Character Sheets and Online Database

I have finished 95% of the work on the character sheets. They are available for viewing and printing at http://www.saskatoonbynight.com/darkestnight/charactersheets/ I emailed out your username and password. If you need your character sheet prior to a game or side scene then please feel free to print them up. If you do not have a computer or printer please let me know and I am willing to print up your character sheet upon request. If you do not make the request I will assume that you have printed your own sheet and have brought it to the game. If you do not know your user name and password please email me at storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com and let me know.

Changes to Character Sheets

I also sent an email out requesting that everyone proof their sheets. I’m hoping that you have responded and have let me know if there is anything wrong with them. I hope that I have caught all the mistakes but proofreading is not one of my strong points so please let me know if your sheet is wrong. The best way to let me know is to email me at storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com. If you just tell me that something is wrong at the game then odds are I will have forgotten by the end of the night.

Group Actions for Favours and Attuning

Every single group failed at their group attuning this month because at least one person from each group submitted their group attuning action without all the information. I wanted to be fair so even if I could guess what you meant I still did not let it go through.

Here is the information that I require for a group attunement to work.

1. Let me know if this is a Single or Group Attunement
2. Who all is in the group (including yourself)
3. Who is the leader of the group
4. Which location(s). Group attunements can only be performed at a single location as everyone must work together.
5. How many actions are you (not the group but you) putting in
6. How much XP are you (not the group but you) spending
7. Which Favour and which level
8. Capping off or not Capping off.

The best way to hand this is in numbered form

Here is an example

1. Group Attunement
2. Joe, Frank, Deliliah
3. Deliliah
4. Kinsmen Merry Go Round
5. 5 Actions
6. 9 XP
7. Brawn Level 2
8. Not Capping

when even one person fails to submit the information then no one gets the bonus XP. I need all of these handed in to keep my sanity while figuring out the results. I do not have the time nor the energy to track players down. If you have any questions please ask prior to submitting your downtimes. If a group action fails I will let everyone in the group know who is responsible for it failing. It is up to you how you how your character feels about the other people not putting in the energy or trying to be leader when they are not or maybe even deliberately sabotaging the action.

New Favours

A couple of new possible Favours have awoken in your minds. Everyone is now able to gain levels in “Breath”. This power allows you breathe special “gasses” which have various effects. The other power is called “Enhancement”. It allows you to increase other people’s Favours. Enhancement must be taken in order from level 1 through to 5. Breath may be taken in any order.

In Game Location

No one has said where everyone is meeting. Therefore I have decided that you feel it best to meet in the “Vampire” house from last game. If you have a better idea then come up and tell me that you are organizing this event and where it is happening. From now on I would like someone to be responsible for setting up the event In Character. I’ll leave it up to you all to decide who it is.

New Players

Everyone say hi to Josh, Kyle, Ginger and Lisa. They have joined the game. I would still love to see the game grow so if you know anyone who is interested in possibly playing have them get in touch with me.

Email: storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com

Venue: OOC. – John’s House. IC. TBD.

Website: www.saskatoonbynight.com/darkestnight/

Next Game Saturday, July 11th, down time submissions due Saturday, June 20th

Down time Deadlines one week later this month

I have moved the deadline back one week due to SLARPcon. Down time submissions are due on the 20th. This will be a solid deadline. As I’m giving an extra week I will not be accepting any late submissions.

In Character Forum

An In Character forum has been set up by Alex Fornsworth (Ruby’s character) at http://www.slarpa.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=58. No one is using this. Is it something we want to keep?

SLARPcon 2009 will be June 12-14.

SLARPcon is next weekend. Wade (with my help) is running the Saturday night game and I am running the Sunday afternoon game. For more information head over to http://www.slarpa.com/forums/

Loss of Powers

One aspect of the game I wish to highlight in order to make sure everyone is comfortable is the fact that you will gain and loose powers throughout the game. This can be caused by either your character’s actions or the actions of other characters. Loss of powers will never be random but when you do loose a power you have effectively lost the experience you put into buying that power. If you want the power again you must spend the experience once again.

Character Sheets and Online Database

I have done most of the work setting up the character sheets online. It is still only available to me but will become open within the next 2-3 weeks. Once I am finished setting it up you will be able to log in with your character name and password and then print your character sheet whenever you want. I still have to add in the starting XP and the record of how much of it you have spent, plus I just noticed a mistake in the wounds area. There should be 5 circles plus 1 for each point of stamina. This has been fixed online but I am not going to waste the paper re-printing the sheets.

Experience Costs and Group Actions for Favours and Attuning

I have decided based on the player vote to let everyone know the XP costs for favours. I am using a base 6 system. They cost 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 30. There was enough interest in knowing how I am calculating the gain from group actions when attuning. For each person involved I roll 1 d10. I then add up the total and calculate the number of successes. If someone rolls again they get a second roll. So if five people work together they could split up a possible 16 experience not counting 10 agains. I treat 1s as just a 1 (ie. you can not botch on this group action). I am still not going to tell you what each level of each power does. You just have to discover this. I am willing to let people change up the amount of XP they put in last month to gaining favours but you must talk to me immediately. I am also willing to let people remove the cap they put on or to cap off powers that they have spent enough for. You must talk to me immediately to do this also.

