Saskatoon By Night FAQ

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This is the FAQ ("Frequently Asked Questions") list for the Saskatoon by Night game. The FAQ is published semi-regularly on the SbN listserver, and is presented here for your edification and reference. There is some duplication of material with other parts of this Web site; this is because this document is meant as a stand-alone publication. Print it out, give it to your friends, attach it to your fridge with a little fruit-shaped magnet...

1) What does LARP stand for?

Live Action Role-Playing.

2) What is that, exactly?

LARP is like a combination of a game and improvisational theater. Players take on roles, or characters, that can be as close to or different from their real personalities as they want. The fun comes from interacting with all the other people also pretending to be their characters. This is the "role playing" part of the name.
Unlike some other role-playing games, people do not sit around a table and roll dice to decide what happens in the story. You actually dress like your character, move around, and try and portray your character as realistically as possible. This is the "Live Action" part of the name. However, actions like combat, destruction of property, etc. are simply described by the participants to the other players. At no time do players actually try and hurt each other or anything else.
Players have to figure out their characters' motivations, likes and dislikes, quirks and mannerisms, and present them to the other players. Everybody is both actor and audience. The plot of the game comes mainly from the players' own actions.
To prevent disagreement (the "bang-bang-you're-dead-no-I'm-not" syndrome), there are rules about what characters can do and how they can do it. To help settle arguments and link all the elements of the players' plots together, people called "Storytellers" run all the out-of-character aspects of the game and answer all the questions about what the characters can and can't do.

3) What is Saskatoon By Night?

Saskatoon by night is a LARP game that uses the "Mind's Eye Theater" rules published by White Wolf. In this particular game, players are taking on the characters of Mages(the "Awakened") trying to survive in the World of Darkness. This fictional world is much like the real one, but everything is a bit darker, a bit more run-down. Urban decay and pollution are worse, corruption and cynicism are at higher levels. The feel of the world can be gotten frommovies like "Blade Runner" and "Batman."
Saskatoon by Night tries to be a game of subtlety and intrigue, with most of the plots resulting from characters' actions. The game also tries to stay as realistic as possible, within the established World of Darkness.

4) OK, so why Mages and weird stuff like that?

Role-playing is, by definition, an escapist hobby. The fun comes in pretending to be something you're not, in a world where the rules are different from reality. The challenges you face in the role-playing world have to be different from the ones you face in real life, otherwise there's not much point in playing.
A popular theme in any fiction, not just role-playing, is the struggle between good and evil in a person capable of both. A Mage game allows the player to be a creature traditionally thought of prideful and hubristic, but to explore the possibility of a willworker trying to find their place in the world. Some people find playing an evil character in a safe fictional environment to be cathartic, some people are more interested playing a good character beset by temptation. It's up to the player.
The supernatural aspect of the game just makes the fictional aspect that much more obvious. Most role-playing games are based on horror, science fiction or fantasy, because those worlds are so much different from our own.

5) What about those stories I hear about this being dangerous?

Like any other hobby or job, it's as dangerous as the person doing it. It's a game. The organizers and the players all keep in mind, and remind each other, that it's only a game. It's all a big game of let's-pretend.
There has been quite a lot of bad publicity about role-playing games, mostly started by sensationalist media. These stories, while sometime containing a kernel of truth, are misunderstandings of what role-playing games are about. At no time are people actually hurt or threatened, and any "occult rituals" are just play-pretend. It is a game, and any healthy person will have no trouble distinguishing between the game and reality.
Probably the worst accusation that can legitimately be made against the game is that it is frivolous and a waste of time, and we prefer if the truth of that accusation is left up to the participants to determine.

4) Are there any special rules used by SbN?

Yes, there are. These "house" rules are of two types; the ones that are modifications or clarifications of the published White Wolf rules, and the ones that are "meta-rules" that govern all players actions regardless of their characters. These are like game policies.
The policies are as follows:

NO TOUCHING WITHOUT PERMISSION It's easy to get caught up in the game, but not everyone has the same comfort level with personal contact. Play it safe; NEVER touch someone in ANY way without their express permission.

NO REALISTIC WEAPONS PROPS We allow representations of weapons, but it must be clear at first glance that this representation is NOT a real gun, knife, sword, etc. Real weapons of ANY kind, even peace-bonded ones, are NOT allowed. We don't want any non-players mistaking what we are doing, and we don't want any accidents.

IT'S ONLY A GAME You might meet mean and nasty characters in the game. Don't get them confused with the players. The worse a character seems, the more likely it is that the player is just a very good actor. Don't bring out-of-character likes and dislikes into your character. Also, your character may die, sometimes through sheer bad luck. Don't take it personally, don't think that you've "lost." There's no such thing as winning or losing in this game. All that matters is having an interesting time and telling a good story.

NEVER METAGAME Metagaming is using out-of-character knowledge in character. Think about what your character knows and doesn't know, not what you do. You may have read the rule book and know every detail about every obscure Discipline and clan; your character doesn't. You may have heard something at coffee, your character might not have. Metagaming is cheating.

