The LARP Magazine Newsletter

A Monthly E-Publication

 Volume 02                                                           June 5, 2006

Table of Contents

1. Subscribe / Unsubscribe Information

2. The LARP Magazine – Issue #1 Hits the Streets!

3. Update: The LARPY Awards

4. Update: ConQuest America

5. Update: Live Adventures Games Website

6. LARP Announcements

7. Help Wanted

8. Customers Wanted – Classified

9. The History of UK LARP

10. Invitation to Attend Dragonbane LARP

Section I.            Subscription Information

If you want your name and contact information removed from the monthly LARP Magazine Newsletter, go here to unsubscribe. http://larpmag.com/mailman/listinfo/live_rpg_mag_newsletter_larpmag.com

Section II.           The LARP Magazine – Issue #1 Hits the Streets

On May 30, 2006, individuals in attendance at the LARPY Awards saw the very 1st Issue, a special Issue, of the LARP Magazine.

The LARP Magazine is an effort to provide information in a positive image about the LARP industry. We invite everyone to get involved in the magazine; as writers, advertisers, and reporters, contributing to the success of the magazine through submissions of articles about your LARP group.

The LARP Magazine enjoyed a printing of 1,000 publications, and began distribution on May 1, 2006 to Subscribers, LARPY Award attendees, Game Stores across America and at Game Conventions attended by NERO® International, its chapters, affiliates, and partners.

Though we encountered a few challenges, the LARP Magazine was present at the LARPY Awards, contains information about LARP both locally and abroad.

Advertising is being accepted for the LARP Magazine at very reasonable rates. 

Visit www.larpmag.com for more information and to read LARP Magazine articles.

Section III.         The LARPY Awards

            The LARPY Awards were held at the Avalon Hollywood Theatre, in Hollywood California, on April 30, 2006. Hosted by Bobbi Sue Luther, and with about two dozen celebrities presenting awards, the show was a success. The 501^st Garrison (Storm Troopers and Darth Vader) and other Star Wars Characters (R2-D2 & Chewbacca) attended the Pre-show party and Award Show.

For more information about the LARPY Awards and how you can submit an entry to the 2^nd Annual LARPY Awards, visit http://www.larpyawards.com

Section IV.         Convention Quest America

            ConQuest America is an annual event that is scheduled for July 19 to 23, 2006, in Earlville Illinois. It is an effort to unite the different LARP Groups in America and Canada in an effort to run a high quality live adventure game (LARP) with a thousand attendees.

It will focus on the storyline, interaction among the attendees and the cast, and defeating an adversary that threatens all of the people in the lands. The Game Rules will be a simple set of rules derived from all of the LARP games available. A commodity system and political system will be included to accommodate those players who thrive on role-play and political interaction.

All LARP Groups are encouraged to participate as Game Masters, Event Actors, and Players (Good guys or bad guys). For more information on how you and your group can come be a part of ConQuest America, visit http://www.ConQuestAmerica.com

Section V.           Live Adventure Games website

The website provides material that will focus on educating individuals who operate or play in LARP events. Currently being revamped to be the authority on and for the LARP industry, it will provide valuable information no matter if you are a LARP group, a Foam Fighting Society, or new to LARP. For more information, or to add your URL to the list of LARPS, visit www.LiveAdventureGames.com

Section VI.         LARP Announcements

·        NERO® International announced NERO Wisconsin opening in February of 2006. Visit www.NeroWisconsin.com for more information.

·        NERO® International has announced its entry into the retail arena with a new store button added to www.nerolarp.com. Visit www.LARP-Store.com to see the items currently available.

Section VII         Help Wanted!

·        Reporters Wanted! We are looking for a half dozen reporters that will write columns about LARP events and groups in there area.

·        Contact Joseph Valenti at Jvalenti@nerolarp.com to join the LARP Magazine team!

Section VIII.      Customers Wanted!

·        Subscribe to the LARP Magazine. Buy 1 or more issues. Visit www.larpmag.com to buy a Magazine Subscription or advertise your business to LARP’ers.

