Twelve famed New Zealanders (none of whom have any design experience) have convened to decide on one flag design out of ten possible choices. Each committee member has their own favoured designs, and with a bit of luck, enough people will be able to agree on a design to be voted on by the wider public. Exciting, right?

Oh, there's one other thing.

The *reason* that everyone has their own favoured designs is that, unbeknownst to the others, everyone in the room is an acolyte of a different arcane being. Your being has promised to bring about the apocalypse, and spare you, if a particular design is selected. So you'd better make sure that flag has a fern on it if you want to be alive this time tomorrow...

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'Raising the Standards' is a LARP of two halves. In the first half, the players must try and agree on a flag design, trading off various 'win conditions' about the contents of the flag. In the second half, players must attempt to survive the apocalypse that the first half has caused. This is a costume-light, rules-light, seriousness-light game, where the OOC goals are to stack the deck against the characters, and then to either survive or die in a satisfying way.

The setting timeline for the Kapcon LARP Apotheosis has been posted. It can be reached from the LARP page. Please have a look. Let us know if you have any questions.

Written by Betsy Isaacson

The lovely, reclusive Lady Roksana remains as yet unmarried. Tonight, though, she's opened her castle to the most eligible of the Empire's nobility. It's a curious thing: her party starts at dusk, and she says that she'll choose a spouse by midnight. Of course, this has attracted the sort of people who are willing to risk life, livelihood, and reputation for the sake of making a grand romantic gesture. But tonight is not a night for romance alone. Each suitor has much cause to speak and scheme with his fellows. Secluded parties, after all, are where Empires rise and fall...

Outsize ambition, abhorrent obsession, and the mundanities of museum politics grind against mad science, threats of illegal sorcery, and a very ill-timed visit from the Emperor. Will the Lady Roksana's party survive the chaos of its guests? And will the Lady Roksana herself manage to marry well? Or ever?

On Display is a comedy of courtship set during an Age of Wonder that never was -- dinosaur bones have just been found in the ground, clockwork automatons are all the rage, and mad science butts heads with political pragmatism. The game is only scheduled to last 90 minutes and so is a good option for those wanting more time before the flagship round.

There is an additional NPC role (the Emperor) that is only required for the last 30 minutes

Your country has just experienced its first major terrorist attack. You and eleven of your fellow citizens have been selected as the jury that will decide the fates of those allegedly responsible.

This is an experiential LARP. Instead of a character sheet, prior to the game you will receive a packet of information containing a transcript of the trial and copies of the evidence presented. Your only goal, as a group, is to come to a decision about the guilt or innocence of the four accused, and about the severity of any offences they have committed.

The lives of four people who may or may not be mass murderers rest in your hands.

Choose carefully.

Kapcon wants your larps!

We are planning to run a larp stream this year, with the aim of providing around 24 player spaces per round. The parameters of running a larp at kapCon are pretty simple: runs in 3 hours, fits in a classroom, 8 - 15 players, minimal set-dressing (because you won't have time to do it between rounds). Please also note that the changing facilities aren't great, so costume-light is an advantage.

We will pre-register players if your game is costumed, to allow you to cast in advance.

If you're interested, please fill out the game registration form

We'd like to have larps for rounds 1 and 2 at least sorted by mid-October for the main launch, and the sooner we have a larp timetable set the sooner we can start getting players.

As usual, KapCon is running a number of small larps this year alongside the ordinary tabletop sessions. Because these larps require costuming and casting, we are allowing players to preregister for them.

The larps in question are:

Round 3 (Saturday evening, 5pm - 8pm):
* A Royal Celebration (19 spaces)

Round 5 (Sunday morning, 10am - 1pm)
* Watch the Skies (8 spaces)
* The Universe (Which Others Call The Library) (8 spaces)

Round 6 (Sunday afternoon (2pm - 5pm):
* New Voices in Art (15 spaces)
* The Universe (Which Others Call The Library) (8 spaces)

To ensure everyone has a fair shot, we will be running a mini "shark week". Initial registrations will be taken by email between Thursday 4 December and midnight Monday 8 December, after which games will be allocated. Where a game is oversubscribed, the decision will be random. In rounds where there are multiple options, I am happy to take a first and second preference.

Following the initial signup period, games will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you would like to preregister for one of these slots, please email kapcon@gmail.com. I'll let you know next week which game you've been allocated to.

There is another game likely for round 7, and I'll open registrations for that when I receive a blurb.

Note that there are a host of fantastic tabletops as well, so don't worry about "missing out". There will be something good to play regardless.

It’s 1957, and you are in Palomar Gardens, the slightly seedy California home base of “Professor” George Adamski’s flying saucer cult. Tonight the extraterrestrials that have been visiting Adamski for years are returning. He’s announced that they are arriving to meet his followers and welcome them to the cosmic colloquy of enlightened beings. A flying saucer will fly overhead, and later the extraterrestrials will arrive in Palomar Gardens. It’s the night everybody has been waiting for - the desert sky is clear and bright, the air is charged with anticipation, and the cocktail bar is fully stocked.

This year's KapCon flagship is Crisis Point, a superhero larp covering everything from spandex-wearing caped crusaders to modern gritty and grim antiheroes. You can register for it here. Please remember that you will need to register for the convention as well.

New Voices in Art is a chamber game about about a group of aspiring artist the night before the opening of the exhibition ‘New Voices in Art’. The participants play a version of themselves as aspiring artists. The main themes of this game are ambition, ambivalence and aloneness. The world of modern art is used as a setting to symbolize our yearning for success and fulfillment as creative individuals.

Created by Tor Kjetil Edland, Arvid Falch and Erling Rognli

The workers at a small community public library on what appeared to be an ordinary week day. Only, as they pause for another cup of tea they realise that it’s even quieter than usual. Mr Brockton hasn’t been in to read the paper, and he does that every day at 10.30 am, that young mother hasn’t brought her loud child in to play with the toys in the kid’s area…. and the news reports on the radio are a trifle concerning….