Costume Quality

Does it annoy you when you make an effort to have a nice costume for a LARP and others make little or no effort?

  • yes
  • no

0 voters

it annoys me when people turn up to a LARP in a 2$ shop cape and a old suit their dad lent them.

(obviously, not a real example)

post opinons

For me it depends on the larp, the person, etc. If they don’t know any better it can’t be helped. Or if the larp is just for laughs, or intentionally low-production-values. But yeah, at a larp that is trying to achieve a great look then really weak efforts from people who could do better are a bit annoying.

It would probably be a right thing to be annoyed by it, but I just can’t. If the old suit lent by Dad suits the atmosphere of the game - why not?

I am a very crazy costume freak, and I can spend hours making costume for a single game, but the thing is that I like not only wearing the costume but making it too. Still, there are people who just can’t sew, or don’t have money get something very cool-looking, I think it will be unfair to deny them possibility to larp. I have several friends who just really don’t have much money for costumes, so they go with whatever they can find more or less suitable.

I think in this case the question includes two very different options. One is when you come to fantasy larp wrapped in curtain because you don’t have a proper cape. Well, you at least tried. The other is when you come to fantasy larp in jeans, this is not good (I don’t think any of you only have one pair of pants in your wardrobe!).

So I think there should be a difference made between people who make no effort at all and those who get whatever they can but try to make it as appropriate as possible.

It doesn’t annoy me. I appreciate the extra effort some people put in, but I always expect that there will be people who put in little effort.

Me neither, though I like phys-reps, props and environments to be good.

I wouldn’t be angry. Disappointed, maybe, but thats a different thing.

Good costumes and props are always nice (although they tend to make me feel that mine are inadequate :slight_smile: ) however I’d rather have a good role-player in a crap costume than not there at all. A good role player should be able to make you see the Character even if they’re wearing a really simple costume.

If I turned up in a far better costume than anyone else, then I’d (1) feel a bit proud of doing so well, and then (2) feel worried that my playing would have to live up to this high relative standard…

If a game is strictly ‘excellent costumes only’ then it should say so up front. I don’t think many (any?) GMs would want to be so strict at the cost of losing potentially good players.

IMHO, of course.

I find the tip is to have a few items that can be worn in a varity of ways…
I own only a few items of clothing for larps but they can often be accessorised enough to make the costumes fit to any genre…

For instance…

An old suit
A few scarves/bits of fabric
A basic white colared shirt
A linen shirt with no pockets (if you can find one)
A pair of black pants

Thats the bulk of my costuming and can probably be picked up for…oh…$50 if you know where to look…and can be used over and over for different games.

Then just collect little things people may be throwing out:

Vests, rings, glasses, hats, jewelery, bags…

Also I find a change in the way people wear their hair can make all the difference to their characters costume and look.

People ridding them self of clothing from their closets also provides a wealth of material for costuming. I pick up interesting items when ever I can and all it takes is a little time and modification to build up a chunk of very cool items that can be mixed and matched.

I find the idea of the “old suit” not so bad infact i have 2 old suits JUST for LARPing in.

For me as long as a small amount of effort is made to make it look decent… I dont care where they get it from

Costume is great.
But there are so many reasons why people don’t have good costume or any costume for that matter. Money, time, know how and know who etc.
I’d prefer a $2 costume over someone t-shirt and jeans with sneakers, unless of course that suited the genre.

Coming from a table top roleplaying background, I find it strange that people would come without costume. I thought that costume was the point about LARPing. I think the level of costume can reflect how much thought/preparation a person has made about the game/genre/character. And generally the more preparation one has, the more committed they are to the game being a good event, because it’s something they have looked forward to. I think that it’s true not just in the larping community, but even for mainstream attendees of a party - if it’s a costume party, people will have invested some thought and energy into it beforehand, and have more invested in it, to make it a better evening.

Is it related that the last couple of larps I’ve been too have had crew members flake at the last minute, whereas characters that have made costume have shown up?

As to sources of costume - I definitely don’t knock the $2 shop - I’m surprised at what a range of things these shops have. And it the costume only has to last one event, the quality doesn’t have to be great. I’m also a op-shopper, and will buy thing that might look good as a costume at some stage in the future. So when I come to create a costume, often its a matter of collating what I already have. I agree with Cameron - accessories and hair/makeup can make a big difference.

Very contraversial statement that!

I don’t think there is any one point to larping that all larpers agree on. Some larpers say that costume doesn’t matter, it’s all about the roleplay or the story or the fun and focusing too much on costume can detract from that more important stuff.

Even just comparing larp and tabletop there are way more differences than just dressing up. Larp can be real-time, with any number of participants all acting at the same time in any combination, it allows for much more physical acting and action, etc. These other things are what some people prefer larp over tabletop for, not the costume.

But personally, I like the costume. In my perfect larp everything would look/sound/smell/taste/feel exactly like what it represents. Cos I like feeling transported to another place and time. So I know where you’re coming from.

The point of larping is that you never have to wait for your turn.

i just dont see how people can have the time and money to pay for a 40-80$ LARP a month or three in advance and then claim to not have the time+ money to get a costume in order. that’s not to say im the costume queen, i’ve had a few horror stories: Raoul: “where did the bottom of your skirt go?”

The answer to that is simple enough, since i have been in this boat recently,

despite the time available, there simply was only just enough money saved after real life expenses to pay either for the larp or the costume. and if people want to lay the pay for the larp.

though i do agree that some poeple may have used this as an excuse for their lack of costuming.

Very contraversial statement that!
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Yeah I know, but I thought in this thread where we’re discussing costuming, I thought I could get away with it. :wink:
I hereby retain the right to voice another opinion in another thread when we’re discussing other points of interest in LARP.

My advice to players in regard to costume & gear is:

  1. Try to live up to the vision of the larp that’s expressed by the organisers.

  2. If you can’t achieve the desired level of gear, let people know and come anyway. Warm bodies are more important than gear, and someone may be able to lend you something at the event. Letting people know increases the chance that someone will be able to help you.

You’re thinking of Cosplayers, maybe. LARP is ‘live action’ and ‘role play’. No mention of costumes being central to the activity.

This isn’t to say that good costumes are not desireable to improve the experience of the game.

In general I try to put a bit of effort into my costumes, but a lot of it is accesorising (I never thought I’d ever use that word in my life) and variability. By variability I mean using one item for many things eg I have a whiteish puffy-sleeved wide-necked longish shirt - it can be a nightdress for any period in history pre-20th century or a perfect pirate shirt or an underdress/shirt for generic medieval type stuff and so on.
Picking up various items from second-hand stalls, family and friends etc is also good. The number of things I’ve found in the Aotea market for a couple of bucks, or in a forgotten drawer at home…
I tend to bring stuff along to events for people to borrow, if it fits the genre/period but my character wouldn’t use it.
Also, if you have the cash, it might be worth investing in a few choice reusable items of costume eg (for the ladies) a corset of some description is good for any number of periods through history (ok, so they changed shape a lot, but no one’s too fussy). Or for the men - a suit of some kind.