<TBODY> Major Arcana and Minor Indiscretions

Newsletter           January 13th, 2006</TBODY>

<TBODY>Wade Lahoda

Head Storyteller   storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com or 477-0145

The official Saskatoon by Night webpage can be found at www.saskatoonbynight.com

Next Game Saturday, February 10th, downtime submissions due Saturday, January 20th

Start of a new chronicle – Major Arcana and Minor Indiscretions

Welcome all to our new Mage chronicle.  I am really excited about this new game, and I hope the rest of you are as well.  I anticipate this being a different style of game then most of the ones I’ve run in the past, and it is a bit of an experiment on some levels.  This is a new set of rules for pretty much all of us, so I’d like to ask everyone to bear with if we run into snags – hopefully things will get ironed out as I figure out what needs to get house ruled, and the players figure out how the rules work.  There’s a lot to get into setting and theme wise, too, so hope people will be getting used to that just in time for me to throw monkey wrenches in, too.

Suggestions are certainly welcome, and I’d love to hear them after the game (preferably via e-mail, because I imagine I’ll be pretty brain dead at coffee).  Feedback is always important to me, and doubly so when doing something I haven’t really done before.

I’d like to thank Kelly P. for suggesting the form of the chronicle name, even though I changed it a bit.   

Deadline for Downtime Actions is the Saturday after the game.

The deadline to get downtime actions in going to always be the Saturday after the game.  I hope this will let people submit what they want to do while the game is still fresh in their minds, and it’ll also give me more time to process things and give more satisfying results.  Please send downtime to storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com, otherwise I’ll probably miss it.

Forums, webpages, and Yahoogroups.

This game is definitely one born of the 21^st century.  We have a webpage at www.saskatoonbynight.com.  We have a forum at http://www.slarpa.com/forum2/viewforum.php?f=10(there’ll be a link to that on the webpage).  We have a Yahoogroup – sbn_larp@yahoogroups.com.   The Yahoogroup is used mainly for announcements, the webpage mainly for more static elements of the game, and the forum for discussions.  It is worth checking out all of them right now, especially since things tend to get posted first to the forum, only to get later transferred to the webpage once a final form is decided upon.

House Rules

Obviously in translating Mage: The Awakening to LARP, some house rules are going to need to be implemented.  For the most part as our base rules set, we’re using the Mind’s Eye Theatre: World of Darkness rulebook.  For the Mage bits, we’re using Mage: The Awakening, since most of the tabletop stuff translates directly over.  We will be using a fair number of house rules – they’ll get discussed on the forum, first, and then moved to the webpage once I’m decided on them.  Check it out, especially for our Metarule about Death, which is a fair change from how things work.  Next month I should have a couple of copies of a House Rules document at the sign-in desk.

The one thing I’ll mention right now is the base resolution mechanic, because it isn’t quite MET and definitely not tabletop.  All actions will depend on a pool(aka bonus), usually by adding ratings together – for instance, if you’re computer hacking, maybe your pool is Intelligence + Computers, so if your Intelligence is 3 and your Computers is 2, your bonus for the action is 5.  You might also have penalties which will subtract from that pool.  You then generate a random number between 1 and 10(I recommend dice, but hand signs and cards also work).  Add your pool to that number.  If your result is a 9 or higher, then you have succeeded.  For every three above nine, it is an extra success – so 9 is one success, 12 is two successes, 15 is three successes, and so on.  There are two special cases – if you roll a 1, the action automatically fails.  If you roll a ten, roll the die again and add it, with a ten counting as a zero this time (meaning you’ll end up with a die roll of between 10 and 19).

Experience Awards and Experience Spending

To start with at least, I’ll be awarding up to six experience points each month.  Depending on how often some of these points get given out, I might add additional opportunities for experience later on.

• Attendance - You get one point just for showing up to a game.
• Downtime - You get another point for submitting your downtime and doing it on time.  You don't have to be doing anything elaborate, just putting in the effort to keep your character part of the chronicle.
• Set-up and Take-down - You get a point if you help out with both set-up and take-down at the game.  Partially a "helping out" point, and partially a "I was there for the whole game" point.
• In Character, In Theme - For staying consistently in character throughout the game (neither talking OOC in IC areas unless it expressly relates to the IC action, nor spending excessive time OOC) and contributing to the feel of the game.
• 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.

Experience spending works pretty much like in the book, with the exception of buying Arcana, Rotes, and some Merits (mostly those Merits which assist with downtime actions) – those all require a successful downtime action before you can purchase them.

Spending Mana and Willpower

As you can see on your handouts, I’ll be tracking Mana and Willpower for you.  So when you spend a point of Willpower or Mana, let me know so I can mark it down.  Willpower is mainly spent to get a +3 on a non-attack action, and is regained through your Virtue, Vice, or a downtime action.  Mana is mainly spent to fuel spells, and is mainly gained through access to a Hallow during downtime, although expect to see a whole post on Mana and regaining it on the forum soon.

Character Sheets

Today I’ve printed off a copy of every character sheet I have.  Normally though I’ll ask you guys to keep track of your own character sheets, since it seems a waste of time and paper to print them off every game.  You can always e-mail to ask for a copy, though.

Narrators

I will be looking for a couple of Narrators to help me out with the game.  Narrators are people who’ll be expected to know the rules fairly well and be reasonable and level headed people so they can help mediate conflicts when I’m not around.  They’ll also be extra sets of eyes and ears for me, helping me to keep an eye on what is going out on the floor.  They won’t need to give up their characters because they won’t ever be narrating their own scenes, and will in general be kept ignorant of backstory and plot – their concern is just rules and observation.  They’d have to commit to learning the rules we use and at least one meeting a month(probably within a few days after the game) where we can meet as a group and I can get filled in on what happened at the game, partially for purposes of doing XP.  If you are interested in doing such, fire me off an e-mail or otherwise let me know.

What should the game fee be?

Currently the game fee is a strongly suggested donation of $3.  I am considering changing this amount.  $3 pretty much lets me cover expenses, and have a game in a decent paid venue like this one 2-3 times a year, presuming we have an attendance rate of around 15 people.  Moving to $5 would let us afford a bit more in the way of props and such, and have a paid venue just short of every other month.  $10 would let us have a paid venue every month, as well as the extras.  Given no outside guidance, I’d probably go for the $5 fee (if only because it is an easy number), but I’d prefer to here from the player base on this topic.  I’ll be opening up a debate on this subject on the forums to see what people think, but I thought I’d mention it here to get people’s wheels moving. 

In Character Venue – St. Andrew’s College

This Gathering is being held in St. Andrew’s College.  That’s right, the IC and OOC venues are the same.  Blame geomancy.