At NatCon 86 in Nelson, a game based around the ruling council of the city of New Pavis in Glorantha dealing with the approaching Lunar Army was run.
This is bugging me. Assuming they’re talking about wargaming NatCon, 1986 was held in Wellington; Nelson was 1984. SF NatCon 1986 was Dunedin.
Does anyone have a huge archive of New Zealand Wargamer lying around from the 1980s? Alternatively, does anyone want to visit the National Library for me?
Talked to @mundens about this, and he’s checked his archives. Nelson was Easter 1984, and the game was a high-powered tabletop, though heading in the direction of a parlour larp. No costumes, and he doesn’t really consider it a larp. Still, proto-history.
Sadly, there’s no mention of it in New Zealand Wargamer due to rpgs not really being the focus of the convention.
I’ve been digging around in the microfilm archives and dug up stuff about the various versions of “The Game” participatory theatre event / pseudolarp which ran in Christchurch in the early 1990s
That’s an ad for the 1990 version, which ran as part of the 1990 youth festival. According to news reports it involved a cast of 80, who used a network of tunnels and hidden passages around the Christchurch Arts Centre. The event’s creator, John Hudson, was influenced by Commedia Della’arte and theatresports.
They ran another version in Whangarei in early 1991 (there’s a review in Pacific Way which I’m trying to get my hands on), and in Christchurch in early July 1991. That run was shut down after 4 days due to the sets not complying with building regulations.
There was also a 1992 run which used a cast of 35 actors and modified the inside of the old Cinerama theatre. A bunch of KAOS people went along to this one. Playwise, it was a tunnel of fun: you enter, you wander round, and in theory you try and get all the boxes on your card ticked so you can escape. So not really a larp, but definitely related.
I’ve edited to add some games that concluded and started in 2016 (Moonbright, Embers) and added Tournament of the Roses/Exile and The Isles. 
Did you find this? I uploaded some scans to the old nzLARPS website, and linked it from Diatribe if that helps. It was by David Farrier, so somewhat in the gently poking fun variety of article, and also mentioned two other hobbies… fish collecting and something else.
[quote=“Ryan_Paddy, post:25, topic:21558”]
Did you find this? I uploaded some scans to the old nzLARPS website, and linked it from Diatribe if that helps. It was by David Farrier, so somewhat in the gently poking fun variety of article, and also mentioned two other hobbies… fish collecting and something else.[/quote]
Yes, but its a really bad scan.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Pi1w-D4ydLbnFrUXk0WUxOU0E/view?usp=sharing
@Adrexia may be able to pull the old version out of a backup.
That looks like a different article, one that’s been cribbed from an overseas publication (which in turn has cribbed a lot from Wikipedia).
Ours was a nice spread and about local larp. I have attached a copy of the scans I did, but the text part is broken.
The images were at:
nzlarps.org/images/gloss1.jpg
nzlarps.org/images/gloss2.png
I can’t see them at internet archive.
Dammit. All that time digging through microfilm, and I get the wrong article.
Hopefully Naomi can recover the scans.
Ah - based on the Diatribe thread I was looking in Canvas. Turns out the article was in the Sunday Star Times.
By: Farrier, David, INNZNA
Abstract:
Features three unusual hobbies: Live Action Role Playing (known as ‘larping’), in which participants decide on a fictional reality and create everything in it; freerunning, a sport mostly carried out on concrete to replicate fugitives fleeing a crime scene; and reefing, referring to hardcore fish enthusiasts and collectors. Talks to several members of Auckland fantasy larp outfit ‘Mordavia.com’ about larping, and to Aucklanders Aaron Ferenci and Alois Wolloner about freerunning and reefing, respectively.
Notes:
Includes illustration; supplement ‘Sunday’
Audience: General
Source: Sunday Star Times, 26 Mar 2006; sup.p.26-28; issn:1172-9740
Anyone able to pull it out of Index New Zealand?
Any chance we could add in the rulebooks and setting information for these campaigns? Or start a parallel list?
Many are one-offs, and some of the older games probably didn’t leave much of a trace, but for those that exist still on the internet somewhere I agree it would be worth linking to them/uploading documents for them. 
There’s a chunk of Auckland live combat stuff missing that happened prior to Portal Games forming in 1990.
[quote=“Ryan_Paddy, post:34, topic:21558”]
Auckland uni roleplay club AMERICA ran live combat games, including at least one in the massive Stony Batter tunnels on Waiheke Island. That’s what inspired Portal Games.[/quote]
Do we have a year for these?
I would have to defer to @Derek for that too, I was at high school and don’t know who else was involved to ask. But starting pre 1990 for sure.
My current email and social media doesn’t date back far enough to recall precise years, but we ran a Christchurch Vampire the masquerade game for around three years, I think 1997-1999 maybe?
There was also a Sabbat game, I think run across about 18 months in 2003-2004 maybe?
On Buckets - I do recall a GrandStrat/LARP run in 1994 based on war in Europe. I certainly remember there being a full on costume LARP in 1996 but I can’t recall the topic.
David Harrop has done some more work, though on Facebook. I’ve integrated his changes, though I’ve gone with dates of first games.
Edit to add: He’s also added a writeup about Hymarghen.
Edit to add again: And another massive update from David on Facebook. This’ll take a while to work out what the changes are.
I think we need an updated version!
Its wiki, so anyone can contribute to it. Just scroll up and hit the “edit” button.
