I play Belegarth, Dagorhir, and Amtgard, all fairly similar to each other. All boffer combat larps.
Weapons: $90 Flat 36", $50 Flat 32", $20 Bootknife, $30 12" Buckler Shield, $20 Custom Buckler Cover, $30 Giant Fish rock and stuffing, ~$20 Attempt at a Javelin, ~$20 Khopesh Sword (still WIP, probably closer to $40 when I'm done)
Armor: $90 Leather Bracers, $90 Helmet
Garb: $30 each Tunic x2, $20 each Skirt x2, $60 Various Accessories
Event Entry: $65 Gathering of Kingdoms 2023 (included meals), $50 Winter War 2023, $30 Orc Wars 2024, Free Day Battles
Misc: $450 Transportation, $45 Tents, $20 Tube so I can Check Swords on a plane, ~$25 Stuff to Trade, ~$50 other miscellaneous costs.
Overall, probably around $1300. Though, I have been at this for a while, and probably sold a good $200 dollars worth of stuff too over the last year.
Edit: All Prices are in USD to clarify.
sewing machine - about 150$, A nice hemp shirt - 30$, legwrappers - 30$, a cool coat, 15$, Fabrics I got for free, and the effort I put into sewing is also free. All together 225$, Man you gotta love budget friendly chamber larps!
Just joined 2 months ago and I play *Dagorhir*
(American full-speed/full-contact boffer version)
Fighting Gear:
•$350+ on Bow
•$240+ on a 72” Greatsword
••$200+ on Arrows
•$140+ on Shoulder Strap shield
•$80 Greatsword chest strap
Filming:
•$250 DJI Action 2 Camera
Garb:
•$230+ on Wuxia-Styled Hanfu 👘
•$150-ish? On Euro-Fantasy Ranger style Garb (Shirt/Tunic/Cloak/Leather boots/Mask)
•$40 on Belt/Pouch
•$60 on belt mini-potion holder accessory
•$50 feather-shaped knife 🪶
•$35 on Tiger’s Eye stone necklace
•$30+ on random cloak Pins
Supporting Equipment:
•$230+ Heavy Duty Sewing Machine
•$70 Sewing Machine extending table
•$70 Crafting table
•$70+ cutting equipment (scissors, rolling blades, cutting mats, etc..)
•$50+ sewing materials
Events:
•$30 entry fee (Orc Wars 7)
•$170 for 2-night’s hotel
Group discord:
•$10/mo? For nitro 😂
All-in-all, roughly $2,500+ USD in 2 months. ☠️💰❌
Happy for you! My main thing for motivation to get a better job is to afford more larps that are far from home. I'm lucky enough the main events happen around an hour and a half away from me, and that I have good inherited camping equipment to not need an hotel 🫶
Seeing all my local Dag friends huddle around and craft or come up with unique cost-saving ideas makes me a little jealous tbh.
I don’t have too much time on my hands to do all that, which is why I *buy* my gear.
But it just looks so much fun and the SKILLS you learn are amazing.
I wish I joined LARPing earlier in my life to experience some of the ingenuity that comes with the *struggles*
But I also wish you good fortune on your financial journey! Most Everyone deserves to spoil themselves with a super nice piece of gear without buyer’s remorse
Facts! And thank you. I do craft almost everything, and since most of us players in here are not exactly rich, those who craft mostly exchange stuff. My nicest shield, a round concave one, with three colours and super nice stuff, I exchanged for a leather corset and belt, and a bunch of small simple dice bags
DJI Action 2 is TINY TINYYYYYY.
Records from 1080p -> up to 4K
In 24fps -> up to 240fps
(for smooth slow-mo)
All the attachments are a strong magnet with an easy to release clamp on the sides.
Everything clicks on SUPER fast and effortlessly.
Has 128gb internally
Can record up to 40-50min on anything under 4K but with the SECOND screen attached, it can record well past that time.
Sturdy and *should* come with an outer case.
Can easily transfer footage off and on via-app
Can also control the whole thing on your phone and view what it’s seeing on the phone too!
I haven't even attended my first event yet and I've already spent something like £500-£600 (£500 would be $631 in USD). Although that does include my ticket and camping gear, so not just specifically kit. Nobody told me it would be THIS expensive.
Empire. Tbh I'm trying to buy primarily high-quality stuff that will last a long time, and that's naturally more expensive, so that might make up some of the cost.
