LRPer Moving to NZ

Community Larp discussion
#1

My wife and I are moving to Wellington in Septemeber with our two little boys, and I’m trying to find out more about the local LRP scene.

On our recent trip over I picked up a copy of Immersion which has given me lot’s of information and I can see some great looking games going on in Auckland which I hope to get involved in, St. Wolfgangs and Serenity in particular look like great games.

What I can’t seem to work out is why there doesn’t seem to be any LRP in the Wellington region, the only thing I can find is Kapcon which I’m hoping to get to.

So I was wondering is my google-fu letting me down or is there really no LRP going on in the Wellington area, and if so any ideas why?

Cheers,

Bryn.

#2

Welcome Bryn. I cant say I know much about the wellington happenings, living in Auckland and all, but I wanted to say hello, and welcome you to Diatribe.
I went to school with a guy named Bryn Jones, many years ago now. But any way, Welcome.

R

#3

There’s some larp in the Wellington area. It is all of the style called “freeform” in the UK, and mostly takes place at roleplaying conventions. These larps are advertised on www.nzrag.com/bb and also discussed here on Diatribe sometimes. Some of the larper/roleplayers are very experienced, I’ve played in a Kapcon larp and was very impressed with the level of roleplay. There may be some private freeform larp games that aren’t advertised.

There are few to no larps with physical combat in Wellington, just by some quirk of fate. There have been some at times, but it hasn’t stuck.

#4

[quote=“bryn-jones”]What I can’t seem to work out is why there doesn’t seem to be any LRP in the Wellington region, the only thing I can find is Kapcon which I’m hoping to get to.

So I was wondering is my google-fu letting me down or is there really no LRP going on in the Wellington area, and if so any ideas why?[/quote]

Lack of dedicated organisers. There’s a “market” for LARP, but few people here know how to write one, and fewer have the time to do so. KapCon has to scrape round most years for its LARP, and there’s very little else. Sometimes someone runs a ~30-player game in around May - but not this year.

The resources are there - we have roleplaying groups who are willing to front money for upfront costs if someone has a credible financial plan. The demand is there - plenty of people will turn up and play. But there’s just no-one to write them. So, if you want to run a LARP, then please go ahead.

#5

Otherwise there is the 7-9 hour trek to Hamilton or Orkland. I’m in the beginning stages of setting up a long term fantasy larp in Hamilton which hopefully will cater to many people. The rule set will be freely available to GM’s who wish to participate in different centres, with the goal of running a national larp with mini-cells running local plots which all contribute to a larger storyline which if it ever gets popular enough, will turn into a convention sized game. Check out Knightshade Realms under the game ideas thread for more information.
Quest Waikato also runs a fantasy larp every last sunday of each month but has run longer “day” games in the past. These I suspect will return if the numbers of players increases in the near future. This is one of my goals as part of my Knightshade marketing which is yet to come.
Also if you’re making the trip up north, the St.Wolfgangs Vampire Hunters game is well worth the trip, the next weekend game running in September.
Welcome!

Jared

#6

Cheers for your replies everyone, I’ll have a good read about the games that have been mentioned.

We aren’t getting to Wellington until September and it’ll probably be a few months before we’re settled in, but I’ll look forward to trying out St. Wolfgangs in the new year (if there’s space).

I’m glad to hear that there seems to be a core of people in the Wellington area that want to LARP. I’ve found that some of the best events I’ve taken part in have been free forms at conventions where rules don’t get in the way of great RP.

Perhaps people in the Wellington area who are interested in Larp could get together at KapCon to discuss what genre/style of game they’d like to play. I’d be happy to contribute what I know about writing and running games, however in my experience it’s too much for one person to single handily run a game, you really need at least 3 or 4 enthusiastic people who want to put their time into getting something new off the ground.

Bryn

#7

The problem is getting those three or four people and getting them to commit. Plenty of people want to play, few people want to write, and writing a 60-player game can be a bit daunting (and people don’t seem willing to write twn or twenty player games for their friends to gain experience).