·        The LARP-Store has the LARP Gear that every Adventurer needs. Visit www.LARP-Store.com

Section IX.       The History of UK LARP, Written By Nathan Hook

The origins of Larp are already becoming murky with the passing of the years. What I present here is information I have uncovered on how Larp started in the UK. If you have different or additional information, please write to the magazine so that this can be updated.

Through there are accounts of early experiments (including murder mystery games as early as the mid-seventies), the first significant expression of modern Larp in the UK occurred in 1981. Two people named Donaldson and Carey set up what is widely as the first larp group, known as Treasure Trap (or TT for short, through that is confusing since many people use that to refer to ‘tabletop’) at Peckforton castle in Cheshire. This ran until 1984 with huge success – its books claim over 5000 members at it’s height, including those from Europe and the US. This however ended when the castle was sold (some sources also suggest financial difficulties in addition to this).

The original Trap rule system was closely modeled on Dungeons & Dragons, using the same character classes and alignment system. Each class had eight levels, at which point the player had to undertake a special solo adventure. Monster weapons were coated with paint as a mechanic for tracking damage to players. The common areas were time in constantly, with parties forming for linear adventures and occasional mass battles when the castle itself was attacked.

In the present day, the castle is now a hotel and a Grade I listed building (which means it’s protected by law from modification). Rumor has if it you know where to look you can still find paint splashes on the walls from the paint-coated weapons. Despite its name, it is not technically a castle at all. It was a Victorian country house built in the style of a medieval castle between 1844 and 1851.

Carey left at this point and attempted to create a Paintball LARP, through that failed to start due to sponsorship failure. Donaldson attempted to move Treasure Trap to Chislehurst caves. However the deal failed and instead Pete Garner founded a new Larp called Labyrinthe in the caves. Labytinthe still exists to this day, running every single weekend in it’s cave system as well as overland adventures. Its running passed to Jan McManus and Simon Morgan (who is perhaps better known as the professional latex weapon supplier Eldrich).

Versions of Treasure Trap still exist. As early as 1983, a spin-off group was formed as Durham University TT. In 1984 Birmingham University formed its own TT group, through this ceased to exist a few years ago. Cambridge University currently has its own TT group, which spun off from the Durham group in 2002.

By late 1985 various ex-TT players created a number of other LARPs of their own, including Labyrinthe, Realm and Spirit of Adventure. In 1986 ex-TT players founded Flight of Fantasy, which later changed its name to Nothing Ventured and later still to Forever’s Destiny, in which form it still exists.

Many consider Trap to be an extremely complicated rule system. In fairness it was originally relatively simple; through it did still require pauses to ‘battleboard’ to do the maths to check the status of the characters. However, the systems that continued its tradition gradually increased its complexity.

In 1987 Shitfer left Labyrinthe and set up the professional larp Heroquest, which still runs to this day. It remains one of the few fulltime professional larps in the world.

A number of Heroquest players broke away in the early nineties and used the Heroquest system combined with the Greyhawk D&D setting as a basis for new LARP group at Bristol Polytechnic (which later became the University of the West of England). That eventually folded around 2001.

Andy King began as a player of Treasure Trap in 1980’s, then became a staff member and ref. He went on to become a founding member of the Lorien Trust which was set up as a committee in 1992. Lorien Trust ran its first Gathering event that year, and has done every year since on the August bank holiday at Loco Park in Derbyshire. Currently it attracts around 3500 players every year (and runs smaller related events as well), making it by far the largest event in the UK (and perhaps the world). Andy King still runs the Lorien Trust as Managing Director, making his living from LARP.

In 1995 a group broke away from the Lorien Trust due to an internal schism. They created the company Curious Pastimes, which runs the larp Renewal. This continues to run every year with its main event attracting hundreds of players.

In 1998, Matthew Pennington, Paul Wilder, Juilet Morgan (now Juilet Wilder) and Elle Smith set up a new large scale fest Larp called Omega. This ran until 2003, with around five hundred players at each event. It is most noted for introducing the concept of downtimes to large scale larp events as well as improvements to the use of lammies.

Following the end of Omega, Matthew Pennington set up a professional larp company called Profound Decisions running the frockcoat & fantasy game Maelstrom in 2004. This currently runs four times a year with 750 players at each event.