The New England Sport LARPing Calendar Post for 2024
Welcome back to the New England Sport LARPing Calendar for 2024. Looking back on 2023 I realized that I created the Calendar, plugged in all the dates and all the games, and then never sent out the yearly recap post…or, any other posts for that matter. What happened, you ask? The same thing that happens every year – I decide to take a step back from LARPing, concentrate on some other activities, and then immediately pick up 3 more games.
So, before those games begin this year and I don’t write another post until 2025, let’s take a good around the New England Sport LARPing scene, welcome the new games (so, so many new games) and bid fond farewells to those that concluded their arcs or were one shots. Some of this information may lap over/under from 2023 – accuracy has never been the strongest of points on this blog.
A Fine Repast
The following games concluded their offerings some/time in 2023…or maybe 2022.
Astray: A sci-fi system at Burgundar that seems to have concluded in 2023.
Awakening: Lack of a solid player base and some campsite issues forced the closure of this newer game.
Divine Intervention: Concluded in 2022 and we missed that – whoops. However, the Team at Be-Epic are continuing with a number of new and exciting events!
Ember: A one-shot? I think? At Burgundar which ran once in 2023.
Epoch: Fire and Stone: A pre-historic LARP that never quite got off the ground.
The Great Meadow Rebellion: An ambitious, week-long revolutionary war era themed LARP that never got going.
Legends, et. al.: It seems that Legends, one of the first games to really push mechanics away from Marshalling and toward “always in game,” has finally closed up shop – it likely did not survive the Pandemic, but it takes a while for things to finally fade away.
Madrigal: Oathbound: The 2nd Madrigal successor completed its run and the crafty Red Rabbits have kicked up their newest offering – Zealot.
Port Katherine: Red Feather Role-playing’s financial role-playing extravaganza (they had their own working Stock Market!) that had a long run of sold out events with extensive waiting lists shuttered last year.
Red Rabbits Other Games – so many other games: The Red Rabbits/Witchtower games concluded any number of settings in the past several years; Scarlett Letters, Satanic Panic, Elsewhere and After Dark: Homecoming. Rumor has it that some of these may see the light of day again – but for now, efforts are being put forth to support Zealot.
Soc Hop Horror: A 50’s one-shot up at Burgundar completed in 2023.
The Hard Way: A Professional Wrestling LARP (seriously!) could not draw enough interest to launch their one-shot last fall – too bad; a lot of potential here.
Unga Bunga Bash: A truly experimental stone age game completed its one shot last fall.
Worlds Under Wonder: A multi-genre game system, one of the few in Vermont, seems to have ceased operation post pandemic.
Into the Fore!
2024 looks to be an explosion of creative energy from the LARPing community. Beginning this year we have:
Aetheriem: A Fae Realm game at the Keep in Jefferson, Maine – this gorgeous looking offering has customizable Fairy Courts and a host of immersive rituals all about the dreaming lands.
Anomaly: A new and exciting game at Ye Olde Commons being built out by a number of the newer players and staff who have been pushing boundaries in other events.
Children of the Gods: A block-buster-ish franchised one-shot coming the fall with a focus on intensive settings and role-playing.
Dark Whimsy: A High Fantasy game with extensive factions and histories, launching with a character creation day this year as part of Living Fictions Entertainment (LFE).
Fracture: A sleepover camp horror one shot at the Commons replete with high production values from the acclaimed Reverie Studios.
Gilded Graves Official: A 1920’s one shot featuring high society shenanigans.
Hexenstein: From the team behind Hellcat Jive; Hexenstein continues their fine tradition of immersive storytelling and seamless mechanics.
Off World Wars: No quite sure on this one – but it’s on the YOC Calendar, so it’s on this Calendar!
Piratetown Party: Loosely aligned with the Avarice world, this community themed weekend event joins Welcome Gnome and Shiretown Shindig in further exploring the ‘found family’ genre – sure to be a blast!
Sky and Soil: Here’s a first – a Solar Punk LARP! With a focus on indigenous culture, connections to the physical play space and a unique rule set, this setting from Be-Epic looks to be one of the most unique games of 2024.
Veilshift: A new game a Burgundar in Maine – not quite certain about the genre as of yet.
Welcome Gnome: Sanctum World Simulations own Festival Game at YOC! Focusing on fantasy gnomish role-play, we expect this game to sell out quickly – register early and often!
Zealot: Technically, this started in 2023 with a character creation day and 2 initial events, but this is the Red Rabbits newest and shiniest game!
Camp Site News
A brief overview of happenings at the dedicated LARPing campsites around New England*.
