Land, The Great LARP Dream
The pinnacle of LARP ownership. You have built this game world from the ether. Sweat through grueling sun, cast in down pours and literally been eaten alive by bugs. Land is more than just dirt its is an expression of you pulling this game world from imaginary into reality. Be it a castle, a town or maroon ship. Players will be able to touch and feel the game world allowing them to transcend and escape the mundane.
Many owners reflect on all the benefits of ownership. There will be no sudden rent increases. We can build to our hearts content. We won’t have to slug our props to site anymore. These all sound great however, ownership comes with it own hurdles you will need to prioritize on your busy plate.
Bare land is difficult to run a game on. Basic infrastructure like a parking lot and roadway rated for 6500 lbs cost money, permits and takes time to construct while you are still trying to operate a LARP. Even a basic grass field would need to be inspected for rocks and other trip hazards. In the past if there was a serious injury your insurance would go after the site owner that they did everything in their power to make the site as safe and as possible. Being both the game runner and site owner all the accountability now falls to you.
Zoning would probably be the second largest hurdle. Most LARPs tend to run on Farms, Scout camps or environmentally protected lands. This makes it very difficult to build additional structures. When explaining to the city what you are trying to do on this land, they have a hard time categorizing your activity. Some may think your starting up a Disney Land or some festival. These require all sort of surveys and committees. Building without these steps could lead to fines or cease operations ordinances.
Moneys and lots of it. In today’s market in Ontario even cheap farm land 2hrs from the city will be 400k for 20 acres. That’s the cheapest, cows vanished, crop circles and ghost lady sitting out in the field at 2:43am. Where’s all that Do-Re-Mi gonna come from? GoFundMe for a something like this is difficult. Finding private investors is possible but would come with concessions you might be unwilling to make. Traditional lenders also possible if you show consistent revenue and taxes paid in full year over year.
With all these challenges, you could say that the land would be a seperate endeavor to the LARP and it is. Creating a co-op for the land would allow you to still operate your LARP while new partners would handle the logistics of the site. The landers would work with the town and the create budgets. They would forecast build completion dates. While the LARP owner would focus on the story and smooth operation of the game. Together bring the imaginary into reality.
