It amazes me as well.

I went to my girlfriend's parents' house the other week, and they gave me food. But they didn't have H&S checks or certifications! The food inspectors had never even visited their house! They hadn't even been on a government-approved training course!

Surely this is illegal!?!?!

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Masquerades & Massacres (Jane Austen's Aliens): Organiser
Maelstrom: Papa Abgal (The Rum Fairy of Doom, High Exarch of Entertainment)
Serenity: Xavier Yu Ji ('Pointy Hat Man')
White City: Too Many Characters To Mention!
Dark Ages Society: Godfrid Swine-Herd (Scummy Saxon), Hauk Ragnarsson (Rus Viking Flashman)

Well thats just plain not true.  Although there may be no "official" checks but it does not mean that there is no recourse.  If you go to seller A and buy some IC pig in a bun and you get food poisoning there would be the potential to sue seller A.  Working on the assumption that by selling you the food for IC cash a contract has not been formed (something I believe to be a grey area) the Tort of Negligence still applies.  So there is potential recourse (although I would consider it rather dickish to try and sue someone who IC sold you some food...you know the risks when you buy the food...you didn't have to buy it).

Matt J

If I wanted to listen to an arsehole, I'd fart!

For the original hootenanny one of our ideas was to provide beans for everyone on site in a big cook off. We even bought a bulk load of 3p tins of beans, but for some reason we never got around to it.

RL: Stuart Maher
PD: Stuart Maher in a frock coat
LT: Stuart maher in orange hi-vis
Omega: Stuart Maher in a rat mask
BUTT: Stuart Maher in various crap costumes
EOS: Stuart Maher writing plot

EOS - Book now, thank me later.

I was going to copyright my posts... but then remembered this is an LRP forum!

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/safetyaw.pdf

Cant say if they apply to IC catering (Id guess not but I'm not an expert) But plainly its not remotley possible to Remain IC and do catering (because you dont have a sink.. adequate lighting and refrigeration.. etc etc)

In short .. If you think IC catering should be subject to the law then I politley request you to p** off. Its not possible. Either shut up or dont eat there

Its me...(incase you were wondering)

This can be two mercenary units who decide to start up, both the same amount of fighters. However one group can collectivley afford for them all to bring chainmail phys reps to the events. The other is made up of students and can't afford this. When it comes to pricing services one can offer a premium over the other because of OOC expenditure.

There are countless ways of putting this point across, but it comes to the same place. So long as the formula remains OOC Money + effort = IC advantadge then We are good. So long as OOC Money does not equal IC advantadge then we'll be ok!

Stu

RL: Stuart Maher
PD: Stuart Maher in a frock coat
LT: Stuart maher in orange hi-vis
Omega: Stuart Maher in a rat mask
BUTT: Stuart Maher in various crap costumes
EOS: Stuart Maher writing plot

EOS - Book now, thank me later.

I was going to copyright my posts... but then remembered this is an LRP forum!

And another thought - if someone really skint goes along to an event with the bare minimum of necessities for the weekend (2 packs of asda Smart Price pasties and some bottled water) because they want to go but can't afford lots of food and booze so they go basic in order to still enjoy their hobby - don't the IC traders make THEIR event that bit more special?  For no real world outlay they can have that fabulous meal at the Jade Lotus (something they probably can't afford in the real world) or that massage or those doughnuts.  I have been to events where I have been broke and other people have splashed out booze so I have had more than I expected, and in return when well off I (well, we - partner and I) have taken extra booze and food along and shared amongst players and NPC's.  Doesn't this IC stuff mean that MORE people with less real world resources get to enjoy the hobby that bit more?

Raina and Anara Tasar, Legion of Dreams
Cleopatra, Sinergy

This.  This is an excellent point.  I went to the Gathering once, and was very poor at the time.  With petrol costs and ticket price, I had £5 to spend that weekend, and £5 worth of food in my tent.  Expecting to not be drunk at all, I rather ended up having a ball as I made a little bit of IC cash and could socialise with friends in IC bars, buying rounds there, rather than in the OC bar.

In removing that option, I think that the LT have done something detrimental to their game.  As Matt has said at length, they are different markets.  If I want to drink homebrew for monopoly money, I go IC, if I want to drink fosters or IPA I go OC.

To answer Matts question re fun, of course I enjoyed the shoeshiner the most, and judging by the number of people who said 'that is soooo cool' or similar to me, I'd suspect that having the character at events made some people's events better.