The clarifications and adaptations of the White Wolf rules can be found at http://www.saskatoonbynight.com/RULES/RULES.HTM

5) I'm kind of interested. How can I join?

The first step is talking to a Storyteller, who will talk to you about what experience with role-playing you have, and what kind of character you'd like to play in Saskatoon By Night.
There are many different styles of game, and we want to make sure that our style is the one that you want to play in.

6) If I join, is there a major commitment in money or time?

As of March 2007, there will be a $5 game fee to cover the cost of venue rental, photocopying, candles, etc. Even so, we are a sympathetic bunch: the game fee will not be strongly enforced, and no one will be turned away at the door because they do not have the money to pay. You do not have to buy any books or equipment, though having your own rulebook is convenient. Players are strongly encouraged to come in a costume appropriate to their characters, but how elaborate or costly a costume is entirely up to the player.

In short, you can be as involved as you want to be.

7) Can I play an antitribu Cappadocian Abomination with Temporis and Obeah?

No.

8) Who runs this?

At the time of writing, the organizational team is as follows:

Storytellers:
Wade Lahoda (wade.lahoda@gmail.com)

9) Do you have a listserver?

A "listserver" is like an electronic bulletin board. Anything you e-mail to the listserver address will be forwarded to everyone else on the listserver, and you will receive anything anyone else e-mails to the listserver. Saskatoon by Night has two listservers.
The Saskatoon By Night main listserver is an out-of-character way for the SbN players, and anyone else interested in the game, to share information about the game, upcoming events, or just about anything else. There is also a separate listserver for rules questions and debates.
Before you join the Saskatoon By night listservers, please read the following suggestions:

· Put a short, but descriptive and appropriate header into the Subject line of your posting, because people will use this header to select your posting out of many postings.
· Keep your posting short, because many people do not take the time to read more than a few screen-fulls of information. But do not omit necessary details.
· If you reply to a question or follow-up to an article, include the essential parts of the original question in your posting, but only the essential parts!
· Before you post something to the net, ask yourself whether it is really necessary to publish ("post") it to everyone on the listserver, or whether it might be sufficient to "mail" it only to the person concerned. Remember the difference between the "reply" and the "follow-up" functions (or whatever they are called) of your newsreader program.
· Do not mis-use the listserver for personal flames, silly jokes, commercial or political advertising, chain letters, or anything else that is not of general interest. And never follow-up to any of these if they happen to occur. Usually it is best to ignore them (hoping that someone else will take care of the offender) and to put the offending subject line or author name into your "kill file". If you must react, then use private mail to the author.

To join the Saskatoon By Night listserver, go to http://www.yahoogroups.com/groups/sbn_larp(Click on "Join this Group").
To join the rules listserver, go to http://www.yahoogroups.com/groups/sbn_rules(Click on "Join this Group").

10) Do you have a Web page?

Yes. It's at http://www.saskatoonbynight.com

11) Are you part of any bigger LARP organization?

Saskatoon by Night is an independent game, and does not belong to any larger LARP organization. The game was once a member of the Shared Universe, but withdrew from that organization in August of 1998.
There are several LARP organizations that try to link games. In North America, the main ones are The Camarilla, The Shared Universe and One World by Night. What Saskatoon By Night has found is that these organizations only offer benefits if all the member games are run under the same set of assumptions and the same philosophies. Saskatoon By Night did not quite fit, so the players decided that the game would be better off independent.

12) Do you accept other World of Darkness characters like Vampires or Werewolves?

No. There are other independent LARPS in Saskatoon for Werewolf and Vampire, but those character types only appear in the Saskatoon By Night game as non-player characters. This allows the game to remain balanced, and makes sure that the main focus of the game is on the Awakened and their specific concerns.

NO TOUCHING WITHOUT PERMISSION	It's easy to get caught up in the game, but not everyone has the same comfort level with personal contact. Play it safe; NEVER touch someone in ANY way without their express permission.
NO REALISTIC WEAPONS PROPS	We allow representations of weapons, but it must be clear at first glance that this representation is NOT a real gun, knife, sword, etc. Real weapons of ANY kind, even peace-bonded ones, are NOT allowed. We don't want any non-players mistaking what we are doing, and we don't want any accidents.
IT'S ONLY A GAME	You might meet mean and nasty characters in the game. Don't get them confused with the players. The worse a character seems, the more likely it is that the player is just a very good actor. Don't bring out-of-character likes and dislikes into your character. Also, your character may die, sometimes through sheer bad luck. Don't take it personally, don't think that you've "lost." There's no such thing as winning or losing in this game. All that matters is having an interesting time and telling a good story.
NEVER METAGAME	Metagaming is using out-of-character knowledge in character. Think about what your character knows and doesn't know, not what you do. You may have read the rule book and know every detail about every obscure Discipline and clan; your character doesn't. You may have heard something at coffee, your character might not have. Metagaming is cheating.