I think that big “roaming adventure” style is something we could offer. And generic fantasy may well be a good genre for it. The Kids Skirmish games have proven it works.
But there is also a smaller, backyard style that I can see working, which would require fewer NPCs and therefore have a lower cost. This style could be just an hour long (as at-home Fairy Parties are), as just one aspect of a childrens’ party. Because it’s short and at a house, it wouldn’t have the same requirements around breaks and food, and wouldn’t need as much time because it wouldn’t involve travel time around a venue.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and all that.
[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Advantages for NZLARPS:
[ul][li]Advocate various types of larp to the public by giving lots of people an easy way to try it with their friends (rather than coming along to play with strangers or join a “club” which isn’t everyone’s bag).[/li]
[li]Earn some money for NZLARPS.[/li]
[li]Earn some money for the NZLARPS members who run the games. [/li]
[li]Have the excuse/income to acquire some nice gear for the society.[/li][/ul]I guess my main thought is that good larp events are the best way to sell larp, and this is a practical way to take them to the people.[/quote]
[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]Advantages for NZLARPS:
[ul][li]Advocate various types of larp to the public by giving lots of people an easy way to try it with their friends (rather than coming along to play with strangers or join a “club” which isn’t everyone’s bag).[/li]
[li]Earn some money for NZLARPS.[/li]
[li]Earn some money for the NZLARPS members who run the games. [/li]
[li]Have the excuse/income to acquire some nice gear for the society.[/li][/ul]
I guess my main thought is that good larp events are the best way to sell larp, and this is a practical way to take them to the people.[/quote]
I think the latter is the key. This is really a proposal to run some games as a more commercial proposition (rather than in the usual way on the volunteer economy) as a way of reaching out to more people, with profits helping the society. So one metric of success is whether anyone from such an event subsequently joins NZLARPs and goes to other games. Another is whether it brings in money to help pay for gear for other games.
I agree, a backyard-style game would be an excellent product. Something along the lines of a Knight & Mage School, where kids would get the opportunity to learn things like dagger throwing, swords and shields, war spells and maybe have some duels (would need helms and shields for this).
The other threads are in the private rent-a-larp forum. Where lots of people have ideas on ways to do this, it seems.
I think it’s better to have this in a private forum, just because it’s about an offering to the public and we want to get it right before publicising it.
If anyone would like to read or advise in the discussions on the private forum, PM me and I’ll add you. Or comment here - but there’s likely to be more discussion in the other forum.
Just got back to NZ, and have a month of Diatribe to catch up on. My brother-in-law runs Actions Paintball, out in Massey, and does some corporate events already. In the past I have heard him mention wanting to set up archery or other stuff to compliment the paintball activities. I can forward details to relevant person if you want to talk about some partnership sort of deal - he has land.
BTW I would have thought this would need to be someone setting up a company to organise, as starting to deal with real money and dealing with NZ laws on employment, tax, consumer gauruntees, health & safety etc. Any unemployed business graduate wanting something to take a punt on?
I think that’s one way it could be approached, and if anyone was keen to start a company to run larps for the public I’d be all encouragement. However, that’s not what I had in mind.
As I see it, a company’s goal is to make as much money as possible. If it turns out that running larps for the public isn’t especially profitable, then a company might be tempted to run something that’s a poor second-cousin of larp, but perhaps more palatable to the general public. Less like an interactive fiction (which is HARD to consume) and more like a roller-coaster ride story/puzzle (which is EASY to consume).
The reason I suggested NZLARPS could do this is to advocate real larp to the smaller slice of the public that might be willing to try it, by taking it out to them. The exchange of money, especially paying people to run the larps or making money for NZLARPS, is more of a byproduct to my mind (paying people to re-run larps for the public is necessary because it’s not so inherently fun, unlike writing and running games for hobbyists). I don’t see us employing anyone, I see the larp runners as self-employed, so the tax and legal implications would be minimal (the society already pays people to do stuff and gets invoiced for it, this is the same). As for dealing with real money, unless this causes us to earn over $40,000 a year (doubtful, and avoidable) it wouldn’t force us to register for GST, so the only implication is that we’d have to pay more income tax as an entity - but we’d be earning more, so it just means giving a slice of the earning from the project to the gov, which is all good.
I’ll add you to the forum so you can have alook at what folks thought about this last year. Some are on the same page as you about starting a business, and quite possibly that’s a good way forward despite my reservations. But starting a business isn’t really related to the society in my opinion - it’s something that some individuals would have to decide for themselves they wanted to do.
