How much are you willing to pay for weapons?

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#4

Personally, I think $100 is getting expensive for latex weapons. Anything more than that and you’re approaching the cost for steel weapons. I think I paid about $150 for my steel arming sword (including a wooden scabbard) so paying that for a rubber one just feels like being ripped off.

I also generally prefer the plainer weapons because most of the more intricate weapons seem to head down the fantastical route and have cross guards shaped like bat wings and other elements I generally find repulsive.

I have seen some historical flash latex weapons (a Sutton Hoo / viking period broadsword springs to mind) that I wouldn’t mind. But that’s pretty rare.

#5

Sadly for many of us, cheaper is better just because we don’t have the funds. Its one of the sad reasons that “Quest” the fantasy larp here in Hamilton has always struggled with costume, armour & weaponry.
The Quest weapons are all boffers (argh), the armor is virtually non existant & costuming is only just clawing back from sad musty little tunics.
Lots of peoples personal gear is hand made, some is good, some not so good but its all they have. Most of it wouldn’t meet the immersive standards some would expect.
I’ve had good armor pieces made, it cost me too much really & I still don’t have a decent (fantasy) costume.
And then theres other genres, I can’t afford more than one set of gear (if it can’t be obtained from an op shop).
Really I can’t justify a cost of a weapon past $100, it’s just too much.
But then I have a huge mortgage that swallows all funds, I suspect many other people are the same.
Sad aye?

#6

Did all the free leather I sent down to Hamilton get turned into costumes?

#7

Personally, I would make my own. I don’t have a lot of money to throw away, and spending more than $100 is throwing it away in my books. but then I have the knowledge and the equipment to build my own if the mood takes me. but there seems to be reason for me to be taken by the mood of late, so you might ell see more of my stuff about.

R

#8

Derek, I believe Alista wishes to run a pseudo workshop shortly but most of our costuming relies on Erin (being our single tailor/crafter) so progress is slow. I’m personally crap at crafting things especially sewing, though with the right tools & instruction I’m sure I could, what I lack is the time to do it.
Also some of us Hamilton larpers would like to make our own latex/foam weaponry but haven’t before & don’t have the gear to do so… would it be feasible to tempt people down south for a workshop day, followed by a brief larp? Something like a werewolf or vampire hunt, just a bit of hack n slash to test out newly crafted gear?

#9

I guess speaking of “most” you don’t mean this LARP swords and steel swords

It’s not a matter of “willing”, I’m afraid. It’s a matter of “having enough money to buy at least something, minding that you also need to eat and pay your bills”. Even $100 is a big money for most of people.
I think if people had money for more special stuff - quite a lot of them would go for it.

Swords are rather balanced in terms of “long enough to keep me safe - easy to carry around”. But I think we slowly develop more variety of weapons, at least that’s what I’ve seen in a few games recently.

I think some of us in NZ can say the same - which means we can sacrifice some other things for the sake of getting larp gear, but in any way you can’t spend more than you have.

If only you knew how many people say “I can’t come to this game because I don’t have a costume and I don’t have money to buy or rent something appropriate”. We are very tolerant about gear, and we usually expect people to make efforts to look authentic - but reasonably. So, for a 17th century game you don’t come in jeans, but you try to wear stuff that looks like 17th sentury clothes.

#10

I’d rather spend money on costume than weapons.

(but oh god do I spend money costume…)

#11

From my experience, the amount New Zealand larpers will pay for stuff varies quite broadly - and you can sell us anything if we think it’s worthwhile. The main barrier to entry I see for a new seller would be that most of the community that want foam weapons, already have them, and we’re not growing in numbers as fast as we’d like to be. Still, there are always newbies and with serious investment (time and energy) larping could take off any second now :slight_smile:

#12

How about attaching a workshop to one end of a game like St Wolfgang? NZLarps probably has some spare kit people can borrow and if a workshop happened for a couple of hours before the game then we could cover a reasonable bit.

#13

Hi all,

A Workshop is a nice idea, but i think it’s better to do this on an extra day. After a convention there isn’t enough time and all the tools must be taken there and so on. Make a bbq or something and build along the way your weapons. By creating weapons you use pattex, latex milk & colours and coelan, and all these have to dry completely.

The 100$ were an example. In Germany it covers only the material costs without a hourly wage, because foam, fibreglass core, coelan, etc. are very expensive. So, if in NZ these things are cheaper you can build weapons for less money.

How much experience do you have in building weapons?

And another thing, do you know of a internet shop which sells fabrics in NZ? Like wool, linen and other authentic fabrics.

#14

I think you can see why we often make our own gear Issac.
We don’t tend to use the best foam, we may use silver or duct tape instead of latex paint & the fibre glass rods are sourced from inexpensive cattle prods. Its one of the sad reasons boffers still get used because who can beat the $20-30 cost of a boffer, if that?
Larp is well established in NZ, its been here 20 years or so but the number of players is small. We have no larp industry per se, there are few if any dedicated larp weapon makers or larp costumers (not to say we don’t have talented crafters, we do) unlike the US, or Europe.
The 2-300 larpers in NZ just doesn’t support it yet. We’d all love to see that change, I’d love to see a huge larp take place (we are middle earth after all) but I think we’d have to make it an international event to get numbers.
Just wait til I win lotto.

#15

Part of the reason that Hamilton uses boffers is, as Jared quite correctly pointed out, is cost. It used to cost $10 to make a long swords and less for a dagger. However the increase in materials costs for boffer weapons seems to vastly exceed the average inflation rate and currently a long sword in materials will set you back $15-20. If you want a proffessional Boffer weapon maker to make you a custom, weighted weapon with ornamentation you could pay up to $40-50.

We are looking at a new generation of weapons, these are latex weapons, that are carved from foam onto a flat PVC core. These will be painted. In combat they will be legal for slashing and thrusting under our system. These wil be costing us about $30-50 for a long sword.

The real reason that we use boffers is… I personally end up having to pay for about half the cost of LRP in Hamilton. Last year we had an income of about $400 and expenses of close to $1,000. that is not counting the cost of the weapons, much of which I, Erin and Michael again have had to pay for. The cost of our sword collection is about $600-1,200. Of that Erin, Michael and I have had to front about $500. Our much derided costume collection is several hundred dollars I personally had to find. If we were to upgrade to say Paddywhack weapons, I would personaly have to find $3,000-$5,000. This would have to be considered a gift, as I have discovered, in New Zealand, no one is actually willing to pay the real costs of LRP.

In Quest you are allowed to use your own weapons. We just have to test them. We have several players using flats with the proviso that they are not allowed to stab with them. Most players do not purchase weapons. They just use the weapons I personally paid for, then complain I didn’t I didn’t pay for $300 weapons so that they could use them cheaply or for no fee whatsoever.

From doing LRP in New Zealand I have discovered that most players have not bought their own weapons, even when you could get a weighted sword for $15. To a lot of players, paying $5 to go a Live Role Play is more than they are willing to pay.

We are looking at a new generation of weapons, but don’t hold your breath.

#16

Just so it’s clear my comments are not a dig at Quests gear, sorry if it seemed like it but we have been criticised for it in the past.
I am fully aware of Alistas comments & have enjoyed playing Quest games om & off for almost 7 years now. I’ve almost always had my own gear, much of it boffers, much of it now donated to Quest as I’ve upgraded. Until I discovered latex weapons I didn’t think of using anything else, most players are lost in the game experience enough not to wory that they have a silver duct tape clad boffer in their hands.
What Quest players lack for in immersive gear is more than made up for in pure imagination & roleplaying.

#17

Personally, if I saw a larp weapon I fell in love with, I can easily see myself saving the 200 to buy it. But that would be the highest price I’d pay and it’d have to be pretty freaking unique.

#18

I think we usually buy them live. At least in Auckland there are a few nice stores where you can get stuff. Linen for $4 per metre is quite reasonable.

#19

When I started larping I was about 12 and I sunk every $ I earned from my paper round into tape and foam. :smiley: I pretty much supplied every one with weapons - for free. It’s one way to support a hobby, but there are better ways.

Most people are naturally selfish and unless there is an advantage for them to provide good kit, they won’t. Mordavia had an excellent way of doing this in their rules. 1/3 of your potential XP came from costume. On your first weekend game you could expect to get around 8-12 XP with 10XP being the break point of getting something cool for the next game. If you threw away 4XP by having poor costume you basically stayed the same on your second adventure.

If having good costume is important to your group then you can make the rules support people who go the extra mile. For example, if you’re playing a “knight” character - if you have a shield with your heraldry painted on it +1HP, if you have a tabbard with your heraldry painted on it +1HP. If you want to play a noble character, you should be able to outfit a couple of guardsmen with matching shields and tabbards (this’ll help outfit your n00bs and casual players).

#20

Quest does reward players by giving additional HP’s for good costume. Perhaps XP bonus for good kit is a good idea. I’ll be sure to mention it in the upcoming Quest meeting.
Thanks Derek.

#21

I understand the point with the boffers. We use them sometimes for npc here as well. I think we have to look at the material costs and then talk again about these topics.

I like the idea from Derek with the XP for costumes! This would support that players make or have their own costumes which look good. I reckon that good costumes are more important than good weapons.

#22

You can make boffers look like weapons, just not swords :smiley: They are fine for clubs and staves though.

#23

Here in NZ there is a strong Do-It-Yourself culture, and this extends to larp weapons.

It’s actually quite cheap to make a foam & tape weapon, around $20 if you know what you are doing, and can source some of the material free (such as fibreglass). The swords I make are similar to boffers, but have a flat fibreglass core instead of a PVC pipe, plus a lead pommel for counterweighting. This gives the weapon a good heft.

I still use PVC as handles for javelins, axes or hammers, but the “blade” is not simply padding around the PVC core, but is a different section all together (usually closed-cell foam).

One big advantage of silver duct-tape over latex is repairability. Plus, latex swords tend to have nice-looking guards that aren’t really up to the job because they are made out of foam and are rather bendy.

Our swords are coming up 9 years old, and they are still working well despite lots of hard out action. I’m not sure that latex weapons can claim the same.

Not that I’m against latex weapons. I would probably buy an unique one as you suggested in your (Isaac’s) initial posts, as long as I couldn’t make it myself. I’ve got a couple of latex rapiers that I’ll use in more costume-oriented games (the guards are cosmetic only and I don’t want them damaged).