Developing a One Shot LARP: Main Event Bookings

I'm going to be using Event-brite for bookings, since I have some familiarity with the system, but I have learned a lot more about the program while establishing the event which I thought I would share. Initially I thought about creating a different Event-brite event per session but that became clunky fast so I looked at having three different sessions on the one event. The only trouble with this is that you can't just have the early bird tickets roll over to the right category so you have to guesstimate how many Early Bird bulk tickets you want to offer and subtract it from the other ticket types.

Luckily I'm now doing one looong event rather than three sessions so this is no longer a problem for me.

I considered creating tickets so people could 'purchase' a character based off a brief line of description but that would lead to a *really* long list of tickets. This wasn't so much of a problem, necessarily, except that the players couldn't really judge each character properly by the small string of spoiler free nouns and adjectives.

When I discovered that you could ask questions of those who purchase a ticket, I had a better idea. Each question asked could lead into sub-questions to allow two level questions. This could be used for people to select their character, though I wasn't sure if I could make it so that the same character could only be selected once. It also doesn't change the fact that it only gives the illusion of player choice -- the real juicy stuff about each one is hidden.

On the other hand, the ability to ask questions meant that I could ask questions about player preferences in terms of clans, covenants and play styles. A player who's after competition may like a different character to one who wants to trawl through clues. This also gave me the chance to gauge interest in pre-event ten minute training on the setting or system.

I can also sell merchandise through the web-site, which is pretty neat and a good way to fundraise -- especially if the objects can be obtained / made post-purchase because then there's no net loss if no one's interested in them. Some people love collecting merchandise (i.e. T-Shirts, key rings, magnets and temporary tattoos) especially if the cash is going to a good cause, such as a persistent LARP.

The booking system is not yet live because, alas, I still haven't had the chance to start visiting venues.