State of the Game – October 2017
As the first season of Calamity is drawing to a close I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about the State of the Game.
I feel like this first year has been a real learning experience for both staff and players. It has given us the opportunity to meet many of you, learn more about the elements of the game you enjoy, and get a better feel for your characters. It has given you the opportunity to see first-hand the type of game we intend to run, and a general feel for how we do things. We will continue to refine and iterate, but overall what you have seen so far is indicative of the way Calamity will be run through the course of the campaign.
I want to say how thrilled we are with the Calamity community. We really have a melting pot of players from a wide variety of LARP backgrounds and we have been so impressed with the level of costuming, roleplay, and overall positive attitude. Creating story for enthusiastic players is the real reward for what we do.
Character Surveys
We will be setting up a survey that we would love for you all to fill out over the winter. As characters develop and change it is super helpful for us to understand those changes and these surveys will help us hit you with appropriate story.
Rules
Now that we have a year of gameplay under our belts, we will be doing a pass through the rules with an eye for areas that need balance, clarity, or simplification. Overall we are very pleased with the system, so do not expect sweeping changes.
Additionally we are planning on producing a number of short videos to better demonstrate some of the rules and rituals in action so that everyone has a clear understanding of the expectations.
If there is enough interest I may set up some webinars to review certain rules, etc.
Character Database
Over the year we have seen some really great improvements to the Character Database and display, there are still some improvements we are planning to implement over the winter including cleaning up the view of the skills as well as adding a field for Perks.
2018
The 2018 schedule is confirmed for all of our weekend events, we are still nailing down details for our winter one day and will announce that ASAP. Note that the May event next year is a Four Day weekend, lots of extra time for madness and mayhem!
Event Attendance
We are still regularly selling out the site and we often have enough NPCs to fill all of those beds as well. New players must submit character concepts no later than 2 weeks before an event to be considered. All characters must have an approved history to play.
NPCs must register using the NPC registration form on the website. Nobody should show up onsite without having contacted Staff beforehand.
We will continue our practice of allowing our existing players to register for events before new players are considered. This policy may change if/when the game population settles down.
Immersion
Calamity has a high level of immersion. Between the incredible work that Shadow and Jacob have done with the Saloon to the various in game establishments there is so much that helps make this feel like a western town.
We do want to remind everyone that we are in game for the entirety of the event and would encourage you to remain in game throughout. If you want to talk about movies, other games, etc that should be done in the privacy of your building. Out of game discussions can be offputting to other players and may cause NPCs to simply not interact with you (“they’re talking demon talk”).
Additionally we LOVE when we have players play music onsite. We feel it adds so much to the atmosphere. The same rule applies to music as it does conversation, music should be period appropriate. This can mean songs from the time period, or modern songs that have a Western/Appalachian sound. The Tuesday Tunes staff shared on FaceBook and G+ were specifically chosen to demonstrate appropriate types of music.
Makers
We have a LOT of really talented people in this community, the costumes, weapons, and props are a testament to that. Would love some “How To” guest blogs that we can share on the website from players that are interested.
If you are a seller as well as a maker, send us your Etsy/Ebay/Website and we’ll link to you from our Tradin’ Post page.
I want to finish with a sincere thanks to all of the Staff and Players that have helped turn this vision into a reality. Thank you for being part of this crazy, awesome community!
Mike Haffey & Calamity Staff
