Cliperinoposterino
19077
413
10
A good quality suit of plates used to cost as much as a large house, now some dude in their 30s can afford one with a hobby budget; increase in productivity in a nutshell.
Mar 1, 2026 5:40 AM
Cliperinoposterino
19077
413
10
A good quality suit of plates used to cost as much as a large house, now some dude in their 30s can afford one with a hobby budget; increase in productivity in a nutshell.
howcansomeonepossiblyhavethesameweirdusernamealready
All this discussion about living history reenacting and LARPing, and no love given to the good 'ol Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). 😞
Nic3Ntertainment
To give an idea of how accurate the statement about a good suit of plates equaling a house...
A 14th century knight's suit of armor cast about ~16 1/3 pounds.
A simple suit of mail (likely a hauberk/haubergeon, unknown if it came with coif) cost ~5 pounds.
Meanwhile, a rural cottage cost 2 pounds to buy. A nice house in the city was ~5 pounds. An artisan's house with a workshop and storeroom, and extra bedrooms for employees (i.e. a business) was 10-15 pounds. All around the same time period.
sadurdaynight
(everyone around this guy) good pep talk
Fuckimgurcunts
I mean five figures for a suit of armor is still a lot
BautaStein
There is a differenc ebetween LARP and living History just as much as between Buhurt, HEMA and Olympic fencing. Do something that fits your interest best.. or all of it im not the police
butcherfan0301
Source is "survive history" on YouTube. Guy joins reenactment groups and talks about historical battles from the common soldier's perspective. Pretty good stuff.
isthisjunkmail
The wealthy sending the poors in to do their dirty work has been around A LOT longer than this.
sadurdaynight
There's a reason they're called "pawns". Wealthy moving military around for political machinations.
LordHosk
This isn't LARP, LARPers use foam coated weapons and padded outfits, generally more brightly colored attire as well.
These are reenactors.
If there were less of them it could be SCA(Society for Creative Anachronisms) which is a renaissance and medieval fighting group with creative flare. There is also the international medieval combat federation which has strict rules about authenticity in their armor and weapons.
vizeroy42
Foam weapon? Yes... Padded outfits? Nope... at least not in Germany. We use quite a bit of heavy metal armor... some even made to order and adapted in several fitting sessions.
circlebreaker
Insanely expensive too. Now, as it was then, the armsmen were wearing a personal expense somewhere in the neighbourhood of a car (Honda Civic tier to Rolls-Royce), weapons not included.
evilgriff
And they won’t pass a stealth check.
circlebreaker
Not unless they're made by Elves, with special boots, and a Ring of Invisibility*(some terms and conditions may apply).
JarJarDrinks
Richard iii lost the Battle of Bosworth (as his life) while his ally Lord Stanley changed sides and joined Henry Tudors army.
Mustang992
Extra history just released a video yesterday that brought that up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2-miHSltwM
Larzemagne
Dude apparently went out like a champ though, fighting to the end on foot after losing his horse to the terrain. I've always thought it interesting that Shakespeare's famous play about him was based on histories written by the Tudor court, i.e., the people who would NOT want to portray Richard as sympathetic in any way. At least they got the losing his horse bit correct (he did not die in single combat with Henry Tudor though lol).
Imalwaysready
To be fair, he’s named Lord Stanley. Sounds like a spineless weenie already. You had to expect he’d screw it up somehow.
evilgriff
Stanley cups are insanely strong though? /s
GussDeBlod
I used to do HEMA, and our group would do exhibition fights for medieval fair around europe to get money for stuff. So while when we were training Hema we would have modern protection, we all had suits of armor. Tho we did 13-14th century and what I'm seeing there is more 15th and late. Well to be fir it's a mix.
0570
You went around pretending to be a store brand?
GussDeBlod
I never heard of that brand. But HEMA nowadays is used to describe "Historic European Martial Arts" , when I did it we just called it "medieval swordfighting".
Ornado
I was going to correct you, but i think you're right. I took a closer look at its kind of a mix of mostly 15th century with pieces of 13-14. Armor is expensive as fuck though so i'm getting they got what they could get. Very good looking and almost all of them are wearing it correctly. 8.5/10.
GussDeBlod
I could have been wrong, didn't do any swordfighting in 20 years. I don't even have my gear anymore, just kept my sword as a souvenir.
Ornado
naw its all pretty accurate, some of it is a hodgepodge of years, but it looks correct for the most part.
whipyougood
That's not really LARP. That looks like reenactment.
kahooki
'POV"
iDrawStuff
Many LARPers died to bring us this video.
thatlamer
reenactment is LARPing with a door charge.
ChazzK
That's about like saying my husband is a head chef because he runs the kitchen... in our apartment.
Yes they do similar things, no they are not the SAME thing.
