Can you have too many photographers at events?

Charlotte the photographer for PD Empire events has written this thought provoking article -
Charlotte Sometimes blog

A Little Bit of Evil

To make a sweeping generalisation - in our hobby crew/monsters are bad-guys and players are heroes. But I bet I am not the only one that gets a kick out of being a real unpredictable/odd or nasty piece of work.

Crewing at events where NPC parts are detailed and can be serialised is a lot of fun, but this can come with some pressure to attend further events and keep up the characterisation over a longer time, you also miss out on chances to play those systems. When you do a one off baddy and given the opportunity to develop a character and perhaps costume choices or make-up, you can really let rip with the melodrama and it's marvelously enjoyable.

all rights Adam Pulman

But what about fests? The baddies may be few and far between and only really meet you on the battle field, which does not give much time for characterisation. Disappointing for crew who want some real meaty roleplay. This can also lead to a lack of plot or politics to keep people occupied outside of the fighting. Is it in these circumstances OK to play a bad-un? To be the foil for those other heroes to rail against? Are you a mug for paying to help entertain others - or in fact is the reciprocal entertainment the point of good roleplay...should we in fact be thinking about payment for events in a new way? Would people come to an event if they paid less but had to crew part of the time? This seems to have worked (in part) at P.D. events where players must crew a battle if they play a battle, but they still offer free places for those that play NPCs only.

What about secreting eeebil NPCs in with players at events? Has this worked for you in the past?

Do you enjoy playing the dark side? Share your megalomaniac moments with us all!

This article comes to you in the evil appropriate colour of purple and illustration via the sinister skills of L.T.

illustration by L.T.

Images for in-character documents

Most people would go straight to Google image search but not all images online are indexed, and more importantly you are likely to be breaking copyright to use them without permission. The fact you freely found it is NO INDICATION of the legality of your re-using it without permission. You could rely on your documentation never being seen outside of a small circle of players and crew - but a more sensible option is to find copyright free images to use, especially if those documents will be online at any stage. Copyright law is very clear that a lack of knowledge is not a defence and this has been demonstrated in many prosecutions.

Do not be mislead by the concept of "Fair use or fair dealings" this is a mainly US law and related to you only if you are using the images for non-profit or educational purposes. You also have to reference the images appropriately.

The above images, and at the bottom of the post, are part of the British Library flickr page, which are (on the whole) copyright free due to age, this is why there are no required references attached. You have to go to the page and browse though as they are indexed by the books they came out of and no metadata on the image topic is stored. The age of many removes any copyright worries and you may reuse.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary

The National Archives have a flickr page and most of the images are way older than any copyright law - these you can use without accrediting the source. It will say clearly if there is any copyright restriction.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/

The following resources are not all old and out of copyright law, but the authors are allowing your to reproduce them with a suitable credit to them! A credit should include the author/creator and the website or location it was found plus a date it was accessed - obviously this is less useful if you want all of your documentation to be "I.C."

Creative commons search tool is very useful in finding free-to-use images BUT you must still reference the source/owner-
http://search.creativecommons.org/ 

Europeana is a growing collection of images from galleries around Europe -
http://www.europeana.eu/

National Library of Scotland work on a copyright free basis unless otherwise specified -
http://digital.nls.uk/gallery.cfm

Internet archive of Book images on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/with/14784850762

The Price is Right?

Kit - some make their own but many rely on others to make costume for them; either off the shelf or custom designed. But costume varies so greatly in cost - why is that? A bit of research was a real eye opener.
 
Much "off the shelf" kit is mass produced overseas. A design or item is sent and they copy it with astonishing efficiency in countries where overheads in terms of taxes, materials and labour are vastly less than the UK. So, sale prices are low, but individuals all get the same design.
 
What if you want something more bespoke? Then you would likely use word-of-mouth and recommendation to choose a UK based producer of costume. Some of these individuals or companies also produce items in bulk to sell at fests, so you get a more unique item but at less than the cost to design a piece for you.
 