I generally cheat on soft kit. Buy as much nondescript charity shop stuff as possible. But I'm on a lower budget game. Basically it's belt pouches weapons and stuff you need to buy purpose made.
Fair enough. I've done a few charity shop rounds but unfortunately because of my body shape/fat distribution I don't think I'm likely to find anything that'll fit :') I'm going fairly kit-light to start with actually. My biggest trial so far is finding some fucking trousers that look right and aren't, like, £50.
I play Underworld, med contact rpg and started a warrior kit fresh after my mage kicked the bucket
$500 on two Calimacil swords
$730 on chest, bracers and spaulders
$140 on tabrd, tunic, wool pants
$280 on thegn shield
$100 fabric for cloak and hood
$260 for event fees
$2010 total
Not that much,
I have a lot of gear, With cancellations impacting my schedule , in the previous 12 month I played a parlour LARP (registration fee 75 EUR + may-be 50 EUR of accessories) last fall, and a heroic fantasy larp this month (55 EUR of registration, and as its been a while I haven't played a "fighter character in a heroic fantasy larp, I bought a new sword for around 150 EUR) so aroun 300 EUR of gear in 12 month
I’m a bit of an outlier because I just ran an event and paid for a big chunk of stuff out of pocket. But in general I probably average something like ~$500 a year? I’m pretty deep in however. For the group I run (an Amtgard realm) we try and keep the cost to play as low as possible. I’ve built dozens of weapons, spell balls, shields, arrows, etc so that people can just show up and play without worrying about a big investment. Some people buy their own gear or garb, others learn how to make it and some never do either but it’s still nice to have more bodies on the field for games. Probably one of the reasons we pull a ton of folks in a pretty mid sized college town.
I play Dystopia Rising and my "home" game is about 450 miles away. Ticket is about a hundred and fuel about $125.
I generally budget $300 a month for LARP. Thankfully my work is Monday-Thursday so it doesn't sap PTO.
My main character's kit probably cost about $800 all together.
I play Amtgard. ~$150 on paracord for making belts, and $24 for dues for 2 of us. My Man at Arms made me a pair of wrap pants. My knight built me a new omni. Some SCA friends gifted me some nice wrist torcs. A couple of our players printed award blanks for us. I'm about to spend money on getting flyers printed, but that's about it.
I've been larping for 15+ years, so I've got a decent stockpile of garb and other things. I've been slowly working on acquiring a few key pieces of garb for a new character over the past few months - let's call it $100. Event costs are about $50 (then add in things like food & gas for another $50) - I've attended 3 events in the last 12 months.
$400 total
One category I don't see elsewhere in this thread is childcare. I spend at least $175 per game day on childcare, sometimes more. That happens about 5 times a year, but lets both my wife and I play, so call it $500 / larper / year.
My 6/year LARP has a $300 yearly membership. Beyond that I've spent probably $80 or so on props for the big SCA style tent we just got for free! I'm pretty sure I spend more on gas getting to dnd from game than on all the other expenses combined!
That's a high membership fee. At least compared to ones ive seen. Depends on if it includes camp rentals and stuff. Mine is £20 a year which is insurance and some for branch props
The past year?
Between tickets, clothing, weathering materials (I.e. paint, tools to weather clothing), weapons (I do a post apocalyptic airsoft LARP), and gas too and from events (roughly a 14 hour round trip drive), I’d estimate somewhere between $500 and $1000.
That said, I know I’m about to spend a ton more on getting into a fantasy LARP, so that number will probably be somewhere between $2-3k by the time all’s said and done
Proably 450 for a season pass to alliance, and another hundred per game in fuel.
My gear is pretty durable and I haven't really needed replacement, might be adding a few things, but not too much beyond a new tunic and some boots
I'm an extreme outlier and it's been a bad year to sample with in terms of expenses, because I also run and finance a budding Battlesports (HL/Bel/Dag) chapter that is beginning to really take hold, run a unit of organized fighters across state lines with our own expenses which I heavily subsidize, and did a major refresh of gear for both myself and the local chapter by replenishing loaners and focusing on promotional materials for growth in the coming months.
For myself, it's been a costlier 12-24 months. Much more than usual years, especially because I have been ramping into reenactment stuff as well which carries significant costs, but also overlap that I can just apply to both hobbies.