Game Fee

I am currently asking for a donation of $5 per game with an encouragement of more. If everyone contributes more then the game will run at pay venues more. If you do not have any money you are still welcome to play.

New Players

We are still having a player drive. If you know of anyone who might be interested in LARPing or joining in on the game please have them contact me at storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com or by phone at 665-7332.

Game one week early in June

The next game will take place on the evening of June 6th. This is one week early as SLARPA is running SLARPcon on the 12th-14th.

Venue Difficulties

The U of S Gamer’s club has not yet ratified. As they are our main way of booking rooms on campus we no longer have a way to book rooms. We have a few possible options. We could raise the game fee and make paying a requirement. This would allow us to book a pay venue each month. The second option is to just take over a location on campus. This is what we are doing for the May game. If someone else has the room booked we will have to head over to MUMPs in Health Sciences or find another venue. If anyone knows of any venues that we can find which are allow all ages please tell John. I am currently considering having the June game at my house but I am still waiting approval for this. If we can make it through to September we should be able to book rooms again as long as the Gamers’ Club starts back up.

Server Switch

A few of you might have noticed the website was down for a short while. I’ve switched the sites over to a new server that is is cheaper and provides the same amount of support as my previous provider. If you notice any glitches on either the SBN or SLARPA websites please send me an email and I shall fix them.

In Character Forum

An In Character forum has been set up by Alex Fornsworth (Ruby’s character) at http://www.slarpa.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=58

SLARPcon 2009 will be June 12-14.

SLARPcon is rapidly approaching and if you are interested you should be checking out the forums at slarpa.com/forum/.  Three games have been decided on: A Methuselah Club game, which is a game about a meeting between the immortals of the world run by Wade Lahoda on Saturday night, The Blood Royal run by Mike Mccall on Friday Night, which is a Hyborean style Sword and Sorcery game and A Night at the Roadhouse run by Gordon Jensen on Saturday afternoon which is a hunter style game based upon the “Supernatural” TV series.  More information is available on the forums at slarpa.com for more details, and sign up for the SLARPA facebook group if you haven’t.

Possibility of a sequel to The Market at SLARPcon on Sunday June 14th

SLARPA execs and John are checking to see if there is enough interest to have an extra game on the afternoon of Sunday the 14th. This would be in place of the proposed social event. Please let John know if you would play if he ran it.

There is a world separate from the real world. People awaken one day and find themselves starting to loose a grip on reality. They start to see things differently and more and more everyone starts not notice them. As time goes by they discover that they start to gain special abilities but also that the real world starts to ignore them. After a few years they are no longer able to interact at all with anything “real”. By this point these Forgotten have either discovered for themselves or have been found by others and shown how to get to the market where items are available that do not ignore them.

The Market is a gathering place for the Forgotten at which they can gather items that they either need to survive or simply want. The items while may seem mundane become altered somehow by The Market. They are able to affect the Forgotten while normal items cannot.

Some time ago (last year’s game) the Market collapsed upon itself and it appeared that the Forgotten were all doomed. The Forgotten discovered that the Innocent was responsible and they made the hard choice of killing her. This restored the Market but the Healer chose to resurrect the Innocent. His action caused the Forgotten to be removed from the Market completely. Each Forgotten who was at the Market were sent to a separate reality where they were alone. Some found their new existence to be pleasurable while other found themselves thrust into a form of purgatory. Time lost all meaning for the Forgotten.

Now, the Forgotten find themselves being suddenly thrust back into the Market to rejoin the rest of their kind. Some will be scarred by their experiences, others might wish to return to their pleasurable exile. In addition other unknown Forgotten have also appeared who are these new Forgotten, why has everyone returned now and will everyone be able to return to their previous lives.

Loss of Powers

One aspect of the game I wish to highlight in order to make sure everyone is comfortable is the fact that you will gain and loose powers throughout the game. This can be caused by either your character’s actions or the actions of other characters. Loss of powers will never be random but when you do loose a power you have effectively lost the experience you put into buying that power. If you want the power again you must spend the experience once again.

Character Sheets and Online Database

I am approximately 80% of the way through the creation of a online database for character sheets. Once I have finished this I will provide each player with the web address, username and password. You will then be able to print your character sheet whenever you require it. You will still be responsible for including your XP spending in your down times and I will add the stats.

Game Fee

I am currently asking for a donation of $5 per game with an encouragement of more.  If everyone contributes more then the game will run at pay venues more. If you do not have any money you are still welcome to play.

New Players

We are still having a player drive. If you know of anyone who might be interested in LARPing or joining in on the game please have them contact me at storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com or by phone at 665-7332.

