Rumors for February 1024

 

[Ashenmark]

Unrest continues to grow in the town of Highmarket.  Food prices begin to see an increase as fewer and fewer people are willing to travel into the nearby forest for the purposes of hunting game and foraging.  The missing priest of Gaia has still yet to return, and search parties have been reluctant to search too deeply into the forest.  The sightings of the mushroom circles on the edge of the forest around dawn and dusk have grown more common.

Furthermore there have been claims of the howling of wolves at night as well as some reports of a woman crying or a mournful dirge.  Speculation on the strange events start to grow, even unearthing an old legend from before the town of Highmarket was founded.  Old stories of Lady Yorona, the weeping woman, who was said to once haunt this forest acting suffering a curse start to spread like wildfire.  These rumors have caused families with young children to start to leave the town.

[Blackavar]

Winter has been quiet in Blackavar City, and the influx of new inhabitants has not gone unnoticed. Heraldry has begun to fly over old manor houses.

[Chimeron: North East]

Following the dedication of a rare Heartstone in the city surrounding the Royal Academy for Military Science, travelers leaving the valley are describing strange happenings in the blue town. There are stories about flashes of light, magical earthquakes, and psychic curses. Some are even saying that there’s a huge smoking crater in the middle of the city and the royal government is trying to cover it up!

[Fae Wildes]

As we cross over into the weeks counting down towards spring, the Winter Court has begun their series of dramatic farewell parties. This hasn't stopped the Prince of the Winter Court from causing mischief and sudden cold freezes both in Faerie and the occasional appearance amongst mortals.

~~~

There have been scattered reports of those who dwell in the deeper and more wild parts of Fae, claiming to hear the howling of a hunting pack, but unable to see any. It's driven the more superstitious of them, if that could be said of any faerie creature, to stay behind closed doors until the howls fade away.

[Val’Dara]

For the first time in the years following the end of the war against Bedlam, it seems that the barony has returned to the Greater Realms. Over the past few years, a port town has begun to appear, as well as trade to and from. While no established trade routes have been marked as official, it's clear work is being put in to make roads a little more refined from just worn wagon trails.

~~~

In both cities of New Haven and Caer Estelle, they credit a sudden surge in reaching beyond the forests' boundaries to a "frantic looking pointy-eared person with too many papers, bustling on by". Those who have spoken with this person, even in passing, have said that they seem to have a love of the barony and a fond remembrance for previous heroes from its lands. Rumors also speak of them attempting to set up a makeshift school in Caer Estelle proper, utilizing the castle's disused solars and sitting rooms to create classrooms

On the Order - Knights of the Sable Dragon

What year was your knighthood formed?

Our order was founded by Queen Vrille in 1989, and was at that time the first knightly order in the Realms created after the Knights of the Realms and Knights of the Eternal Flame.

What does your knighthood stand for?

Our order was conceived as an order of service rather than a martial order, which we are glad has now become common for knightly orders. We endeavor to set new members of the Realms community up for success with information, loaner armor, and encouragement to get engaged with content at events. We have also recently resumed our duty of protecting the lands of Blackavar, and maintaining the treaty with the dragons of that country.

What are your tenets?

Protect the Realms

Serve as an example of personal honor

Encourage and aid new adventurers

Promote diversity within the order and within the Realms

What is your symbol?

Do you have a traditional knightly power? If so, what is it?

Yes! Once per event, a Knight of the Sable Dragon may ask a single yes or no question to be answered accurately by the event holder.

What do you look for when selecting squires?

When considering potential squires for the order, we tend to refer heavily to our tenets. Does the person play a good (or mostly good) character? Do they conduct themselves well in and out of character, not just when others are watching but also when alone? Do they appreciate and respect newer folks' contributions to the community, and encourage them to continue growing as adventurers? Do they provide or elevate underrepresented perspectives in our community? Does it seem like they will grow into a 'Yes' for each of those questions if they aren't yet? 

What is your squiring process like?

We don't have a prescribed process for squires to move through. Each knight will have their own ideas of what a squire needs before being recognized as a knight, so the process will vary depending on who a person is squired to. However, we'll discuss as an order whether a squire is ready for knighting, at which point all active knights' opinions will also be considered.

Who is your current Knight Commander?

Our current Knight Commander is Dame Kindrianna, Queen of Voraniss and High Priestess of Vandor. Her First Knight is Lord Sir Torolf of Blackwood.