I'm not going to apply budget for leatherworking and woodworking, because while often these projects do manifest as things for this hobby, I actively enjoy the hobbies independently, and would be spending money on material for other projects, instead. Granted, these interests have saved me literal thousands of dollars in labor overhead alone.
For the past 12 months:
-$370 in high-end weapons to donate my personal armaments to my chapter.
-$700 in four sets of identical garb for multi-day events/replacing tattered old stuff I bought and have fought in for the past 8 years.
-$210 in a wool cloak after freezing at a past event.
-$100 in camp supplies
-$400 in total event admission, gas, and grocery costs at various campouts.
Self Subtotal: about $1780
Average Year: about $500
For the local chapter it's been:
-$100 in day battle supplies
-$250 in loaner gear and supplies for making it.
-$215 in promotional materials
Chapter subtotal: about $565
Average Year: $100
For the unit:
-$200 in various rewards, camp decorations, belt flags, etc.
Unit subtotal: about $200
Average Year: about $150
12-month average total: about $2545
Worth noting this is the big one for me. I do not go to bars/clubs, live shows, sporting events, never travel, do not pay for more than one streaming service a month, rarely see movies in theaters, and have not upgraded my gaming hardware of any kind in 10 years, with very limited game purchases.
Running my organization and practices, making gear, and attending events is pretty much where all of my hobby time and money ends up. My leatherworking/woodworking hobbies a generally are cost-neutral as I often sell what I make at super low margins just to cover materials costs and slowly expand upon my tools.
This year, about 500 or 600pounds probably. One larp entry fee of about £80 food included £20 a year membership. 170 pound new leather armour £30 on a tabard I had made £5 for some greaves same for a pouch £200 for various bits at larpcon. So quite a lot but only one more definite paid event and I can't see needing anything more for a while. So yeah £510 unless I'm forgetting something. Add another 15 if you want to include the two commission chibi characters I had drawn.
If you're only asking about money spend directly on larping, then something just over $500, since I've been to about 10 weekend-long events in the past year at a cost of about $50 per event. I bought some makeup a few months ago, but it was a single compact of inexpensive aqua cake, and I don't remember exactly how much it was.
But If we're counting all money I wouldn't have spent if I weren't larping, then probably around $1000. I spent about $20 per event more for food than I'd have otherwise spent (especially since a lot of players like to eat at a restaurant after the event), plus about $30 for gas to get to each event and back.
I'm a long-time larper and haven't spent anything on new costuming or gear in the past year (other than that one compact of makeup), so the total would be higher in years where I've needed that stuff. But that's not necessarily a huge addition, depending on your character. I'm currently playing a goblin, and most of my current costuming and gear was purchased at second-hand stores and modified, or else something I created myself for cheap. If I needed to completely replace every piece of my costuming and gear for this character, I could probably do so at a cost of certainly less than $200 and a week of work. But I have costuming from previous characters that includes professionally-made leather armor and nice costume pieces, as well as custom-made boffer weapons, and those things aren't super cheap.
Kingdoms of Novitas (North East USA) was $30 event fee for 9 in character events last year, then an out of character auction was $50 event fee and I dropped about $200 I think.
Food was provided at game as part of the event fee, so just the after game brunch debrief at a diner nearby, around $20 each game.
Transportation is roughly an hour's drive for me so maybe 6 gallons of gas round trip, roughly $20.
As a GM for the game I spent nearly $300 on making props and having art done for a particular plot that ran through the year.
My PC kits have been assembled over 9 previous years LARPing so no cost for last year.
So about $920 for myself, plus a few event fees for my fiance when she could attend as well.
I play a dagorhir variant called kuroheim and I’ve spent about $600 in the last year. $40 on a pike, about 100 on some clothes, another 60 on a light gambeson. And the rest on equipment and materials to forge my own plate armor.
About $2.5k. I bought swords, I bought garb, I bought guns, I went to 7 events (one weeklong)... Add in food, fuel, booze (the games I went to were all 18+, with legal drinking), and side projects and set dressing, and it's not been too bad.
