Please Read - Crestfallen LARP 5/19/24 Event Update
Hello everyone, it has been an emotional week following an emotional event. I wanted to write this message sooner, but have had difficulty finding the words.
During the course of the event, we had a breakdown in our safety procedures and responses. A good portion of this was caused by the heat and humidity. Tensions ran high and disputes occurred on multiple levels. Because of this, I feel it is necessary to go over the systems we have and the people we have in place to deal with these issues before they grow larger than we can handle.
During game play we currently have 2 PC side staff members (Chaz and Matt) and 3 NPC side staff members (Myself, Dade, and Brittney). The PC side staff are great points of contact for general disputes or rules questions, while the NPC staff are who need to be contacted with stating/plot based issues. Any of us can be approached if there are problems or questions, and if we do not have an answer, we can better direct you. This is a very new game and our staff is small. We would love to bring other players on board, but our focus was to show people the game and world that I love and see if others would enjoy it as well.
While the game is running, all players are empowered to call a PAUSE in order to ask rules questions if they seem to be dangerous or starting to cause problems overall. During this event there were noted problems with players forgetting the flurry rule and firearms (reload and aim) rules. These caused issues on the PC and NPC side and we will be reviewing these rules more carefully for the next couple of events to help assist. There were also a number of valid questions regarding use of powerful effects such as Haymaker and Unblockable on the Gnoll cards. The issue we had not run into before was the possibility that a Haymaker attack landed but was continued to be called for additional swings. It is difficult to PCs to know if it is a new use of the skill or not. It was also questioned if characters may switch targets with the three swings (this is acceptable). It was ultimately determined that these skills would be reduced to one attack on the NPC side to help balance out the fact that NPCs get additional resets compared to PC rest time.
In addition to calling a PAUSE to fix errors that are seen on the whole, there are a number of policies and safety mechanics that are in place to help deal with issues before they escalate. The "Look Down" and "Ok Check In" are used when players are upset to the point of being fed up to escape a stressful situation and cool off before talking to someone.
For transparency sake, if there are disputes between players, we would ideally like to hold a mediated conversation between parties so that everyone is aware of any issues, resolutions, and is on the same page. Not every person is ok with such mediation, but we will always try our best to be open with such things between the parties. This is ideal to minimize "he said, she said" style disagreements.
To help deal with these situations and other items that were discussed in the survey, we will be working on implementing the following.
1) Additionally trained staff/players with the Desk/Folder system 2) 2 Hour NPC shifts 3) Getting the list of townsfolk NPCs done (my fault) 4) Additional Monster Manual clarifications 5) Additional NPC training (voluntary) 6) Flurry Rule/Firearm Rule review 7) Review Ok Check in/Look Down 8) Be more clear on Staff interaction at game 9) Monster Ability Cool Downs 10) Respawn distance discussion and clarification 11) Adding additional rules marshals (Dade and other interested parties.
I also want to thank the new players on PC and NPC side that came out to Crestfallen this weekend. It was a difficult one and I didn't get as much time to talk or interact with you on deeper levels due to being pulled many directions at once. I hope the next event is a bit calmer and I can work closer with you.
Overall, I want to give my own personal apology. While I have been the owner of Crestfallen and previously owned a "National based LARP chapter", I have been out of practice being the sole owner of a game for a long while. There are a number of excuses I could make, but I will own the fact that I should be on top of as much as I can and need to push myself to do more and do better. There were breakdowns and people fell through the cracks. I take responsibility for that. My hope by reviewing these items is that moving forward everyone will be empowered to help make this a more friendly and safer game. No game is perfect or fully safe, but how we react after looking at everything and taking a hard look at ourselves is the important part.
I think that is all for my emotional part.... Can we talk about some good things?
This was the first event that we have run with Brittney running the helm. There were some bumps, but she worked super hard and the story went over very well. From the surveys, many players were drawn in to the story and had emotional ties to what occurred throughout the weekend. Some of the overarching plot really drew people in well and I truly loved the experimental/research Sundays that have been developing. Over the course of the edits and juggling of the event, I feel we told a very open and dynamic story that built off of the players emotions and ideas. I loved seeing the sparks in players eyes as they tried new things and the acting out of the hopelessness and feeling of despair of the wake style round table.
I am very thankful that people are taking my unorthodox world and story to heart and buying in to the stories that we are trying to tell.
Next week we will be posting the synopsis from this event (all players can use as in game knowledge) as well as a teaser for the following event. The UNDEAD will be rising once again to harrow the players and retrieve what was stolen. Best make use of it while you can!
Thank you all for reading this super long update and I hope to see you or hear from you soon!
Beren Crestfallen LARP