NERO Hartford Kickstarter Offers a New Player Reward

NERO Hartford (Connecticut) is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the last two events of their Kaurath boffer LARP's 2012 season and to put a deposit down for the 2013 season, the game's 10th anniversary. It sounds like a great time to come in as a new player, specifically through this reward:

PLEDGE $85 OR MORE
NEWCOMER'S JUMPSTART: Available to characters level 8 and below:
1) Listing in the newsletter (and on the website) as an "Adventurer" on our Supporters List.
2) One (1) full admission as a Player Character (PC) to an event of your choice (calendar of events and pre-reg link to be sent after funding). Includes all our delicious meals (late night Friday, breakfast Saturday and Sunday, Saturday lunch, dinner Feast and late night) and a guaranteed cabin assignment;
3) Sack o' Heritage:
(a) A long plot submission relating to character's backstory (developed following our October 2012 event). Note: two XP blankets will be applied to the designated character for their actions;
(b) A Sack of Goodies based on the character's backstory; and
(c) A one year membership in NERO Hartford.

About the Kickstarter:

Use of Funds
The Kickstarter money will cover site rental for the last 2 events of the 2012 Season, and the deposit for the 2013 Season at Camp Cedarcrest (a private camp in Orange CT), and put us well on our way to filling the game with a dynamic and enthusiastic cast We already have thousands of dollars worth of props and costumes, so this money goes towards this project, not building up a storehouse of equipment. If we surpass our first goal, then we will use the additional funds raised to underwrite our other Tenth Anniversary projects, which include, among other things an updated Players' Guide, covering the last ten years of IG (In Game) history, which has been shaped by the players.

Once successfully funded, we will send all backers a questionnaire to verify their donation level and rewards, and any additional rewards for which they may have pledged funds. All proposed delivery dates are estimates. Event admissions will be available as soon as the campaign is successfully funded.

Please note that all rewards can also be banked by players NPCing for awhile, and they can be added on to any other NPC awards earned for NPC service.

h/t @LARPingorg

"Mad About the Boy" Nordic Larp sign-ups open!

From Lizzie Stark:

This October in Connecticut, I am helping run the all-lady Nordic larp Mad About the Boy with some other locals and the original Norwegian creators! The sign-up for the game -- a dystopian future tale about a world in which all men are dead -- is now open.

http://lizziestark.com/2012/07/26/mad-about-the-boy-sign-up/

We'd love help spreading the word. You can find us at the above site, or on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/260955010681088/. Hope to see some of you all there.

They've been able to drop the ticket price from the originally-quoted price.

"Across the Sea of Stars" running at Brandeis Sat, Aug 4

From vortexofchaos on interconlarp at LiveJournal:

Sign up for Across the Sea of Stars before it fills!

It's official: Across the Sea of Stars [which we blogged about previously here -ed.] will run Saturday, August 4th, at 12:30 PM to midnight in the Levin Ballroom of Usdan, at Brandeis.

This is a Universe-spanning hard, realistic science-fiction LARP for 25 players, with strong and interesting characters, and with intense and dense plotting. A lot of people have heard about this game; it's run twice at Intercon to rave reviews. It's been three years, and people have been asking us to rerun it - so here's your rare chance to explore the future.

This is also a bit unusual - it's a Tale Telling LARP. In three parts of the game, you'll step out of your characters to play historical figures in some classic science fiction tropes. You'll get to explore and learn what has gone before, and it may affect what will come. It's a fascinating experience that will have you humming some of your favorite science fiction soundtracks.

Ask those who've played it. They'll tell you this is a game you've got to play.

We're going to take the first 25 people (based on game gender balance) who fill in a completed survey. The questionnaire is not short, and incomplete questionnaires won't count!

We hope to see you there. I'm in the process of announcing this far and wide, so you want to sign up quickly!

He's not kidding about the questionnaire's length, but it was fun to fill out regardless, and I'm looking forward to the game. There were still a few spots left as of earlier this evening, so sign up quickly if you want to play!

NELCO is today! (and tomorrow)

NELCO, the New England LARP Conference [which we've blogged about previously -ed.], is running all this weekend at the Chelmsford Radisson! There are panels and workshops about writing, running, and playing LARPs on Saturday, and a Build Your Own Game being, ah, built Saturday, with the game running Sunday noon-2.

Here's the complete schedule.

The address is

Radisson Hotel and Suites
10 Independence Drive
Chelmsford, MA 01824

[wording flagrantly stolen from laura47 and munged by me -ed.]

So You Want to be a GM seminar location

The So You Want to be a GM seminar will be in 35-225 -- sorry for the late notice.

NELCO schedule up, looking for more events

The New England LARP Convention about which we posted previously now has a schedule up here!

I don't believe the schedule is entirely final, so be aware its contents will likely shift over the next couple weeks. At least you can see what's planned right now.

Also, I believe they're still looking for more panels, talks, workshops, and other events, so please go to the home page and propose an event or volunteer for an existing one that needs more participants! (You'll need to create an account and log in before that link will work.)

NELCO is July 20-22 at the Radisson in Chelmsford, MA. I'm looking forward to it (and I'm not just saying that because I'm running a couple events) -- it should be a good time! (Should be a good barcon too.)

"So You Want to Be a GM" seminar at MIT

[Short version: game-writing how-to seminar this Saturday from 1-8p at MIT which Ariel Segall and I (Kevin Riggle) are running. If you're interested, e-mail us at sywtbatm@mit.edu so we include you on the e-mail about which room it will be in, and so we get a rough headcount on food. I'll try to announce the room here as well, but things are a bit crazy this week and I may forget. E-mail is best. If you didn't RSVP, come anyway! E-mail us for the room location.



You do not need to be affiliated with MIT in any way to attend! But, do note that this session is primarily focused on writing games in the Guild style, so if you're primarily interested in writing games for eg. Intercon or boffer campaigns this is not necessarily going to be useful to you. Then again, it won't necessarily be unuseful either -- we don't know enough to speak directly to those audiences, although we have some experience, but much of the advice is generally true. Do be aware that you will have to take many of the details (and some big ideas) on the understanding that they won't necessarily apply to your audience.



Also note that this session is intended partly as preparation for people interested in doing Guild Camp at MIT beginning the weekend after. Guild Camp (boot, not summer) is an intensive game-writing workshop in which people form up into 3-5 person teams and write a Guild game in two weeks. It's a ton of fun -- I wrote my first game a year ago as part of it -- but light on theory or general advice, so we'll be speaking directly to that experience. Again, most things will be generally true if you're not doing Guild Camp, but take that under advisement. -ed.]

Full blurb under the cut.

"Dia de los sobres" summer LARP day: WPI, Saturday, July 28, 2012

One of the summer LARP events we posted about previously has a date and a slate of games! Via Sarah Judd by e-mail:

Día de los Sobres is a one-day summer LARP event. Last year, at the first Día de los Sobres, Alleged Entertainment and Paranoid & Crotchety teamed up to run two LARPs back-to-back. This year, Día de los Sobres is bigger and better! Here's the deets:

• Where? Alden Hall at WPI, in Worcester, Massachusetts.
• When? Saturday, July 28.
• Which LARPs?
  
  • Alleged Entertainment's A Garden of Forking Paths!
  • Paranoid & Crotchety's Folding the River!

Signups are here: http://sobres2.concentral.net/events/715 We'll be opening registration at 7:00 PM Eastern time on Thursday, July 5.