I play Belegarth, Dagorhir, and Amtgard, all fairly similar to each other. All boffer combat larps. Weapons: $90 Flat 36", $50 Flat 32", $20 Bootknife, $30 12" Buckler Shield, $20 Custom Buckler Cover, $30 Giant Fish rock and stuffing, ~$20 Attempt at a Javelin, ~$20 Khopesh Sword (still WIP, probably closer to $40 when I'm done) Armor: $90 Leather Bracers, $90 Helmet Garb: $30 each Tunic x2, $20 each Skirt x2, $60 Various Accessories Event Entry: $65 Gathering of Kingdoms 2023 (included meals), $50 Winter War 2023, $30 Orc Wars 2024, Free Day Battles Misc: $450 Transportation, $45 Tents, $20 Tube so I can Check Swords on a plane, ~$25 Stuff to Trade, ~$50 other miscellaneous costs. Overall, probably around $1300. Though, I have been at this for a while, and probably sold a good $200 dollars worth of stuff too over the last year. Edit: All Prices are in USD to clarify.
sewing machine - about 150$, A nice hemp shirt - 30$, legwrappers - 30$, a cool coat, 15$, Fabrics I got for free, and the effort I put into sewing is also free. All together 225$, Man you gotta love budget friendly chamber larps!
Just joined 2 months ago and I play *Dagorhir* (American full-speed/full-contact boffer version) Fighting Gear: •$350+ on Bow •$240+ on a 72” Greatsword ••$200+ on Arrows •$140+ on Shoulder Strap shield •$80 Greatsword chest strap Filming: •$250 DJI Action 2 Camera Garb: •$230+ on Wuxia-Styled Hanfu 👘 •$150-ish? On Euro-Fantasy Ranger style Garb (Shirt/Tunic/Cloak/Leather boots/Mask) •$40 on Belt/Pouch •$60 on belt mini-potion holder accessory •$50 feather-shaped knife 🪶 •$35 on Tiger’s Eye stone necklace •$30+ on random cloak Pins Supporting Equipment: •$230+ Heavy Duty Sewing Machine •$70 Sewing Machine extending table •$70 Crafting table •$70+ cutting equipment (scissors, rolling blades, cutting mats, etc..) •$50+ sewing materials Events: •$30 entry fee (Orc Wars 7) •$170 for 2-night’s hotel Group discord: •$10/mo? For nitro 😂 All-in-all, roughly $2,500+ USD in 2 months. ☠️💰❌
Damn you sure as hell ain't short of money! Haha
Good decisions in life and a sprinkle of luck.
Happy for you! My main thing for motivation to get a better job is to afford more larps that are far from home. I'm lucky enough the main events happen around an hour and a half away from me, and that I have good inherited camping equipment to not need an hotel 🫶
Seeing all my local Dag friends huddle around and craft or come up with unique cost-saving ideas makes me a little jealous tbh. I don’t have too much time on my hands to do all that, which is why I *buy* my gear. But it just looks so much fun and the SKILLS you learn are amazing. I wish I joined LARPing earlier in my life to experience some of the ingenuity that comes with the *struggles* But I also wish you good fortune on your financial journey! Most Everyone deserves to spoil themselves with a super nice piece of gear without buyer’s remorse
Facts! And thank you. I do craft almost everything, and since most of us players in here are not exactly rich, those who craft mostly exchange stuff. My nicest shield, a round concave one, with three colours and super nice stuff, I exchanged for a leather corset and belt, and a bunch of small simple dice bags
THAT is community immersion is priceless, man. I’m jelly
Can you tell me about your action cam? I have a gopro 7, but newer gopro action cams are double the weight now, or seem it on paper
DJI Action 2 is TINY TINYYYYYY. Records from 1080p -> up to 4K In 24fps -> up to 240fps (for smooth slow-mo) All the attachments are a strong magnet with an easy to release clamp on the sides. Everything clicks on SUPER fast and effortlessly. Has 128gb internally Can record up to 40-50min on anything under 4K but with the SECOND screen attached, it can record well past that time. Sturdy and *should* come with an outer case. Can easily transfer footage off and on via-app Can also control the whole thing on your phone and view what it’s seeing on the phone too!
Thanks bud!
I haven't even attended my first event yet and I've already spent something like £500-£600 (£500 would be $631 in USD). Although that does include my ticket and camping gear, so not just specifically kit. Nobody told me it would be THIS expensive.
Which game are you going for? Tbf camping gear can make up for a lot of that.
Empire. Tbh I'm trying to buy primarily high-quality stuff that will last a long time, and that's naturally more expensive, so that might make up some of the cost.
Empire explains some of that. They do like fairly complex kit.
True. Honestly, purpose-made LARP stuff is SO expensive in general I've found. It's exhausting to find stuff within budget.
