Larping in the UK, a report

Community Larp discussion
#1

Hi all,

Currently I’m on my holidays in the UK, catching up with friends and family. What better way I thought to catch up with lots of old friends than attend a LARP…

So last weekend I went to the Curious Pastimes event ‘Redemption’ just outside of London.

http://www.curiouspastimes.co.uk/events_redemption.asp

I had a great time catching up with old friends including Dave and Moo, two NZ LARPers living in the UK. I found everyone at the event was very friendly and welcoming, which was fantastic as someone new to the campaign.

So why am I boring everyone with this, well I thought I’d mention some of the differences between LARPing in the UK and NZ.

Cost

The event cost NZ $130 (ish) for an un-catered camping event. We don’t know quite how good we have it here in respect of value for money. I don’t think anyone ever complains about the prices of LARP over here, and I guess for four days of ‘entertainment’ I wouldn’t complain at the price in the UK, I just appreciate what good value we get over here.

The Camps/Set Dressing

There were about half a dozen camp each brilliantly decorated with dozens of in character tents all stuffed full of props to suit the culture of each camp. It was amazing looking around each camp seeing the huge amount of efforts each group of players had put in to make their camp feel ‘real’.

I guess if I was to take anything away from the event it would be the desire to improve the set dressing aspect of our games over here. The level of costuming in NZ is brilliant but I think improving the ‘environment’ is the next stage of development. I’m also firmly of the opinion it shouldn’t just be the responsibility of the GM’s to do this, they are busy crafting great plots for players which leads me too…

Personal Plot

In our campaign LARPs we are lucky that our characters backgrounds are often incorporated strongly in to the story line. This was the biggest (and best) difference between UK games and NZ games. In the UK at 400-500 player games it understandably isn’t a practical thing to do, instead you go make your own fun within the framework of the plot.

Crewing

All the players are expected to crew for 8 hours over the course of the three days, this is in addition to any dedicated crew. I found crewing as always fun, having a bit of OOC time was a good thing, and when done at the beginning or end of the day didn’t feel overly detrimental to my experience as a player and also allowed the GM’s to stage big battles where the players were outnumbered.

Size of the Event

There were about 400 attendees (I estimate) and I was involved in a battle with about 150 players and about the same in NPCs provided by a mixture of dedicated crew and players taking their turn to crew. The battle was fantastic, I felt genuinely frightened for my characters life due to the numbers involved, I believe about 30 characters died so I had good reason to be!

The Crimson Moon Tavern

At the event was a fully licensed tavern with about a dozen tables and a great selection of quenching alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks. It was a brilliant place to roleplay and was again fully decorated, which only made people want to spend more time (and money) there.

Would other players be willing to give up two hours (at a convenient time) during a weekend game to bolster the crew numbers for some epic fights where the other players are outnumbered.

…and next time an overworked GM wants some help dressing the game I plan to accept the challenge and try and make the game better for everyone. Anyone else keen?

#2

[quote=“Bryn”]

Would other players be willing to give up two hours (at a convenient time) during a weekend game to bolster the crew numbers for some epic fights where the other players are outnumbered. [/quote]
I have been trying to encourage this for the last two years. I am sorry to say that after 2 years of investigation it is impractical and unmanageable.

So no - it’s not going to happen. Ever.

#3

I totally support your efforts Bryn, and yes, would be happy to give up 2 hours of IC time and also help raise the level of set dressing!

A thought - I wonder if we could reach out to the medieval re-creators/SCA types for the purposes of setting up a kick-ass tavern/market/what have you. I’m just thinking of how awesome that big mega tent at the joust was!

They’ve got some gorgeous tents/kit and are familiar with selling food and gear at events. Granted, I think they’re used to larger events but if we could find a couple of keen people to give it a go maybe it might yield something?

#4

[quote=“amphigori”]I totally support your efforts Bryn, and yes, would be happy to give up 2 hours of IC time and also help raise the level of set dressing!

A thought - I wonder if we could reach out to the medieval re-creators/SCA types for the purposes of setting up a kick-ass tavern/market/what have you. I’m just thinking of how awesome that big mega tent at the joust was!

They’ve got some gorgeous tents/kit and are familiar with selling food and gear at events. Granted, I think they’re used to larger events but if we could find a couple of keen people to give it a go maybe it might yield something?[/quote]

Don’t be rediculous - no one in this country cares enough about the larping experience - people whinge too much about ’ immersion ’ because of calls yet they can stand in a scout camp and pretend its christal palace. There is no way they can stretch their limited imagination to covering a few hours crewing - besides that would indicate they actually care about other peoples larping experience.

#5

Respectfully, Adam, I don’t think you and I are going to see eye-to-eye on this at all. Bryn’s call to action is a genuine and positive one. If you’re not keen, then that’s totally fine.

But for the record, I’d like to think that I’m optimistic and invested, rather than ridiculous.

