High Level Games
High Level Games
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures

Welcome to the High Level Games Blog, News, and other stuff to take your games to the next level!

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

4 Ways To Get Costumes For LARP

7/7/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Full disclosure: I am a fake RPG geek girl who has never done a LARP campaign in her life. Closest I’ve been is Cosplay Chess at anime cons, but I have been doing this cosplay thing here for 10 years so I think I’m qualified to talk about the costume-y side of LARP. If not, please do be sure to tell me where I can turn in my geek card. ;) The following is a guide on how to put together costumes for LARP so that you can have some heckin’ cool costumes to run around and fight in depending on how much time/money/effort you want to put in.
 
1) Make Friends Who Know What They’re Doing
If you LARP with folks who have costumes that you like, ask them about the costume! If they make their own stuff, ask them if they’d be willing to teach you how to make your own. Most people with lots of experience enjoy teaching others and showing them the ropes. Learning directly from another person is also probably the easiest way to learn new skills because you can ask them questions in real time and actually get responses. If your LARP buddies don’t make their own stuff, but you want to learn how to, see #2. If your buds get their stuff commissioned, ask them where they go and see #4. If none of your regular LARPing buds make their own stuff, you can turn to folks who put their sessions up and youtube and fish around there, or try networking with folks at gaming conventions.

2) Master The Art of Google-Fu And Teach Yourself How To Sew And Foamsmith
So you’ve decided you want to join our ranks and become a crafter like your father before you, eh? Not gonna lie to you, this is not an easy path and you’ll need to master the art of google-fu if you want to have any chance at getting by. There is a WEALTH of information for free online about how to sew and how to make sturdy weapons and armor out of foam. The cosplaytutorial tumblr has a catalog of a ton of these for easy referencing & is a great place to start your search. Learning how to search for this information is one of the most valuable skills you can have and since you’re doing original characters for the most part in LARP, you need to learn how to search for things that are adjacent to what you want to do. So, for example, you want to make a set of sci-fi armor that’s not from Star Wars for one of your campaigns: google “Stormtrooper armor tutorial” because that’s going to give you the skills you need to make your not-Star-Wars stuff. I’d also recommend picking up a book or two about sewing techniques because otherwise you’ll be a costuming grandma like me who only knows how to do two types of hems and didn’t know how to do French seams until a month ago. Even if you don’t intend on making all of your stuff all of the time, learning how to do some basic sewing will come in handy if you decide to go the thrift shop/altering found items route.
 
3. Thrift Shops, Bargain Bins, and Coupons, Oh My!
 I wear yo granddad’s clothes, I look incredible

Thrift shops are a great place to start for costume pieces. Bedsheets in particular are awesome because they’re like a buck, are usually sturdy cotton and take to dye easily. AND you can make anything from hoopskirts to tunics out of them and there’s a ton of fabric in ‘em so even if you mess up, you’re still good! Thrift shops are also a great place to find pieces that just are a pain in the buns to make or if you don’t want to make stuff and are too broke to do commissions. With a little bit of altering to found items (this is why basic sewing skills are good to have) you can make anything into a pretty sweet LARP costume. Costuming on a budget is tough, so check around your area for fabric/craft stores that aren’t part of a chain like Michael’s, Jo-Anne’s, or Hobby Lobby-- they usually sell fabric for much cheaper than what you’ll find at the big box stores. If there are no such stores near you, you can check online or prepare for battle with big retail fiends armed with as many coupons as you can stack.  


4. Commission That Biz
Here’s the deal with commissions, kids. If you want something done fast and cheap, it’s not going to be high quality work. If you want something done good and cheap, it’s going to take a long time. If you want something fast and good, it’s gonna be expensive as heck. You want something to be good, cheap, and fast? Keep dreamin’. Keep in mind that you’re paying not only for materials, but also for someone’s time and expertise when you pay for commissions. The person you’re paying needs to eat and pay rent; they deserve a fair wage especially if this is their only source of income. In other words, when the commissioner tells you the cost of their work is $xxxx; you don’t whine at them. If it’s too much for you to afford, say so and try to find someone who’s in your price range or ask if they’d be willing to do a payment plan for you. Treat commissioners with respect -- this should go without saying, but for some reason some folks think that commissioners should only charge for materials + $20.
 
So there you have it! Four ways to get costumes for your next LARP event relatively easily -- if you have questions or want more details on learning how to sew/craft/bargain, let me know here or go check out my wordpress.
 
FancyDuckie is a 20-something researcher by daylight, and mahou shoujo cosplayer by moonlight! She’s also known to play murder hobo elven clerics with a penchant for shanking twice a week. Also known as “science girlfriend” of The Heavy Metal GM. When she’s not chained to her sewing machine or doing other nerdy stuff, she enjoys watching ballet, musical theatre, pro hockey, and playing with any critter that will tolerate her presence. You can find her on Twitter, Tumblr, ACParadise, Facebook, Instagram, & Wordpress all under the same convenient handle.
 


Savage Worlds: Fast, Furious, and Fun! - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    All blog materials created and developed by the staff here at High Level Games 

    ​

    Picture
    Click here to support our community for as a little as $1.00 for exclusive content, free downloadable stuff, and even discounts on role-playing game items.

