Kickstarter for LARP wizarding school makes over $250k in days

Have you ever wanted to study magical cryptozoology or cursebreaking but you just couldn’t find the right outlet? Well now your fantasy can become a reality at the New World Magischola.

A Kickstarter campaign for the real world wizarding school has reached over $260,000 in just three days since its launch – seven times its initial modest goal of $35,000.

New World Magischola is Learn Larp‘s flagship event that will be held in June 2016. It’s a four-day, three night camp for participants to LARP (Live Action Role Play) as a student or professor of the magical school set on the University of Richmond campus.

The summer event is the brainchild of Learn Larp’s co-founders Maury Brown and Ben Morrow, who were inspired by their experience at a similar school of wizardy in Poland. Brown and Morrow wanted to bring the experience to a North American audience.

To put on the event, Brown and Morrow turned to Kickstarter, hoping to get at least 80 participants to buy tickets to the event.

“What we were not prepared for was for all 160 tickets to the first event sell out in less than two minutes,” she said. “Within the first hour of our campaign, we were at 400 per cent funded.”

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Brown and Morrow have since added a two more events and are planning a fourth, all for 2016.

But due to the overwhelming interest in the event, Learn Larp hopes to expand their programming into a week-long children’s camp if they reach $300,000.

“One of the things that we wanted to do is to show people what LARPing is and what LARPing can do,” said Brown. “It’s participatory, you’re not a passive audience member. The story happens because of the decisions you make. It’s incredibly empowering and creative. And it’s also about empathy.”

There are 39 days left in the New World Magischola Kickstarter campaign.