Say you really do want something made just for you that you cannot buy ready made though...then the UK based artists we spoke of would consult with you, get measurements, choose materials and colours, maybe even fit the finished article to you. How do they price these items?
 
According to my research a good rule for pricing something made by hand is to divide the cost of materials by 0.35, this in no way ever covers the precise amount of labour or time though...but using this method lets have an example-
 
Glenda the Barbarian (who has mighty thews) wants trews, in real wool, with a comfy liner!
Her artist Sandra the Seamstress has to source 4 yards of good wool, a spool of thread, 4 yards of cotton- and ignoring buttons or time the cost of these is £55 divided by .35 = £157
 
I BET you have rarely had to pay this much for Sandra the Seamstressesesss(I don't know when to stop that word) trews though! So as a hobby are our creative folks under-selling their time? Is this what the pressure of cheap imports is doing to them? I for one worry that eventually they will find more lucrative pay per the hour (maybe a paper round) leaving imports, or making your own as the only options.
 
If you are a kit maker in the UK, how is your business faring?

New Header Thanks

Our new header would not of been possible with thanks to the following -

Terry Graham - Left
Tom Owen - Left hand small picture
Roland Depper - Right hand small picture
Jon Hodgson's artistic eye and work for the logo itself
And of course the amazing photography skills of Roy Smallpage.

Thank you guys !!

Larpbook article

Hello all - we have some background about the New Scribe via an interview for Larpbook take a look! http://larpbook.com/2014/09/08/the-scribe-magazine-old-and-new/

Events on a small budget

We all probably started out in the hobby at club style events, maybe a University group, maybe a larger site that ran set linears - such as the "Basic" dungeon! These used to be no cost or very low cost, say £10-15 and we scraped dodgy kit from charity shops and learned to sew and leatherwork, even learned how to make weapons! In this way the hobby turned into careers for some and even the poorest student or unemployed yoof could participate in the hobby.

Many of the sites closed, Treasure Trap at Peckforton, The Mill, The Keep. This left us (particular those of a more Northern habitat) looking for something to fill the gap. We moved on to fests like The Gathering and travelled a long way to Dumnonni to get our hobby fix.

A few inspired folks started running their own events, that fulfilled their own internal "wish list." But the need for the perfect site, with perfect monster kit and great catering etc etc steadily made the cost of the events increase. It is rare these days to get a player place on an event for less than £50, fests cost around £60 and some very prop intensive events cost over £200. Where does this leave the financially challenged?

1) Crewing - most events this will be free, but some sites charge a price per head, so this has to be spread out. Event organizers may also have to also charge for catering. When travel has to be paid for too,  that can rule out an event for many.

2) If you have skills in creating props or weapons, you could exchange some work for a place.

But many of us that have run events (small scale) often find that money is lost from their own pockets due to the challenges of finding a site and encouraging crew by charging them very little.

I also think events standards have increased over time and most now expect more outlay, both in terms of crewing and playing on their kit. Perhaps only the university clubs and a few others, maybe the Gathering would still cater for these folks?...

We have run Conan events in the past and this was recently restarted in 2013, there were plans to run each year, but the efforts and costs involved are delaying further events. It is planned we might revert to a "club style" event. Everyone pays the same , a minimal amount to cover site. Food is brought by everyone to share. Friday night everyone gets into costume and socialises in character. Within the whole, a few people come up with plot.  Saturday we run one linear for half the group, the other group is crew, more socialising in the eve and the second half get a linear on the Sunday...

Conan event at Duddon Valley lake District 20 years ago. Rights Tina Kinnar.

Do you think it might work? What would you do to keep a campaign or genre specific events going without organizers having to take up a lot of personal money and half their life? Is the hobby turning into a rich mans game? 

Player driven plot at events - can it work?

So we most often find that organisers write the plot and this is needed for smaller events where focus on individual players is possible; but what about large-scale events and fests? 

