Why I've had it with Freeforms and LRP

[caddyman]

Four more to go on my original list and then I suppose, time permitting, it'll be time to take up the slack for missed deadlines and broken promises.

I have just finished writing my sixth character sheet for NWO: Grand Tribunal, and finally I am finding the character voice I need to get it done. I am not writing any more today, but I will have to launch into another tomorrow as we need to pick up the pace. The expanded writing team is functioning only partly as hoped and I can see that somewhere down the line the rest of us are going to have to redouble our efforts if we are to meet even our revised target.

The writing is hard this time, harder than for previous events. It's not the amount we have to get through, it's the need to tie off plot lines satisfactorily and tie up loose ends where we have left them dangling in previous events. I am also finding it hard to make time for character sheets; we are busy at work and frankly, the last thing I want to do when I get home of an evening is sit down in front of the PC again and start writing.

That's not really the point though, is it? Having said well back when there was time to spare, that I'd finish my story arcs, I can hardly give up now and drop my team mates in it. That wouldn't be fair and I wouldn't be able to look them in the face next time I met them.

Besides, I want to know how it all finishes; I've invested too much sweat and sleepless nights in this project over the past few years to let it slide now. One final push and it's finished and we can all put our feet up and move on to other things.

Like pax_draconis, had I not already said that this is the last event I am going to be involved in, I would be saying it now. It is too much effort for too long, with too little reward and too much ingratitude to hold my attention and creativity past May. We have people complaining about the price, and their ability to afford it.

Drivel.

£120 for three nights' bed and board in a stately home in the Staffordshire Moorlands National Park with a game thrown in on top? Why is this poor value for money? Yesterday we calculated what it would cost if the team charged for its time, not just for the hire of the premises. When I say time, I mean output, because we looked at rates per word produced as if we were writing for a magazine or a paper and trying to make a living from it. We figured that simply providing the briefs for each player, plus general background electronically and then adding in the cost of the premises and food, we would need to raise £38,000 to stage the event. That equates to between £400-£422 per player for the weekend. We're doing it for less than a third of that, and it's still too much, even though we have given people over twelve months to raise the money for a game they told us they wanted.

Happily for the ingrates who think we over charge or are too expensive, we work largely for the love of it. Hah.

I am sick and tired of it all; there is simply not enough payback when it all goes to plan, and the goodwill is eroded almost to nothing by people who complain from a position of indolence and ignorance.

I'm in until we finish this one, and then I walk away with no regrets and no longing glances over the shoulder.

Comments

[robcee.livejournal.com]

I can appreciate that it looks pretty grim from where you are at the moment, but it really is appreciated...

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

*Waves of appreciation sent in the NWO direction*

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

*bg hug* probably of no use at all, but there

[delvy.livejournal.com]

At no point would I complain about the cost of it; as far as I am concerned it is excellent value. It was just a matter of being broke atm that had me waivering, but I have a guardian angle it seems.

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

"but I have a guardian angle it seems"

Right around now, you should be worrying about your SAN score :D

[kt-peasant.livejournal.com]

If I had world enough and time I might, just might, be able to explain how ... vital NWO is. And that's the wrong word already. Like an oasis in the desert that you thought was a mirage. Like being able, just once or twice, to step through the looking-glass.

[scary-lady.livejournal.com]

NWO is the only game I've ever been a part of that makes me regret that I'm not a better roleplayer. This is because I routinely feel that I can't live up to what the writers have produced.

This is the best praise that I can offer to you and the writing team. I know it won't help, but I hope you can at least take it in the spirit it is offered.

We paid in full in September, but we would have booked whatever the cost and paid monthly between then and June if we had to. Missing it was not an option.

[probablyscotty.livejournal.com]

Cigars and port on me.

I'll break out the Cubans. ;-)

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be blunt here. Let the ungrateful fucks who winge and bitch that it should be free at the Carlton try writing an event this large, this complex, and this lovingly crafted themselves.

After that, they can whinge and bitch. Until then, they can bite those who really DO put the effort in.

I'm going to stop now, before I say what I really think.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

What I don't quite get is that people are given the price and booking details well in advance. How then, does it not dawn on them to whine about the cost of the event until after they've put their names down to play? As far as I'm aware, the price didn't magically change overnight so what is going through their minds that suggests that the price they agreed to last year is now more than they're prepared to pay?

Yes, it's quite a lot of money. It is also extraordinarily good value.

And I for one am extremely grateful to all involved that the game exists.

[invisible-al.livejournal.com]

Don't ever think that people don't appreciate what you do and I've quite happily eaten beans on toast last month to afford to go. I would not miss this game even if I had to walk across broken glass to get to it.

And hey fuck the naysayers, they don't know shit :).

[pauln.livejournal.com]

Another one to say that what you folks do is much appreciated.

And don't forget - you've got the diversion of the Gridiron draft coming up...

[littleonions.livejournal.com]

Cheer up Mr Caddy, you know more folks love the game that you write than don't. *subliminal* postpone..postpone...postpone...postpone

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Never been to a NWO game, but £120 is pricey for a game. £120 is not pricey for 3 nights in a hotel - it's cheep! £120 for 3 nights in a hotel & board is laughably cheep. 3 nights bed&board in a stately home in great surroundings is so cheep I would laugh out loud if my mirth was not blocked by the nausia induced by the obvious ingratitude some of your players. £120 for 3 nights in a stately home, a quality lrp and food - any cheeper and you would be paying them!

Kill them all.
You know you want to.
I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

You know, I know nothing about NWO or these games and characters that you write, Bwy, but if you're just fed up with making all the effort and feeling obliged, then why do it? You are a wonderfully articulate and creative fellow, and I'm sure the players love acting out your creations (the above hugs and kudos are, I suspect, the tip of the iceberg), but you have to stop if it's more trouble than fun for you.

Just think of all the extra time you'll have to post to LJ and pithily keep us enthralled.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I can't stop until I've finished the current set; it's let too many people down.

But once that's done (the fourth I've worked on in a sequence of five), it's done. No more. Finito!