I was thinking as well. I was thinking just add a couple of interesting things from Urban Arcana like an Orcish street gang. But for an over all feel and setting I was thinking something closer to Hellblazer or Angel. Where the supernatural dwells just beneath the surface of normality.