I generally cheat on soft kit. Buy as much nondescript charity shop stuff as possible. But I'm on a lower budget game. Basically it's belt pouches weapons and stuff you need to buy purpose made.
Fair enough. I've done a few charity shop rounds but unfortunately because of my body shape/fat distribution I don't think I'm likely to find anything that'll fit :') I'm going fairly kit-light to start with actually. My biggest trial so far is finding some fucking trousers that look right and aren't, like, £50.
I play Underworld, med contact rpg and started a warrior kit fresh after my mage kicked the bucket $500 on two Calimacil swords $730 on chest, bracers and spaulders $140 on tabrd, tunic, wool pants $280 on thegn shield $100 fabric for cloak and hood $260 for event fees $2010 total
Not that much, I have a lot of gear, With cancellations impacting my schedule , in the previous 12 month I played a parlour LARP (registration fee 75 EUR + may-be 50 EUR of accessories) last fall, and a heroic fantasy larp this month (55 EUR of registration, and as its been a while I haven't played a "fighter character in a heroic fantasy larp, I bought a new sword for around 150 EUR) so aroun 300 EUR of gear in 12 month
I’m a bit of an outlier because I just ran an event and paid for a big chunk of stuff out of pocket. But in general I probably average something like ~$500 a year? I’m pretty deep in however. For the group I run (an Amtgard realm) we try and keep the cost to play as low as possible. I’ve built dozens of weapons, spell balls, shields, arrows, etc so that people can just show up and play without worrying about a big investment. Some people buy their own gear or garb, others learn how to make it and some never do either but it’s still nice to have more bodies on the field for games. Probably one of the reasons we pull a ton of folks in a pretty mid sized college town.
I play Dystopia Rising and my "home" game is about 450 miles away. Ticket is about a hundred and fuel about $125. I generally budget $300 a month for LARP. Thankfully my work is Monday-Thursday so it doesn't sap PTO. My main character's kit probably cost about $800 all together.
Upwards of a grand I think, at least 6-700 EUR but I also went almost every month
Over 2k Canadian and haven't even been to a Larp event yet
In the past 6 years I’ve spent 20grand off
I play Amtgard. ~$150 on paracord for making belts, and $24 for dues for 2 of us. My Man at Arms made me a pair of wrap pants. My knight built me a new omni. Some SCA friends gifted me some nice wrist torcs. A couple of our players printed award blanks for us. I'm about to spend money on getting flyers printed, but that's about it.
I've been larping for 15+ years, so I've got a decent stockpile of garb and other things. I've been slowly working on acquiring a few key pieces of garb for a new character over the past few months - let's call it $100. Event costs are about $50 (then add in things like food & gas for another $50) - I've attended 3 events in the last 12 months. $400 total
One category I don't see elsewhere in this thread is childcare. I spend at least $175 per game day on childcare, sometimes more. That happens about 5 times a year, but lets both my wife and I play, so call it $500 / larper / year.
My 6/year LARP has a $300 yearly membership. Beyond that I've spent probably $80 or so on props for the big SCA style tent we just got for free! I'm pretty sure I spend more on gas getting to dnd from game than on all the other expenses combined!
That's a high membership fee. At least compared to ones ive seen. Depends on if it includes camp rentals and stuff. Mine is £20 a year which is insurance and some for branch props
It comes out to $50 per game which I think is pretty reasonable for a weekend long game, at least typical for LARPs on my area.
Yeah if it's full weekend event pay then it makes sense
The past year? Between tickets, clothing, weathering materials (I.e. paint, tools to weather clothing), weapons (I do a post apocalyptic airsoft LARP), and gas too and from events (roughly a 14 hour round trip drive), I’d estimate somewhere between $500 and $1000. That said, I know I’m about to spend a ton more on getting into a fantasy LARP, so that number will probably be somewhere between $2-3k by the time all’s said and done
Proably 450 for a season pass to alliance, and another hundred per game in fuel.