Who are your currently active Knights?

Diamond, Avendar, Grindin, Guilliam, Kovaks, Torolf, Kindrianna, Saka, Hygar, Aelias, Gordon, Elwin

Do you have any interesting stories from your knighthood's past?

Yes!

Anything else you'd like to add? 

You may have noticed loaner armor bins at most events! Our order maintains these as a resource for folks who can benefit from wearing armor but aren't in a position to make or acquire their own. If you have unused armor kicking around that's in decent condition or can be repaired with reasonable effort, we'll be happy to add it to what we carry from event to event for loan!

Laughing Gods in the Eye: The Void's Mercy

Just because its a cruel and uncaring world doesn't mean you have to be RUDE gosh.

By Ethan "JB" Goldman

Amateur Angling Vol 1

 Jean Baptise has once been called the most readable madman in this Shore. It is not true, but enough believe it. 

0-02-1-1-0-0-1-Baptise

Maybe I should have explained this at the start. Oopsie doodle. Well long time ago I was helping my mother, and I learned a few odd tricks, tricks that, once I formed the Watchers, I realized were perhaps becoming more relevant. But they aren’t things I can use, due to personal reasons. But maybe they can help you, and you can use these methods to create the tools I can’t, to harness the powers I can only catalogue, and maybe make some friends from beyond the stars. It sounded fun, but it isn’t simple. So I’m gonna stop waxing poetic and start explaining, at least what I CAN explain.

Apparently, there is magic, and there is MAGIC, you know, the blood magics, the holy magics, all the things you cant just learn from a few signatures and a demonstration. Hard magics, complicated magics.

Guess what, there's another type of magic, a magic that isn’t, technically, magic at all. There is the Skyless Sea.

I am not really sure how many people CARE about what that is so lets just move to the nitty gritty. The Sea, like all places, has its magics, but its not a land, its a fluid, subjected to the currents of this Shore and others. This magic can’t be used directly but can be used to imbue items WITH that power to be harnessed, or in rites to harness that power in greater rituals. Its a lot of work and it is not a exact science, it CANT be a exact science, the more its explained, the more it is muddied, and Mud is very very dangerous, more so then the Sea itself. So its power can be called, but not commanded, not defined. But how?

Conveniently, all arts operate in this vague space of gray. In subversions and reinterpretations of soft rules. Metaphor and all that right? You can say something without saying it. And thus the Arts were made and there's all these Sailors and Witches and Artisans all harnessing the power of the Sea, and many of them wrote their methods down. And I have some of those books, which I am sharing. But they don't SAY how they wrote these down. They present questions and you have to find the answer. Most of the books mean something to the writer, how they saw the sea, how it influenced them, but they don't EXPLAIN it until you find the secret.

If you wonder how they do this, well I wish it was all the same way, but it’s not. In some of these books I found out the author didn't even encode it at all, the secret MOVED into the books. After all, the Sea has Fish. But as mentioned, I can’t simply TELL people how the sea works, you can orally, but if you write it down, things happen, the secrets change, the books change, it can be bad. But I have figured out some ways to help out. First, while the books are much larger then the articles you are decoding, I have, for the sake of all of our times, made sure that the relevant bits are what you read. So while you are only decoding one or two pages, you are actually “reading” a much thicker book, and when you decode the passage you studied the entire book. So its more like a simulation of studying then actual studying. I was very nice.

So you PROBABLY were wondering what that little number string at the top meant. The first page is the little binding, the title, the books background, and its library code. I designed a code to help say some things without saying them. Hopefully it helps. 

Now lets look at THIS books code: 0-11-1-1-0-0-1-Baptise, lets go over each number 1 by one. First number? The nature of the book, is it from Here, or the Sea. Shore books are 0, that means they are from here, or other Heres, they are safe and sane. They may not be nice, but they describe reality and are written by people. Usually straightforward and safe. A 1 means its a SEA book, these are written by Fish, Shark, Whales, or even the moons. These are NOT safe and I wont be publishing them… but if you happen upon one I can write out its barcode for you.

