Having played with the Maelstrom folk, and in fact with a bunch of them before Maelstrom in another game they ran called Omega, I can tell you they do in fact rock the awesomesauce. I can also tell you their game system is vastly different from Alliance, or Nero, or anything I've seen here in the US. We use a much more combat oriented system and you will not find ongoing, continuous PC vs. NPC combat in MAlestrom or most of the UK larps. There are no npc crunchies and there's rarely even a big bad with an epic and terrible plot to kill everyone. In fact most of the combat I was in during their events was pc vs pc. (An entire player group came into game as a tribe of cannibals and ate a few people before they were sussed out and slaughtered on the second evening of an Omega event
Ezri is also right, there are many little things we do that often pull us out of the illusion. Bear in mind they also put a lot more resources into their games. There was a full service tavern at every one of their events, and by that I do mean a fully catered hall with a selection of kegs and hot food at all hours. Think renting a german beer hall, but the trade off was they charged very real quid for their goods. But LARP is in general a much more pheasible and established business there. Costume and weapon merchants would rent space on the grounds for the event and set up large tents to sell everything from goblets and candles to armor and battle axes. Think a mini ren-faire just for the larp crowd selling larp specific goods. So there actually is a real economy backing up their larp's.
They also tend to write their campaigns/worlds/characters with a very finite life span in mind. Omega, which preceded Maelstrom, was written from the get go with like a three or four year game in mind and then the whole world ended. Characters are not expected to surive into an epic campaign. There were no ressurections, and no ten year investments in a single character that you have grown to love and treasure.
They do mix cultures very widely. The opening premise for both Maelstrom and Omega, if I remember right, was that you had to come in as part of a group (I believe four people was the minimum) and each group represented their own culture/society that had received a strange summons to meet on common ground. Along with character history every group had to submit a culture pack before the first game designating a group leader and culture background. So yeah, we had romans next to samurai next to vikings next to cannibals...
I'm probably not explaining this all that geat, but suffice it to say their game system is just structured vastly different from ours from the ground up. There is no real focus or plan on providing an individual adventure experience to the players, and it is very easy to get left out unless you are aggressive about creating your own RP. But they are aggressive about it, and the costumes are a big part of that for them. They go all out with their costuming and the latex weapons and the massive pavilions each group will erect for the weekend. They also spend much money on it all.
In any case, I may still have the original MAelstrom packet that got sent out when the game started. It included a rule book and a demo dvd with some of the writers/core players acting out small scenes to define each of the player races. I'll see if I can find it for those interested. And yes, those pics do represent the higher end of their costuming though.
Ok, I've really gone off here, but I do confess a bit of nostalgia for my time with these folks. They hold a special place my wee heart... but so do y'all.
much love my peeps,
-Nic