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Auckland LARP News
19-Oct-05: Diatribe and the Live Action Role Playing Society. Diatribe is now fully live at diatribe.co.nz, with heaps of activity and a great events calendar. The Auckland LARP Guide is now closing it's doors. This will probably be the last post here, but I'll keep the site up as an archive. When you visit Diatribe be sure to look into the formation of the Live Action Role Playing Society. This group has formed as a cooperative between larpers in New Zealand, to share equipment and expertise and help fund new games. I encourage all larpers in New Zealand to join, it's going to be a great resource. 
29-Dec-04: Successor to the Auckland LARP Guide. Craig Neilson (known online as "Exquire") has taken up the challenge of creating a online New Zealand LARP community, under the name Diatribe. It's still in its formative stages, but you can see it under development at http://exquire.org/diatribe. Register there, and comment on how it could be improved. If you're not keen on the colour scheme, you can change it under your Profile. The site will use a more memorable URL once it reaches a more complete state.
14-Sep-04: The state of the Auckland LARP Guide. I haven't posted any news for some time, but there is plenty of activity in the Auckland LARP scene and around New Zealand. Check the sites of Mordavia, Skirmish, and Nightmare Circle for Auckland event listings. When I first started this website back in 1999, there was a fair amount of live roleplaying happening in New Zealand but there was little sense of community, and no websites relating to LARP. So I started the Auckland LARP Guide in the hope of giving the players and organisers of the various groups visibility of the local scene, to allow more cooperation and cross-pollination, and to give a central calendar of events. Over the last 5 years the website has certainly had a lot of visitors, and is linked to from LARP lists all over the world. It's been successful. However, in the last couple of years the local LARP scene has outgrown this website. The amount of activity on the Mordavia forum alone suggests that there is a strong online LARP community in Auckland that no longer needs a didactic guide or introduction service. We need a playground. And the Auckland LARP Guide is not built to accomodate that. At the national level, the NZRPGA provides an up-to-date event listing for both tabletop and live roleplaying events, however there is no sign of a LARP community building around it. In Wellington, the excellent RPG Central site has a close-knit online LARP/table-top community, but the event calendar appears to be little used for LARP events and the LARP forum does not have much national reach. The next step for LARP in New Zealand is a national online community dedicated to live roleplaying. Check out the UK's online LARP community Pagga. We need a forum like that, and an event calendar, and a listing of the LARP groups around New Zealand, all rolled into one website and updated by the participants. If you agree, and you think you'd have something to offer a website like that (management skills, graphic design, HTML, PHP, and MySQL), then get in touch at ryan@mordavia.com. I'll keep this site updated with the state of the project, which will supercede the Auckland Event Guide.
06-Jan-04: Skirmish are running another game at North Head on Sunday 18th January.
17-Oct-03: Skirmish are running a game at North Head on Sunday 2nd November. See the Skirmish website for details.
07-Aug-03: Mordavia: The Broken Circle will run Oct 3th-5th 2003. See www.mordavia.com for details. Book in August and get a $10 discount.
07-Aug-03: Skirmish are running a game at Western Springs on Sunday 24th August. See the Skirmish website for details.
21-May-03: Skirmish are running a game at the Auckland Domain on Sunday 8th June. See the Skirmish website for details.
20-May-03: Mordavia: The Land's Need ran May 9th-11th. See the Mordavia website for photos and reviews.
05-May-03: AURPG have moved their Gangsters LARP to Saturday the 24th of May. Contact is still Danielle Lander (remove spam block).
07-Apr-03: BORG are running a freeform post-mortem themed game called Eternal Service at SAGA's Buckets of Dice convention in Christchurch, on Friday 11th July. Details at http://saga.xi.co.nz/BoD2003.html.
04-Apr-03: Auckland University Roleplaying Group (AURPG, formerly called AMERICA) have a theatre-style LARP coming up on Friday 16th May. Theme is New York 1932: speakeasies, mobsters, molls, and so on. At "Honeys" champagne and cocktail bar in O'Connell St. Limited to 40 players, and AURPG members get preference. $10 for members, $15 otherwise. Contact Danielle Lander (remove spam block). Good to see some theatre style going on in Auckland, a change from the usual Auckland preoccupation with live-combat and Vampire.
There's another Skirmish game on Sunday 9th March, this time at North Head in Devonport. More details at their website, homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mikaere/Skirmish.html.
26-Feb-03: There's another Skirmish game on Sunday 9th March, this time at North Head in Devonport. More details at their website, homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mikaere/Skirmish.html.
17-Feb-03: Mordavia: The Land's Need has been moved to May 9th-11th, 2003. This change is due to a clash with the Armageddon convention.
23-Jan-03: Skirmish are running a plotted event at Gribblehurst Park, Sandringham on Sunday 9th February. Check their website at homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mikaere/Skirmish.html for details.
07-Jan-03: KapCon XII in Wellington is hosting a LARP again this year, on the 18th-19th January 2003. It will be a fourteenth century Italian costume drama, based on several plays by William Shakespere, entitled "Twelfth Night". Further information can be found at http://www.kapcon.rpg.net.nz/twelfthnight.html, or you can contact kapcon@lycos.com.
21-Nov-02: Mordavia: The Land's Need is planned for April 11-13, 2003. This will be the third weekend event in the Mordavia gothic fantasy series, and player numbers are growing with each game. Details are available at the website, www.mordavia.com.
12-Aug-02: Skirmish are running an event at Western Springs Park on Sunday 25th August. Check their website at homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mikaere/Skirmish.html for details.
