The Trials and Tribulations of Starting a new Campaign

Community Larp discussion
#1

Mel Duncan and myself are planning a sci-fi campaign (in Wellington) called Orion, and we’re in need of some help. We’ve done the budget for the first weekend session, and the entire campaign, and we’ve come up with an attendance cost per person that we’d like to be able to reduce. To that end, we’ve got a few questions that we’d really appreciate answers to and help with;

  1. Is anyone able to lend us large amounts of black fabric, or a nerf gun or 3, or larp-safe knives, or military-esque uniforms, or anything that could be useful for a sci-fi LARP?

  2. Do those who play in campaign LARPs value set dressing or NPC costuming more, and should a sacrifice be made on one or the other (or both) if it’s necessary to make the costs more reasonable?

  3. How much are people willing to pay for an entire weekend of accommodation, food, & LARP, and what factors influence that decision?

#2

Maybe on the nerfs; depends wheter I need them. But if you’re not running till next year, then I suggest closely watching TradeMe rather than paying retail.

(What sort are you after anyway? Mavericks, Raiders, or what?)

As for fabric, again I suggest TradeMe. If you’re careful, you can get rolls of the stuff for a couple of bucks plus freight.

Costuming. Though I’d also expect prop costs to be kept low in a first game, in case there isn’t a second. its also usual to rely on volunteer labour to make crew costumes (which means recruiting some).

People just piad $85 for Chimera (incl food, but pre-discounts), and people look willing to pay $90 for Teonn. So I think that’s an OK ballpark to aim for.

Willingness to pay depends on the standard of food and accomodation, and whether the game is in fact likely to be good.

#3

I’d also add: it may be easier to start a campaign with a day or half-day game. This means you don’t get the big weekend experience, but it also means you’re financially safer, and it alows you to assess whether there is demand.

#4

If you run your game as an NZLARPS project or maybe even affiliate you get access to the NZLARPS gear library which has loads of black fabric and other things that is useful. Also they help with the budget.

$90 per person with the associated discounts is about the bare minimum that you can charge for a weekend game, depending on the venue costs. Food should be budget aproximately $12 - 15 per person for the weekend (this is if you are paying your caterers $100 - $200 per person on top of food cost).

I would always recommend running as an NZLARPS project because then you do not take any personal liability for any losses made from people not turning up unexpectedly or not paying etc. Of course this does mean that your budget needs to be approved by the committee but they tend to approve anything that is reasonable.

I would also highly recommend running a day game before attempting to run a weekend game. It gives you a much more realistic idea if your game is viable and the logistics involved.

#5

That’s fantastic advice from Nikki.

What venue are you looking at? Welly is a hard one for venues. I’d worry about making one room really immersive -the room where people are likely to hang out in the evenings (i.e.; the “tavern”).

Otherwise, spend MOST of your effort on your story and the pacing of your day.

If Ser Bob shows up in full plate armour, but has no relevance to the story, or my character, or my character’s backstory, Ser Bob is just a shiny prop.

If Ser Bob shows up in a half-assed tabard, and sneakers, but is a good RPer and is my character’s long-lost brother, you can be certain the last things I’ll be thinking about are set-dressing and costuming.

At the heart of it, we larp to co-create rich stories where we all get a chance to be the star and influence events. As long as you provide opportunities for each character to have their moment in the spotlight and get involved then you’ll be doing it right.

#6

Thanks for the awesome advice everyone! For those who are reading the thread, if you have advice of your own, or even an opinion to the questions asked, we’d be grateful to read it.

Admittedly, I left out a bunch of details from the first post to avoid a tl;dr situation. Yes, Orion will be an NZLARPS project. We fully intend to take advantage of the gear library, but the Wellington gear library is rather small in comparison to the Auckland one. This leaves us with a lot of things still to get for the campaign.

As for venue, we’re looking at hiring Brookfields Scout Camp, as it is the closest place to the CBD that is reasonably priced and has the facilities we’re looking for.

#7

Ok, then yes, turn one of the halls with a kitchen into a sci-fi bar, and deck it out accordingly. And consider your missions being to rather mundane looking planets as the landscape around there is not very sci-fi, per se.

:slight_smile: