About ZombieLARP
What is Live Action Roleplaying?
Live Action Roleplaying (LARPing) is a type of theatre spot, combined with game elements. In traditional LARPs, players would don chainmail armour, pointy elf-ears and pretend to be heroic knights or evil wizards, usually running around a forest and wearing themselves out before lunchtime. Some LARPs would use complex skill and magic systems that no-one could remember. Usually players would opt to sticky-tape a sheet of paper with all their spells and skills to the backs of their shields for quick reference on the go.
With ZombieLARP we wanted to do away with all of this and create an event that still allowed you to dress up and pretend to be someone else, whilst in a larger-than-life setting, carving your way through hordes of the undead. We wanted an event that provides all this and lowers the complexity of the game at the same time.
ZombieLARP is all about minimal rules and maximum fun – you can jump right in, having had no previous experience with Live Action Roleplaying and come away from the event buzzing.
ZombieLARP Overview
ZombieLARP NZ events are based on rules used by ZombieLARP UK. It uses a slightly modified ruleset from the UK version, adapted to better suit outdoor gameplay. Our event, ZombieLARP: Thirty Minutes to Midnight, will be the first in a series of stand-alone LARPs.
Gameplay
Gameplay is combat and puzzle-solving heavy, involving interactive props and artificial intelligences that will play a pivotal role during the progression of the story. ZombieLARP events are broken down into a series of 30-minute ‘runs’ leading all the way until midnight. These runs take teams of 4-6 human player characters through a thrilling race against the clock where their goal is to both survive against waves of zombies and complete their objective. During each run, if you’re not playing a human character, you’ll be playing one of many zombies who will be trying to hinder the humans progress.
We’ll be honest with you. When it’s your turn to play a human character, you will most likely die. Teamwork and keeping your wits about you is essential if you want to survive right up to the very end.
Combat
Combat is realtime, with Human players using LARP-safe foam boffer weapons such as axes and hammers, as well as Nerf-guns. You’re welcome to bring your own weapons, however these must be checked by the StoryTellers (STs) upon arrival at the venue. We will be providing boffer weapons and Nerf guns if you don’t bring your own. Nerf guns may be custom painted and modified from their original condition with the removal of air restrictors and upgraded springs. For modified guns, using any other propellant other than air and spring power is not allowed. There is no restriction to the amount of ammo / melee weapons / Nerf guns that you may bring and use in your run.
A certain amount of foam Nerf rounds will be provided for you, however to guarantee that you have enough ammo for your run, you should bring your own Nerf rounds or alternately a backup melee weapon (or borrow one of ours). It is recommended that you mark any of your own rounds with permanent marker so you can identify which are yours at the end of the event. Loose rounds will be collected up from the ground at the end of each run and unmarked ones will be added to the pool for future ZombieLARP events.
Any ranged combat will require a call to be made in addition to physically firing the weapon. If you’re using a Nerf gun, also bring a boffer melee weapon as a secondary, as Nerf guns can be quite temperamental with limited range, reloading and occasionally jamming. You wouldn’t want to get caught on the reload and eaten alive by the undead now, would you? We have decided to remove all calls from ranged combat with exception to the Headshot rule for the Grunt class.
A full set of combat rules is available on our rules page.
Achievements
Throughout the event, you may unlock various achievements which will show up after the event is over on the run summary page. If your character survives ZombieLARP: Thirty Minutes to Midnight you can opt to continue playing that character in future ZombieLARP events.
You will receive a printed ID card which will be given to you when you arrive at a ZombieLARP event. You must keep it on yourself at all times while playing your human player character, as it will be used to track your progress through the LARP.
