Larp societies

[Ryan Paddy]

I've recently been involved in the formation of a non-profit larp society, the New Zealand Live Action Roleplaying Society (NZLARPS): www.nzlarps.org (full website not quite up yet).

We formed the society to provide support, funding, and equipment to local larps and to promote larp in the region. My non-profit larp Mordavia donated all its gear and spare cash to the society, which gave it a big head start.

I'm curious what experience others have had with such groups in their areas. I was amazed to see there's been a society in Edmonton, Canada for 20 years: http://www.lrpsedm.com. Does it have similar goals? Are there other groups like this out there, and how do they operate?

[Levi]

The main goals of LRPS Edmonton are:
To provide insurance for LARP games in the area.
To provide credibility to these games for purpose of renting sites.
To promote LARP gaming in the area.
To assist local creators in the creation of new rule-sets for LARP play.
To provide a method by which organizers can be warned regarding seriously problematic players, and vice versa

The first one, we do at all times; have for years - however, a game has to register with us and obey non-profit based rules to stay insured.

The second, we do by being a registered non-profit group that can be contacted regarding games that work with us.

The third, we do through our website and a local newsletter, and we're trying to get better distribution and try out other methods. We've had a recent dance, and will have a few more with demos that are keyed to the same theme as the dance. We're also doing demos at the local anime convention.

The fourth, we haven't done much of yet, though we do have registered playtests in the upcoming year for two different sets of locally-written rules.

And the fifth, we haven't had to do in a couple of years, thank goodness.

...Uh...

...So, that that's us. Who else is out there?

[Iskander]

In Belgium we have vzw Avatar.
You can find their site at http://www.larp.be/section1a.asp
I think most of the texts have been translated in English.
I'm not part of the organisation but I went to their yearly event which brings together a lot of players from the french and dutch side of Belgium. A great initiative.
This is their goal:

The organisation vzw AVATAR asbl results from the cooperation between the majority of the Belgian Live-Action Role Playing organisations (LARP). Its goal is to provide services to Belgian organisations which organises LARP events thanks to the benefits realised with the AVATAR event.

Our objective is to develop the LARP community in Belgium without hindering the organisations in their creativity. Our services are generic and are meant to relieve some of the costs of the Belgian organisations involved in organising a LARP event.

AVATAR is made up of members of Belgian organisations. They organise AVATAR – the event – and provide services to the Belgian LARP community. AVATAR works closely together with the "Fédération Belge des Jeux de Simulation "(FBJS) and considers as a long term opportunity that the two organisations may one day merge. AVATAR is also on very good terms with the "Fédération Française des Jeux de Rôles Grandeur Nature" (FédéGN), the French LARP Federation which allows for future projects to be done together