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Prodigal
 
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in particular the very high levels of roleplaying from even the youngest attendants. All of the DB children were great. Getting to play with children was one of the plus points for me.
------ <insert really amusing sig here>
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Overlord
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| Its funny, I had a plan at the start of last week to get back from Eos and start a thread on the current state of LRP in the UK. I was going to extole the levels of innovation and change in the last couple of years and conclude that the hobby is in an incredibly healthy state having emerged from a period with a lack of choice. I look around Rule7 and I have to say I can't remember at time during Pagga's existance or before when we had it this good. The games are diverse and run by keen and enthusiastic people. There are so many systems that deliver an excellent varied experience and there is a real willingness to try new things and share ideas. I must say, I've never been to an LRP event on the continent. I did attend one in Ireland, but it was an LT sanctioned event, so hardly counts as a different model. I have the utmost respect for anyone that does. On that topic, my biggest bugbear at the moment is the LT sanctioned event system. I think it has been a source of good support to fledgling event organisers over several years, but in the last couple I really think its got stuck in its ruts. I guess running my own system has opened my eyes to the possibilities of what you can do when you don't have to stick to the rules of someone else's gameworld. I hear loads of people say how great LT sanctioned events are, but when you look at the restrictions placed on the organisers you do wonder "why would you bother?" I think the future of UK LRP lies in its diversity of games with people looking to enjoy their event whether its a campaign character or one off that you want to play. Downtime is great for some people, unnecessary for others. Melee combat is good in some games, politics and intrigue in others, PLP, SLP, PVP, PVE, take your pick and choose your poison. In terms of learning lessons from the continent I am sure we can, just as they can learn lessons from us. Maybe next year I'll go see one or two of the European LRP systems just to see what the differences are.
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Wag
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White Balance (5/20/2008)
Does anyone know what the CP numbers are like. I presumed PD was the smallest of the 'big three', but with a new best of 1000 players. An average of 800? (pure guess) per event. How close is PD to CP?
We had 1007 players at the last event, but that seemed to be a very high swing presumably because of the excellent weather forecast... We'll probably be closer to 900 for the next one. Averages don't make much sense for Maelstrom, because odd event swings like the last one excepted, every event tends to be bigger than the previous ones, so I don't think it's a very meaningful figure. The average event size in 2007 was 860, climbing over the year.
I don't think direct size comparisons with other events are particularly helpful, since as Wookie points out most LRP events don't release official figures, so you're never really able to compare like-for-like. I've always been happy to tell anyone who asked how many players we have. At the end of the day I don't really give a Roo's Poo how many people go to other LRP events, since that has no effect on how much profit I make, I only care how many people come to my events. And that figure I do know! I'd love CP and LT (and everyone else) to double in size, if I got 50% bigger as well. 
At the end of the day what's useful about comparing your event with others is the game not the size. What do they do better? What can you adapt, imitate and improve? How to make Maelstrom better interests me a lot more than size comparisons with other events. Hence my fascination with European LRP. What can we learn from them? What can we steal? What do they do that we can take and improve?
History is an important source for LRP. Along with other works of fiction.
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Wag
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DarkMerchant (5/20/2008)
Based on everything I have heard from customers,many prefer the deeper involvement/roleplay experience they get with smaller clubs, and in essense this iswhere many of the old big event players are going.... either setting up small clubs and doing their own thing or finding >100 player events.
I have to admit I get the impression that the small clubs were drying up in favour of the large events. However I have a horrendous bias, since I run a large event and don't do club LRP. I'm guessing you have a much more balanced picture of the LRP market than I do, so it's great to hear you think the clubs are growing. We need those clubs!
Matt, you seem to be one of those who have cracked running big events well and although I have never played your system, I cant think of a negative that's been passed on to me, thou I'm sure there will be some who dont like it's flavour.
Meh, that's loads wrong with Maelstrom. If I had a million hours I could make it miles better! It's nice to hear the froth machine is still working well however. Maelstrom does have a very particular style and it's definitely not for everyone.
