Visiting larpers from Sweden

Community Larp discussion
#1

Hi!

I don’t know if you get many of these questions but I will try any way. My name is Louise Franklin and me and a friend of mine is going to travel to New Zealand in November 2014 and stay for at least 6 month. We are both active larpers and larp-organizers here in Sweden and thought it would be nice to try out larp in New Zealand too.
We have been to both fantasy, postapocalyptic, Harry Potter, airsoft and other kinds of larps, and been in the orginazing group for larps in thoose genres. With participants up to around 300 people.

So, what do you recommed us to try? We don’t know much about the larp culture in New Zealand compared to Sweden but it will be fun getting to know it. Is there any larp campaign (don’t know what is is called in english), weekend larps etc…

Please enlighten me :smiley:

Have a nice day!

Louise Franklin

#2

Hi Louise

What part of New Zealand will you be in? During the time period you are in New Zealand there will be the following.

Medusa Larp convention in Hamilton, running for the first time.
33AR Larp campaign in Wellington, the last game of the campaign
Kapcon roleplaying convention in Wellington, Larps and roleplaying.
Crucible, currently New Zealand’s biggest campaign larp, running in Auckland
Hydra larp convention, in Wellington. Runs in April so may be at the tail end of your trip.

On top of these there may be a couple of new of new games starting up and a number of 1 off theatre form/parlour larps .

#3

Hello Louise! We do on occasion get overseas Larpers who come here and ask us about what the local scene is like, some even from your own beautiful country.

300 people is a very big number for us kiwis. Currently we’ve managed 180… once that I recall. Mostly our games are between 30 and 80 players, some smaller, and one campaign that is running at the moment is around the 180 mark.

If you are going to be in Auckland the largest game we have at the moment is The Crucible, and it is a high fantasy game. More information can be found at cruciblelarp.com (though this gets updated less frequently than the facebook page… which I’m sure someone else will be able to provide, as I’m not on facebook myself), though they don’t have a game scheduled for November that I know of.

We just had the Auckland Larp convention, Chimera, but Hamilton is starting up a similar convention, Medusa, of a similar nature (several 3 hours games over one weekend, pre-written characters, ~20 people per game). Hamilton is a short (by kiwi standards) drive from Auckland.

A few of us are starting another Larp in a light fantasy vein in Auckland called Moonbright, and as it happens our first game is scheduled for November. We don’t have much information to give yet, but some will be coming soon.

Wellington also has a large (by our standards) Larping community, and other regions have a little going on here and there, but I will let the locals tell you whats what in their regions.

#4

Sounds awesome!
We will be traveling around a bit, intend to get a car so, if there is a good larp somewhere in the country it is not impossible for us to get there.
Sounds that there is a ok amount of events, even if the amount of people will differ compared to what we are used to. We have small event to, been to a bunker larp with only 15 people for 24 hours, it was awesome.

The Crucible sounds really nice, I am more used to larps during weekend, like friday-sunday, don’t know if that is tha tradition in New Zealand or not. Got the impression that it is more common with larps during one day or a couple of hours. Either way I am really intresed in getting to know diffrent larp cultures, because you always learn new tings that you can bring home later. Especially when you organize larps as I do, all knowledge is good and all new perspectives are good ones.

#5

Crucible and 33ar will be just like that Friday till Sunday. Hydra is the same but that is 6 different 3 hour Larps.

There are other events that aren’t on the list.

#6

Medusa plug! 28 - 30 November 2014

nzlarps.org/medusa/

Medusa convention, like our other national conventions is made up of short time frame theatre form larps (and some live combat). As noted, about 3 hours to setup, run the scenario and pack down.

We also intend to have time for some discussion panels (larp theory and discussion) during the Saturday afternoon slot, along with vendors and social time etc.

If you’re keen to come along, I’d love to have you guys talk to us about your experiences as it would be great to bounce comparisons between NZ and Sweden.

#7

Incidentally, I think we have two or three Swedes in our communities across the country, but I don’t know any of them personally.

In general, I’d say the best thing to do would be to keep an eye on here and the calendar, get along to the next LARP that comes up, and meet the locals. From there, it shouldn’t be hard to keep up to date with what is going on :slight_smile: