Kickstarter For Real Wizard School Raises Absurd Amount Of Money

Let's be honest: The real world is harsh.

So it should come as no surprise that hundreds of people out there are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars to spend three days in a  magical Harry Potter-esque world for three days of wizardly bliss. 

"New World Magischola" launched a Kickstarter for a live-action roleplaying session (READ: LARP Camp for adults) this summer at the University of Richmond. The campaign launched on Monday at 7 p.m. EST with an initial goal of $35,000 -- within an hour, it raised over 100,000.  

"Clearly people were excited about the world and the opportunity," New World Magischola President Maury Brown told HuffPost.

As we published this story, the campaign had received $231,207 from eager wannabe wizards. 

For $450 a ticket, "students" who attend the event spend three days living on campus and pretending they attend a real school of witchcraft and wizardry. They'll learn spells from real "professors", interact with "magical" creatures, and even mix their own potions. 

"If you want to un-magic it, it's basic chemistry," Brown said. 

 Or, you can buy Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on iTunes for $14.99.

Though the Hogwarts comparison is easy to make, there's actually no relation.

"Harry Potter is fantastic, but it's very British," Brown said, "This universe we created is for North America, so we intertwined it with colonialism." Hence, the college campus setting, which is pretty much the closest you can get to a castle in the U.S.

New World Magischola is the brainchild of Brown and Ben Morrow, who run a live action role play company called Learn Larp LLC. The duo attended a LARPing event in Poland last year called Wizard College and wanted to replicate the experience in the U.S.  

Students will also take a quiz to determine which house they belong to (sorry, no Sorting Hat):

 

New World Magischola announced two more events after the success of the first, both of which have already sold out. But don't worry, you haven't missed your chance just yet: The fourth event will launch Wednesday at 7 p.m. EST on their Kickstarter page. 

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