Often the second number is the most confusing. This is the books… Tone. Everything of the Sea has a Tone, usually 2 Tones even, or 3, these are categorical terms that define certain, shapes of power that thing has. To not get too dragged in the weeds, each Secret ALSO has a Tone, as they are about the powers of the Sea as well. The second number therefore says which of the eleven tones the secret harnesses. Other Tones can be involved as well but the Primary Tone is what is recorded in the barcode. The third number in the barcode just records which secret it is, that means that a book that starts with 0-1-2 and a book that starts with 0-1-1 have different secrets with the same Tone. HOWEVER books 1-1-1 and 0-1-1 will have the same secret. 

To be honest the next 3 numbers aren't exciting so lets breeze through them. Four is subject matter of the actual book, 1? That's instructional. 2 is Fairy tales, blah blah, boring. Fifth is if the book is Dangerous, and I do not mean in a existential sense. 0 is safe, if the numbers not 0 there's something wrong with it. Your gonna want to fix that before you get to the secret, how that is done varies. I’m not going to publish them willy nilly though, let me know if you find one of these. Sixth, if the book features a Moon and if so, which one. I can not say more then this. Moons control the tides of seas.

Really, we probably should have started here, this is what you are all stumped on, number 7, the encoding! Se we already know that these books have secrets hidden within, but books often will share the same method of hiding! So every book with a 7-1 (The seventh number is a 1), will be solved the same way as every 7-1. Sometimes its a little different but the meats the same. But how to figure out which one is which?

Every story has a “Phrase” or word, find the Phrase and the secret is unveiled.  To find the story you need to find the PATTERNS in the story. Some words are capitalized oddly, sometimes numbers are written in weird ways. Sometimes the book will fixate on a certain topic and each subject of that topic assembles into the name. I've done all that but thats not always relevant. The easiest and simplest ones is something where the spacing of the story is what matters, not the actual subjects within. If you find one of these you can just ignore the entire story and just scroll through it and circle words. 

All said and done, these might be tricky, and thats fine. If they weren't tricky they wouldn't be fun. However if you solve them you get the secret. Collaborate if you want, Its going to be a long winter, I am hoping this will let you not feel too bored with the time. I’ll try to help when I can. 

Lastly, while every secret defines a way or trick, the manner you use these tricks are not as important. I will trust that, if you have successfully solved the secret, that you incorporated the secret correctly in whatever “Art” you produce with it. Let me know if you have, and I will back your claim that the item is suitably crafted and empowered. If you wish to use these secrets, or magic in general to find out more of the Sea, also let me know.

Meme Monday

 by the Meme Team

Why We Want To Go - The Player's Meeting

by Jason "Aeston" Rosa

We asked a wide assortment of Realms players from many different starting eras what they believe is the most significant change made to the rules in the time they have been playing. Let's see their answers:

John “Gordon” Rescigno: I can’t remember the year because time has become meaningless since Covid and becoming a parent. But the most meaningful change I have seen has been the removal of spell paths in our current system. Customization to match roleplay is a huge part of what our game has become, and I like that we no longer have “tax spells”. This allows players to have builds that feel more engaging and more importantly, make them feel more like their characters.

Alex "Adoros" Taylor: Honestly, I like the change of the spell system from Paths to the current Pool system. I do wish we had 7th spells back because 4 and 5 circles are quite heavy.

Travis "Elwin" Wilcox: When the entire system changed back in '98 I believe it was.

Kim "Mayumi Sorbus" Coffey: Code of Conduct - most important.

Sean "Wil" Veale: Arch / rouge spell system to circle system (94?)

Eric "Rosetta" Willisson: Adding the Code of Conduct in 2018. It was an essential part of helping to make our community safer, and it was a project carried out largely by some of our newer members at the time.

Alyssa "Umbra" Lee: Allowing more armor materials

Steven "Kaelkatar" Yazinka: Bamboo weapons in 2012 (and fiberglass weapons in 2009) made combat what it is today.

Ed "Tuilli" Drummond: The elimination of the paths of magic. I think it did a great job at allowing folk to build characters the way they wanted to, with a lot more narrative freedom.

Crystal “Cressida” Welch: The most important rule change since I started in 2016 has to be the addition of the Code of Conduct in 2018. This made the game feel safer and made it clear to those in the game, and those looking to join it, that we care about our community and that certain behaviors will never be tolerated.

Sara 'Zarine' Jessop: I can't decide between changing how we learn spells or getting rid of spell paths. Both have made spell casting much more flexible. Spell learning being quicker is much more newbie friendly as well as making it easier for everyone to switch things up if needed but I still think the system needs some tweaking. Getting rid of paths was something I didn't like at first, but it's proven to be a change for the better with people being able to customize their characters better making far more interesting builds. Overall I think both changes work well together and have been good changes.

