Having found the site, I was amazed to see the prices they charge for tickets (£95 - 350 - averaging out at £120-130 I think). I'm having qualms about charging £75 for the Mandala sci fi event but I know I can justify it as every penny (and more) is going into the game, with lots of visible expenditure.

So my questions are - for the people who run Frail Realities or for those who attend:

1. why are your prices so high? Do you make a profit from these events - do you pay your staff?

2. What do you spend the money on - I couldn't see much in the way of props or set dressing in your gallery

3. Do people in general think that this is an acceptable price range for events? Cos I could do LOADS with that sort of money!

This is certainly not a pop at Frail Realities - i have no idea if your games are the dogs nuts or utter toss - it was more the disparity in prices that prompted me to ask this and I don't mean to criticise - just curious and looking to pinch ideas if possible!

I try to keep our events at the £60 mark - which I don't think is particularly cheap - but I believe that generally people want good events rather than cheap events, and we're still trying to find our happy medium compromising ticket price and level of props etc. Is £60 too cheap? Should we be charging double that and giving a much higher standard of event?

Crazy like Croolis-Ulv!

FG,  you should be charging enough to make yourself a good profit, you are NOT running a charity. 

You should also NOT be concerned that you are making a profit or have to justify what you spend on an event to lazy gits like me who just write a cheque, come along on the day, have a good time or moan if we don't and leave you with the clearing up/debts afterwards. 

You should place a proper value on your time and effort.  If you can do a good event for £60 but a great event for £120, then go for the £120, similarly if you can do a great event for £60 then still charge £120 and plough the extra back in BUT also set aside enough to give yourself a reward for pulling off a great event. 

I obviously can't answer 1 & 2, but in reply to 3 the answer is definitely Yes

Take a look at the "Why are LRP'ers so tight" thread in Muggers Alley, if you build it maybe they will come.

Caine

Dan.

I do believe that people want Good events rather than Cheap events but there's no point me planning a £300 per ticket game if noone books.

So I'm wondering what sort of expectations people have when they pay £50, £100, £150+. Would you pay £100+ for a new system you'd never tried (and didn't know anyone that had either) - eg its first game? Assuming that you had no mates who'd attended an event such as this, what would convince you it was worth trying, despite what might be a high price?

also...

re:

[quote=]

FG,  you should be charging enough to make yourself a good profit, you are NOT running a charity. 

You should also NOT be concerned that you are making a profit or have to justify what you spend on an event to lazy gits like me who just write a cheque, come along on the day, have a good time or moan if we don't and leave you with the clearing up/debts afterwards. 

You should place a proper value on your time and effort.  If you can do a good event for £60 but a great event for £120, then go for the £120, similarly if you can do a great event for £60 then still charge £120 and plough the extra back in BUT also set aside enough to give yourself a reward for pulling off a great event.  [/quote]

hmm see we fall into the trap of running games because we enjoy running them. I actually charge all our refs and crew (including me) to attend (albeit this usually just covers food). I am planning on stopping this soon because I feel very guilty about it but I do think it increases a sense of ownership, and reminds you why you're doing it (cos its fun! if its not fun then don't get involved - if you're not having fun then the players won't either). Every single penny is ploughed into the game, along with whatever contributions people make on top in terms of buying extra props, making kit etc - if you counted it up all our events run at a loss but I know I personally don't mind because, to me, its worth it.

If I were to attend an event, knowing that I was paying for someone's time to run it, it had better be damn good. If I pay over £50 to attend an event I expect to see props, set pieces, nice monster kit etc. I don't necessarily expect to see every penny spent but I do expect to see a reasonable breakdown of expenditure (eg not too much spent on admin, a reasonable amount spent on food if catered, a decent site, and depending on cost, decent props/monster kit).

I do believe that its possible to make a decent profit out of LRP - but not until you start running either weekly games (like Labyrinthe) or games of high numbers such as CP/LT/PD. I guess I fall into the camp of "I'd rather run the best game possible" than "I want to run a good game, and get compensated for my time for doing so". Because this is my hobby not my day job.

Crazy like Croolis-Ulv!

mmm beginning to see why people generally wait for reviews or personal reccomendations, but given costs of truck and site hire its hard to do an awful lo cheaper, paticularly if fully catered.

Good questions FG

in fact, when a couple of people responsible for FR crewed at an event for me earlier in the year i asked them pretty much the same questions.

as memories serves, the answer was (but i wouldn't swear in court on this at it was mid event so i was somewhat mentally engaged in 20 other places also).

they felt that people are free to spend their money how they wish and compared to other comparable entertainment, they have a fair costing policy, it allows them to have very few players, in decent sites, and based on what i saw, their kit looked quite good too. They also seemed to be semi- pro in the sense that they take a small payment for the writing.

As to is it a fair price? they have been a running a fair while and so their players obviously think so.  Would I charge it? No but that’s largely because it would then price out lots of players that I would want to be able to attend. And I’m not a supporter of exclusivity based on price within any area of my life and so would hardly want to impose it within an area that I can control.    

I would like to charge a bit more, to maybe have a wider range of weaponry, or more tentage, or to use props each only once a year max. but would the game be better by enough to compensate?? Probably not. 

We have likewise charged crew/refs for attendance which seemed fair/necessary and abandoned that later when it seemed it wasn’t, generally I agree with an awful lot of your comments I know a fair number of people who run/have run LRP clubs/systems and think that very very few make, or even intend to make any profit.   This is not because we think that our efforts don’t deserve financial reward, just that as this is our hobby, its quite natural to spend the extra £200 on that bit of kit that would be just perfect for the Saturday night scene we had in mind, or buy a case of beer for the crew for the Friday night to thank them for rolling around in mud all evening. If it being fun means it costs us a little bit how Is that different from any other hobby?  And I would exchange a fair few £50.00 notes for that glowing feeling when a scene/day/event goes off to perfection.     

A Good friend of mine who runs some corporate entertainment thinks that £400.00 each for a weekend event is probably the going rate, but that would include paying all the crew, (i'll advertise here if this leads to anything.    

Should you charge it? I guess it depends what players you want, but based on your answers I’d be surprised if you came home with anything other than a few very cool new bits of kit in order to make the next one just that bit better. 

 

A Rather healthier distraction than tending rose's gardens 

Personally I think that if FR have a player base that will pay that price, then the players clearly believe they get value for money. So good luck to them.

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