Zombie LARP is a physical action game which recreates the thrills and atmosphere of classic zombie horror movies. The dead are returning to life and eating the flesh of the living – the only question is, what are you going to do about it?
The game works by having a large crowd of players act as a horde of zombies, pursuing a small team of hapless humans through darkened hallways. When the humans are all dead – or have made it to safety – we swap the roles around, reset, and start round again, so that everyone gets a chance to experience the horror from both sides.
Fighting is simulated using foam-rubber weapons, guns which fire foam darts, and (in the case of zombies) bare hands. We’ve deliberately kept the rules to a minimum so that the game is as immersive as possible. This isn’t the type of game in which you need to check the rulebook to find out how fast you can run, or how much damage you can do: if you’re surrounded by monsters in Zombie LARP, you have to fight or run for your life. We don’t stop to adjudicate rules disputes or ‘work out how something should work’. This is a near-total simulation. Combat happens in real time. There are no pauses or breaks in the action (except, very occasionally for safety reasons).
The game is run by referees who herd the zombies and devise goals and challenges for the humans – but the outcome depends on the human players’ daring, intelligence and survival skills. Zombie LARP is a mixture of team sport, roleplaying game, improvised theatre, carnival funhouse, tactical combat simulation, recurring nightmare, and historical re-enactment of events that will hopefully never happen. But if they do, you’ll be ready.
