International visitors

Heya,

I'm part of a group travelling from Australia to the US in August. We run LARP campaigns back home and would very much like to visit some LARPs whilst in the USA. I may be blind but I've struggled to find much info on how to make a booking as a player and/or as an NPC for Knight Realms. We've emailed the "new player" email address last week, and I hope to hear from them soon, but as we are finalising our itinerary now I hope that someone here might be able to help a little too.
If anyone can help out with any of these questions that would be great!

Do we need to book with the newplayer email address, and is there any other person we should contact? Or is it a simply turn up and hope for space event?

Is the August 14-16 weekend a site that we can book indoor beds at? As we are travelling from overseas we will not have any bedding with us, let alone tents. Would it be possible to arrange/hire this from someone?

We will not be able to bring any weapons with us -- can we hire/borrow these from the club or other individual? Also costume/kit -- we can bring a small amount but especially for NPCs would like to know if we can borrow extra so we can change it up for each character.

Whilst we can hire a car to make it out to the event is there any chance of public transport nearby?

Will we be able to buy food at this event in particular (I noticed that the info on this says it's only sometimes available)? If not are there any shops nearby where we may be able to supply ourselves before arrival?

Is there anything a person should know about Knight Realms in general as a first time attendee -- we have over a dozen years of LARP experience each, mostly in playing and running medieval fantasy events using latex/foam weaponry (pvc and duct tape have not been allowed at our events due to safety concerns for over a decade).

I'm sure I'll have a dozen more questions, but any help on these would be great! I do hope that we will be able to get to the August event.

Thanks!!

Megan

Hey Megan,
I'll post more later as I'm running to work right now, but let me see if I can answer some of your questions. First of all I'm a. Ew player marshal and here to help.
1. You do not need to book with the new player officer. Normally it's show up and we will find you space. However in this case I'm sure that we can reserve you space. (PM me and we can figure this out.)
2. Again this should not be an issue. How many people would be showing up just so we can find enough to bedding for people.
3. Yes we have stuff for people to borrow. Also if you are NPCing for us we provide you everything you need.
4. There is indeed public transit near by. It's how I used to come and go from game. The NJTransit can get you close then we can get people to pick you up/take you back so that you can get to New Jersy or New York.
5. We have food on Saturday night for sure (feast) and Saturday morning (breakfast) but if your in a crunch there is a few food places around that we can get you too. But normally food is not an issue.
6. Knight Realms is fun. We have an entire new player introduction and set up so we can answer any other questions to concerns there. Also we go over the rules. Something that, I feel, is unique or done differently then other games is our attention to new players. So that's what I love about KR.

Again this was a quick answers to all your questions. Please feel free to pm me any more or post them here and myself/other new player marshals will answer and help out best we can.

Heya Sean,

Thanks for the reply! As it's early for you it's equally late for me here so I'll try to PM you for more details over the next few days. Some of my questions may be a bit odd, but since we'll be coming from several thousand miles away I really just want to be sure we have everything we'll need and that there are places for us when we get there!

Another general question though, how many people attend the KR weekends? Approximately how many players, and how many marshal/GMs/Full time NPCs to support this? I know LARPing is comparatively tiny here, with events having about 50 people all told (25-30 players, 8-12 NPCs and 5 staff average), though I have attended Britain's biggest LARP with 5000 people. There is one battlegame here that attracts 150-300 people to their regular weeknight games, but they generally just engage in skirmishes rather than providing any form of in depth story telling or character involvement.

Thanks again.

Megan

First of all get some sleep.
Second your questions are not strange we have people travel and visit us a bit so its something that we are used to answering

KR attendance varies depending on the season with the summer getting more attendance then the winter months. That being said, in my memory, the average attendance is somewhere in the 100+ range that fluctuates during the weekend. (Some people have to leave and come back due to work/life) We require every player to do a 4 hour NPC shift so that we have a good balance of PC to NPC. What that ratio is I have no idea. There are various marshalships at our game that do a wide varieties of jobs on the camp. Normally we have 2/3 in logistics and a few roaming around on camp in game to help if players have questions during play.
We try to provide in depth storytelling and world building as a game.

Hope this answers most or sparks more questions.

Just a player, but welcome, and I think I have weapons you can borrow. I think most people will say I carry a small armory in my car.

Hi Megan. Ive traveled to Melbourne to visit a friend before. KR is a great game and weve had international visitors before. Canada and UK. Bunk space is not an issue especially in summer. Ill happilly open tent space in mine for you. I think we can bring a very big tent if Sean, who posted just before me intends to come. This should be a non issue.

Native animals abound on the game site. Deer turkey bear pheasent all come by and visit so food is kept in the Inn building. The grounds are oened by the Director of KR which is unusual for most games in the US.

There are take aways available and convenience stores nearby and even a farmers market with excellent chocolate milk.

Hugs and welcome!

Leslie