The Fate of Sunday Gameplay

One word: GRIMDAR.

i do not see why if people are showing up at 9 am on friday it would be so difficult to start game @ 7 or 8 pm. this past event the set up was DONE by 4 and then it was (or at least felt like) 6 hours of nothing before announcements and game on.

Alex,

Most of us work, or attend school, or both. The ones who are able to show up at 9 am to set up are the privilaged ones. While I agree with starting earlier, I also understand the argument against it, because at 7 or 8, the majority of our players are showing up. Someone else made a point that most of us also drive either 2 hours or more to get to the event, so while getting NPCs corralled and started early would be nice, it just would not be feasible.

Why not allow those able to start early?  No mods, no monsters.  Maybe a hook or RP types of NPCs.

Would love the opportunity to RP for a few hours, with no "distractions."

It worked in other Larps in which I played.

I agree with charlie. Maybe an early start time, simply rp based, no mods would be nice. If that is the case, you really don't need an exorbitant amount of npc, or any at all for that matter.

Although it sounds simple enough, having some players start early, it's not as easy as you think.

There could be issues with the camp, announcements to be made, plots to kick off at opening ceremonies, etc.
What if we need to make announcements at 8:00, but a group of players already started and are off in the woods?
There are a number of other things that I won't go into now.

Sunday mods can be saved for great weather days, when most are in no hurry and the camp isn't kicking us out. Otherwise, most of what James and others already pointed out seem the best to me.

Also keep in mind that many IG areas (especially at Hickory Run) are set up by players who don't arrive until shortly before lay-on.  Any early gameplay that had started would have to be interrupted for set-up then interrupted again for lay-on announcements.  The entire IG atmosphere of the early gameplay gets lost in the process.

As much as I like the idea of having an IG message board up at the event I doubt most people would stop to read the safety and/or restrictions information each and every event.