Both JB and I are fans of the Profound Decisions Empire events, they are large, fest style, but people really do turn out in a higher standard of kit meaning you can pretty much tell which nation a character is from by their look. There is effort put into marvellously written intro stories for each event so that players can chat about politics and war and there is a good structure of civil service, finance and other important persons to get involved with. BUT and this is the case for all large-scale events - you cannot go expecting to have individual plot. There may be events where you have very little in the way of plot to pursue.

This lack of plot can actually be a bonus for some players of course, they like to dress in their fineries and have a good social with their friends. They appreciate the lack of pressure from plot and can really relax and enjoy themselves.

But I do think there are a lot of keen rpers on the field who, dare I say it, are a bit...bored. This can descend into griping about the event and organisation and eventually leaving. There is an alternative - do your own plot! We know of at least one player at Empire who writes "quests" of his own and sends players off to do them. Another Darren Stocker has invented a guild for new players and writes linears for them to ease them into the hobby. So our own Editor JB decided to do something similar on the event just gone, and this is what happened...

A bit of background first - we play the "Bloody Butchers of Temeschwar" a guild structure which (no apologies given) inspired by the Borgias , we have bravos, religion, trade, bank and are respected on the battlefield. Most important for the guild is the attitude that family is the most important, those that join us have reached the pinnacle of renaissance sophistication and civilisation. (We are not very modest!) There is, within the brief for the cultures an innate distrust of the orcs who have left the barbarian hoarde and become citizens...however very few on the field actually roleplay that distrust. We decided that we would display open distrust and dislike of the orcs.

J.B. contacted via FB the leaders of the orcs and hatched a plan, others in both our guild and theirs were told that something would be happening. This was to ensure that those who did not want any confrontation would be allowed to stay out of it. Everyone plotting wanted to enhance the enjoyment of the event for others, not impact negatively on anyone at all.

It started with a gift! A letter to accompany the soap, comb, beard oil and perfume explained how to use them properly to gain the respect of their fellow citizens and to look less barbaric. We made sure another group were tasked to deliver it, to again spread the involvement. This of course inflamed tempers and a showdown was demanded, after dark in from of the tavern, At the time this happened another group where in the camp and this involved them too.

So at the appointed time a large group of orcs waited outside the Inn, gathering a curious crowd. The Butchers then appeared, strutting in formation, making time with finger clicks, much to the amusement of the crowd. The orcs began the fight characteristically for them, by one urinating on their opponents! (Great prop, if a little disturbing there guys).

The fight was very entertaining to watch, the dry conditions sometimes lending a cartoonish quality as arms and legs appeared out of the cloud of dust. At one point a butcher held an orc whilst our cardinal punched and kicked enthusiastically in his rather fine robes. Hilarious. After a good twenty minutes there was an orc cry of "scarper lads its the magistrate!" and we dispersed. Afterwards various injuries and bruises were displayed which obviously were the result of various stair-falling and bumping into things! 

THINGS WE LEARNED

The negatives - a few very drunk players could not resist joining in , and they did injure (but not seriously) some of the participants. I don't know how we could have guarded against this giddyness of a dangerous kind though!

As the events were not fully organised, not everything went like clockwork - the timing of the gift giving for example. Accepting that a bit of chaos will occur due to only very few people being aware of the plan.

Some of both guilds were very nervous that they would become embroiled in rp they would not like - you have to be sensitive and keep reassurances up.

You have to be aware of rules of the game. We let the organisers know our plan and they OKed it. We did not want to derail anything official.

We forgot to line up some photography! PAH

So the positives of creating this plot - so many people enjoyed the fight, it was a bit of ad-hoc entertainment and created some gossip and rumour that will carry on the "feud."

Both guilds involved got a tremendous kick out of doing it. many participants said it was their highlight of the weekend.

Despite no choreography and it being in thick dust and the semi-dark, most involved in the fight made a marvelous show of fighting whilst staying completely safe - excellent work guys!

A success over all and there will be more to come!

Part 1 : A blast from the Past !