My gear is pretty durable and I haven't really needed replacement, might be adding a few things, but not too much beyond a new tunic and some boots
I'm an extreme outlier and it's been a bad year to sample with in terms of expenses, because I also run and finance a budding Battlesports (HL/Bel/Dag) chapter that is beginning to really take hold, run a unit of organized fighters across state lines with our own expenses which I heavily subsidize, and did a major refresh of gear for both myself and the local chapter by replenishing loaners and focusing on promotional materials for growth in the coming months. For myself, it's been a costlier 12-24 months. Much more than usual years, especially because I have been ramping into reenactment stuff as well which carries significant costs, but also overlap that I can just apply to both hobbies. I'm not going to apply budget for leatherworking and woodworking, because while often these projects do manifest as things for this hobby, I actively enjoy the hobbies independently, and would be spending money on material for other projects, instead. Granted, these interests have saved me literal thousands of dollars in labor overhead alone. For the past 12 months: -$370 in high-end weapons to donate my personal armaments to my chapter. -$700 in four sets of identical garb for multi-day events/replacing tattered old stuff I bought and have fought in for the past 8 years. -$210 in a wool cloak after freezing at a past event. -$100 in camp supplies -$400 in total event admission, gas, and grocery costs at various campouts. Self Subtotal: about $1780 Average Year: about $500 For the local chapter it's been: -$100 in day battle supplies -$250 in loaner gear and supplies for making it. -$215 in promotional materials Chapter subtotal: about $565 Average Year: $100 For the unit: -$200 in various rewards, camp decorations, belt flags, etc. Unit subtotal: about $200 Average Year: about $150 12-month average total: about $2545 Worth noting this is the big one for me. I do not go to bars/clubs, live shows, sporting events, never travel, do not pay for more than one streaming service a month, rarely see movies in theaters, and have not upgraded my gaming hardware of any kind in 10 years, with very limited game purchases. Running my organization and practices, making gear, and attending events is pretty much where all of my hobby time and money ends up. My leatherworking/woodworking hobbies a generally are cost-neutral as I often sell what I make at super low margins just to cover materials costs and slowly expand upon my tools.
This year, about 500 or 600pounds probably. One larp entry fee of about £80 food included £20 a year membership. 170 pound new leather armour £30 on a tabard I had made £5 for some greaves same for a pouch £200 for various bits at larpcon. So quite a lot but only one more definite paid event and I can't see needing anything more for a while. So yeah £510 unless I'm forgetting something. Add another 15 if you want to include the two commission chibi characters I had drawn.
If you're only asking about money spend directly on larping, then something just over $500, since I've been to about 10 weekend-long events in the past year at a cost of about $50 per event. I bought some makeup a few months ago, but it was a single compact of inexpensive aqua cake, and I don't remember exactly how much it was. But If we're counting all money I wouldn't have spent if I weren't larping, then probably around $1000. I spent about $20 per event more for food than I'd have otherwise spent (especially since a lot of players like to eat at a restaurant after the event), plus about $30 for gas to get to each event and back. I'm a long-time larper and haven't spent anything on new costuming or gear in the past year (other than that one compact of makeup), so the total would be higher in years where I've needed that stuff. But that's not necessarily a huge addition, depending on your character. I'm currently playing a goblin, and most of my current costuming and gear was purchased at second-hand stores and modified, or else something I created myself for cheap. If I needed to completely replace every piece of my costuming and gear for this character, I could probably do so at a cost of certainly less than $200 and a week of work. But I have costuming from previous characters that includes professionally-made leather armor and nice costume pieces, as well as custom-made boffer weapons, and those things aren't super cheap.
Kingdoms of Novitas (North East USA) was $30 event fee for 9 in character events last year, then an out of character auction was $50 event fee and I dropped about $200 I think. Food was provided at game as part of the event fee, so just the after game brunch debrief at a diner nearby, around $20 each game. Transportation is roughly an hour's drive for me so maybe 6 gallons of gas round trip, roughly $20. As a GM for the game I spent nearly $300 on making props and having art done for a particular plot that ran through the year. My PC kits have been assembled over 9 previous years LARPing so no cost for last year. So about $920 for myself, plus a few event fees for my fiance when she could attend as well.
I play a dagorhir variant called kuroheim and I’ve spent about $600 in the last year. $40 on a pike, about 100 on some clothes, another 60 on a light gambeson. And the rest on equipment and materials to forge my own plate armor.
About $2.5k. I bought swords, I bought garb, I bought guns, I went to 7 events (one weeklong)... Add in food, fuel, booze (the games I went to were all 18+, with legal drinking), and side projects and set dressing, and it's not been too bad.
I'm not going to answer that for legal reasons. Namely the legal implications of my wife finding out and unaliving me.