LARP
What is “LARP”? It stands for “Live-Action Role Play”, a game where you’ll be playing as your favorite anime and manga characters. Hundreds are available for you to play! The game will run the course of the convention, featuring an overarching plot and scheduled events, so you can attend as much or as little as you like. LARP is not a cosplay event, meaning you do not need to be in costume to attend. You don’t even need to be dressed as the character you’d be playing. But if you want to, you’re more than welcome to!
ZenkaiLARP is played using the Nexus game system. An informational meeting will be held early on Friday of the convention about game mechanics, and the LARP staff will always help show you how to play! Check your schedule for meeting times. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us. You can also join our Discord or our Facebook group, where we’ll have information, and updates leading up to the game!
2026 LARP PRE-REGISTRATION INFORMATION!
We would like to proclaim our pre-reg is officially OPEN from now until January 17th at Midnight! However, we need you to read the following about how to submit your character choices as well as to understand our rules on these options.
This year we are announcing that in addition to anime, manga, and most video game characters, we will be allowing characters from a specific themed category – fantasy warriors and fantasy sorcerers! Themed characters can ONLY be pre-registered, so if you have someone in mind, get them locked in now!
Themed characters can be from ANY form of media (books, games, movies, tv shows, etc) so long as they fit the theme. Otherwise, we allow anime/manga characters, most video game characters, and near-anime like shows such as Avatar: the Last Airbender.
For 2026, we are going traditional fantasy. We want someone who will be action-oriented: characters that would go and have a quest, get a drink at the tavern, get into a fight. We’re talking about accepting Edgin Darvis, the bard from D&D Honor Among Thieves, compared to Alan-A-Dale, the rooster bard from Disney’s Robinhood who we wouldn’t.
Fantasy Warriors Examples – Drizzt Do’urden (Forgotten Realms), Conan the Barbarian (Conan), Gourry Gabriev (Slayers), Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess), Trevor Belmont (Castlevania)
Fantasy Sorcerers Examples – Gandalf (Lord of the Rings), Megumin (Konasuba), Vivi (FF9), Pike Trickfoot (Vox Machina)
To pre-register your character, email the following to zkklarp@gmail.com:
1) Your real name that you registered/will register to get your Zenkaikon badge
2) What name/nickname you want to be called
3) Your pronouns
4) Your top three character choices, and the series they are from, in the order, 1 to 3, of who you would like to play,
5) How much you would like us to mess with your character on a 1-5 scale, 1 being very little and 5 being completely comfortable with your character being messed with. [Messing with meaning there might be game or character changing surprises, connections, or otherwise you want to be at the GMs mercy :)]
If one of your character choices is a theme character, your other two choices must be an anime or video game character if we cannot accept your category theme character. We will always contact you if we cannot accept your theme character and give you another chance to think of one before we accept your choice 2 or 3!
Please remember, we GMs are only Human. We will do everything we can to accept a character but there are limitations, based on the character and how they will scale to the system or plot, as well as limitations of our time if none of us have watched/read/etc what this character comes from. We only have so much time and cannot devote time to reading an entire book, playing an entire game, watching an entire TV series, etc, and we like to know the characters in order to provide you with the best LARP experience.
2026 FIRST TEASER!
Narrator: “Tel’dah – a world of magic, adventure, and wonder. Where heroes set out on quests, adventure is a way of life, and where legends are born! …or at least, that’s how it used to be. As the land begins to be surrounded on every side by a great Darkness, the people within are slowly becoming aware of a terrible loss.”
Narrator: Whether it’s the last wardens of a monstrous sanctuary:
Zookeeper: “She’ll be here any minute now.”
Old Man of the Sea: *grunts, meaning “Yeah, Right.”*
Zookeeper: “She will! She’s never been late before. She always helps with the daily feeding, and that research of hers is starting to show a lot of promise.”
Old Man of the Sea: *grunts in affirmative*
Zookeeper: “… And she still had a lot of training for me to finish. She’s definitely gonna show up before feeding time.”
Old Man of the Sea: “And if she ain’t?”
Zookeeper: “She will! She totally will.”
Old Man of the Sea: snorts contemptuously.
Zookeeper: “Any minute now.”
Narrator: Or the kidnapped damsel waiting to be rescued:
Damsel: “Three weeks. THREE WEEKS! I was taken by these dirty bandits three weeks ago, and yet there’s been no sign of those heroes anywhere!” Crosses her arms and pouts
Bandit: “Er, Your Grace…to be honest we’re just as confused as you are. If you’d like, we could just drop you off back at the city walls. We really don’t have the accommodations for a lady of your…tastes.”
Damsel: “Oh no! They aren’t getting off that easy. I’m staying put until a hero comes to save me so I can give them a piece of my mind for making me wait! Three weeks! The duchess of Briar Hollow was saved in three days, and she’s just a duchess!”
Bandits shake their heads dejectedly.
Narrator: The mighty dragon in his keep, awaiting heroes worthy of challenging him:
Dragon: Look anxious, saying, “Oh, why did I challenge them? They were still fresh faced adventurers! I bet they hadn’t even defeated a Goblin King yet, but I had to go ahead and make myself known. They could have perished in the climb up the mountain, or got sidetracked in a cursed swamp.
Maybe…maybe it’s not too late! Maybe they’re imprisoned somewhere, or stuck on a difficult quest! I can go out there, find them, help them. And when they ask why I’ll just say “Fools, you are my quarry. Only I may have the satisfaction of destroying you.” Yes, that’s what I’ll do. This can still be fixed!”
Narrator: Or the newly appointed head of a noble family:
Noble Lady: If I just stay in bed, she’ll show up and deal with all this trouble. If I stay in bed long enough someone will deal with it. No one wants a loser like me to be in charge anyway. The people would probably have a revolution if they saw my face, more reason to not get out of bed.
Narrator: And even the Queen in her palace:
Queen: I see… So they really have vanished. What a shame. It seems the only thing we can do now is call for aid again – surely there are other adventurers somewhere that will respond. But we can’t wait for the others any longer.
Narrator: “The people of Tel’dah have come to a great and terrible realization: something has happened to the heroes they relied on and it seems like they are never coming back. But life goes on, and Darkness encroaches even without a hero to face it. Who will they turn to in their hour of need, now that their heroes are no more? Perhaps…they will turn to you.”
