Should you ever doubt that humanity has a dire and implacable need to pretend to be wizards who go to magic school, consider this: When New World Magischola launched on Kickstarter at 7:00 PM yesterday with the promise of letting people live out that fantasy next summer in Virginia, it had an initial goal of $35,000. At 7:21 PM, it had just rounded $90,000.

The campaign is set to fund a three-day live-action roleplaying session next summer in Virginia, allowing backers to attend classes, cast spells, solve magical mysteries and --- if you're willing to shell out the cash for a premium experience --- even join a secret society with its own special subplot. Also, there will be a breakfast buffet, so I'm gonna need $450, thanks in advance.

 

 

New World Magischola was inspired by a similar LARPing setup called Wizard College that took place over four days in an actual medieval castle in Poland. As awesome as that sounds, Poland can be a bit tricky to get to if you're in, say, America, so the organizers decided to bring something similar to this side of the Atlantic, setting it at the University of Richmond instead.

While the idea of taking classes in runes and Magical Law might sound familiar, I can assure you that the elements of New World Magischola are simliar to but legally distinct from any other wizarding schools that you might be thinking of. Their student body is divided into five houses, for instance, not any other number.

 

New World Magischola Houses
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On the off chance that you're wondering, I'm definitely in House Axebear, although House Happy Top Hat Crocodile certainly holds an appeal.

As for how New World Magischola will deal with the problem of making sure the story it's telling is fun for everyone when they have an overwhelming number of people wanting to get in on the action --- nobody wants to be a Seamus Finnegan, you know? --- that remains to be seen, but I'm going to guess it has a lot to do with the quality of that breakfast buffet. Head over to the campaign for more information.

 

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