Kyle “Killian” Yazinka: It’s changed several times but how long it takes to learn spells. When I started, learning a spell depended on what weapon restriction you had. It took longer to become a useful member of a questing party or tournament and in doing so, slowed the game down

Zach "Loken" Senchuk: The code of conduct: 2019ish I believe. Setting a standard, written, list of values we should all hold ourselves to was not the only reason I believe the community has gotten more inclusive, helpful and welcoming, but I think it marks the start of that shift as a whole rather than individual efforts by people or individuals.

Mikey "Janus" Donnelly:  When we added the ability to use alternative weapons materials, such as bamboo.

Matthew "Alexander Cecil" Brenner: In 1998, after much lobbying and discussion on the email lists, we transitioned from the Arc/Sphere system to the Path system. That was an entire spell system rewrite that fundamentally changed almost every aspect of the game except for the mechanics of combat and the abilities of a fighter. Almost every rule change we have made since has been iterative of that dramatic paradigm shift.

Pi "Wait I don't know whether Kwido or Alpacasaurus is my main" Fisher: The change from 7 circles of spells down to 6 circles of spells, paired with the removal of segregated paths of spells. This change was made for the 2018 Omnibus, and it's given us so much more freedom in how we tweak spells, both when we add or remove spells and when we try to tweak power levels.

Nick "Raynor" Quadrini: Adding the CRB and its evolution

Tucker “Temorse” Noyes: Bamboo weapons becoming an omnibus standard

Stephen "Laika" Sanford: Since I've been playing I would say the change from 2 cost to 1 cost buy downs was the most significant change. It happened around the year 2008 I think. The balance of casters and the idea of paths were changed. 1 cost buy downs was so good that there were people who would just buy down every spell in their path and just go embrace death instead of taking any necromancy. Additionally there was no reason to go 3 different paths like a few casters did before because even fully buying down a path including the 7th circle was effectively the same thing.

Keith “Saegan” Cronyn: Probably the shift of 7 circles of spells, and having paths, to having 6 circles of spells, but no paths. I think it was a bold move that broke people free from specific archetypes, but also maintained some measure of comparable balance.

I want to say the change to alchemy happened in the same year, and it was also a cool and well thought out change.

Anna "Hedda" Hewitt: Changing "hold" to be "hold hold hold"

Jason "Aeston" Rosa: The initial shift to 75% coverage for armoring a hit location to me signaled a shift in the attitude around combat. We've always treaded the line between a combat sport and a LARP and I think that change really showed our commitment that garb and story and RP were the more important parts of our game.

Angela "Phoenix" Gray: Somewhere around 2000 they changed repair armor so that it worked when you were wearing your armor.

At the time I was playing a fighter and there were multiple of us that had more than one shirt of armor so that you could fight on the front line until your second point of armor got taken and then you would step back shake out of your shirt. Pass it back to a blacksmith while you were putting on a second shirt. Oh and the shirts were steel then and weighed about 15 pounds.

James "Tao" Murphy: Change to how often you can learn spells. Some early players would look at the amount of time it would take to get all three paths and just stay a fighter. Not saying its a bad thing, but some people have been able to max it in just few weekends. I think we started changing that part of the system in 2010?

David "Tirvanel" Rubenstein: In my opinion, the most important rules change we have made since I started playing was the addition of the Code of Conduct in 2018

If you just look at gameplay mechanics, and not the surrounding rules, I think the most important change was the shift from 1 cost to 0 cost buydowns also in 2018.

Jason "Malaki" Gray: There are a few that stand out that are more memorable and or important.

The first big one was the change in the spell system in 1997 from Guilds and Arch Casters to a Path system.

The next, probably in the late 90s early 00s was when we stopped making people remove their armor for it to be able to be fixed.

The most recent and possibly most important change was when we voted in the Code of Conduct. It was long overdue and I'm glad we had people championing it when we did, as most other larps either had them or were instituting them.

Dan "N" Hudon: Last year I made a 16" dagger and a 4'6" in case I ever wanted to go one path, only for the restriction to be bumped up to 5'/5'2" combined a few months later! The timing was quite unfortunate, but I'm glad 1-paths got that buff and can now use more standard weapon sizes.