Are you on the cover of this publication ?

Plot writing for events

This is inspired by a  Larpers Bazaar blog post... (see the link in our favourites)

There are several ways to design the plot for an event -

1) It's mostly generic and folks interact or not with it - plus side of this is that the organiser's have much less work to do and don't make anyone feel out of the loop. The bad side is that the plot may not suit a character at all and they may not feel they have had value for money. This is the usual fest style.

2) It's personalised - each character has a bit of story for them. This is a lot of work for the organisers, and can make the actual event timings difficult. It can inadvertently lead to player versus player problems as their objectives can clash. Obviously though the players love this and they feel they have had good value.

3) It's personalised to particular "groups" - bit less work than 2. Runs the risk however of being way of the mark if the group fails to attend.

4) It's generic but each character has a "way in" and reason to interact with it, usually given as a brief or story before the event. it works well if the players are all happy to just be immersed in the same culture/style. Players often make their own plot and any other storyline that comes their way is seen as just a bonus to being there.

5) Old school linears - story line will often be linked to one characters "quest" and everyone else is along for the action (and experience points).

What is most interesting is that organiser's of events generally have one style and stick to it. My theory is that people run what they would like to play, and by my theory this means that constructive or negative feedback on the style of the event is always pointless. You either attend the events or not, because plot-style will always be run that way. DISCUSS! :)

Giving Life to a Character : A Firbolg at Dumnonni by Brian Wells

After playing a well known character at Dumnonni Chronicles (DC) live role-play events, I felt that I needed to disguise my appearance and behaviour in some way for my new character. I wanted to do this to stop myself falling into the same patterns of role-play and to hopefully avoid other players thinking of the new character as the old one in a different tunic. So what to do? After a bit of a think and look through the background section of the old Dumnonni rulebook, I decided I liked the Fir Bolg, an ancient race from Irish mythology. The deciding factor was that DC use masks as a device to identify the Fir Bolg – this is an entirely fabricated notion (albeit a splendid one) that doesn’t appear in the mythology – but a mask would go a long way to completing my disguise. As the Fir Bolg had historically only appeared in the game as non-player characters or antagonists I had to ask permission from the Dumnonni ref team to see if my idea would be allowed. After conferring they kindly agreed and I was all set to start designing the characters kit and personality.

In the Dumnonni game the ancient races dislike, are troubled by, and generally don’t use iron, so this equates them nicely with being bronze-age peoples. The style of DC is mythic and heroic but loosely based on the historical Celtic and dark-age peoples of the British Isles. Generally the costume and kit style for the ancient Celtic peoples is based on that of the iron-age British/Irish i.e. plaid or checked trousers and cloaks, La tene inspired curvilinear designs, anthropomorphic hilted swords and so on. Sort of the iron-age without the iron. In order to give my new character a distinct cultural identity I decided to draw heavily on the look and feel of the bronze-age for inspiration instead. I’ve decided that my character belongs to the Fir Gaelion  - the lesser of the three tribes of the Fir Bolg and also probably the most culturally isolated – a good excuse to make them look different, in fact alien is what I’m going for. This then, is a collection of the images I’ve been using and my related thought processes - a sort of mood board with notes. I make no pretentions to historical accuracy – it is a fantasy game after all – but I have generally tried to pick bronze age stuff from Europe or the British Isles and well as stuff which seems to fit well. Although the mythology tells us that the Fir Bolg spent a period of exile in ‘Greece’ I’ve decided not to use anything from the bronze age Mycenaean culture – I think it’s too iconic in its own right.

So having thought about the equipment and background of the character I wanted to give myself some other ways to make my new character unfamiliar and different. I thought about portraying him as a bit mad, but once I got to thinking about it I found madness was a bit hard to quantify and probably too difficult to maintain during play. In the end I decided the best I could do was try to make him a bit different and a bit odd in certain ways. My first idea was to always speak in the third person with the character referring to himself by name rather than using ‘I’ or ‘me’. It was tricky to keep up but I’ve persevered and I’m getting better at it. An unexpected side effect was that because you’re always saying your character name – everyone remembers it. The other idea was to give the character a distinctive gait – something I remember from a characterisation workshop given by Dave Oliver years ago – so I adopted a sort of shambling walk, again it’s hard to keep up but I found some other characters parodying it at the last event so clearly I’m doing it enough for it to be noticed.

MASK

After deciding that I would call this character Caliban, the next thing on the agenda was to get the mask sorted. The old DC guide states that the Fir Bolg and the Fir Domnan wear bronze masks whilst the Fir Gaelion wear masks of silver. I asked Fred Ryall of Ryall Armouries if he would undertake the commission to make it, and after process of discussion he suggested making it out of aluminium. Here it is just prior to finishing off.

ARMOUR

Deciding on the armour for Caliban was tricky, what should I use for inspiration? I wanted fur because the Fir Bolg always seem shaggy and rough from the descriptions, and I had an idea of some sort of leather harness-like arrangement with metal plates. After a lot of image searching I came across this, which might have been what had been lurking in my memory anyway. Look familiar? That’s right it’s Connor Macloed’s armour from the Highlander film. It looks pretty tasty apart from the belt buckles but I didn’t need to include those.

I don’t have much in the way of images from Caliban’s first outing, but here is a great one from his second taken by Roy Smallpage. You can see the finished mask now with added hair- another bid to disguise myself and alter my silhouette by covering up my distinctive shiny bald pate with a shock of thick springy curly gingery hair. This is also the first good image of Caliban’s armour, loosely based on the armour worn by Christopher Lambert in Highlander. Leatherwork courtesy of Bob Baker, and metal plates by Fred Ryall. You can see at this stage I’m wearing plaid trousers (actually pyjama bottoms from Sainsburys), again this was a compromise due to running out of time and not deciding on or sorting out how the character ought to be dressed – I’ve since ditched the trousers. I’ve also decided against the leather bracers as these lacked the overall chunky roughness of the rest of the armour and seemed out of odds with it.

SHOES

I briefly considered making my own shoes as these early shoes are simply made from a single piece of leather. In the end I was running out of time so I bought these shoes from Armamentaria – I was just about to try out PD’s Odyssey game and thought they could double up as Greek sandals. They are actually copied from a quite posh Roman shoe but I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. Also I wore them without socks for Odyssey and they ripped my poor toes to shreds. I’ve since oiled them and worn them in a bit and replaced the nasty bit of thonging they came with, oh and invested in some naalbinding socks. I’m glad to report they are now very comfy indeed.

 

BRONZE AGE WEAPONS OF WAR

Although the shillelagh probably has its origins in the eighteenth century, it always feels to me like it’s drawn from an earlier tradition. Whether it is or not I’ve recently learned that wooden clubs have been discovered from a bronze age battle site in Germany. One of these clubs is described as looking like a base ball bat – the other, pictured here, is described as looking like a croquet mallet. I think it also looks quite a lot like a shillelagh. In any case I thought it had a nice Irish cultural reference (albeit a modern one) that I could take advantage of for my character idea.

 As you can see shillelaghs come in various shapes and sizes.

 

This is the Gangs of New York Shillelagh prop – I used this as the image for Caliban’s war club and Saxon Violence made me a nice copy.

 The archetypal bronze- age shield seems to be round and decorated with concentric circles of raised ridges and sometimes a series of bosses. Many bronze examples have been found and for a long time most of these were considered as ceremonial objects only, recent tests however have proven they stand up to combat very well. This is the shield I chose as a model for the one commissioned for Caliban.

Here is the LRP version of the bronze shield as made by Chris Docherty from Saxon Violence. Needless to say I’m very happy with it.

Selection of bronze age weapons shields and instruments from Ireland. They include two bronze, one wooden and one leather shield

This is the spearhead I chose as the model for Caliban’s short spear. I wanted something short and light to use with my shield that would be a good deal handier than a full length spear. Once again Saxon Violence obliged and I’m now the proud owner of a very nippy stab safe spear.

