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What is Dystopia Rising: New York?

Dystopia Rising: New York is a post-apocalyptic, horror zombie larp experience taking place on a campsite in Forestburgh, New York. We’re a fully immersive event, which means that you role-play as your character throughout the entire event.

As your character, you’ll experience various storylines and events that affect them and the world around them. You’ll fight zombies, embroil yourself in local post-apocalyptic politics, and deal with the trials of living in a hostile wasteland town.

We use the lightest touch system for combat against zombies and threats, which means that you use latex weapons or approved blasters to fight against the undead hordes.

Keep scrolling to learn more about Dystopia Rising: New York’s experience, or click on one of the buttons below to get a rundown of the new participant experience or join our community Discord to ask questions.

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What is Dystopia Rising Live?

Hundreds of years ago, the world fell. The zombie Infection took hold and transformed life as we knew it. It infiltrated the population of the world, the strains of Infection manifesting differently in various locations. Over time, humanity was lost — replaced by the Strains of the post-apocalypse.

Now in this post-apocalyptic world where death is not the end, a new era has dawned. Strains have begun to rebuild small pockets of civilization — rustic farms and towns. There, they eke out a living within a world where Raiders are a constant threat, zombies are simply a weather phenomenon, and where other Strains may try and steal what they’ve built.

Dystopia Rising Live is a world that is gritty, full of rust, and contains hard edges. It’s a wider world with plenty of materials for you to explore, including information about factions, more nuances about the Strains, and more. Just remember that you don’t have to read everything all at once; simply look into the parts that intrigue you most in addition to the main play guide.

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What is your site like?

We run Dystopia Rising: New York on the beautiful Forestburg Scout Reservation about once per month. You can find the full list of events here.

The campsite has a full, dirt parking lot on your right after you enter the campsite. Cabins are located throughout the site and are equipped with mattresses, bathrooms, and potable water. Make sure to pack your own sleeping bag and be aware that rooms are shared. If you’d like a private space of your own, you can choose to instead bring a tent for set-up.

The site is located next to a lake, and does harbor wildlife such as raccoons, bears, and possums, so any food should be stored in the kitchen area. When you arrive, simply check in with us and we’ll help you get oriented.

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What is Dystopia Rising: New York like?

Each Dystopia Rising event has a different “flavor” of the post-apocalypse. At Dystopia Rising: New York, we focus on the darker aspects of the world, while also embracing a high level of political intrigue and criminality.

At our events, you’ll encounter the themes below. Please note that this is not an all-encompassing list, but does give you a sense of the most common aspects that you may encounter. Remember that you can always remove yourself from a scene if you find that the content is not something that you enjoy. We are an 18+ event, so we expect all attendees to know their own limits and what they feel comfortable with.

At Dystopia Rising: New York, you may encounter the themes of:

Zombies, Raiders, politics, torture, body horror, loss of self, romance, radiation, wartime, starvation, monstrous animals, environmental impacts, kidnapping, death, disease, psychological trauma, adventure, and more.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • In Dystopia Rising: Live, you mark as much of your site as “wasteland” as you want. Wasteland area is effectively area where character-versus-character conflict can occur using the larp mechanics in the book. While we are primarily a CvE (character versus environment) focused game, most of our site is marked as “wasteland.” This only exclusions are medical sleep, bathrooms, designed out-of-character areas, and the kitchen.

  • All of Dystopia Rising: New York events are 18+ due to the mature subject material that we deal with.

  • We wind down threats and potential sleep interruptions from 3 AM until about 9 AM. If you need uninterrupted sleep, then reach out to us info@dystopiarisingny.com before our event to ask about medical sleep.

  • Medical sleep is cabin space that provides uninterrupted, out-of-character sleep for those who need it at our events. We have limited space for medical sleep, so make sure to email us at info@dystopiarisingny.com before attending our event.

  • In addition to your character’s costuming, you should bring the following:

    • Food (refrigerator, freezer, and microwave available on sight)

    • Bedding

    • Water bottle. Please stay hydrated!

    • NPC clothing (black or neutral layers to wear during NPC time)

    • Toiletries

    • Socks. Extra socks.

    • Bug Spray & Sunscreen

    • Red Flashlight. Requiem can get real dark!

  • Each participant who doesn’t purchase an opt-out ticket to our events gets to be part of a “NPC shift.” During your specified time period, you go to Ops in your NPC clothing. There, you’ll be given various different roles to portray out in the world that are not involved with your character. This is not only a great way to get a sense of the world, but can be a lot of fun to do and allows you to stretch your acting muscles. If you’ve never done NPCing before, make sure to let us know when you arrive to NPC.

  • You don’t need to know anyone to attend one of our events! You can simply grab a ticket, show up, and enjoy. We do ask that if you’re a new attendee that you reach out ahead of time so we can help get you oriented. Just send an email to info@dystopiarisingny.com.

  • We use lightest touch combat at Dystopia Rising: New York, which means that we use soft, latex weapons and only hit hard enough that the person registers the hit. We also use blasters (such as Nerf) for simulated firearms (this is the post-apocalypse, after all). During your first event, we’ll go over basics of combat beforehand so you know how everything works.

  • We do allow some modifications, but any modified Nerf blasters need to be checked by us before use at one of our events. For full specs and information, check here.