Swashbuckling gothic fantasy-- need good venue!

Does anyone know of a rentable-for-LARP venue somewhere in Auckland that would make a decent stand-in for an old manor house or castle?

Failing the use of an actual sizeable house (anyone with wealthy relatives or a multi-bedroomer willing to lend the place would be entitled to furious hotsex), I am looking for a place to run a high gothic fantasy game. The place would need the following things (or, in some of the more obvious cases, physreps of the following things):

  • Several bedrooms - I would prefer to give players individual or small-grouped sleeping quarters, rather than the usual mass blocks of bunks we are used to.

  • Basement (or physrep, such as a separate, smaller building).

  • Physrep for subterannean catacombs/tunnels.

  • Dining room and kitchen. Fireplace would be nice but is not essential.

  • Sitting room (Can double as dining room if really necessary).

  • Sizeable foyer.

  • Various hallways and vacant rooms for whatever else.

A good template to go on is the venue used for Nightmare Circle-- this place, as far as content goes, has just about everything I need, but the layout of the place is sorely lacking in what I’m after. If possible I’d prefer to get the venue as aesthetically and physically close to the real thing as I can, but barring that somewhere with the above prerequisites would be fine.

Any suggestions?

If a decent place is found I may implement an idea hatched at the last Nightmare Circle to highly stylize the visual aspect of the game. Only three colors would be allowed in costume and set-- black, white, and red. This would include painting the skin white and using black to accentuate facial or bodily features (think Sin City). All props and set pieces would be in the allowed colors (drape the tables with black, use white cups and dinnerware, things like that). If we did this I’d take the photos of the game and run them through Solarize effects, which produces a cartoonish, comic book-like aesthetic quality similar to rotoscoping.

The problem I’d see here is that the things we just couldn’t do anything about such as walls, floors, hair, food, and other aspects of the environment would undoubtedly cheapen and ruin the effect.

The barracks.

I like the idea of the stylisation. I think you could get a really strong feel going with that.

Plenty of white, red and black food and drink out there…

Yeah, the colour styling is a brilliant idea.

It’s expensive and unnaturally creepy, but I suggest Carlile House in Ponsonby.

(following images are large - sorry dialuppers)

Here’s Anna standing outside of it.

Not absolutely sure what they’d want to charge for doing something like this in there, but I reckon you’d be limited to a 1 day event. Here’s what it looks like on the inside:

This place pops to mind:

tapestrydecor.co.nz/tapestry … umentid=22

I’d check out soem of the historic B&Bs.

[quote=“Exquire”] It’s expensive and unnaturally creepy, but I suggest Carlile House in Ponsonby.
[/quote]

I second that. You have no idea how both cool and creepy that place is until you’ve been inside. It’s also falling to ruin, so that would just add to the gothic effect. Polished characters vs. the crumbling backdrop.

Rules are being written up and the outline for the first game has been jotted down!

This is the setting of the game world as would be pitched by the rulebook. It’s kind of a mock-up, could use some polish.
This is a working title; if a better one is thought of I’d be open to hearing it.

RAVENHOLME
A gothic fantasy

The English countryside has for a long time been home to the manor Ravenholme. The history of the house on the hill goes back several centuries, but the history of the site upon which it is built dates back to the time of the Elder Gods.

The mansion’s land belongs to no country and its walls reject the constraints of normal society. Since its construction, the house has been a popular resort for nobles and people of class and wealth, and its owners-- whoever they have been over the ages-- host to garish gatherings of hedonism and indulgence. Glasses of wine punctuate duels to the death, players at cards bet with their souls. It is said that wars have been started and ended in its parlor, entire fortunes lost to dice and the course of history changed.

The house is also the subject of many dark and unsettling rumors. Whispers of creatures seen in the shadows and rituals for mysterious forces are framework to tales of transformation-- of the body, of the mind, of the soul. Those who go into Ravenholme and come out again are different people-- if people at all.

As a character in the setting, you will be a player in a vignette, a single strange tale from the halls of the manor Ravenholme. You and your fellows will explore its many corridors and corners, both unearthing and writing its dark and unusual history with every step taken. You will face creatures of the night and forces incomprehendible; you will face your fellow actors, you will face death itself.

All are but strokes on an epic canvas; each tale a single movement in the grand opera that is Ravenholme.


/end fapfapfap
What this means in practical terms is that Ravenholme will be a decidedly gothic fantasy, each game being a new chapter in the manor’s history. Each game will take place in a different time period; as such, the rules will be a little different each time. Also, the house has been renovated, rebuilt, or otherwise altered several times throughout its history and also has several wings-- rarely are all of them in use at the same time-- so it’s safe to occasionally change the venue and just say it’s another part of the house or it’s a different era of its history. I’m still looking for a catch-all venue that can accomodate it, though.

The approach I’m taking to streamline this is that there will be two sets of rules. I’ll write a core rulebook that covers the setting, the basics of character creation (the ‘how to’) and combat, and other things that apply to each game. After that, each game we play will have its own set of rules according to the time period and nature of the event; these supplementary rulebooks will provide the available races, skill sets and house rules for that particular event, as well as the story setup.

I’m looking for a decidedly dark, potentially quite adult flavor for the games, and as such an age restriction may be necessary depending on how things get written up. Along with the horror and swordplay I want a high element of sophistication and hedonism. Costuming should be decidedly gothic; let’s see lots of corsets, flowing dresses, sabers, cravats, high-class stuff. Think Dracula!
I’m really excited about getting this written up and getting the first game going. Anyone who is interested in helping me write it up or get NPC gear together would be great. I have some ideas for creatures and costuming already but little resource; who’s good with gear?

Damn, you’re totally going to out-class Nibelungen at this rate. I’m intrigued. I would definately play and I know a handful of (non-Mordavia) people who would want to participate in this kind of game as well. How many people would you accept per game, and how long would they run for? I can’t reccomend Carlile House enough, although it may be hard to arrange our way into.

At the current standpoint I’d like to get something Nightmare Circle-sized going, but I’m not yet sure how crew-intensive the games will need to be. For the first game I want to work with about seven to ten players ideally, though there is wiggle room.

I’m in.

Sounds awesome, I’m up for it

I’ll put my hand up to help where I can

this sounds right up my alley.
I am definitely in :slight_smile:

I bet all he’ll do is have a tea party there

Ooh ooh me me me. I want to play.

youd fit right in with the tea party theme too

Also I failed to mention I would like to get a weekend or overnight setup going for the first game, so the Carlile house wouldn’t be a viable option in that respect. Definitely a good place for a day game, though.

So far I have two people I know will be dedicated crew and several people offering up to be players.

I’ll write up a game outline soon and see what we’ll be able to handle as far as player numbers.

If it’s looking like there isn’t a good balance, being crew is fine with me.