Less than two days to go until Kapcon! So here's some last-minute notices:

• People will be at the venue for setup from 10am on Friday. If you'd like to pitch in, head down (better yet, tell us first, then head down, so Morgan has some idea of how many pairs of hands he has)
  
• Precon drinks are at the Southern Cross, 39 Abel Smith St, from 17:30. There's a Facebook event for it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/109637262879598/
  
• Doors open on Saturday at 8am, and first round starts at 9am. We'll have the usual setup of a paid and unpaid queue. Rounds will run 9 - 12; 1 - 4 and 5 - 8, with the flagship larp "That's a Wrap" starting at 8:30. If you're not larping, Games on Demand and round 4 will be happening on the upper floor. We need to vacate the venue immediately afterwards, as there's an alarm which kicks in at midnight.
  
• On Sunday doors open at 9, and first round starts at 10. Rounds run 10 - 1 and 2 - 5. There'll be a prize ceremony at ~5:30, and the final (unscored) round will run from 6 - 9, at the same time as the "cleanup larp".
  
• On both days you will be able to order pizza for dinner. Order forms will be at the front desk. Place your order during the morning round or the lunch break, and your pizza will be waiting for you at the end of the afternoon round. We'll also have an assortment of snacks and drinks available at the desk. Kapcon doesn't do EFTPOS, so please bring cash.
  
• Bryn from Games & Hobbies will be there between rounds on Saturday and maybe on Sunday if you want to buy boardgames or dice. He doesn't do EFTPOS either, so again, bring cash.
  
• Postcon drinks will be at the Southern Cross again, in the function room, from 8:30pm Sunday onwards. There's a Facebook event for it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/644226122446630/
  
• Have fun, everyone.

Opening crawl

It is a dark time in the galaxy. The JEDI ORDER has been destroyed and knowledge of the FORCE has all but lost. Only a handful of people sensitive to the Force remains, scattered across the stars, ignorant of their destiny.

Humble scholar Hethan Romund has preserved a fragment of the heritage of the Jedi. Traveling the galaxy, Romund stumbled across a number of people still strong in the Force and offered them what wisdom she could. Now, Romund has been captured by MALEFAX, a servant of the dark side of the Force. Compelled by Malefax to lead him to a lost temple rich in ancient knowledge, Romund has sent a signal to several of the Force-sensitive allies she has made over the course of her career.

Drawn together to rescue their mentor, these Force-sensitives now climb the snow-clad slopes of MOUNT TELLEC on the Outer Rim planet Spintir....

Many a fireside tale has been spun from the Forsaken Fell, that stony ledge halfway up Hvitr’s Horn where lies a maze of broken walls clotted by black lava. Before your grandmother’s grandmother walked the world, they say the mountain vomited forth molten rock that destroyed a monastery, its attendant village, and all who dwelt within. Since then, few have dared set foot upon the Fell, fearing the attention of the charred spirits said to stalk the ruins.

One by one, residents of the village at the foot of the mountain have been disappearing. Rumors of distant screams carried on the cold wind and flaming skulls flying through the night have driven those that have not fled to cower fearfully in their huts.

The time has come to get to the bottom of whatever lies beneath the Forsaken Fell.

It is July third, 1950. The Korean War is eight days old. National Security Council Report 68 is sitting on Harry Truman’s desk, a grim outline of the Cold War that is to enfold the world for the next 40 years. Alan Turing’s paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” is circulating for review. Cinderella is a box office sensation.

And you have invented a computer that can see the future.

Employing cutting-edge Ward-Takahashi identity derivations outside their quantum-theoretical framework, JUGGERNAUT processes enormous data sets, ostensibly in the service of code-breaking once the technology is proven and refined. The unstable geniuses behind the math have reached some curious conclusions that only experimental evidence can confirm. By the numbers, JUGGERNAUT —given enough resources— should be able to crack ciphers before they are even invented.

JUGGERNAUT is a live-action game by Jason Morningstar about free will for 4-6 players and 1-2 hours that plays like a creepy Twilight Zone episode and requires almost no prep. Replay value is high and it is always weird and intense To play.

Lani and Balthazar meet at a high school dance, barely aware of the political unrest that is about the change their lives.
Years later, they meet for the last time in the dirty streets of the big city. Balthazar, in uniform, has Lani at gunpoint. Does he pull the trigger?

Using the collaborative history-making game Microscope, we will explore what happens between these two moments before determining the answer to that final question.

Registration for small larps is now open. We don't have very many this year, so space is limited (of course if you want to offer one, you can submit it via the usual form).

We're not running any larps in rounds 1 or 2 this year because of the Megagame, but we've got stuff in later rounds. Specifically:

• Round 3 (Sat evening): "Drink Me" (3 players) and "T.R.Y.S.T." (12 players)
  
• Round 5 (Sun morning): "Night Floors" (8 players)
  
• Round 6 (Sun afternoon): "The Demon Gate" (12 players)
  

If you'd like to register, please email me on kapcon@gmail.com. As with tabletops, I'll be running a "shark week" with allocation on preferences (for round 3 at least), after which it is first come, first served. If you are a GM, you can beat the system by exercising a GM pick (so GM a game, people :)

Parasites, predators, pests and pathogens! It's all in a week's work for the Exotic Species Invasions team, as you keep New Zealand safe from invasive threats. You're all experts, of course, but sometimes even scientists don't know all the answers!

The district of Crow's Foot in the city of Doskvol is a place divided. The recent turf war between rival gangs, the savage Lampblacks and the well-disciplined Red Sashes, ended a year back with an uneasy truce splitting the island-suburb in two. Now every block claims its allegiance, every pub hangs its preferred colours outside to let everyone know who's welcome and who's not. It's not an easy peace.

A week back, word reached Mylera Klev, leader of the Sashes, that an up-and-coming lieutenant in the Lampblacks was interested in defecting. Then a couple of days later, that same lieutenant disappeared. Perhaps someone in the Lampblacks got suspicious; perhaps said lieutenant is already lying face-down in the Dusk River. Regardless, Klev needs a group of ne'er-do-wells and rogues to investigate. A group smart enough to work alone, small enough not to arouse suspicion, and independent enough that if the whole thing blows up, she can deny all involvement and leave them to hang. Who could be desperate enough for money, fame, and influence to take her up?

Is it you guys? Yeah, it's you guys.

Blades in the Dark is "a game about a group of daring scoundrels building a criminal enterprise on the haunted streets of an industrial-fantasy city. There are heists, chases, escapes, dangerous bargains, bloody skirmishes, deceptions, betrayals, victories, and deaths." (We probably won't be able to fit all of these into a three-hour session though.) The system is currently being Kickstarted by designer John Harper. This game will be using the Quickstart 7.1 rules, if you're playing along at home.

In the small, quintessentially English village of Devesham during the 1980s life is quiet, routine and, to the local children, boring. There’s always a game of cricket happening on the village green, the police constable rides a bicycle, as does the vicar, and everybody knows everybody. The most exciting thing to happen in recent times was Mrs Wilson controversially winning the church baking contest for an unprecedented fourth year in a row.
Today the village children, as they always do during the endless Summer holidays, have gathered under the old oak tree at the edge of the green, and each of them has a story to tell...

Squatting outside the city the Demon Gate, roofed as it is, is an uncertain haven for travellers, vagrants, mendicant monks, criminals, lost spirits... and you.

There was a trial, about a man that died. They made you speak there. You saw something, right? You still don't understand it; the pieces don't fit. There was a trial, and there will be an execution, and your part is done. But it haunts you.

There are two hours before the ferry comes and you can get out of here. Which leaves you stuck with answering the question: what exactly happened?

A storytelling game for 10-12 players loosely based on The Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa), and "In A Grove" and "The Rashomon" (Ryunosuke Akutagawa). While relatively dark, this game won't have any themes of sexual violence.