#6

Bad Adam stop trying reverse psychology :slight_smile:

Let’s all get behind it in a positive way, I genuinely think people want to make the best larp experience possible, just sometimes it takes a bit of time to accept new ways of doing stuff.

#7

[quote=“Bryn”]Bad Adam stop trying reverse psychology :slight_smile:

Let’s all get behind it in a positive way, I genuinely think people want to make the best larp experience possible, just sometimes it takes a bit of time to accept new ways of doing stuff.[/quote]
daww but people don’t like me lol :stuck_out_tongue:

Ok fair enough will stop arsing about.

This is actually a really good idea! It allows people to crew at games where there character might not turn up for the first part of it (say raiding a village for loot when you play a scribe) but still take part in the rest of the larp as a player!

It also means that gm’s can potentially put into play a serious amount of monsters with a regular amount of hp’s rather than having to up the stats of them because the poor crew are outnumbers 5 to 1 :slight_smile:

#8

I think this is an awesome idea! I hope the tavern idea will be implemented it was always the place that made my reenactment experiences so awesome.

I really like the 2 hrs crewing too. it means more people could be players and we could have bigger games!

Adam, stop being such a cheeky monkey. You’ve told to many people that you support these ideas for us to take you seriously this time! :stuck_out_tongue:

#9

Oops. Shame on me. I totally took him seriously!

Where’s the little blushy guy picture???
:blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush:

#10

[quote=“amphigori”]Oops. Shame on me. I totally took him seriously!

Where’s the little blushy guy picture???
:blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush:[/quote]So did I…

#11

Cool. Everyone on the same page.

I guess if the GM’s offered a choice of times for people to do their two hours it would be easier. I know it takes some people a lot of time to get not costume so you’d want the big stuff to happen first thing in the morning or just before time out. The character can then go to bed or not be awake or some other simple excuse.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if re enactors that sold their wares brought them to the Saturday morning market at the next game. Who knows they might like what they see and want to join in the next game.

It would be fantastic if someone wanted to create an in character tavern and decorate it as such. Obviously all in agreement with the GM’s.

#12

[quote=“Bryn”]Cool. Everyone on the same page.

I guess if the GM’s offered a choice of times for people to do their two hours it would be easier. I know it takes some people a lot of time to get not costume so you’d want the big stuff to happen first thing in the morning or just before time out. The character can then go to bed or not be awake or some other simple excuse.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if re enactors that sold their wares brought them to the Saturday morning market at the next game. Who knows they might like what they see and want to join in the next game.

It would be fantastic if someone wanted to create an in character tavern and decorate it as such. Obviously all in agreement with the GM’s.[/quote]

The only downside i can see to recreating the crimson moon over here is you would need a licence to do it :frowning: which is a shame as its awesome!

#13

What if they didn’t sell booze, but sold other stuff (hot drinks, non-alcoholic drinks, snacks, wares, etc …)

#14

Could be ok but it depends on the licencing laws of the local council :frowning: This really is worth looking into it could potentially be somthing nz larps runs and organises for large events to raise funds?

#15

Oh and isn’t West Auckland a bit funny about booze? (Seeing as how you can’t buy it in grocery stores, etc…)

Worth looking into, yes.

#16

Yeah it could work well however if licensing laws are too difficult, perhaps a fake bar where no money changes hands just get served with your own booze, labelled some how to save confusion.

#17

[quote=“Xcerus”]The only downside i can see to recreating the crimson moon over here is you would need a licence to do it :frowning: which is a shame as its awesome![/quote]I think you would need both a license for the venue (but I think it is possible to get temporary licenses for one-off events, although the venue people might not like it), and at least one bar/tavern manager with the appropriate license/qualification/certification - unfortunately I forget what that’s called.

As for non-alcoholic beverages, to the best of my (limited) knowledge there’s absolutely no problems with that.

#18

I think one of the reasons proper taverns work so well at events is that people do not have to bring their own alcohol and the person who gives up their time at the LARP makes a small profit as recompense.

Just to point out, liquor isn’t the only thing that requires a license. Serving food of any kind requires one, and serving food that has not been pre-prepared (professionally) requires someone with a food safety certificate to be present.

I wonder if this could be gotten around by offering to include the purchase of a certain number of drinks in the event price and issueing vouchers???

#19

So assuming it can be done legally and the GM’s are keen is anyone willing to put their hand up to make a tavern happen.

Being from Wellingon I can’t but I promise to be a great customer :slight_smile:

#20

Disclaimer: I am not in Auckland

Down here in Dunedin, you need to apply for a Special License, which if granted usually allows the sale of alchohol at a place that already has a liquor license (although there are exceptions), on a specific day, for a specific period of time. There has to be a Bar Manager or General Manager there as well to oversee. Weddings and Dinners and such do it all the time. It’s not particularly expensive but it can take a couple of weeks to process.

Viperion