"the event was £30 but it also cost me £12 in petrol, plus food", give me a break.

We are our own worst enemies always wanting cheapest but best quality is it any wonder our hobby will never grow, why do we resent anybody making money as if they are they are "ripping us off".  What right do we have to tell people what to charge, or what to do in there business.

So, a lot of us are students, and low earners, well thats fine, but don't complain when people run good,  more expensive adventures, instead of just moaning, why not aspire to them.  I don't see people marching up and down outside Harrods saying you are ripping us off, they just go somewhere else or heaven forbid they save up.

I've been involved in the hobby for about 4 years now and I know I am a relative newcomer, but I've had it, had it with all these people questioning how much they are charged why don't we make it cheaper, or give discounts to students or unwaged, well why don't you go out and get a job or save up yourself. 

Frankly LRP is going nowhere and it's the LRP'ers that are killing it.

How is the hobby growing, how far have we come in terms of permanent sites in 20 years?

Where are all the LRP's with club houses and grounds, tunnel complexes?  Apart from Chislehurst Caves and the Keep, nowhere, instead we are prancing about in Youth Hostels/Scout sites pretending that portakabin is a castle/tavern.  In 20 years we have NO decent permanent sites.

We as consumers have almost NO right to complain to LRP organisers for their prices, they charge far too little for the amount of work and effort they put in to give us an enjoyable weekend, in fact we should be on our knees thanking them for allowing us to attend for the pittance they make and that is simply WRONG.

There are consumer groups for everything these days, but a lot of people in LRP want everything for nothing and think the orgainsers owe them for just turning up.

Elitist,  bollocks, realistic. If this hobby is really going to grow you need people who are prepared to pay money to do it so the people who organise it run it make the weapons can earn a decent wage (not a minimum wage a DECENT wage) to encourage them to carry on and grow their hobby.  How many weapons makers/costume makers/systems are still around after 5 or 10 years trading, a handful, and the reason is us, we aren't prepared to support them, by paying realistic prices and letting them earn a proper living.

As for making the hobby accessible there are a million clubs where they can go, I don't see why everyone has to charge nothing, I haven't seen Ferrari making an accessible Car recently, but people don't complain, they aspire.  The whole business ethic seems totally askew in LRP, and as long as people have this attitude that it has to be accessible to everyone, has to be fair, then it will go nowhere.

Riven - I used to have the same view of LRP as yourself, got jaded about it and kind of let the whole 'hobby' move to the back burner in my life. I started LRPing about 18 years ago and in the end I started to find myself knowing exactly what was going to happen next everything became too familiar and frankly a touch boring. I used to get very frustrated that LRP didn’t seem to be moving on, the same old mistakes were being made and nothing ‘new’ and exciting was happening.

Now, well I’ve realised that it is just dressing up in a silly costume and waving rubber swords around. LRP is never going to become some massive professional hobby. LRPers can take the hobby far too seriously sometimes, some perspective is needed. It is all just a silly game, a silly game we enjoy and if we keep that in mind we’ll enjoy ourselves a lot more. Because LRP is a small hobby the market isn’t big enough to sustain higher priced events and kit makers. Supply out strips demand. There’s always someone willing to make something or run an event at cost (or sometimes a loss) just for the fun of it, as a result folks that try to make a living out of LRP have a hard time.

I’ve rambled a bit but I feel LRP has improved over the years in some areas and taken a few steps back in others. If event organisers did charge more to offer a more polished/professional event the temptation for players is to take the role of a customer that just wants to be entertained. LRP after all is a shared fantasy, the quality of which depends on what the players bring to it. So spending more on events may not improve games and in some cases be detrimental.

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RL: Mr Sofar

Curved core weaponry and bespoke stuff.

ShelfordFX