live action role playing programs for kids and teens

Wayfinder Programs

Our Programs

It’s more epic than your favorite fantasy movie. It’s more exciting than your favorite video game. It’s also a community of friends that accepts you for who you are, not what you look like. It’s a safe place where you can come out of your shell and be yourself.

IMG_3616Imagine a summer camp where no matter who you are or what you look like you can feel accepted.  A summer camp where staff and campers hang out and laugh together.  A summer camp where workshops are challenging and entertaining at the same time.  A summer camp where your voice truly matters.

Now imagine if that was just the beginning. That during this live action role playing summer camp you could transform into a completely new persona and interact in an epic adventure more real than any video game or movie. A LARP experience that transcends anything you have experienced. A new world to explore, evil to conquer, magic to cast…where the action and the story itself depends entirely on your choices. At The Wayfinder Experience you’ll have the chance for all this and more.

Acting

The LARP Adventure Game at the Wayfinder Experience is based on Improvisational Theatre, a free-flowing form of acting in which there is no set script. Our staff will introduce you to Improv through entertaining (and often hysterical) games and provide you with a sense of confidence in your improvisational abilities. During the experience, participants are given a chance to become the characters they will create and to participate in numerous scenes and interactions.  Wayfinder has helped participants develop a new level of self-confidence through this work.

Sports

i-sLPb4SF-MFor those of you who enjoy rugged activity, the Wayfinder Experience is perfect. From large games of Capture the Flag with foam swords, to mass battle enactments, we challenge our participants to push themselves to their physical limits, while ensuring a safe and fun time for all. The true challenge lies in our culminating live action role playing game, as participants are granted the opportunity to defeat enemies, defend strongholds, and dash through this new world in a desperate race to complete their quest all while using play-safe weapons and with an emphasis on cooperation rather than competition.

The Outdoors

wfe2012 part2 321All of our summer camps are conducted in beautiful, natural settings where the atmosphere adds to the brilliance of the experience itself. Participants quickly acquire an appreciation for the beauty of the outdoors, as well as confidence in their familiarity with their environment. From hiking to star gazing to sitting around a bonfire, the Wayfinder Experience utilizes its environment to engage participants in the wonders of nature.

 

Making New Friends

Like most summer camps, the Wayfinder Experience promotes a setting in which participants may form lasting bonds with new friends. Through the LARP Adventure Game, Wayfinder also provides a unique opportunity for participants to bond not only in this world, but in many others. With an emphasis on community awareness, trust exercises, and cooperative play, Wayfinder participants are sure to walk away with friendships that will last a lifetime. We should know; our founders, current owners, and staff are primarily comprised of former participants who, many years later, remain an incredibly tight-knit community of friends.

Inclusive Space

All of Wayfinder’s summer camps and events are designed to be inclusive spaces. As an organization it is important to us to make a welcoming space for queer and trans youth. LARP provides the opportunity for these campers to explore facets of their identity that may not feel safe to explore in school or other social environments. Through the magic of our live action role playing Adventure Game, we have helped so many teens find the person they are striving to be.

Sword Saturdays

Sword Saturdays

Sword Saturdays are a series of linked sessions built around getting outside and moving with our play safe foam sword programming, with some live action role play and improv elements blended in. Much like at our summer camps, participants will get to build characters that are taken through an Adventure Game over the course of the weeks. While the Adventure Game segments are linked, if participants are only able to make it to one or two of the sessions they’ll still enjoy a fun and wonderful Wayfinder experience!

  • Admission to these events is $65 per person or $390 for all 8 sessions!
  • The program runs 11am-3pm
  • Wayfinder’s Covid-19 Protocols can be reviewed here.
  • Participants are expected to bring their own lunch

Up Coming Events:

  • September 9, 2023.  High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.
  • September 23, 2023.  High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.
  • October 7, 2023.  High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.
  • October 14, 2023.  High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.
  • November 4, 2023.  High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.
  • November 11, 2023.  High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.
  • December 2, 2023.  High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.
  • December 9, 2023.   High Meadow School, 3643 Main St, Stone Ridge, NY.

Upcoming Events

Registration

We are moving our registration system to CampBrain! For all events please click here.

Please note you will have to create an account to get started. After December 9th there will no longer be events offered on this page.

Group Hug

One Day Adventures Campaigns

The Living Legends Blog

These posts will focus on the games being played at Living Legends events this year.

The Legends of Gelgador: Part 2

The Story So Far Part 2: The Bedos Crusade It was the 304th year of the Third Gelgadoran Age and the Empire was in the midst of a never before […]

The Legends of Gelgador: Part 1

The Story So Far Part 1: The Sword In The Dark Representatives of Arroway, Otar and Bedos, the Great Nations of Gelgador, gathered at the Temple of the Gods, at […]

Living Legends 3000: Story So Far Part 5

The Story So Far Part 5: Odyssey The hunt to find and rescue Mongo Valesser continues! Led by Jaxx Meridian, a coalition of Mongo’s allies from past adventures and members […]

Living Legends 3000: Groups and People

Groups Mongo’s Marauders — The group of space pirates, soldiers and adventurers who work most closely with notorious smuggler Mongo Valesser. What was once a ragtag group of ever changing […]

Living Legends 3000: Story So Far Part 4

The Story So Far Part 4: Smuggler’s Reign Much time passed after the incident with the Phantom Shock Society at the Snake Pit. Mongo Vallesser and his associates became the […]

Living Legends 3000: Story So Far Part 3

The Story So Far Part 3: Rogue Moon Rising Having waited a long enough time to let the heat die down, and with the disbanding of the police force The […]

Living Legends 3000: Story So Far Part 2

The Story So Far Part 2: The Raiders of Yozon-4 Having rejoined Mongo’s Marauders — Mongo Valesser, The Blackstar Battalion, Crew of In Amber Clad,  and The Star Chaser Guild […]

Living Legends 3000: Story So Far Part 1

The Story So Far Part 1: In The Ruins of Eberon Keep Deep within the dense rock and forests of Yozon-4, the fourth moon of the gas giant Yozon in […]

Living Legends 3000: History & Setting

Living Legends 3000: History & Setting History The Living Legends 3000 series of live-action theatrical Adventure Games take place in the planetary systems that make up The Galactic Commonwealth. Commonly […]

Group Hug

A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life

Here we turn the focus to our day to day at camp and try to give our readers an idea of what we have going on each week throughout the summer.

August 21st-27th

A Day in the Life: Survival Camp August 21st-27th

CmcWFEWe ended our summer season with an exciting new program: Survival Camp. This camp featured a close knit group of participants who soaked up a good deal of knowledge about and appreciation for the outdoors. The camp focused on teaching a variety of survival skills with workshops in fire building, shelter construction, knife safety and carving, camouflage, stealth and more. It was amazing to see the focus and dedication our participants brought to these new skills.

Holmes is a beautiful land, and for many of our participants it is the first place they went to an overnight camp. For these participants the week was a homecoming, having spent the past two summers away from the land. Along with survival skills the camp featured some wilderness appreciation in the forms of hiking and nature inspired art.

Both of the Adventure Games had a survival theme as well. The first Adventure, The Year King by new staff member Devon Brinner, was the tale of a small Yorkshire town in the 1700s in the midst of a famine. At the yearly harvest festival, a group of fairies arrived in town and entreated the townsfolk to help them in their quest to bring back the health of the land, ending the blight. The townsfolk provided this help but the cost was great.

The second Adventure, Nevena Loop by the Sets & Props master Ruby Lavin, took place in a not so distant apocalyptic future, in which the survivors made new lives for themselves out of the rubble. With water being scarce, gangs formed and fought each other over control of the precious resource. Little did these groups of ruffians, scientists, and survivalists know that they would take the creation of this world into their own hands and end the existence of gods once and for all.

Even with two epic Adventures and time set aside for learning new survival skills we still managed to fit in a good deal of fun. Each morning the bunking groups would have a goofy team base survivor challenge pitting them against each other. From scavenger hunts to making wacky human obstacle courses to complete, these morning challenges were the highlight of my day. We also had time for some Wayfinder classics such as Mask Workshop, where we saw some amazing examples of “go with the flow,” and Ninja the Flag, where we used our new camouflage skills to make that game even more intense.

It was a great end to our summer of adventures.

August 14th-20th

A Day in the Life: Advanced Camp August 14th-20th

Ollie BirdAdvanced camp came and went with a flourish. We played three Adventure Games in six days, and while everyone was a little tired out, we had a great time doing it all. The games kept the camp living up to its name, with every game putting us into a unique world and new magic system. Mike Jones game, Faith and Fire, was first. The game imagined a fantasy world that had begun to pour its magic into technology and gave a fresh spin on a common fantasy conflict with elves facing off against humans in a WWIesque scenario. Humanity (with the help of your dear blog writer) prevailed. Next we played Silence Blooming by Jay Dragon and Jeremy Gleick. The game starts with the introduction of an interdimensional spore, which feeds on sound, into our world. All magic encountered by players is foreign and, to be frank, terrifying. Players worked their way through this eerily silent Adventure Game finding new ways to express character arcs and roleplay intrigue. Finally we played Aurora Rising by Jack Warren. This game featured robots pushing the boundaries of what it means to be alive (and starting a potentially staff sanctioned robot revolution). Players got to experience first hand some of the great questions which have plagued those who read or envision things within the realm of science fiction, in particular at what point does artificial consciousness demand freedom? (If you see any of our production staff be sure to thank and appreciate them as they did an amazing job bring these worlds to life.)Adv. Camp WFE

Outside of the Adventure Games camp was an all-around great time. We were able to get deep into the communal aspects of camp (something only aided by the experience of playing other personas) with three trust workshop blocks, and we managed to have a little old fashioned fun playing both Bloodrush and British Bulldog (classic Wayfinder camp activities). This camp managed to capture, for me, the real essence of what it was like when I was a participant, with everybody putting their all into every aspect of camp. Community experiences only really work with that level of engagement, and we had it top to bottom. We even managed to pull off some super late night shenanigans with a roaring Bardic Circle and a impromptu participant written Adventure Game (a sequel to the one written at Immersion, naturally). As an added personal bonus there was a friendly popularity contest featured at the camp. An SIT, who shall remain unnamed (Django Shizzard) challenged yours truly in an attempt to take the reins. All told the challenger was unsuccessful but as a consolation received some public outpourings of love from members of the community.

Thanks as always for making the community what it is, hope to see you all soon.

August 7th-13th

Day in the Life:

Immersion Camp and High Meadow 2 Aug 7th-13th

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The first week of overnights for the summer was a blast! An amazing, and immersive game and plenty of time together in community.
Legendary Mafia runner, Brennan Lee Mulligan, was back in action. Each round of Mafia takes place in a different town which has been plagued by mafia members. Participants in the game must decide based upon their suspicions on who to vote to eliminate (only learning the truth of their identities once they are out). Brennan set this round in Rome and telling beautiful stories for each round of this game. The citizen did win, but it was a close one! Camp also featured a community night which hosted a combo dance party/ninja the flag game that was a rousing success.

Settlers Keep, Immersion’s Adventure Game by Eliot O’Clair and Mike Phillips was epic! It started in the temple of Mona, one of this world’s gods whose heart was broken when she had to send her dog away. On this night in the temple, players attended the funeral of the greatest monster hunter of all time. Manvera, the second in command for the monster hunters gave a heart wrenching eulogy and lead everyone on a monster hunt in honor of the fallen. While the hunt was in full swing the other players realized there was a new wolf pack in town. Players ended the first night realizing that these wolves were not mere wolves, but werewolves.20747040_1905201539802529_1713754453_o (1)

The day game was an epic hunt for these wolf dens. However at the end of the game Manvera and her gang revealed that they were in fact werewolves and that everyone should join them. In the third and final installment the townspeople holed up in the woods as they retrieved all the silver in the town to make weapons that could slay the ferocious beasts. In the final stand everyone fell to the beasts except one, the person who Mona’s broken heart had fallen into.

One reason the game was so amazing for all the participants was the amount of world building that the campers got to do. Mike and Elliot gave participants the opportunity to create sections of the world that they were playing in such as the names of cities and towns, and the world’s creation myths making the game an openly collaborative experience.
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It was an epic week at our other camp as well, as it was the third and final installment of the War Gate trilogy. This was years in the making and the Swarm (the alien bug race) was out to take over the galaxy once again. This time our heroes (both the human and elven races) discovered a way to get rid of them once and for all, ring peace throughout the galaxy, and save existence as we know it! With such a combat heavy game our staff became curious as to how many times each of the participants died and went to RE (the location where you receive a new character after dying). They asked how many people went once, over half the circle raised their hands, two? Still almost half. Three? Three kids with hands up Four? Only 2 kids with hands up. Five? One kid. Six? Same kid. Seven?! Still one kid. Eight? She finally puts her hand down. An epic game and week indeed.

Programming for Educators

Programming for Educators

Our core curriculum of athletic Sword Games, Improvisational Theater and Trust Building are designed to teach creativity, communication, teamwork and critical thinking skills, all while fostering a strong sense of community among students.  The sheer variety of games we play allows us to engage with every learning style, though we are happy to concentrate on one of our specialties for a more focused class on request.  Further, depending on your interest, these programs can culminate in a live action role playing Adventure Game:  a unique experience in which students are encouraged to develop a new understanding of themselves and their peers in the context of an archetypal fantasy world.

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Here are some examples of the kinds of programs and events we can offer to schools, libraries and home schooling groups.  Because we believe in inclusive, student-oriented teaching methods, we’re happy to work with you to tailor an experience to your students’ needs.

 

After-School Programs:

CTF Class:  Adding foam swordplay to the schoolyard classic, our version of Capture The Flag is much more active, dynamic and team-oriented than its tag-based counterpart.  In one of our CTF classes, students can expect to engage in numerous active games that push the boundaries between competitive and cooperative interaction, learning to act out high-intensity physical play safely and responsibly.  The evolving complexity of our games will force them to build both leadership and team-building skills.  For the full impact, we suggest 1-2 hour classes each week for 6-10 weeks.  Participants should be ages 8 and up.

… with an Adventure Game:  We take our CTF program and add in the rest of our curriculum:  Trust Games, to further engender strong community bonds and emphasize cooperative abilities through interpersonal focus and communication.  Improvisational Theater, which teaches self-confidence and quick thinking.  And, of course, the LARP Adventure Game itself– a final class session in which students will become characters they themselves create and design, and use the problem-solving skills they’ve learned in a fantastical context.  Because of the sheer amount of content this adds, we suggest 2-3 hour classes each week for 8-10 weeks.

Young Adventurers:  Younger students (ages 6-8) who love make-believe benefit from flexible, responsive teaching and lots of 1-on-1 communication.  In our Young Adventurers programs, they receive exactly that: a chance to express their creativity and playfulness in a supportive, imaginative environment.  Every class session, students play in another episode of an interactive fantasy adventure– designed around their own creations, stories, drawings, and ideas.  We recommend that these classes be no longer than 1 hour each week, and that they run for 6-10 weeks.

Improvisational Theater:  In an Improv class, we’ll teach students the basics of a fun and challenging art form.  They’ll learn to trust their partners and their instincts while quickly generating scenes for an audience of their peers in a supportive and constructive atmosphere.  Improv teaches  teamwork, confidence and problem-solving– helping to train public speaking skills while diminishing the associated anxieties.  We can build a theatrical curriculum to match a wide variety of time constraints, from 1-3 hour classes over the course of 4-10 weeks.

 

Classroom Programs:

Living Curriculum:  We work with classroom teachers to design custom events and activities to bring course material to life. Students research issues, historic people and moments in time. Through improvisation techniques, they learn the materials by living it as the historical figures or literary characters in question, then teach it to their peers through group sharing.  We supply costumes & props where appropriate. Ideal for K – 5, and middle school English and Social Studies classes.  We can run a single event for 1-4 hours or an extended activity for 2-6 weeks, as desired.

Community Workshop:  There may be a bullying epidemic among today’s students, but with over 10 years of experience in classrooms and camps, we have developed a uniquely safe and supportive method to create community through understanding, team building and play. In this course we teach students to engage with each other using fun games and exercises, and help to quash bullying through the use of empathy-teaching role play.  We can make a difference in as little as one 2-4 hour session, or we can run consecutive classes for 2-4 weeks for even deeper bonding.

 

Literary Programs:

Literary Adventure:  We fill your library with characters from your students’ favorite literature, using costumes and props to construct a scavenger hunt adventure that challenges their problem-solving and mediation skills.  This works best as a one day event lasting 1-4 hours.

Story Time Theater:  Our staff give a dramatic reading of a piece determined by the educator– maybe even one or more pieces written by your students!– and then facilitate students playing out the scenes from the story with them, along with alternative scenarios that encourage critical thinking about the characters and their perspectives.  We suggest that these programs last for 1­-2 hours, and they can range from a single workshop to four weekly sessions.

Writing Workshop:  Our staff use their encyclopedic knowledge of storytelling and character development to work with students to write the fiction that is waiting to pour out of their minds.  Students will brainstorm ideas, share pieces, and get peer feedback in a supportive and constructive format.  We suggest that these workshops last 1-­2 hours, depending on the age range of the students, and last between 3 and ­10 weeks.

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If your school or library is interested in in Wayfinder programming, please contact us!  We’ll arrange a time to come to your school to present our work to your teaching staff and/or administration.  We are flexible and can alter our programming to suit the learning needs of your students and your available facilities.  We have worked with both public and alternative educational institutions and are experienced in teaching special needs students.  Fees are scaled to scope of the project.

To book an event at your library or school, please call us at (845) 481 0776 or send us an email at info@wayfinderexperience.com.

Adult Retreat

Wayfinder’s Adult Retreat

This retreat is open to anyone 18 years or older.  A perfect get-away for old campers, parents and first-time friends of the community. Experience the magic of live action role playing in a mature environment! This is a fun and inclusive retreat. We will spend time doing a number of different workshops, such as improvisational theater, sword fighting (with our special foam swords) and New Games to build trust with each other before we play our LARP Adventure Game where you will be in control of your character’s destiny.

Save the date April 26th-28th, 2024 at the Stone Mountain Farm in New Paltz, NY.

 

Wayfinder Hero Fund

Wayfinder’s Hero Fund

Our Financial Aid Program

The Wayfinder Experience Hero Fund is a scholarship program to help kids and teens in financial need attend our live action role playing summer camps and events. We are very excited to offer financial assistance to those who love camp, but have trouble paying for it.

The Hero Fund is paid for by donations from our community members.  We are very grateful to have their assistance in supporting the Hero Fund.

To make a donation please mail a check to our office (write Hero Fund in the memo), or give us a call.

The Wayfinder Experience
(845) 481-0776
61 O’Neil St
Kingston, NY 12401

Be a Hero and help a child or teen join the adventure!

Requesting Aid

The amount of aid we can give out is variable depending on the current balance of the Hero Fund.

The process for requesting scholarships is below:

  1. Register online for the camp you’d like to attend and select to pay by check. Register here.
  2. Next please write an email with information that tells us how much of the camp price you are able to afford and how much aid you would need. Please remember we are able to accept installment payments throughout the summer, and in some cases, during the off-season. Send your email to info@wayfinderexperience.com. We will contact you for any additional information we may need.
  3. Once Wayfinder has a better idea of camp enrollment, we will let you know how much aid we can give. If our offer works for you, you will be enrolled. If it does not meet your needs, you may un-enroll with no penalty.

For the 2024 Summer Season, the due date for scholarship applications is May 1st.  The first round of decisions will be made by June 1st.  Applicants submitting after May 1st will be considered in a second round decisions which will be made by June 21.

Summer Overnight Camps

Check Back in January 2024 for Summer 2024 Overnight Camps

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Weekend Overnight Events

Weekend Overnight Events

Wayfinder’s Weekend Overnights are a chance for the community to come together and connect year round. These events offer our participants the chance to see friends and share in the communal setting we build at camp, and to play an Adventure Game! We hold them seasonally and look forward to creating space for our campers as often as we can. All these events for our 2023-24 offseason will be held at Holmes Camp and Retreat Center, Holmes, NY.  Come and play with us!

Fall Game

Fall Game’s Adventure Games are light hearted comedy fantasy romps that allow for participants to get the character based play that we all love so much in a light low stakes story. Join us for a fun filled weekend  that promises to be full of laughter.

This year’s Adventure is Dracula 2, a comedic vampire romp, and will run September 29th- October 1st, 2023.

Winter Game

At Winter Game the Adventure Game is our summer standby of epic adventure based stories. Players get the chance to play a character in a world shifting story line, fighting off evil and working together to save the world. Close out the year with us and bring a little bit of magic into the next year with you.
Winter Game Runs December 27th-29th.

Spring Game

For Spring Game we play horror Adventure Games. Players get the chance to play in a horror movie style setting where the fun is very much in the fear. Players will have the chance both to scare and get scared as we all face down the horrors together. Come out for a weekend of fun and fear as we ramp up to another summer of fun.

Spring Game April 19th-21st, 2024 .