There is usually an intense discussion about the style and genre of the next KapCon LARP on NZRAG starting the day after :slight_smile:

#8

We’d love to have you :slight_smile:

#9

Anna, thanks for that I’ll keep an eye out on the Forums for dates and drop you an e-mail after the September event.

Fair enough, perhaps as KapCon gets closer and enthusiasm builds we can look at getting interested people together at the event to discuss the idea of ‘doing something’. Not much point in trying to run a gritty dark age event, if people want to play in a regency era romp.

Bryn.

#10

For simple discussion, the best bet is NZRAG. At KapCon, people are way too busy gaming.

#11

Okay that makes sense, I’ll post something up once we’ve settled in.

Thanks for taking the time,

Bryn.

#12

Funny what you find when searching Diatribe for old posts…

So roughly four and a half years have passed (flown by) since I initially enquired about Larping in NZ and Wellington in particular, I think I’m probably about as settled in as I’m ever going to be.

How times have changed eh. We’re lucky now in Wellington to have a really vibrant Larp community, lots of exciting games and enthusiastic organisers. Our own campaign, the Hydra Larp convention, a dedicated Larp stream at Kapcon. Plus fantastic monthly games.

Plus outside of Wellington a fantastic crossover now between the two main cities. Teonn a 100+ player game. Chimera a 150+ player convention.

So where now? In another four and a half years (which will probably fly by just as fast) I wonder what will have changed? More Larps in other regions? Bigger campaigns? More crossover between cities, those $29 Wellington-Auckland flights are looking pretty great.

What’s the next big step for the community? What do people want to see happen?

#13

I would love to be part of a travelling Larp show bringing Larp to the smaller cities of the North Island, like Whangarei, Rotorua (Which already has a strong steampunk community), Maybe Palmerston North , and other areas… You would need a bus (or 2) and some friends in those cities that have places to park it (with tents), then have keen players that can afford to take a 3 day weekend to do a trip, and have some battles/larps/training/signups camps. Would put the gypsy styles back into larping. You could of course do the same later for the South Island at a later time, but a bit trickier. I’d say conquer the north first. 8)

#14

So picking up where you left off!

What ARE the larps like in NZ (and specifically wellington?) I seem to see many games that just last for a single event, opposed to a story arc that goes on for years as we have here.

#15

Hello Amberlee

Of the games run in Wellington we have two-three campaign games.

The first is 33AR - a Victorian inspired post apocolyptic game. This game has just had it’s second game with the next sceduled in September. It is a live combat game that incorporates foam weapons and nerf guns. It runs for a weekend - Fri 7pm to Sunday 3pm and runs every six months or so.

Secondly there is a new campaiign called The World That Is, which is more a fallout inspired futuristic game. This is about to have it’s first session but is currently closed for player registration. Crew are still very welcome. This game will run for 5 hours and from indications may run 3-4 times a year

Thirdly there is Kingdom. An introduction to combat larp. The format is a freeform type game in the evening followed by a day game where players take turns supplementing the crew and playing greeblies etc. The final one of this will run in Feb next year

In addition there is talk of a few other campaign style games in the works, so stay tuned to the Wellington threads on this board

#16

[quote=“amberlee0211”]So picking up where you left off!

What ARE the larps like in NZ (and specifically wellington?) I seem to see many games that just last for a single event, opposed to a story arc that goes on for years as we have here.[/quote]

Ants has covered campaigns; the flip side of that is that we have a very strong theatre-style community, and the games run reflect this. But hopfully as we build capability and confidence and player numbers we’ll see more campaigns as well.

#17

When you say “theatre-style” do you mean the kind that would use cards or Rock, Paper, Scissors or such to make decisions?

We have a Vampire game based off the White Wolf stuff that does that, which Zack plays (I need to bug him to make an account), we call it parlour-style.

#18

When you say “theatre-style” do you mean the kind that would use cards or Rock, Paper, Scissors or such to make decisions?

We have a Vampire game based off the White Wolf stuff that does that, which Zack plays (I need to bug him to make an account), we call it parlour-style.[/quote]

Yes, though one-offs rather than WoD-style campaigns (and therefore without the rules load of MET). Similar to the style played at the US Intercon.