Email: storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com

Venue: OOC. – Education Lounge IC. – Around the World in 80 Plates

The official website for Darkest Night can be found at www.saskatoonbynight.com/darkestnight/

Next Game Saturday, May 9^th, down time submissions due Saturday, April 18^th

Deadline for Down time
I had a bit of difficulty wrangling in all the down time actions this past month. As I do not want to have to deal with tracking people down and bugging them to hand in their down times I a am going to use a strict system. The morning after the deadline I will check my email and will send out 1 email to each person who has not submitted their actions. At this point each action will suffer a -3 penalty. The next morning I will once again check my emails and everyone who has not submitted their actions will now have a -6 penalty. The next morning I will check and everyone who has not submitted their actions will have a -9 penalty. The next morning everyone who has not submitted their actions will now be ineligible to do so for the month. Once it hits this point you can not spend any XP that month and you must wait till after the next game to do so.

Please let me know if the 1 week after the game is too early as a deadline. I am willing to move it but it may mean that I am unable to return results prior to the game.

In Character Forum
An In Character forum has been set up by Alex Fornsworth (Ruby’s character) at http://www.slarpa.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=58

Investigations
Several characters were performing investigations into other characters this month. As I do not have everyone’s hand-ins I was unable to provide proper responses. In order to still allow investigations I have come up with a method involving both the initiator and character being investigated. For each success the initiator may ask 1 basic question to the player of the character being investigated. That player must answer truthfully. Basic questions include everything from where do you live, what is your phone number, where do you work, or are you associated with x group or person at all. All basic questions must be something that is fairly easy to discover either by simple investigation or shadowing. The initiator may choose to ask fewer questions than he has successes. For each additional success put into a question you can increase the depth. The base scale is 1 through 10. If you apply 10 successes to a question you can find out if someone murdered another character or is actively planning on murdering someone. Note this only works for facts, it does not work for thoughts. ie. You can not ask someone what they are thinking.

When the initiator asks the question the person answering may feel that he or she is being asked to in depth of a question. Please try to come to an agreement on the question but if you can not then feel free to come talk to me and I will adjudicate.

In addition I may at times provide a bit of prodding about questions to ask or if you have no idea what to ask then you can come ask me and I’ll provide some suggestions.

Downtime System Explained
When you submit your downtime you should place the actions in order of importance for you character. This does not mean that you have to put things that use more actions first. If you really want something to be given priority then it comes first. The reason for doing this is that starting this next month you can only use each skill once in any downtime. For each action (or combined action) I take the highest appropriate skill, the highest associated attribute and add in any points for “powers”. For the next action I will not skill from the previous action will no longer be available to use. The attribute and “power” may still be used. Here is an example down time set:

Possible Skills – Investigation 5, Streetwise 3, Computers 2
Possible Attributes – Intelligence 4, Manipulation 3
Powers – Telepathy 2

1. 3 Actions – Investigate Bob using my computer skills to see if I can find out his credit card number.
   Pool = Investigation 5 + Intelligence 4 + Telepathy 2
   Telepathy was able to be used as you are doing an in person investigation
2. 5 Actions – Investigate Chreryl to see if she murdered Frank.
   Investigation is no longer available to use so
   Pool = Streetwise 3 + Intelligence 4 + Telepathy 2
   Telepathy was able to be used as you are meeting people on the street in person
3. 2 Actions – Try to find Rachel. I’m sure she is somewhere downtown.
   Investigation and Streetwise are no longer available
   Pool = Computers 2 + Intelligence 4
   Telepathy was not available to be used as you are no relying on computer hacking to do the investigation

Character Building
A lot of people were doing investigations this month. Very few people put any dots into Investigation. If you are planning on doing something fairly often I would suggest putting at least one dot in to the appropriate skill in order to keep from having negatives.

Experience
I have decided to simplify the XP sustem for now. Currently everyone receives 6 XP per month. There is the possibility of 2 bonus xp but I plan on keeping these pretty rare and they really should be awarded after a good story build up.

Each of these points can only be gained once every three months.

• Plot Leadership – You get this point for being active in the game and giving other players things to do. This doesn’t mean your character has to be extroverted or a drama queen, just that their existence in the game gives other characters things to do. I highly encourage people to include nominations for this in their downtime turns – there is no reason everyone can’t get this point at every game, but unless other people mention it to me I won’t always know.
• Complications – If one of your Complications comes up during the game and significantly hinders or harms your character, you get a point.

Loss of Powers
One aspect of the game I wish to highlight in order to make sure everyone is comfortable is the fact that you will gain and loose powers throughout the game. This can be caused by either your character’s actions or the actions of other characters. Loss of powers will never be random but when you do loose a power you have effectively lost the experience you put into buying that power. If you want the power again you must spend the experience once again.

Character Sheets
I will be maintaining a PDF copy of your character sheet. Once every few months I will print them off for everyone. If you have lost your sheet please email 2 days prior to the game and I will reprint it for you. If you show up at the game without a character sheet I will give you a blank copy of the sheet and get you to fill it out without taking the original.

Game Fee
I am currently asking for a donation of $5 per game with an encouragement of more. If everyone contributes more then the game will run at pay venues more. If you do not have any money you are still welcome to play.

New Players
We are still having a player drive. If you know of anyone who might be interested in LARPing or joining in on the game please have them contact me at storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com or by phone at 665-7332.