What is KapCon?

Kapcon is a not-for profit Roleplaying Game convention run annually in Wellington, New Zealand, every January. Over 100 people get together for a weekend of pen-and-paper roleplaying, 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.

There are six rounds of gaming - each lasting 3 hours. Most games have pre-generated characters for the players to use, and some even have props, soundtracks, links to other games, or live action elements (where players act out the less dangerous parts of the story). Between rounds there's time to chat, meet or catch up with people, and get some much needed snack food. There's usually some snack food available on-site, and there's always the dairy and fish-and-chip shop nearby.

If you have a favourite game that you want to play in, you can let us know in advance and we'll try to find someone to run it - if you love Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, D&D 3.5, or any other system, send us an email and we'll see what we can do.

After the third round on the Saturday, there's a LARP. A LARP is a live action roleplaying game - one where you wear a costume, and stay in character at all times. The style of LARP we have at Kapcon doesn't use foam weapons or any complicated mechanics - it's all about being in character, finding out what's going on, achieving your goals and having fun. In recent years the Saturday night LARP has grown from 40 to 70 players. There is a dedicated team of writers who volunteer each year to put together the LARP, and it is due to their tireless work that it's so much fun!