Your Character’s Story Begins Here…
Welcome to Dystopia Rising: New York! We’re a post-apocalyptic LARP (live action role-play) that takes place hundreds of years after the zombie apocalypse. People have evolved and transformed into something called “Strains,” which are mutants that each possess a different strain of the Infection that caused the apocalypse.
In this irradiated wasteland, people gather together to attempt to rebuild — or to take what they can in order to come out on top.
LARP, in essence, is acting as someone else, pretending to be somewhere else while doing something else. It’s a mix between improv acting, sports, and (for us) camping. There are all different kinds of LARP, but Dystopia Rising: New York is what is known as a hybrid LARP. You’ll act as a character you’ve imagined during the weekend while participating in our lightest touch combat system to defend against zombies. You’ll also interact with NPCs (non-player-characters) who will help bring the world to life. You also may experience a “black box” acting scene if your character happens to die and pass through the morgue. In other words, Dystopia Rising: New York combines aspects of several different kinds of LARP and meshes them together.
What is LARP?
How to participate in Dystopia Rising Live
The first step you can take is creating your character. Think of a name, what they would be doing in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and what may bring them to Requiem. Perhaps they’re looking for a lost relative, or perhaps they committed a crime and have heard the Requiem is a safe haven for criminals. Maybe they’re looking for new opportunities to trade, or perhaps they simply wanted to get away from their past.
After you have your general character concept, design your costuming around that. Keep in mind that you can continuously add to costuming over time, so you don’t need to go all out for your first event (you can even just do a ragged shirt and pants). If you don’t know where to begin, Nuclear Snail Studios has some great tutorial videos that are all about distressing your clothing and making them look post-apocalyptic.
Then, you’ll want to email us at info@dystopiarisingny.com or reach out on our Discord. We’ll help you get oriented, give you a player number, and assist with mechanically building your character in the database and getting you sorted with a login.
You will also want to look over the quick start guide (for a quick overview of everything), or our rulebook to get a sense of the mechanical interactions you may encounter. Don’t feel like you need to read the entire rulebook and memorize all of the rules! Everyone at the event is happy to clarify on what things mean and don’t expect you to know everything.
Last but not least, get ready for a good time. We take pride in the events we create, and hope you’re excited to dive right in. Make sure to also check out our general participant page to learn more about our site and what else to expect.