Belegarth

If you want to or are planning to make a new realm you may want to have:
Loaner weapons
Loaner Garb
Public Place to practice
at least 3 other people to start

Loaner Garb optional. You will need it eventually, but focus on loaner weapons first.

Need at least one other person to attract people. 3 others to attract more.

On the Public Place to Practice note:

When just beginning, when you only have a few folks and no great level or orginization, should you contact the Parks Deepartment in your town about using the park for practices?

Also, at what point should waivers be drafted and signed by attending participants?

How do I convince other fighters that they need to ether buy or make there own weapons, not just borrow mine? I haven't had a problem with this yet (I haven't started practicing yet), but I am anticipating that it could see it being a problem.

tell them if you do not have your own weapons by______ you will not be able to fight anymore. or charge them a rental fee.

or you could let them use the one they like until you develop an urge to use it and tell them if they like it alot they can have you help them to make their own slash pay you to make one for them.

Also, a lot of realms (mine included) prevent rank advancement. You don't have your own personal weapon? You don't move up in rank- you stay a grunt until you have garb and weapons.

I have found in our fledgling satellite realm that borrowing weapons hasn't been a problem. I have made about 8 blues, a javelin, one red, and one four bladed stabby glaive. Of those, I tend to loan out one or two per practice.

The first week, we had passersby stop and want to play with only the three of us out there. The next week we had six who came out with a bevy of their own weapons (non of which were safe or passing).

I worked with the guy who had brought his friends that night until we had build him a short stabby glaive using basic box technique and talking about safety. But the next week, all were armed with passing weapons, and the next we had all kinds of stuff showing up.

I still find myself loaning more weapons at the main practice field than on my satellite field, but that may change as we attract more people.

Garb is something that you have to be careful about. Most people getting in seem to be those with little income for themselves, so getting real period garb is tough, and slightly expensive. Getting them an idea of how to make some stuff and the wonders of Goodwill, is a great start, but pushing people to spend a bunch of money on garb will probably have a negative affect.

I like the approach of limiting advancement. We tend to put a garb tax down by the end of summer requiring all non garbed players to fight only single blue.

Don't know if it helps, but there's my experience.
RB

The threat of it helped with me. The day after I heard they were going to force me to fight single blue, I was out at goodwill and a local consignment shop searching.

All very helpful RedBeard. But might I ask, how public was your practice location that you mentioned how in only a few weeks 5 or so people that were passersby joined?
The park that we use is kinda secluded being that the only roads beside it is the entrance leading to the parking lot and an expressway. Should we try to find a spot with more traffic in the general area?

It was as much serendipity as location... We are in a nature reserve that is used by most locals at some time or another. It's simply good fortune that has thrown passersby in front of us (that and being the first location people can pass as they enter or leave the park). That being said, the folks that have stopped have all been involved in some other similar activity currently or in the past (SCA, Amtgaurd).

I hope to get some fliers out that someone who knows much more about Photoshop than I has put together and posted here on the boards. We will be putting them up in the local grocery markets.

Regards,
RB

Thankyathankya. I read your long post here http://belegarth.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=23148 and that helped quite a bit too. I guess we should consider relocating ...

To deter people from using realm weapons, we usually make them bright pink and write LOANER, down the sides.

Sometimes that backfires though....watch out.

In my (limited) experience, 3 people is ok to start, but you want to get a core of 6 committed people ASAP. It's hard to get a good core, but when you have them coming consistently, then your group can start to grow. You start looking more like a group and less like some guys playing in the park. I pick 6 since you can start doing team games and you generally have a lot more options.


Once you get a few people you might have a stick and stitch session.

Basically pool some money and buy some PVC, camp pads, dap, and cloth. Then get everyone together and show them how to make their own weapons and garb.

It helps freeing up loaners, but more importantly, when people invest their own time and effort in making their own personal weapons they are more likely to stick around (it helps build your core group). Also, when people have their own weapons they can more easily explain the sport to their friends and bring more people.

Another issue you may run into that we did was people making their own weapons without any guidance (the second week they came they brought impressive looking, yet totally un-passable weapons).

This caused a great deal of consternation for me, as I wanted to allow them to use their weapons, but they were very unsafe. I ended up working with the guy who had started bringing his friends and stayed late that next practice to make a passable weapon (glaive). It gave him a cool factor weapon, and he in turn worked throughout the week with his friends (now out of school and unemployed) to get some passing weapons built.

The tactic worked, but I don't think it will work in all cases.

I have started the habit of bringing my weapons building materials with me to practice and trying to work on something at least every other practice. It tends to allow people to see the construction and ask questions. It also shows that there are plenty of mistakes that can be made and corrected during construction.

We now have most fighters with their own passing weapons.

The number of fighters does make a difference, and be sure to encourage your current fighters to bring people out. That being said... just a few guys "playing in the park" is enough to turn heads, so don't be discouraged if that's all you have to start with.

One of our guys made a banner (after nagging me about it and I kept running out of time) to fly during practices and I think it helps to tell people we are not just "hanging out with nothing better to do" but actually have a purpose in being there.

Best regards,
RB

A couple of things I forgot to mention that has come up lately, that all realms should have, are a first-aid kit and a water cooler. Band-aids, antibiotic cream/ointment, some gauze, athletic tape, the usual for cuts & scrapes from an unforgiving ground or walnut that happens to attack a player.
I use a 2 gallon water cooler for our satellite realm and it seems to be sufficient. I make sure there is ice water in it and cups and sharpie markers. I wash out the plastic cups because, as everyone knows by now, I love my planet... it's where I keep all my stuff.

so basically I would have to request weapons if I dont' have them?

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