Wellington Anniversary Weekend January 20th - 21st 2024

KapCon 2024 Covid-19 policy

As we are all aware, Covid is still a factor in our lives and as such, we'd like to lay out a few rules and guidelines to mitigate potential risk.

Do not attend if you feel unwell, have any cold/flu/covid symptoms, or have tested positive for COVID-19. If you attend while symptomatic, you will be asked to leave. Please don't make us do this, because it will be uncomfortable for everyone involved. If you are sick, stay home.

Don't worry about money or GMing - please don't spread Covid. We will refund you if you have to drop out due to illness - just flick us an email and let us know. If you are GMing a game, let us know, and we will cancel it and find some way to make the timetable work. People's health is the most important factor!

We encourage people to do a RAT test before attending KapCon, especially if you think you may have been exposed.
We won't be enforcing or monitoring it but appreciate the effort of attendees who do this this, as this reduces risk. You can still get free RAT tests here.

You are most than welcome to wear a mask and do what you need to feel comfortable. We won't be enforcing or monitoring mask use. You can be assured that anyone wearing a mask is doing so as a precaution, as anyone who is sick will not attend (or will be asked to leave).

If you become symptomatic after the convention, please let us know so we can let other people know.

We recognise that this may not meet everyone's risk threshold. If it doesn't, we look forward to seeing you in the future when you feel safe to do so.

KapCon 31

KapCon 31 in 2024 is on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st of January. Monday 22nd is a statutory holiday for Wellington workers and can be used for recovery.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, things are uncertain. We will only run if it is safe to do so, and will cancel if it looks unsafe (for example, if case numbers rise significantly another major strain arrives in New Zealand in the leadup to the con). If we have to cancel, all participants will receive a full refund.

What is KapCon?

KapCon is a not-for-profit role-playing game convention run annually in Wellington, New Zealand, every January. Over a hundred people get together for a weekend of role-playing, in a diverse range of styles and systems. Over the weekend, more than 30 individual games are run, with volunteer GMs (or storytellers, narrators or facilitators) running games between one and six times over the course of the convention.

kapCon setup is tomorrow from noon

The printing has been done, so the con details are basicly locked. I can still take registrations and swap people into different games, and the admin desk will have all the details, but it won't be on the wall on Saturday morning. I'll close the registration form tomorrow.

Setup is tomorrow (Friday) at WHS from midday!

Setup involves carting the con gear down the elevator and along the halls, setting up the signage, arranging the rooms for gaming use, setting up the wall of games, and various other tasks. The more people who help out, the quicker it will go, so if you can, please turn up to help. Hopefully we can get through it in a couple of hours.

Alice is Missing

Facilitator: 
Jamie Sands

A group of friends do what they can to find their missing friend, Alice

This game is played entirely via cellphone, so please have a charged phone and a willingness to share your number with the other players - Whatsapp is the preferred text vehicle to play the game.

Content warnings can include: implied sexual abuse, bullying, violence, drug and alcohol use (underage) and stalking

This game is beautiful in its darkness

The Caverns of Thracia

Facilitator: 
Hamish Cameron

For over a thousand years the things that lurk beneath the waters, skulk in the darkness and lie hungrily in dank crypts have been patient, while all around them men and monsters bicker amongst themselves, bold enough to traverse the dark caverns' depths, but afraid or perhaps wise enough to leave the forgotten vaults and hidden passages alone.

And still, they wait, undisturbed. They are waiting for you!

We will use 1400, James Lennox-Gordon's Lo-Fi Hi-Fantasy hack of Jason Tocci's Lo-fi Sci-fi RPG 2400, to play through Jennell Jaquay's iconic 1979 Judge's Guild mega(ish) dungeon The Caverns of Thracia.

This is a detailed and interrelated old-school sandbox dungeon with some ancient Greek vibes that potentially includes politics between different groups, quite disparate power levels between sections, and fantasy monsters of a low-grade horror sort. We'll do lines and veils at the start and use an X-card and the open door policy.