Janna "Iawen" O-P: I sadly cannot remember like I used to. Things I was either happy about or surprised were things such as: Love Potion removal, Alchemist/Alchemy overhaul, getting rid of Seventh circles, getting rid of paths :-( , mostly things I can recall were spell changes. Well, there was that one year we did 16-18" for daggers only. Lolz. 😅

Matt "Vesper" Hewitt: Removing paths for casters really added to flavor and build diversity.

Jerry "Pawldo" Pearce: The most important rule change was the introduction of the Path system, replacing Arc/Rogue. This change was introduced to the PCs at Gathering of Heroes 15 Feb 03. It is the basis for the explosion of spells and the nearly yearly refurbishing of the magic system.

Amber "Lady Tarnisha" Fox: The switch from Guilds to Paths was monumental and opened the system up so much and made the magic system more open, no longer requiring you to "know a guy" or sign up for a religion to learn advanced spells. (Timing ~'99?)

The next most important one was creating the 1st circle pool. That lead to how every circle has a pool now. (Timing ??2007 +/- a few years.) The flashiest was adding the Alchemy path to the system-- "magic" for casters who had "non-magical" schtick.

For Non-magic changes: The most important rule change was adding the code of conduct and the CRB/Arbitration committees. I don't think it's quite perfect yet, but we are a much better game for choosing to travel this worthy path. (Timing ~2016?)

Briar "Felnar Dulintel (Phee)" Sieracki: For interesting: the removal of paths! I remember it being a buy-down cost to have spells from other paths, but now it's a lot more free, which can add to a lot of fun roleplaying choices.

For important, this might be a personal preference with my experience in other games, but moving Hold from a single word call to a three-times one. It helps so much in preventing a simple mishearing that stops the entire quest, or worse, a hold not happening when it needs to.

Kelly “Fern” Perfetto: 2023, increasing the size restriction one path casters can have.

It seems like 5 ft weapons and larger combos have allowed one path casters to play on the front lines more. This in turn has lead to a few more people around who can heal caster’s limbs, and more of questing parties can stick together. I really like it, and it’s fun to fight alongside a caster buddy with a five foot!

Kenneth "Celtrex" Crowley: Probably when we decided to move away from spell paths and make all spells into level pools with no cost by down. It was a significant power bump for casters. I believe it was 2016 or 2017 when that change was made.

Dan “Diamond” Diamond: The change to the path based magic system from the guilds.

Ryan "Orion" Welch: Removing spell paths (2018) really upended the way we think about spell and created so many new and interesting spellcaster builds.

Looking through the above there are certainly some common themes. The spell system, weapon materials, conduct reporting. All significant changes that have taken place across the last three decades. There are also a fair number of very unique answers as well, what people decide is an important change is ultimately a function of how they have interacted with the game and the community over their years of playing.

The rules of this game have changed over time in response to an evolving player base and and an overall evolving society as a whole. There aren't many LARP communities out there that have the kind of history that we do and have required a constant, deep, and introspective look at the guidelines we play by and govern ourselves by. I think it is a unique and special thing that the Realms does that isn't very common in our hobby.

Regardless of how anyone answered the above question, my point about the Players Meeting holds true. With so many decades of changes in a set of rules that evolves in accordance with the need of the players, participation in this process is both a right and a privilege extended to everyone who calls themselves a Realmsie. Why we want to go to the Players Meeting is to have our say. It's to make our own impact on how this game changes over time and it's how we ensure its longevity. 

We go to the Players Meeting because the Realms belongs to us. Not just the people who have been playing since the 90's. Not just the people who throw events. Not just the people who lead nations and groups. The Realms belongs to all of us and we all get to create it together. 

Let's do some more of that tomorrow.

Straight Outta Context

Here's our third installment of “Straight Outta Context” where we post a photo with absolutely no context and see what you think is happening! To kick off each post, we'll ask someone random in the community to take a stab at what's happening!

Kieran/Kyra “Omri” guesses:

1. Blue man group plan out their next concert and are getting desperate
2. Legally distinct Gargamel won’t know what hit him
3. Eagle’s Rook member who takes the blue motif pretty seriously has wares if you have coin
   

Share your guesses via discord or in the Facebook comments! Want to take a stab at what's happening in our next picture? Reach out to Dani Lacasse via discord or facebook messenger to signup!