#goldenvale

[rorytelling]

I miss LARP

Hey have I ever showed off my Amtgard character?

Thank you Hero Forge for adding colors 💙💚

A monkeyfolk monk (MONKey) and sort of a spiritual forest priest (spent a little time on a pirate ship, hence the third outfit)

HEY I MISS LARP

[tegus-j-betraygus-blog]

How to improvise your Amtgard quests pt. 1

If you’re like me, you like to run quest every week at your local Amtgard chapter. If you’re not like me, this probably sounds grueling and impossible, with all the planning and resources that would need to be involved. Regularly, this would be absolutely correct; the amount of planning that goes into a standard quest would simply not be practical if required on a weekly basis. My workaround for this particular problem was to STOP PLANNING and run things by ear. Now, this is both easier and harder than it sounds, you still have to prepare, but in a different, more spontaneous way that lends to being flexible and accommodating. If the formula I’m about to share works for you, you too might get to the point where you can run weekly quests.

Run a smaller group with smaller stakes

-Don’t get the pitchforks out yet! I am aware that the tradition in Amtgard questing is for more or less the entire park to partake in quest, either as NPCs, or a giant, bristling mob of murderhoboes. I’ve never seen the reason behind this; I feel it trades off inclusivity for a much worse group dynamic overall. If the goal of a quest is story and character development (Which it should be), how much meaningful dialogue do you expect to get out of 10 or 15 different characters? When’s the last time you had a 9 person Dungeons and Dragons campaign? The less characters in a given scenario, the more chance each has to make an individual impact upon the story. If the Fellowship of the Ring had travelled in a giant pack for three books instead of splitting off into different, smaller  groups, their characters would have been much harder to distinguish from one another, therefore much less developed and memorable.

Changing the group dynamic of quest implies a lot of changes upon your content; I prefer to skew lower numbers of players toward lower stakes conflicts.Give the demons and vengeful gods a rest; have your PCs help a merchant back to their town, or find a missing cat! You as the Quest master have the narrative power to make even these mundane tasks exciting and meaningful experiences for your players, for the Spice of Life is what happens between point A and point B. Also, players are able to role play more easily in situations with which they can resonate, i.e. mundane scenarios.

Part 2 coming in a few days!

[tnadz27]

“Homemade” Crunchy Nut Cornflakes with #goldenvale Cornflakes , Mixed Nuts and #queen Sugar Free Maple Syrup #breakfast https://www.instagram.com/p/CTBIB_ZpV3By2W9NI5Gccb4ZLJ2bVz_ZKMX2280/?utm_medium=tumblr

[tegus-j-betraygus-blog]

How to subdue a murderhobo

We all know the player I’m referring to; the murderhobo. The guy whose idea of a good time is killing an innocent old lady NPC, or even better, an npc the other players are interested in. They are able to do this time and time again without being held accountable for their actions, leading to quest becoming a chore where you babysit the “wild card” until they inevitably derail something.

The problem with this guy is that he confuses player frustration with character exasperation, and being able to evoke some sort of reaction from their fellow players. In short, they get their jollies off of trolling the rest of the players, and then justify it as their character.

In my Amtgard park, for the longest time, no one realized we had no laws or code of conduct.  It showed when you took a look around; the character base was largely a nest of deplorables for whom the first instinct was violence and threats.

I started holding trials.

Every time a player did something naughty, I’d send out a bounty to bring the offender in (through quest or battlegame), and we’d have a nice, mock court.

After deliberation on the part of anyone who cared enough to attend the trial, as well as the judge and the monarch, a suitable punishment is administered (One offender lost an arm after stealing a large amount of gold from the park government), 

This serves to give good characters some degree of enhanced power, that being the power of law. While the practice of trying evil characters for their crimes comes off as a bit witch hunt-y, I feel it also adds an element of danger (read: fun) to the lifestyle of the villainous character

[tegus-j-betraygus-blog]

Empire’s Grove- Druid update!

Developing a minigame for druids in my park! It will reward them with potions and loads of cool RP opportunities.

