2020 Pricing

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your patience to give Staff time to meet and finalize prices. If all you care about is the new prices I’ll announce them next but in the interest of transparency we’re going to then give WAY more information than any of you want to explain our decision.

For the 2020 Season Prices will be at:

$360 – Full Season Pass

$100 – Single event with bed

$50 – New Player or Floor Sleeper

-$20 – Distance discount BUT the new policy is to move it to 400 miles for travel

-$20 – Greenback Discount

New Policy – You may monster 1 full event and receive an “Event Coupon” that is good for one free full price admission.

Prices are going up about 20%, why is that?

The short version is our expenses are going up. Some of those are expenses that are explicitly raising and some are for factors that we did not calculate for.

At the beginning of 2019 we knew we would be receiving a discount on events because of the scheduling snafu at the end of 2018. We decided at that time to pass along those discounts to you the player in the form of a reduced New Player cost to increase our player base. When we ran number scenarios our maximum estimated new players was 10 and even that was considered fanciful by us a year ago at this time. As most of you know, we’ve had an average of 20 new players for the last 2 games (whoops). In addition, we understood incorrectly that if another building opened up for us by the owner that the price would remain the same to add those additional beds.

Prior to this most recent game, we were informed by the site owner that costs were going to be going up in 2020. Thanks to some negotiation and her recognition of as loyal frequent customers who do not trash the site we were able to agree on a price increase that will not be as big as it will be for others who are coming to Possum Trot. To put a number on it, we started the year at $1,800 for a weekend and are doing 2020 at $2,500 per weekend. 

In addition, we met and perhaps exceeded the capacity for the kitchen to comfortably feed the number of players we have. Staff spent $500 (our biggest food budget ever) on grocery bill alone this past event. Because costs had gone up the $10 for food has been helping to cover for site fees but realistically we have to increase our food budget even if it is still $10 per person for food in the ticket ticket itself. Our plan is to have pre-prepared foods in enough variety to suit everyone’s dietary needs but right now we’re estimating $200 more dollars for a per event budget of $700 for food.

That leaves us with a base cost of $3,200 per game before we pay for any printing of tags, replacing Nerf darts & guns,  buying props or raw material for props, website hosting, etc. As a general rule we’ve estimated $200-$300 per event for these things in the past.

That leaves us with a goal to get to of $3,500 per game compared to $2,500 per game last year estimated costs for site, food, etc. As a result, we had to raise prices or we would be unlikely to break even.

Why is the new player/floor price going up?

For many of our long term players this will not seem like as big of a jump. As mentioned above, in 2019 we did a discount to attract new players. What we didn’t count on was in excess of 10 new players at a game much less having close to or above 20. As a result, the numbers don’t work for covering our costs. We considered several pricing schemas and we hope that all of the total changes here including the event coupon (discussed below) will help to properly cover prices and be fair to everyone.

Will I still be able to opt in to floor?

At our last game we were very worried about floor space and some people were allowed to opt for floor prices before beds were filled up. A good part of this is that we had empty beds and so were safely within making sure everyone who wanted a bed got one. Unfortunately as we run numbers we can’t afford this if it continues at this rate. We will be more strictly enforcing the policy on the books that beds need to be filled before people are asked to go on the floor and allowed the floor sleeping price.

The major exception to this will be when people bring their own beds. This includes those sleeping in hotels, campers, or tent camping. Please bear in mind it will be VERY cold at the next event so tent camping is not recommended.

Why is the distance discount changing?

Currently we are in a situation where people living 15 miles apart have a difference in getting the distance discount and that’s not fair. Right now we have people from Atlanta where some people get the discount and others do not and that’s not fair to everyone involved.

We would like to apologize to our Kentucky players as this new policy affects them as a group the most.


What’s with the new event coupon policy?

We very much do not want to create a haves/have nots for in-play resources to ever be based on out-of-play economic forces. That being said, there are players and potential players who have privately given us feedback about their frequency of attendance at game. To help rectify this we are adding a new policy of the Event Coupon. If you come to an event and monster full time you may forgo Greenbacks or progress to Special Concept and instead get an Event Coupon. As a full time monster you will enjoy all of the normal full time monster benefits of food and housing. With that Event Coupon you may then attend one full event at full price including food and bed price for free. Incidental costs such as gasoline, costumes, props, etc. must still be paid by the player. Please note there is no responsibility to monster combatively for this period so those who are not able to do so are not excluded from this program.

Won’t grubstaking cover that?

We have had some success with Grubstaking so far and $110 has been paid in allowing two players at our last game to have subsidized tickets. We are so grateful that we as a community can come together to make this happen. We hope to continue the grubstaker program but do not feel that Grubstaking alone can account for all of the potential needs we see in the future. 

Hopefully this covers all of the questions you might have but if not please let us know on the Discord.

Thank you,

The Staff