To perish or not to perish - that is the question

Community Larp discussion
#21

[quote=“Hannah”]Sorry Adam, just bad timing of the question I guess, with most people’s mind still being on Teonn, I’m sure I’m not the only one who missed the phrase of the “Upcoming event”.
I’m also curious about what sort of non-food perishable item would be, would it let the plot out of hte bag too much to let us know what sort of thing you’re referring to. Rice paper and seaweed were mentioned, but I thought they would count as food.

I would have thought that the potential problem with trying to work out a budget which relies on re-selling some items afterwards is that there is no knowing how much is going to be left over and can’t be sure of being able to acheive the required re-sell price.[/quote]

Thats ok Hannah - I guess the big thing here is I do want every one’s input I just don’t really want it to detract from the topic - which is not Teonn or any other game that has been run previously but infact planning for a future game and knowing what players would prefer to happen.

While I don’t really want to go into the specifics of the items I can give examples that will hopefully not blow it wide open.

Contact lenses were a big one - needed for specific NPC’s - These are a one person item (lets not devolve this into - you shouldn’t force people to wear them - thats irrelevant - only people willing to wear them would be asked to play the NPC’s) - They cannot be resold on Trade me and they usually have a life span of about 6 months (max ish) which means they can only be re-used for a short period of time by one person. Rather than expect them to pay for them ($30 ish) Ask if they would be willing to make a donation to keep them and re-use them (for whatever purpose - we are larpers I am sure they can use coloured contacts for somthing over the next 6 months). Getting a donation back for the item from the person that used them will drop the over all cost of buying them (even getting $10 which most people would probably pay is 33% of the cost - thats a decent amount to save on a prop).

I guess my question really is - As an event organisor - do I have a duty to ensure that an event costs as little as possible to the players / crew - or do people not actually care about the game budget as long as they have a good time and it comes in at around $100 or less?

#22

In all the events I’ve ever run where food was a factor, I have always over-catered. Sometimes by frankly horrific proportions (I’m still getting the hang of it). In every instance, I have tried my best to get the participants to take food away with them, and it’s really hard! It is even hard to get people to take the plate THEY contributed away if you didn’t touch it. (Too many muffins, leave one container out back still sealed. Good luck trying to give it back to the person who brought it!)
I’ve never received a single complaint about simply packing the food back into my car and taking it home and living off it for days on end.

I think from a practical point of view, try to set the system up so that there are no perishables left over. If you’re paying for contact lenses (or whatever), consider them a sunk cost and do whatever you like with them. If you can’t afford to do that, either ask the NPC’s to buy them outright, or shelve the idea.

As an event organiser, you’re under no obligation to do anything but put on the event to the best of your ability. You have no obligation to skim the budget to the bare bones, all it does is widen your appeal by allowing you to dropping the price.