  • Characters will be made at the table in the first 10 minutes or so.
  • My GMing style is high-action rule of cool with a penchant of magical weirdness
  • I don't imagine this will be particularly deadly, but if it is, it's super quick to make up a character.
  • I'll run this multiple times over the weekend as a persistent world. Bring back your character if they survive!
  • I'll be masked, so if you have auditory issues or need to lip read, we can talk in advance so you can see if that will work for you.
  • System: 
    1400

    League of extraordinary gentle gamers - Dead Man's Chest

    Facilitator: 
    Paul Wilson

    Formed in the late 1980s they are a secret organisation allowing stars to game amongst their own people. The Gm has been running a game for the last 2 years on the biweekly Tuesday game in Hollywood.

    The sun has gone down on this fateful Thursday night, the GM is late, and the party assembles in an underground gaming grotto for the last session of the campaign after a few missed games. Tasked by the grand Lich - Horace the undying to find a new host for his Phylactery

    Unfortunately, the players have become a little.... dysfunctional.
    ___________

    The players will be roleplaying role-players and celebrity impersonations will be encouraged.

    System: 
    PBTA - the dungeon zone

    FiveEvil: Wakefield House

    Facilitator: 
    Morgan Davie

    One year ago Kyle disappeared and you thought he was dead. Now he's dropped a message into the group chat: meet me tonight at Wakefield House. Sneak into the abandoned house that Kyle used to say was haunted to find out if Kyle is alive? What could go wrong?

    Wakefield House is a scenario for FiveEvil, a game of unnerving horror that takes the basics of D&D 5E and turns them inside out. It will hit crowdfunding later this year from Handiwork Games.

    System: 
    FiveEvil (based on D&D 5E)

    Ego Hunter

    Facilitator: 
    Tim Oliver

    Transhumanity stands on the edge of evolution and extinction. With the ability to upload our minds and nanofabricate almost anything, death and scarcity were nearly defeated. Then a war against super-intelligent AIs infected with an alien virus wiped out 95% of the population. Earth is a ruined wasteland, overrun by machines. The remnants of transhumanity—bio-engineered humans, uplifted animals, and infolife—expanded throughout the Solar System.

    It's one of those months where there's so much to do and learn that you feel like you need to be in than one place at the same time. That's no problem! Upload your mindstate, fork it into copies each for its own chore, use standard tools to clip away their unnecessary memories and cut down that file size, and transmit them far afield - and when they come home, merge yourself together again. Nothing to worry about, perfectly routine.

    But today you're back at home on Mars, along with your other forks - and your original self's gone missing. That's bad.

    (This is a published scenario for Eclipse Phase, a game of transhumanism and horror)

    System: 
    Eclipse Phase

    Just a few games more...

    A few days out from the convention, and as usual we're needing just a few more games to make the timetable work. Currently we have:

    • Round 1: 9 games, 49 spaces + 13 GOD, + megagame (24 free + megagame)
    • Round 2: 9 games, 53 spaces + 15 GOD (25 free; 8 people from megagame to reallocate)
    • Round 3: 9 games, 47 spaces + 15 GOD
    • Round 4: 2 games, 10 spaces + 10 GOD
    • Round 5: 8 games, 43 spaces + 9 GOD + adventure squad
    • Round 6: 7 games, 38 spaces + 15 GOD + adventure squad
    • Round 7: 3 games, 17 spaces + 4 GOD

    Based on current anticipated numbers, it looks like we need:

    • Round 1: 1 surge protection game (just in case)
    • Round 2: 1 more game
    • Round 3: 1 more game
    • Round 4: 2 more games
    • Round 5: 1 more game + 1 surge protection
    • Round 6: 1 more games + 1 surge protection
    • Round 7: 3 more games

    If you can help with this, please fill out the "Run a Game!" form, or email kapcon@gmail.com.

    Cartel

    Facilitator: 
    Alasdair

    It is 2007, the Sinaloa Cartel is the largest drug trafficking organization in the world, a vast network of narcos, halcones, y sicarias moving billions of dollars of drugs into Los Estados Unidos.
    Take on the role of someone tied to the Sinaloa Cartel in Durango, Mexico, trying to stay alive in a dangerous game of drugs, money, and power. Navigate shifting alliances and deadly schemes, while desperately struggling to hold on to what's yours.

    This is a largely character-driven game of compromised people in a corrupt world. High player agency is expected, as the world reacts to the drives and actions of the central characters.

    Note: this game deals with some dark materials, including potential player character fatality, so will begin with a safety briefing and use safety tools throughout.

    System: 
    Cartel
    Syndicate content