Once again referring to the old DC guidebook, I noted that the Fir Bolg favour long spears in battle. So here is the style of head I’ve chosen for my long two handed spear . More views of a lunette spearhead showing plenty of detail



Archaeologists gave this weapon the designation of halberd, although clearly it bears little resemblance to the later medieval weapon of the same name. This one from the museum of London has a reconstructed haft to show how the blade would have been mounted. For a long time it was believed that these would not have been very effective weapons because of the blade’s seemingly weak mounting. Subsequent tests on sheep skulls have shown that they would have been quite capable of inflicting lethal wounds without breaking or falling to pieces. I currently have a copy of one of these on order with Saxon Violence – with a 4 foot haft for two handed use.

I used this image of a replica bronze age dirk as the model for Calibans dagger – once again made for me by Saxon Violence.

 

 CLOTHES & ADORNMENTS

I believe these are described as basket rings. I don't think anyone knows for sure where they were worn. I've seen them described as earrings and also as hair ornaments. I prefer the latter. I've managed to find some gold metal ear cuffs which have simple geometric designs in them which I'm using as sort of braid keepers

 

Lovely illustration of ‘clean cut’ Danish mound burial people. Lots of really nice artefact detail although it has a sense of 1930’s political imagery about it.

This is an impression of a bronze age man from Ireland – he is wearing a particularly impressive gold gorget ornament (several of these have been found in Ireland) and some crazy ear-stretching gold jewelry. I particularly like the way this image shows a northern European looking decidedly more aboriginal or tribal than we’re used to seeing them. Having been brought up on children’s history books with pictures of lovely clean cut ancestors, it challenges some of my subconscious preconceptions. For a comparison see the illustrated impression of the Danish mound burial people.

Wanting to get away from buckle fastenings I’ve been looking at earlier belt fastening styles. This type has the belt loop back through a bronze ring and fasten to a toggle via a slit in the leather

The second picture shows the toggle style of belt fastening more clearly

This drawing of a fragment of bronze age fabric has helped inform my choice of fabric and the style of Caliban’s short cloak arrangement which is also herringbone weave with tassels.

A number of bronze ‘buttons’ were found in the some of the Danish mound burials. I’ve seen them represented as belt and strap fastenings on illustrations. Very similar fastenings in fact to the toggle belt images I’ve posted elsewhere in this album. This is an image of a metal button that I’ve found that I intend to use to fasten my belt and shield straps. It’s about an inch in diameter

A nice bronze bracelet from one of the Danish mound burials. I thought a pair of bracelets similar to this would be a nice accessory.

In an attempt to get away from the ubiquitous Celtic penannular brooch, I’ve once again turned to the Danish mound burials for inspiration. Here are two replica brooches or fibulae. I’m currently looking at commissioning someone to make the top one.

So here is the Caliban kit without the armour but with the short fringed cloak. Eventually I will make a suitable belt to go with this. You can also see my rather colourful naalbind socks which have made those shoes so comfortable. I’m really happy with this footwear combination - the little shoes make me feel quite light on my feet – and whilst it’s true that they don’t keep the wet out, being open they do dry off very quickly so any discomfort caused is minimal.

 Here is Caliban in his full kit so far. I feel that using tribal body painting on my arms and legs has really given this character the distinctive look I was after. Rather than go down the route of the usual blue ‘woad’ with complex curvilinear designs, I’ve opted for a red ochre colour and taken a simple linear pattern inspired by the decoration seen on early pottery. I’m holding the short spear mentioned elsewhere - as made by Saxon Violence, at five foot this spear is a really handy size and quite well suited to most of the fighting I need to do – only rarely so far have I felt the need to discard it and switch to my shillelagh.

(Finished costume and weapon photos all the property of Brian Wells, all other photographs are reproduced for inspiration only and remain the copyright of the original authors)