What You Missed: The Market Day in Fae

by Steven “Therian” Matulewicz

On the morning of The Market Day in Fae, as I packed the car from floor to ceiling with everything Realms Outfitters has to sell, and then tried to find some room to put my wife and son, one thought went through my mind:

Why am I doing this?  “No one” is going to be there or just a minimal amount of people.  I have never been to this sight before.  I don’t know the best method or place to move this much stuff to the place of setup.  I just hope it won’t be too boring.

As it turns out, a lot of people helping to run this event had the same thoughts: that we would sit around staring at each other.

Also as it turns out, I am happy to say we were all very surprised and very wrong.  Over 60 people were there and from everyone I talked to, be they staff or be they customers, went away happy and looking forward to doing this again next year.

So… what happened?  What was the take away of why this low-key event was so successful?

I think it comes down to diversity of resources.  Many events primarily pull from either a small group of friends, or from a specific country/ nation within the Realms.  But more and more, the best events pull from multiple countries and groups.  And I feel coordinating that kind of event is what leads to a more enriching experience, and more interest for the Realms as a whole to come to any one event.

The Roman stone reliefs that surrounded the room on the walls, the large stone statue of the woman on the stage and the 1800 style high arching windows all added to the ambiance.  And by the way, the ceilings are so high, one could choose to have pike battles and not worry.  Lowel, MA is more centralized, so there was greater opportunity/ less drive time for most.  So location and mood well added to the event.  

But it was whom was helping that, to me, made for the best experience.  Realms Outfitters, as I said, was there to help.  You also had Sir Tao (James) running the casino, a Stacked Deck poker tournament and a noodle shop (best customer turn out ever for the noodle shop, I hear).  You had Sir Iawen  (Janna) running some services and a shop with her OOC daughter.  There were at least two other NPC shops there, NPCed Becky and Gnome.  The Carnival was being run by some NPC people from Saurabia in another life (I really liked Plinko “with a twist”.  Betting your life on Plinko is a neat concept.  You had Cal and Athena  running a Bear pit as some NPCs… and doing a wonderful job of commentating.  Big Game Hunt was running limited fighting/ questing in another room.  Not to mention the handful of plot NPCs I saw.  So the event was pulling from many parts of the Realms community.  And the result was a good crowd of happy people.

Food And services, getting ready

Noodle Emporium, ready to go.

Carnival Games with a twist, Bear pit behind

A Seek peek into the Big Game Hunt

I plan to return next year, be it as a vendor or a PC.  I am really hoping more vendors will take this opportunity:  there is so much space to show wares.  We didn’t even expand much into the classrooms I am told we had access to.

This event was a gem on the crown of Realms Eventing.  I, like so many others I spoke to, hope it will continue to shine and bolster the feeling of community that it established.