I'm continually impressed by the high production values of Euro-LARPs in comparison to what's found here in the US. The only American live action events with this level of immersiveness are paintball and airsoft event games. I'm not sure if you can read anything into that in terms of differences in culture, but it certainly is odd. The only explanation I can think of is that our domestic LARPs haven't broken through the perception of being "kids with boffers". That's a real turnoff to a lot of adults who might be interested in live action games, but end up going into things like historical re-enacting and the SCA as a somewhat more respectable alternative.
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I feel it is less perception as it is funding for US LARPS. Prop/costume work on that level takes a significant investment of funds (especially if you don't have a skilled propmaker in your community), which many of the small US Larps simply can't afford.
Although Mythlore New Lands is fortunate to have Marc who is a professional prop maker for its big productions, if you find their Facebook page and look at the pictures almost everyone's costumes are to a high standard and most of them have made the costumes themselves
Although Mythlore New Lands is fortunate to have Marc who is a professional prop maker for its big productions, if you find their Facebook page and look at the pictures almost everyone's costumes are to a high standard and most of them have made the costumes themselves
If you look to the cosplay community, great costumes can be constructed for very little money, mainly out of foam, hard work and a little ingenuity.
If people want to make great props there there is a huge pool of communal knowledge on the internet from Cosplay, amature prop builders, LARP prop builders, low budget film makers etc who always have time and patience to provide build logs, videos or just to have a chat.
Marks a great propmaker but even he started with more basic builds back in the depths of time and has worked up to builds of this quality. I stumbled across an set of albums of his work from 20 years back and find the journey fascinating.
Mythlore is not an expensive LARP event especially if you consider what the costs of a weekend away, 48 hours of entertainment etc would really cost as a commercial venture.
A huge amount of what's achieved in the UK and across Europe in the hobby is still done by dedicated people who love the hobby and just want to see it improve rather than by any extensive funding. I doubt there are many producers or systems that can say they run at anywhere approaching a profit or even a living wage in many cases.
The hobby *does* have a few individuals with money to invest either on a personal level or on a wider system level but they're very few and far between and probably account for a very small percentage of what's produced over here, so I'm not totally sure that the funding is the whole issue?
However there does still seem to be quite a wide gulf with regards to the state of the hobby between us and I genuinely have no idea how to account for it.
Some people suggest that the legal system and the apparent high risk of litigation may account for the preferred use of 'boffers' over there rather than the latex or injection moulded weapons used in Europe but I don't know if that's true?
Realistically, the issue if you are running a larp is that time is one of the few things there is never enough of, between the logistics of the game, storywriting, and doing what propwork you can get done. It is a huge benefit to have someone with the knowledge or time to look up how to make magnificent props or creature costumes, but if you don't have people with that inclination, it becomes a much more difficult feat.
There is also the fact that until the past year or so, larping as a culture in the US has been derided as opposed to lauded. It is only recently that larping has become more accepted and "mainstream" whereas it seems to have had that acceptance much longer over in the European larp scene.
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