A while back, I posted about my interest in running an Osiris Sanction game. I was pretty pumped about it. But as it turns out, the cost of the equipment is pretty steep, and it's going to take far more than I'm willing to invest for a project like this.
And then I had the post on Friday where I wrote about the show LARPers on Indiegogo, and how they're raising money, and it really made me think.
Do you think that there's a place for raising funds for a LARP on Kickstarter?
For those of you who aren't familiar with the site, it allows for people to give donations to a proposed project. There are various donation levels, and the creator will post some sort of benefit, usually related to the project (be it signed material, copies of media, etc). If the project makes their goal, they get the money. If they don't reach the goal, no one is charged anything.
The way I was thinking about doing it, almost all of the donations would include some form of membership fee (which is there for players only participating in alpha/beta phases of Osiris Sanction). But there's also some other cool stuff that you could add in for some of the higher donation levels without breaking the game.
How would you feel if someone tried to raise money for their LARP via Kickstarter?
I like the idea, but the only problem I see with it is that LARP is, by necessity, a rather regional thing. I think you'd get donations, but where a project like Runner 5 would get money from any English-speaking smartphone user, a LARP would only get money from people in a given geographical region. But, it's a zero-risk experiment, so I say give it a try.
ReplyDeleteWith a name like "Kickstarter" I guess this would be more to start off? I think it sounds good for any venture, LARP included, I would just hope people would be careful about asking for donation money too often. Most games could always need it, but if they're constantly asking for cash it can alienate people. After all, they're already paying for games and maybe a membership fee - so people may start wondering what that's going for. But of course there will always be people who don't mind giving to the cause. I agree with Dave, though, why not? Especially starting out - it'll give a good idea as to what your support base is too.
ReplyDelete@Karin
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's not intended to be something you use to ask for donations. It's more for people who are creating a new LARP, trying to produce a new chapter, expanding to another state, etc.
I really like the notion of broad ownership of LARPs by participants, rather than ownership being concentrated in game runners. That said, I do view such as more of an experiment than as something I am confident would function perfectly, but I think it is worth trying.
ReplyDelete