Most of my 15th C kit was easily found but I could not find any shoe's and I have 3 pairs, and an hour after starting looking I eventually found them all buried in box below pile of fabric offcuts inside a chest, below another heavy chest, I must have thought when I packed them away I would not need them again.
Anyway looking at the items I was getting ready I realised how different my Medieval kit was to my LRP kit, some obvious difference, weapons are metal, knives are sharp, you don't have elastic waist bands, but some not so. For instance the quill pen in my LRP kit would be feather complete with plumage, but in my medieval kit the same pen has been stripped so its just the shaft, the practical bit, in fact the medieval quill pen looks far more like a modern pen, where the larp pen fulfils the fantasy of quill pen and keeps the plumage so you know its feather.
(picture of kit I'm getting ready below - click on image for larger picture)
Medieval kit tries its hardest to copy authentic designs, fabrics and colours, where LRP as no need, so practicality wins the day. I may wear garments made of wool for both hobbies since wool is tough breathing water repellent practical and good looking fabric, but footwear is always a pain, in LRP I can wear practical walking boots with cushioned soles, none slip rubber tread, in my medieval kit I will be wearing leather boots or shoes with no heal or grip on grass and not much on other surfaces or with hob nails which give you grip on grass, but are decidedly dangerous on the stone floors of a castle, not only that the 5mm of leather between me and the hard ground will mean my feet will ache very quickly and the stone stairs will feel jarring without a heal.
I will soon be at Skipton Castle playing two parts in Medieval Murder mystery, a merchant and a Chaplin in plot written by Sam.
Unlike larp the hobby is aimed not so much at entertaining yourself but entertaining the public since the Castle pay you to turn up, sometimes its a fight or battle, sometime living history, for murder mysteries the public are encourage to guess the murderer and why.
(Picture below of Sam taking part in a murder mystery I wrote for Mulchaney Abbey, which worked a treat and me as a Monk at the same event)
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