Every druid will have a nature journal. Each druid’s nature journal will start out with completely unique content with at least one of each of the following;

-The recipe for a potion (Herb A+ Herb B= Potion A)

-Where to find a kind of herb (Herb locations are predetermined by the QM, i.e.- Mudroot@ the Tall grass at the edge of the pond)

-Detailed information on a kind of herb.

If a druid can verify that they have been to a physical location in their park AND have it logged in their nature journal, I will be distributing herb item cards, which can be traded in for free potions (recipe is also required to be logged in the nature journal), whereas other players have to spend kingdom currency to obtain the same potions. The REAL motive here is to encourage players to role play more; I foresee many nature walks and druidic circles in the future, as the druids attempt to master holistic alchemy!

[tegus-j-betraygus-blog]

A whole lot of stuff has happened in my absence from this blog; my bid for the Fury of the Northlands event succeeded, and I am now in production with my team. 

Great Eastern, Fury’s sister event, happened last month. It was good to catch up with all my old buddies and touch base with my team. Floated the idea to start a gofundme to renovate the Ye Old Commons LARP site in Charlton, MA. This idea now has traction.

Holy Jeez, I’ve been running at least 2 quests a week. I’ve really been focusing on making questing in Amtgard an intimate, 6-7 person affair. In addition, I’ve started a notebook keeping tabs on all the storylines of the characters in the park, as well as taking note of any hooks that might be feasible in the future.

Made a nice amount of cash at Great Eastern selling garb, weapons and accessories. Working on finalizing my product for sale outside of my local park. I’m thinking of maybe starting an etsy. Gonna start with a facebook page to generate local interest. The focus of the business is to provide new players with solid starting materials, such as tunics, swords and belts, for extremely cheap, around the 20-30 dollar range, so new players can get into Amtgard in earnest more easily.

[tegus-j-betraygus-blog]

The Event Bid

Just this weekend I was informed that my bid for a Kingdom-level Amtgard event was accepted in a vote by the populace. This is my first time directing such a large event, so obviously I’m nervous. I thought I’d channel my nerves into something productive, and write out my process. I’m going to go through how I got to where I am in the event-running process.

Step 1- Figure out what you want to do

The event I am running, Fury of the Northlands, has a theme that differs every year. I wanted to choose a theme that was beloved within our community but also stand out and be memorable. I ended up going with a Rocky Horror Picture Show theme, which may seem severely out of place for a fantasy LARP, but I really wanted to take a chance on it. The people who I surveyed at Fury last year were enthused with the idea, giving me the confidence to believe that people would come out to a Rocky-themed event.

Step 2- Choose your team-

This was a huge step for me. The structure of Amtgard dictates that there must be a team of officials elected for the event, each being responsible for a separate aspect of the event, with the Autocrat overseeing the other officials and their teams. The positions required as per the guidelines are in charge of Battlegames, food, admission, the Arts & Sciences, medical issues, security, refereeing and questing.  As someone who is completely new to running events I would obviously want some experienced organizers on my team. However, I felt like picking a time composed entirely of old salts would be the easy way out; I wanted to engage other new players by giving them the opportunity to take on the challenge.

Step 3- Figure out how much money you’re spending, and on what.

This is the hard part. Once you have your team, as an Autocrat you want to focus on keeping correspondence with your team, as well as information compilation. It took me weeks to meet with each teammate individually and have them tell me how much money they needed and for what. As the money comes out of (and back into) the Kingdom’s budget, a cheaper bid is always more likely to win when put to a vote. Of course from there, you have to work with the crats in positions which can be financially streamlined and work the numbers down to an acceptable state. Fundraising is also a must to help break even on event expenses.

Step 4- Put it all together in a pretty little package.

Ok, so now that you have all your info, you have to convince the voters on the program for your event. On top of stating your theme, team and budget, you also want to include a tentative schedule of activities, as well as a few sentences selling each member of your team. In addition, any official medical or food handling paperwork required should be included.

From there, I couldn’t tell you, for I have yet to do it myself.

[send-n00dles]

8th warrior! The paper says for a 30 streak it was a 27 but still 8 down 2 more to go im pumped.