Ye Olde Commons: The Team at YoC has had a banner year with countless hours put into cleaning, refurbishment, and repair. The Tavern building now features *air conditioning* for those hot summer games. The monster camp and the module building have been cleaned out (I saw a bin in there full of tarps from Angel Fall, if you want to know how long things can linger on sites) and, for the first time in a decade or so, a Renaissance Faire was once again run, by the Knights Hall, at the Commons. This year features the always sold-out Shiretown Shindig, as well as the Commons own Festival Style game – Welcome Gnome, and an additional found family game – Piratetown Party. Decolonize and Discover, a excellent weekend of panels, workshops and performances, will return for a 3rd year, as will a plethora of Knight’s Hall events, some lasting a week and focusing less on LARPing and more on their armored (and unarmored) combat training. Lastly, the Avarice combat-game series of events and Tavern nights continue to run consistently throughout the year.
Taber Creek: The former Camp Pomeraug was purchased as a LARP dedicated site and has hosted a variety of games since then. Bi-yearly camp improvement days are on schedule to keep this newer resource operating well into the future and a recently added LARP Expo is sure to highlight all the games currently running at this site.
Burgundar: Coming off their reality television debut, Southern Maine’s LARP site continues to undergo construction on buildings and roads. Running events year round (which is saying something for a location North of Portland!) Burgundar continues to host larger events, incubate starting games and even have their own Renaissance Faire weekend.
The Keep: In Jefferson, Maine, the Keep is going on…what…it’s…30th or so year of continual operation running small to medium sized, immersive events. Build days are set on the calendar to get the site ready for the busy summer season and already a host of games, new and ongoing, are ready to keep this site well traversed.
*Camp Sidereus: All signs point to Camp Sidereus beginning the work of improving their land, pushing out some roads and putting down some cabins – granted this is a little outside of our scope, being in Brainard, NY, but, still, for any game that has roots in New England and has been operating for 15+ years a permanent site is a heck of an accomplishment.
Tolgy Woods: We continue to hold out hope that the ownership will be able to resolve the issues that stopped LARP groups from renting this camp and return it to the fold of affordable sites.
Community News
There are any number of non-Sport LARP facing but community adjacent events coming up this year. If so inclined you could:
Attend Decolonize and Discover at Ye Olde Commons.
Take in a Knight Fight, either at YOC or the Knights Hall in Nashua, NH.
Participate in weekly training sessions at Ye Olde Commons with a dual focus on LARP and other types of combat.
Frequent LARP Box, the only LARP retail store in the USA, conveniently located in Charlton, MA.
Design yourself some custom LARP Weapons using B3 Imagination’s interactive website!
Frequent a number of weekend and weeklong camps, faires and seminars hosted by the Knights Hall at Ye Olde Commons; including Valhalla Battlefest and their yearly Renaissance Faire – Autumn Knights!
Become a Patreon of Kaza (and her LARP Girl adventures) and watch exclusive streamed content on LARPing across the country.
Drop by one of the Circus or Salon shows run by Incantrix productions in Boston.
Patronize the Connecticut Renaissance Faire or Robin Hood’s Faire and drop by the Myth/Mythical Journeys recruiting booths for information on either of those games.
Stop by Made by Hand leather at the NH Renaissance Faire (among others) and buy some quality leather goods!
Spend some money on Indiegogo to support Aetheriem’s new game!
Attend the Taber Creek LARP Expo on March 16th to help support the site.
Contribute to Starfall Academy’s kickstarter.
In Closing
This is the 12th consecutive year for the New England Sport LARP Calendar and, as one can tell from the Website in general, it needs a little sprucing up and likely a switch to a better templated web platform. This is also my 25th (!) year of consecutively participating in this hobby…at the same game, even. While I can tell there are changes afoot – the dearth of classic competitive sport combat, the rise of Festival games, the dissolution of all but the 3 largest games in favor of smaller events with less staff requirements and organization – the hobby continues to grow. We are tracking 66 extant LARPs this year, and some weekends there are 8 (!) simultaneous events running (take a look at April 26th – Crossover, Dystopia Rising MA, Entanglement, Invictus, Kyranthia, LIONE, Madrigal 3 and Sky and Soil) – that is a LOT of gaming for one weekend.
Notes
–Yes, yes Realms, I see you over there – you just have so many events, fight practices and the like – if you are interested in Realms, just head over to their website.
–In addition, I know the LARP List page is somewhat behind. I’ll…get to that. Eventually.
–If you’re wondering where we’ll be this year; Madrigal, Travail, Zealot and Blessing – primarily. Also Decolonize and Discover and likely a Knight Fight or two. But you never know where we might show up – looking at you, Sky and Soil. And Olde World. And Anomaly. And Aetheriem…and here is how the website doesn’t get updated regularly…