As to the offer made by LRPstore it was simple... Carte Blanche come to me with a proposal, an idea, some serious committment and a clear plan and LRPstore would put some weight behind it. Love us or loath uswe have a large enough customer base to fill quite a few places ...
Ah! That's a very interesting offer. I'm vaguely surprised you didn't have more takers, however running a big event is still a herculean task even with the support of a big trader.
History is an important source for LRP. Along with other works of fiction.
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Heroic Knight
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Matt Pennington (5/21/2008) I'm vaguely surprised you didn't have more takers, however running a big event is still a herculean task even with the support of a big trader. Yup that's what I concluded...
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www.lrpstore.com LRP Store the UKs No1 LARP Shop Use the Code RULE7 to save ££££'s online 
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Wag
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Matt Pennington (5/19/2008)
balor (5/19/2008)
It would, for example, be nice to get a Gathering sized sci fi or horror event out thereI'm easily scared. The monsters on Dr Who scare me. I have to hide behind the sofa when Baron Greenback is on the screen. But even I have difficulty imagining how I might be scared at an event with 2500 people there. A massive sci-fi event is an interesting concept and one I've pondered over a few times... I think it needs to be done... or even a generic fantasy event One of those already exists! It's called the Gathering... with a high quality of kit Ah. I think the challenge there is in creating an event of that size that has high quality of kit. I'm sure if the LT could find ways to improve kit standards at their events they would take it. I know we would, and I'm pretty proud of the kit standards at Maelstrom. Unfortunately it's not something you have a high degree of control over. No, but it is something you can influence as you have done with the Maelstrom kit guides. I think that is the one thing that makes the difference between LT and PD in terms of kit, you stated from the start in pretty pictorial form the stabdard you expected and most have lived up to or exceeded that. If this was to be done - a vast, national event(and this is purely hypothetical at present...) - I would think we would (as a country) profit more from focusing on something other than 'generic fantasy' as I think Maelstrom covers that well enough and to a high standard. As already mentioned, Germany does not seem to do 'unusual' so maybe we need to showcase how unusual we can be? I think an interesting question, not really asked here yet is this - does the country profit from a vast, national event? I benefit from Maelstrom financially, it clearly benefits the players who enjoy it, but it does it benefit the wider hobby? That's much more debatable... I think it benefits the national image of LRP. At the moment I get the impression that many of the Europeans see UK LRP in a bad light in much the same way as we see US LRP and I think both impressions are inaccurate and based on experiences of a limited field of systems. If a better image will get more Europeans travelling over here to play our games then that is certainly a good thing. Showcasing unusual is all very well, but there is a reason why Satellite television is sold using non-stop wall-to-wall football. It's because it sells a lot better than the international tiddlywinks championship. "Usual" = "Mainstream" = "Popular". Besides if we want to boast about how unusual our LRP is, I think we have a long way to go to catch up with those crazy Scandowedians.Ah, but this is where we have two extremes. By unusual I do not mean the sort of LRP where you sit around discussing existensialism in a setting which is the landscape of the mind of the referee. I agree, that while this is worthy and good for those who enjoy it, it has little 'mass market appeal'. At one end we have the Scandanavian way, at the other we have high fantasy fest. Somewhere in the middle I think there is a comfort zone which is both 'unusual' and popular. Ok, personal horror may not work on that scale (though a blood and gore splatter zombie fest may do) but I think Sci fi could. Also, twisting existing stereotypes so that you have something familiar but still original is another way to go.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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Prodigal
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A massive sci-fi event is an interesting concept and one I've pondered over a few times... Nexus is probably the closest we have to this. I've never been, but heard very good things about it and it's 'hard core simulationist' approach. Looking abroad is System Denmarc. The third in the series is planned for May next year. I put the video trailer and docs for the last one up here a while back.
------ <insert really amusing sig here>
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Live roleplaying's greatest cheerleader...
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Don't know what the numbers at Nexus are but I suspect Dropzone the Lasertag event draws more. They'd be the folks to talk to about a big Sci-Fi LRP event. They have the most experience in the genre and many links to other scifi stuff like cosplay, fan stuff etc.
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RL: Mr Sofar
Curved core weaponry and bespoke stuff.
ShelfordFX
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