CallMeCourierSix
Re-enactment is EXPENSIVE AS FUCK compared to LARPing. Everything has to be period-correct, and getting ahold of the right fabric and hardware, and then having the skills to assemble all of it in the right way? That's a very unique profession, and they charge a shit-ton of money.
The SCA requires battle helmets to meet very specific criteria for safety, and those cost $500 or more each. And they are NOT period-correct. If you want it correct, it's usually over $1000 for just the helmet.
Cillellic
Most reenacters do not pretend to be someone else - unless they are being paid to do so, in which case it's a job and still not LARPing.
vericon151
Well, volunteer, but yeah
Quixus
How many of those reenactors actually are peasants, Landsknechte, knights etc.?
Goldensands
Erh? I mean probably somebody. Why
Quixus
Probably not because these estates of the realm and jobs do not exist anymore. So they all are playing someone they are not.
thatsbadmmkay
Playing a historical role in live action isnt larping?
Delathi
Not really, the RP part of larp tends to indicate roleplay and more of an interactive creative story that just reenacting things that happened in the past.
thatsbadmmkay
That really depends who you ask.
OnlyWantToSayOneThing
So if you took a reenactment group and said "we aren't using a premade script of a battle that happened, lets just do relatively historically accurate skirmish with no script" suddenly they become RolePlayers? What if LARPers actually got together and reenacted a battle? Would they be considered big-boy reenactors? If feels like the only difference is LARP is derogatory because of a news story from the 90s and 'reenactor' was made to distance themselves from the stereotype.
Delathi
I’m a LARPer and I don’t find it derogatory. We run around and play pretend in the woods and hit our friends with plumbing supplies. It’s the reenactors that are the huge nerds who do all the research and try to stay period accurate. :)
skywards
Many larp groups in Europe look like this. Has been like this for 10 years easily.
Delathi
That’s live steel they are carrying. Most LARPers don’t like getting hit with a real polearm. I know I wouldn’t like it.
skywards
Oh you're right, I was just looking at the armor lol
vizeroy42
The armor.. yes. The weapons: Hell no... That's reenactor territory and maybe some Hema guys / show fighters.
Delathi
Not enough face protection for HEMA.
Delathi
At least not for full contact actual whacking each other. Reasonable overlap though with HEMA guys also doing reenactment.
vizeroy42
Plenty for knight stunt shows with fights. Yes, it's mostly stage fighting, but they definitely know their way around a sword.
Zanzetuken
Is reenactment not Live Action Role Play? You are playing a role live and doing actions, no?
zagibu
Oh, okay, then downhill mountainbiking is also live action role play, because you play the role of a downhill mountainbiker and you do it live, and the action is that you ride a mountainbike.
Skawomplious
No. Role Play is used here in the sense of a role playing game like D&D. The focus is entirely different from historical reenactment. There are organizations like the SCA that blur the line between them, but reenactment and LARP are not at all the same thing.
Zanzetuken
I mean, as someone who has done both, you get a bunch of fellow nerds together and give us equipment, it can go either way, and they'll be indistinguishable (minus any magic and such). Further, in certain foam-fighting games real/historical armor like those pictured is absolutely used, which, in reference to the original title, indicates LARP equipment by any definition is getting insanely good!
RedAppleSoda
Only if you go by the literal definition of the words and completely ignore everything about the activities those words refer to.
Zanzetuken
I mean, as someone who has done both, you get a bunch of fellow nerds together and give us equipment, it can go either way, and they'll be indistinguishable (minus any magic and such). Further, in certain foam-fighting games real/historical armor like those pictured is absolutely used, which, in reference to the original title, indicates LARP equipment by any definition is getting insanely good!
somethingdark
LARPing is generally fictional scenarios, whereas reenactment is reliving battles that actually happened.
Zanzetuken
I mean, as someone who has done both, you get a bunch of fellow nerds together and give us equipment, it can go either way, and they'll be indistinguishable (minus any magic and such). Further, in certain foam-fighting games real/historical armor like those pictured is absolutely used, which, in reference to the original title, indicates LARP equipment by any definition is getting insanely good!
tetondons
I was thinking the same, but the "role play" in LARP comes from "role play gaming" which is fantasy in nature. So in a sense, LARP was meant to describe playing a D&D game live, instead of on paper, which wouldn't be an accurate description of reenactment. Now, if someone wants to reenact a world famous D&D session, are they LARPing or reenacting? I'll let the philosophers debate that one.
Zanzetuken
I mean, as someone who has done both, you get a bunch of fellow nerds together and give us equipment, it can go either way, and they'll be indistinguishable (minus any magic and such). Further, in certain foam-fighting games real/historical armor like those pictured is absolutely used, which, in reference to the original title, indicates LARP equipment by any definition is getting insanely good!
vizeroy42
Yes, Larp groups here in Europe tend to have steel armor, but they never use steel weapons. It's all foam based. That *is* one of the hard distinguishing criteria.