To my mind it's got so much stuff to work with from a character/events point of view that I would want it to be a straight historical event.

Not re-enactment level but high-kit standards (Dumnonni levels as a rough guide for those who know it).

Now, I'm wandering why there are so few historical events of this type. Even where things are based on a historical period (like Dumnonni, Blood Red Roses and Grimm Tales) they seem to just use it as a place to base a background on. When ever something comes close it seems to add in some sort of fantasy (or more often horror) element and I'm just intrigued as to why people think this happens.

why are there so few (none?) straight, 'vanilla' historical roleplay events? 

Be clear, I'm not talking about re-enactment and wearing authentic pants and sitting in mud for the weekend, but proper events.  It seems that if you set it in the right period/place there is so much going in your characters will be too busy to sit in mud. Examples of period/place that spring to mind include Colonial America in the French & Indian War, Ancient Greek city states, England during the Civil War, Italian city states during the Renaissance, Medieval France during the Hundred Years War the list is nearly endless...

Is there no interest/appetite in this sort of thing? Is that why there are no events like this? I'm interested to hear what people think.

Cheers

Si

p.s. i'm not intending to 'have a pop' at any system mentioned, these are just the ones i know of and fitted into my example.

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Everyone loves Hypnotoad!

I suppose LRP has its roots in tabletop and the majority of those games have all held a fantastical element.

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RL: Mr Sofar

Curved core weaponry and bespoke stuff.

ShelfordFX

Gall saga, Dummoni, BRR and even Shards (with its psuedo historic elements) have all suffered in the past through appearing to be too historical. Accusations of 'costume facism' and 'needing to have a degree in history to play them' have abounded and even though untrue to a large extent (all have had high costume standards for example but never suffered 'facism' over it, no more than the 'min phys reps' for Maelstrom) these have scarred the popularity of the events. Which is a shame as they are (or were in some cases) excellent events.

I post the above as a warning as I think it is important to make sure that you get across the message of how you want this game to run without alienating a lot of people who may otherwise enjoy it. Stressing the 'historic accuracy' elements too much may put people off as much as it may attract others. Many have bad memories of history at school and may therefore not want to relive it in LRP too much. You may, for example, prefer to instead market it in some other way which stresses no magic/fantasy elements. Possibly emphasising the 'gritty realism' of the event or something. 

Oh, and another thing, never make claims of historic accuracy if you cannot back them up with good research. I know for a fact that there are a number of history academics and talented amatuers in and around LRP who will jump on any claim of 'accuracy' and search for something to find fault with

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The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God...

Ruins of Empire

1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester

As Balor says, fantasy is a cheap and easy way to insert drama. That's why there are so many hack fantasy novels on the market.  Writing 'human interest' plots is much more challenging, and plots based on social conventions require a detailed society with social rules and customs.

As pointed out, freeforms tend to go more in historical settings, through they lack of phy repping (using hotels and cons as venues) I think is a bit of a let down.

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