09-Jul-02: Added a Hamilton Vampire group called Danse Macabre to the Groups page.
01-Jul-02: I went to the Skirmish game on the weekend. Good fun, plenty of opportunities to practice your swordsmanship and squad fighting tactics with a nice bunch of people.
01-Jul-02: Added links to Wellington by Night and Martinborough by Night vampire LARPs to the Groups page.
06-Jun-02: A group called Skirmish (previously LARP Hero System) have been in contact to let me know they have a new website at homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mikaere/Skirmish.html. Check out their unique gingernut spell mechanic! They have an event coming up on Saturday June 29th 2002, for which more details are given on their site.
27-May-02: Mordavia: The Shadow's Veil was run over the weekend, and was extremely well received. Of course I would say that, because I'm one of the organisers. Check out the Mordavia website at www.mordavia.com for more wonderfully biased information and hopefully a few impartial reviews to come. Also, I've added a link to the NZRPGA at their request. I note with some amusement that they have taken all the active LARP group descriptions straight off this website for theirs. The Auckland LARP Guide - steal your copy today.
02-Apr-02: "Masquerade, live-action fantasy and barroom brawl" are on the agenda for a roleplaying convention in Hamilton on Labour weekend in October (changed from Easter weekend). Email Dan Phillips for details.
20-Mar-02: The Knights Draconis, a medieval display group based in Auckland, have a cool new website. Check it out at www.geocities.com/knightsdraconis2001/.
12-Feb-02: Just found out that the Vampire: the Masquerade group Auckland after Dark has resurfaced under new management. I've added them to Groups.
09-Feb-02: The second game of Mordavia is coming up on May 24 2002. See www.mordavia.com for details.
14-Dec-01: At Kapcon XI in Wellington on the 19th of January 2002 there will be a live game based in 1920's Wellington.
03-Oct-01: The Mordavia game on the 28th-30th of September seems to have gone well. There are photos and reviews at www.mordavia.com.
1-Sep-01: Another review in for the Lateral Worlds game, this time from the Brettonian magical folks. Click the sword to check it out. 
24-Aug-01: On the 28th-30th of September a dark fantasy event called Mordavia will be running in Auckland. Check out the website at www.mordavia.com. The game is being organised by the The Dark Gate and friends.
30-Mar-01: The Dark Gate are running an Immortal Rampage fantasy game on 9th of June. Click the sword for more.
30-Mar-01: The Arkham Society are running a live horror game called The Return of the Sorcerer on the 8th-10th of June. Look for details on the Arkham Society Website.
30-Mar-01: According to the New Zealand Roleplaying Game Association, A.M.E.R.I.C.A. are running their America's Cup roleplaying tournament on the 15th and 16th of July. There is usually a live roleplaying game on the Saturday. The details for this year's event are not yet confirmed on the A.M.E.R.I.C.A website.
29-May-01: I've recently come across an interesting Auckland supplier, The Medieval Shop.
You can find them at 175 Symonds St, Grafton. The shop has lots of things to offer LARPers: chain and leather armour, helmets,
shields, costumes for sale and hire, and a whole lot of reference material and accessories.
29-May-01: Finally, LARPA (the Live Action Role-Playing Association, based in the States) have got their act together and fixed their website. While you're there, make sure you check out their magazine The LARPer for some interesting articles.
23-Apr-01: Reviews of the Lateral Worlds game are now up. Click the sword.
05-Mar-01: Click the sword to check out some photos from the Lateral Worlds game, and leave a review if you were there.
08-Feb-01: Lateral Worlds are running their yearly game on the first weekend of March.
24-Jan-01: There's a Quest Waikato game on Sunday the 28th of January.
17-Dec-00: Raoul from The Arkham Society (an Auckland horror LARP club) has let me know that they have a new website.
28-Nov-00: The Dark Gate are running a game on the 10th of December. Click the sword to check it out.
15-Oct-00: The upcoming weekend game The Frontier Town of Gaw Swamp in Hamilton, run by Quest Waikato has been moved to 11th - 13th November.
15-Oct-00: Check out the new online LARP Magazine Time In, edited by the nice people over at The LRP and Laser-tag Index. The content of this edition is mostly UK and USA based, but I think there'll be some NZ stuff in the next edition.
03-Aug-00: I've got definite details on the upcoming weekend game run by Quest Waikato on Friday 20th October.
20-Aug-00: I've added a new Scenarios list to the Resources area. If you're a game organiser looking for fresh plot ideas it's worth a look.
10-Aug-00: I've been hearing some rumours and partial information about upcoming games. Check out the Events area for more details.
03-Aug-00: Quest Waikato are running a game in Hamilton on Saturday 5th August.
20-Jul-00: A small but persistent bird has told me about a fantasy LARP organisation in Hamilton called Quest Waikato.
They've been around since 1990, in which time they have developed their own rules system and undergone
numerous changes of name, from the sound of things. Looks like their system uses a combination of class-based
and skill-based character generation, with advancement being based on success in quests. For more info (and some pretty pictures)
try the Quest Waikato website.
15-Apr-00: I've come across a website about a New Zealand group called The Phoenix Company.
They're a historical reinactment organisation similar to the SCA,
and I think their efforts may be interesting to fantasy LARPer's. Check them out at
www.medieval.co.nz. Be sure to watch their
action clip, an mpeg video of a live combat.
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| Do you know of any upcoming events I've missed? If so, please send in the details. Or if you have any other news or ideas for the website then let me know. |