Special Events

Special Events
Terminology
Term Name:	Feb Feast
Description:	A special event run during winter break yearly. Items are auctioned during it to raise funds for game.
Abbreviation or Synonyms:	FF, Feast, Novitas New Year
Rule Type:	Out-of-Game

Throughout the year we run a variety of non-standard events. Some of these occur yearly and others only happen periodically.

Feb Feast

Every year during the winter break a special event known as Feb Feast is held, while traditionally it has always been held in February (thus the name), it is sometimes held in January.

Feb Feast is an out-of-character social event that allows the community to gather and meet each other outside of the game. During each Feb Feast we also auction, raffle and sell a variety of special items to raise funds for the game.

This is traditionally a wet event, which means it cannot be held at Camp Kingsley. Generally, a hotel or similar venue will be booked for it. The date for the event will be announced each year during the November or December preceding. Pre-registration for Feb Feast is almost always required due to catering needs. The fee for Feb Feast can be higher than a normal event as well, depending on the site it takes place at.

Winter Weekend (Deep Winter Events)

This is the only event typically held in the middle of winter. Generally held in February or March, when the game site is often snowy and quite icy. To account for this we cut the event down to only 2 shifts, with an increased focus on personal story for characters or groups. Clean up takes place on what would normally be 3rd shift, and an in-character feast is held in place of 4th shift.

Not every player enjoys the snowy weather so turn out for this event can be significantly lower than other events. This is expected, and gives the Game Masters an easier time focusing on telling stories for the players who do attend.

April Events

In the month of April Game Masters are given extra permission to run plots that can lean on the sillier side. This isn't to say that serious plots aren't also run in April (or that joke plots don't get run outside of April), but April is the month you can expect to see the best joke plots get pulled out. In recent years effort has been taken to limit the number of joke plots that break the fourth wall, but they do happen from time to time.

Julybilee

Every campsite we've ever been hosted at has run Summer Camp activities for kids during the month of July, meaning that we can't have an event at the same time. This isn't the worst thing considering the heat of the month and the layers of garb and equipment we all carry.

During the transition to Kingsley from the site we were at prior to that there was no June event that year, and so we had a big picnic to take its place which we termed the "Junebilee". It was so popular we've made it into a yearly tradition and moved it to July so that it was during the off month.

This event is organized by the Player Outreach and Education staff and [=Feb Feast items are typically offered as well. Expect event details to be announced for this around April of each year, or earlier if we expect issues with booking.

Harvest Fest (August Events)

Harvest Fest is a special event where two shifts (2nd and 3rd) are used for every single player to be playing their player character. Players who do not have characters yet can play townsfolk so they can also enjoy the festivities. Each player group typically volunteers to run a carnival style game and are given prizes to award to the winners of that event. Harvest Fest prizes are epic items that only have magic properties for one year.

Past games run include: trivia contests, Simon says games, archery contests, tag bag throwing matches, obstacle courses and more. Just about anything where there is a clear winner, that is done in roughly 30 minutes works.

Each year there is also a fighter's tournament with custom rules to balance the field in order to allow everyone to participate.

Harvest Fest has traditionally been held in the Fall in the past, but is now being held yearly in August to try to make the hottest month of the year a little more relaxed.

Players will PC as normal for one of either 1st or 4th shift, with a special shift balance made by logistics for just the one event.

Dungeon Crawl

A dungeon crawl event is a special event run periodically, every few years. Players in groups of typically 10 will explore a dungeon (with walls built of plastic sheeting) full of monsters and traps. The layout of the dungeon is fairly static because of how challenging it can be to set up, but the content of the dungeon (the narrative and what monsters are inside) will be different for each group.

At a dungeon crawl all players must temporarily work in groups, even those who are normally independent will join a group for the event.

Dungeon crawls will replace a normally scheduled event, typically the September or October event. A dungeon crawl is unlikely to occur in the same year as a Castle Siege event. Dungeon Crawls generally require pre-registration and may have a higher than normal event fee to cover the cost of setting up the dungeon.

These events do not happen every year both to keep them special, and because they are a GREAT DEAL of extra work for the staff to plan and execute, not to mention quite expensive.

Castle Siege

A Castle Siege is a special event run periodically every few years where we rent out a paint ball site such as EMR event park and take advantage of the wood castles built there to tell a story involving large scale mass combat.

Castle Siege events will typically replace an existing normal event, typically the September or October event. A Castle Siege event is unlikely to take place in the same year as a Dungeon Crawl. Castle Sieges generally require pre-registration and may have a higher than normal event fee to cover the cost of setting up the venue.

November Events

Every year Halloween is a great source of new props for our game. The Props Marshal will typically put out a want list of things they are hoping to acquire on sale from Halloween vendors during post Halloween clearance sales. It is also very common for there to be double experience value for cash donations made between October and November to help us take advantage of these sales.

While there is no in-game tradition to run anything specific for Halloween, many Game Masters do take the opportunity to flex their creativity and do something unusual or spooky with things they find because of the season.

December Events

As the last event of the year which is then followed by a 2-4 month break, many Game Masters will wrap up some of their ongoing plots. There's nothing sadder than seeing a plot people are engaged with wither and die because everyone forgot the details over Winter break. Not every plot will be wrapped up at this time, but generally smaller ones that are unlikely to be recalled will end by this month at the latest. If you don't think your adventuring group is going to continue to stay together over the winter break it's a good idea to let any Game Masters running ongoing plots for you know this so that they can wrap them up accordingly.

References

Feb Feast Items

Every year the game holds several fundraisers to support it. People who make donations are given special items known as 'Feb Feast' items. These items have a variety of special, often unique abilities. It is not unusual for these items to playtest new mechanics that rules wants to put into the game on a trial basis.

The Feb Feast item type is applied to most items acquired during fundraising events regardless of if the event happens in February or not. It's just the name that has stuck.

All Feb Feast items have certain specific traits.

• The items' owner can replace the prop at any time between events.
  • Some items still require certain features in all suitable props. For example blue bags are a certain size, a replacement prop cannot be any bigger.
• The item can be transferred between the owner's player characters.

Feb Feast items purchased before 2023 have these properties as well:

• If the item is stolen from its owner it must ALWAYS be returned to them at the end of the event.
  • When loaned to another character then stolen from them the item will permanently lose all Feb Feast properties.
• If the item is permanently transferred to someone else it loses all Feb Feast properties.

Feb Feast items purchased during or after 2023 have these rules:

• This item may never be loaned to another player's character, or looted.

Events

Shifts

Categories: Out-of-Game Rules | Work Groups