    Archives

    February 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    13th Age
    2d20
    2nd Edition
    3.5 Edition
    3Deep
    4th Edition
    5th Edition
    7th Sea
    Acquisitions Inc
    Actual Play
    AD&D
    AdventureLookUp.com
    Adventurers!
    Aether Sea
    A+ Fantasy
    After Collapse
    Alignment
    Amazing Tales
    Amazon
    Anima: Beyond Fantasy
    Anime
    Apocalypse World
    Atomic Robo
    Australian
    Award Winning
    Basic Fantasy
    Belly Of The Beast
    Big Eyes Small Mouth
    Black Lives Matter
    Black Void
    Blades In The Dark
    Blood Pangea
    Board Games
    Book Of Exalted Darkness
    BrigadeCon
    Burning Wheel RPG
    Call Of Cthulhu
    Capers RPG
    Casual Roleplaying
    Changeling: The Dreaming
    Chaosium
    Character Arcs
    Character Creation
    Chris Spivey
    Cinematic RP
    Classics
    Comic-books
    Conventions
    Corvus Belli: Infinity
    Crawl
    Creators
    Critical Role
    Cthulhutech
    D100 Dungeon
    D20
    D&D
    D&D Beyond
    Deadlands
    Defenders Of Tokyo
    Degenesis
    Detako Saga
    Discord
    DMsGuild.com
    Dnd
    Dndbeyond
    Doctor-who
    Double-cross
    Dread
    Dresden-files
    DriveThruRPG.com
    Dr. Who
    Dungeon Crawl Classics
    Dungeons
    Dungeons And Dragons
    Dungeon Slayers
    Dungeon World
    Dystopia Rising
    Encounters
    Era: The Consortium
    Era: The Empowered
    Esper Genesis
    Evil Hat
    Exalted
    Faith RPG
    Fandom
    Fantasy-age
    Fantasy-flight
    Fantasy Grounds
    FATE
    Fate Accelerated Edition
    Fate Core
    Fate Rpg
    Fate-rpg
    Final Fantasy
    Forgotten Realms
    Fragged Empire
    Free League Publishing
    Furries
    Game Design
    Game Lore
    Gencon
    Ghosts Of NPCs Past
    GMTips
    Golden-sky-stories
    GoodmanGames.com
    Grognards
    GUMSHOE
    GURPS
    GURPS Lite
    Halloween
    Harlem Unbound
    Harry-potter
    Hero Builder
    Heroes Against Darkness
    Heroes-unlimited
    HERO System
    High Level Games
    Historical Fantasy
    HLG Con 2018
    HLG Reviews
    Homebrew
    Humble Bundle
    Indie
    Interface Zero 2.0
    Interview
    Invisible Suns
    Japanese RPGs
    JRR Tolkien
    Kickstarter
    KoboldPress.com
    KULT
    L5R
    Lankhmar
    LARP
    Lasers And Feelings
    Legendlore
    Legend Of The Five Rings
    LexOccultum
    LOTR
    Low Magic
    Mage
    Mage: The Awakening
    Magic And Steel
    MAID
    Mayhem
    Mazes And Minotaurs
    Meikyuu Kingdom
    Mekton Zero
    Mental Health
    Middle Earth
    Mighty Narwhal
    Mini Six
    Modern Adventures RPG
    Modiphius
    Monarchies Of Mau
    Monsterhearts
    Monte Cook Games
    Morra
    Mummy: The Curse
    Mutants And Masterminds
    Mythender
    Narrative Games
    Nechronica
    Night's Black Agents
    Novel
    NPC
    Numenara
    Odyssey Of The Dragonlords
    One Shot
    Online Gaming
    Orun
    OSCRIC
    Osr
    OVA
    Palladium
    Pathfinder
    Pathfinder 2.0
    PbtA
    PDQ
    Pire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
    Play By Post
    Player Tips
    Podcast
    Powered By Apocalypse
    Power Outage RPG
    Preview
    Promethean: The Created
    Pugmire
    Pulp
    Puzzles
    Questlings
    Ravenloft
    Ravnica
    Red Markets: A Game Of Economic Horror
    Research
    Review
    Review Article
    Rifts
    Risus
    Role Play
    Roll20
    Romance Of The Perilous Land
    Ryuutama
    Satanic Panic
    Savage Rifts
    Savage Tokusatsu
    Savage Worlds
    Seeds Of Wars
    Setting
    Settings
    Settlement Building
    Shadowrun
    SIGMATA
    Snowhaven
    Social Combat
    Social Systems
    Solo Play
    Standard Roleplay System
    Star Trek Adventures
    Star Wars
    Storytellers Vault
    Suited RPG
    Summerland
    Supplements
    System Design
    Table Top
    Tabletop Simulator
    Tales From The Loop
    Tales Of Equestria
    Talislanta
    Tariffs
    Teenagers From Outerspace
    Ten Candles
    Tenra Bansho Zero
    The Dark Eye
    The End Of The World RPG
    The Great Long Dark
    The One Ring
    The Very Important Task
    Titan Effect
    To The Temple Of Doom
    Trial Of Cthulhu
    Trinity Continuum
    TSR Marvel Super Heroes
    Ttrpg
    Twitch
    USTR
    Va
    Valiant Rpg
    Vampire: The Masquerade
    Video Games
    Villian
    Volo
    Vs Ghosts
    Warhammer
    Warhammer 40K
    Werewolf: The Apocalypse
    Westbound RPG
    Wild West
    World Building
    World Of Darkness
    Writing Tips
    Year Zero
    Zweihander

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly