For those of you who want to come to the New Year's Party I'm at 3801 Brighton, off Waverly near Holmes Rd.

As you come down Waverly Road turn at Kentfield and go one block until it tees at Brighton, my house is the light blue one right across from there.

And for those of you who have other plans HAPPY Y2K!!

When endowed with profound religious feeling, your skin becomes transparent and your blood begins to turn a thin watery hue until the light of the sun streaming in the window passes entirely through you. At last, having evolved into pure spiritual energy, nothing remains of your existence but a small pile of dirty underwear, damp socks, rumpled garments, a driver's license, credit cards and perhaps a small nail clipper. This is what happens when you achieve oneness with the air, with the sky, with the whole world and everything in it. No longer tormented by nagging questions such as the conundrum of imploding ethical systems as expressed in post-war German soup recipes, you feel a sense of ecstatic exhilaration.

You're all crazy ass freaks. It's enough to bring a tear to my eye. *sniff sniff* Happy New Year and blah blah blah to you too ;-)~

If only there were terrorists in southern illinois...*sigh*. For those of you who don't know, I am currently in the cultural wasteland of america; about the only plus of which is that any sort of nuclear or terrorist attack won't be a problem for me here, since there isn't a single damn thing worth destroying. So in conclusion, a merry "fuck you all" to those of you who have somewhere decent (or at least tolerable) to be for new years. Me, I plan on getting drunk and trying to set off explosives. :)

First off, I wish to wish a Happy New Year to all the spins out there in Fortress Larpland! Stay away from those pesky terrorists! Second, I am for the no-bra ruling for females if they are shirtless. Third, I am once again asking if anyone wants to play a wraith (other than Seth. 'cause I know he wants to be one). I would really like to run some Wraith junk if I can get 3 or more players. Fourth, see all of you at Larp in January!

I apologize for my insulting words Mr. Kastor. I hope I did not offend you too much. Perhaps I may be able to make ammends? Let me know. As for you ShadowLord, I am through talking on this board. Please refer to my last posting.

Mr. Wyrmfoe, I assume you refer to me as the "cowarldy leach, hiding behind the trash can." There is a difference between pascifism and cowardice. Know that I fought in the battle at Carthage, along side my great-grandsire Critias, and in the Crusades with many distinguished knights of the period. With the amount of death and suffering I've seen, I only wish to live the rest of my existence in peace. However, Lansing does not seem to be the best place to seek the way to pascify the beast. In any case, I am not the one known as Shadowlord Man....

So one needs to be seen to be present in a given location? One cannot observe the goings-on in a place without giving away his presence? All supernaturals have the capacity to hide themselves.

Gentleman, all problems with me may be brought up to my face. I do not need to hide behind computer screens and alias. I can not give you the location of the new Freehold/Caern but if you need to continue this banter, please see me at Steve Debevics and I am sure we can come to a workable conclussion. However, if you still like to "Talk shit" and not back it up, I would ask for the sanity of the rest of the decent beings that read this page that you e-mail at the address below. Thank you,

Oh, by the way, "S-Man" judging by your grenade comment I can only gather that you were at the battle against the stigmata priests. Since I know everyone who faught in the battle that must mean you are one of the Black Spiral Dancers or the cowardly Leach how hid behind trash cans. Either way, your opinion of me means less than nothing. I would advise silence before you are silenced. Good day.

jason you really should get out more, being so paranoid can't be good for your mental health. but than the rabid wombat does tend to take over for you doesn't it?

Would this annihilating be done honorably, blade to blade or blade to paw, or by you throwing grenades? Garou needing to resort to the tools of the Weaver to do their fighting are pathetic... I have no problems with the rest of the Garou in Lansing, just you, and the rather extravagent statements you make. Underestimating a leech has caused more than one of us our lives.

Shadowlord Man:

It has come to my attention that you may in fact not be a Garou but just some mortal meddling in my affairs. You speak of talk and meetings as if you were a leach. If you were a warrior of Gaia then you would realize how ridiculous your statement was. We do not parley with the Wyrm, nor do we back down from any threats. I will annilate Mr. Dobbs, you or anyone else who threatens me, my Caern/Freehold or my Packmates. Apperently you know a little bit about my kind. Perhaps you have heard of the Glasswalkers? Do not think you are safe from me mearly becaue you are too cowardly to leave your name and e-mail address. My friends can find you, do not give me a reason to discover who you are.

The New Millineum Party will be held at my place New Year's Eve starting at 7pm. BYOB. Regular refreshments will be provided for those unfortunate enough to have been born after 1979.

Events include the 7th annual Midnight Snowball Fight, Y2k Countdown/Toast, 7pm LARP will be "Ghostbusters Y2K" A Hunter/Wraith one shot Story. Attendees are entitled to up to three cheaty points (based on success) to add to their LARP characters.

Merry Christmas!!

Love the website! Check out the other side of the border some time! Click above! Rowena

Heh. Just goes to show why we don't like sidhe. In addition to having no tits and pointed ears, they can't spell. Somehow I doubt you're lord stephan, troll-boy. If you really I are, I don't apologize; learn to type, ya fuck! Either way, call me if you wanna make a meeting. Just don't hog all my air time this time. Jesus Christ, you get some fuckers talking...

corbitt, i have told the PoD that u "rebel" fae r no longer traitors and the matter is resolved. u may return to yer bar or this new place or wherever w/out fear from us or the high courts. id like 2 talk 2 u guys about some sort of agreement between us; im sure we each have more important things 2 worry about than eachother. we also will part company w/ the bsds as soon as we make peace treaties with the other supers in the area. as such, we wish to meet w/ reps from the weres and the vamps 2 iron something out, and ill explain the actions taken by this house up 2 the grim events of weeks ago.

good luck on the new freehold. more glamour in the world is a boon 2 all fae.

"Me big, bad werewolf. Me can solve all problem through fighting... UNGA!!!" Perhaps if you actually sat down and spoke with one intelligent sounding vampire in Lansing, Ms. Wyrmfoe, that huge wall of ignorance would be removed. You know, the one that all Silverfangs seem to have.

what the hell kinda name is Jr. Bob Dobbs anyway? Sounds like one of those people who got the shit beat out of 'em in school, and now is trying to make up for it. "You beat the piss out of me in school, but now little mr. bedwetter is a vampire, so you can't mess with me anymore!" Well, Mr. bedwetter, we got news for ya: we can still beat the shit out of ya. And how do you know what bedlam is? You've obviously violated the changeling "hide away" policy. Looks like you'll have to face the moon catapault to prove if you're worthy. Try not to piss yourself when you're doing it either, fuck head. Its even wussier now that you're one of the angsty folk.

I must ask this question: Bob Dobbs, who the hell are you? I find you remarks against my people offensive. Less intelligence than a rabid wombat? You leaches make me sick, you trade your soul to the wyrm in return for a little power and so called immortality and you have the gaul to question my inteligence? My suggestion for you Dobbs is to shut the hell up before your "Immortality" comes to a quick end.

Blade has been silenced, let him rest in peace. He was acting under the influence of others when he hunted Kindred. Hence, he is not at fault for his actions. Have more respect for the dead. As for the joint caern/freehold of the lupines and fae, we should leave them alone. The Camarilla vampires of Lansing need to focus on the Domain, not other supernaturals. IF the Sabbat are indeed threatening the city, that should be the sole focus of attention. Furthermore, I am removing my presence from the kindred politics of Lansing. However, should Prince Buchannan require my assistance, Cython knows how to contact me.

a name for the joint fairy/puppie kennel? how about "short lived"? for frankly i think your natures will drive you apart. if not "bedlam" would be fitting.

Since my return, i have to wonder who is in control of the city? the "prince" seems to be trading away her power for little gain. Set is gaining a toe hold and the sabbat seem to be planning a come back. What is her response to the joining of the werewolves and faries? that little cabal can not brook well for the masquerade, for all know the pooka are insane; and the puppies have all the self restraint of a rabid wombat, but alas none of the intelligence. when these poltroons cause the kine to become aware of them, what will happen to the childer of caine? the time of gehenna is at hand. Lest we all suffer again from the inquistion we must address these issues. ps whom ever has knowledge of the demise of blade please for the love of nod, let me know his eventual dispostion. for true and accurate knowledge of the events that surrounded his downfall i will be most appreciative.

since my return, i have to wonder who is in control of the city? the "prince" seems to be trading away her power for little gain. set is gaining a toe hold and the sabbat seem to be planning a come back. also what is her response to the joining of the werewolves and faries? that little cabal can not brook well for the masquerade, for all know the pooka are insane and the puppies have all the self restraint of a rabid wombat buit alas none of the intelligence. when these poltroons cause the kine to become aware of them, what will happen to the childer of caine? the time of gehenna is at hand lest we all suffer again from the inquistion we must address these issues. ps whom ever has knowledge of the demise of blad please for the love nod let me know his eventual dispostion. for true and accurate knowledge of the events that surrounded his downfall i will be most appreciative.

"Me Grug no want war, Grug want HUG! No want to fight wyrm, want to love wyrm. Why you people make hurt with weapons? Grug not hurt, Grug like nice people. Grug go now! BIG HUG!!"

Hey everyone! Check out the White Wolf homepage! Click on the photo contest and follow the links to see the pictures they felt were good enough to put up on the Web page. You'll eventually come across a photo of JORDAN! I submitted it for the photo contest and although I didn't win, his pic was still worthy for then to post!

hehhehheh...bout time we got rid of the silly no weapon rules. We in the changeling assasin squad also whole heartedly endorse the "no bra" rules for LARPers (male and female), along with spankings and imprisonment in castle anthrax for those who fail to comply. The only exception should be skippy who must be required to wear a bra with matching panties as his "storyteller ensemble".

This new LARP sounds nifty! I am so there... only if we can add the 'no bra' rule for our female members.....

Also in order to promote realism the following rules changes will be implemented:

1) Weapon props are encouraged. Hopefully this will quickly resolve player arguements and challenges.

2) Players are no longer required to wear pants.

3) A new "Anything Goes" rules format. Want to play a Vamp-Were-Change-Wraith-Hunter with sorcery abilities? Go ahead! It'll be fun for everybody.

4) Downtimes are now worth 89.3 experience per submission. Limit 21 submissions per week.

5) Color Coded Genre Dress Code (CCGDC) Vampires-Red, Werewolves-Yellow, Changelings-Blue. Just like on Star Trek!!

6) Storytellers will each be wearing Walkman Radios instead of walkie talkies. Spontaneous Synchronized Singing and Dancing in the middle of a scene is NOT to be complained about.

7) A new conflict resolution system to replace Rock-Paper-Scissors called Clothesline-Chokehold-Armbar. The Bomb is replaced by The Bodyslam.

8) In order to make the financing of the LARP more equitable we will be replacing the "Pay-To_Play syatem" with a "Pay-To-Test" system. $.25 per blood/rage/gnosis/glamour/willpower spent during the night.

9) Everyone must have an out of character LARP nickname. If you do not have one, random nicknames will be issued by your storyteller.

10) New players must now run "The Gauntlet" before being accepted into the LARP. The Gauntlet consists of whatever the nearest Fraternity is using for a Hazing at that time.

Merry Christmas!!!

No genre wars? What kind of bullshit is that? You weenie vampire and werewolf players need to deal with the fact that the changelings can whoop your asses in a straight up fight. Quit trying to make the game about character development and role-playing; we all know its about killin' thangs and we all know who are the undisputed masters of warfare.

Well, the storytellers got together and discussed at great length the problems we've come across so far and ideas for the LARP in the coming year. Thus, we now bring you:


Rejected LARP Plots For The Year 2000

Characters uncover ancient ultra-powerful artifact which isn't working properly; they must return it to its point of creation to recieve the Full Refund.

Snake Sporks ("Ow! Quit it!")

Evil Grim Mages create giant evil flesh-ball, which then beats out John Engler for the gubernatorial Republican nomination for Michigan.

Strange syrum starts showing up that, when ingested, causes people to bite wig stores.

Squirrels take positions of Alpha, Prince, and Duke. Characters required to bow to their will or die.

ELPD discovers characters using supernatural powers; many fines and citations are given.

Genre Wars!

Garou Jack Webb and wraith Zebulon combine in mystic ritual, forming the uber-powerful "Webbulon".

God Himself comes to Lansing, to smite the power-gamers. ("He's overbidding _again_?")

Changelings return to Arcadia; realize that it's rather quite similar to Frandor.

British armies march through Lansing on holy crusade; characters are powerless to stop them.

"The Supernatural Superbowl"

I added some humorous links from B.J Zanzibar's page to fill in on the Vampire Page until I can get the serious stuff written... the link to it is below.

How 'bout "the angsty commies followers of the 'tater"? That should strike fear in the hearts of our enemies. Oh yeah, and for those of you may be wondering, we fae of this town are still traitors, and still fucking proud of it. If any of you angsty types wanna dine on elf blood, be my guest.

Supernaturals of Lansing,

I arrived in this city a member of a pack, sent to do a job then go home. After many battles and hard lessons I am pleased to say that now I am member of a city. I have lost some friends and some heroes but I have gained much more. For the first time in known history The Warriors of the Dream and The Warriors of Gaia have joined their houses together. This joint Freehold/Caern symbolizes the future, if our people do not learn to cooperage, all shall be lost. I have only been a citizen here in this city for a short time but from what I have heard you have experienced much. 4 Horsemen, Hunters, Fanatical Priests, Parapsychology Departments, Mummies, Pentex, shall I go on? All have tied to destroy you but you have found a way to survive it all. How, by WORKING together. I have decided to stay in a city so strong that it can repel such forces. I am proud to call myself Warder of this joint Caern/Freehold. Yes, a joint Caern/Freehold! Astounding! But what shall we call it my friends? All Septs have names yet ours goes nameless. Let me know if you think of anything. Until the next battle,

Looks cool, man. I'll be looking forward to seeing what you put under some of the links.

Been busy creating a web page for the Vampires...
Vampire: Fortress of the Mind's Eye
...check it out, it's still in the works of course, but I wanted to give a preview. Some links aren't constructed yet.

LARP Quote of the week: "The cairn will NOT be guarded by a potato"----grandfather thunder

WANTED Musicians or bands to play at an upcoming comedy club. 10 dollors an hour for 5 hours five days a week. First two drinks free. Contact Carson AKA Elk Boy if interested.

I have been invited to a christmas party at a friend house tonight so I will be unable to attend LARP. I do not think I will be gone forever but when and if I return I will diffently be playing a character that is not needed every week. Maybe a Gangrel or an Eschu. Who knows? I hope everyone has great luck on their finals and enjoys the holiday season of the 1900's. Talk to you later everyone!

Don't know about the rest of you pansy asses, but I for one am looking forward to tommmorrow. For some reason, weird shit always seems to happen on Saturdays in this fucking town, and somehow (call it my changeling sense) I got a feeling things are gonna come to a head this saturday, for better or worse. I for one am ready to whoop some ass. I've been prepping with the get of fenris all week to kick some holy tail, and I can't wait to sink my teeth (literally) into all these intestinal polyips who think they can bring on the long winter. Bring it, you fucking gonad fungi!!!!! It's on this saturday!

Sorry this is not Larp related:

MISSING PERSON

Ward Donovan. Last seen pimping around in a big ass van several months ago. Answers to the names "Art Whore" and "Flavour Unit" If anybody has any ideas to the whereabouts of said bitch please let me know! (Apparently leaving repeated messages on his answering machine for several days does not work) Seriously, if you read this Ward, call me man!

I can't go to Toronto when I'm posting as I'm in class being bored, so there!

Mike! You're pitiful! Quit posting on here and go out and see Toronto for Christ's sake!

I'd say things went to purgatory, but were allowed an electric fan.

"straignt to hell" is a bit harsh. "straight to downtown Lansing" might be better....

Greetings. Ms. Argo has asked me to apologize for her absence from the city last Saturday, but clan matters of pressing importance demanded her presence elsewhere.

I hope someone will be kind enough to outline the events of the last few weeks for us. Please do so in email, since most of the readers of this bulletin board already know what has transpired (and since this is a rather too-public forum for discussing matters touching on the Masquerade). I am particularly curious as to what has befallen the Garou; there seems to be much upheaval amongst them.

[OOC: What the f***, guys?!? Vanessa and I leave town for a week and everything goes straight to hell? The Curse of the East Lansing LARPs strikes again!]

Greetings from Toronto! I'm sorry to see Pyle leave the larp, but sometimes people get burned out. I hope Pyle will not be leaving larp forever and will be back soon.

I dont know about the rest of you, but I'm still hoping that some people will reconsider and continue to play things through. If bad feelings go beyond the downtime thing then I didn't know about them. Maybe we can invite those people to the storyteller meeting (whenever that is) to air it out.

Over the years I've seen vampires, come and vampires go. Werewolves killed in battle and at war with the wyrm. Ghosts, ghouls, and fae spirits all abound from Grand Ledge to Okemos. But I never thought I'd see Pyle disappear from the LARP.

Sometimes even the Watchers are surprised!

Well, if you guys all wanna take a break, this summer i was thinking of trying to runa Star Trek or Starwars Larp, which iu thoguth would be a different swing for everyone, and something we could have fun with, let me know.

: sighs : so much for that

*shrug* that's up to the vampires and the vampire ST to decide whether to enforce, and if so, to what level. Too much enforcement, and we have a routine loss of characters to the beast practically every night. Too little, and characters can do anything without restriction. In the end its a matter of taste, not specific rules.

One thing that I've seen that I think isn't being enforced, and hasn't been since I've participated at Fortress, is loss of Humanity for the vampires. As to why the Seneschal Gangrel hasn't been lost to the beast yet is a mystery to me. When you order someone to be killed, you have to at least engage in a challenge to see if you lose humanity, and the list goes on... Hey, where'd all the Lupines go???

I have recently been reminded what made me stop larping for awile. I went back to revive a dead genre that I enjoy and to spend time on Saturdays with my friends. Now small difficulties come up and the genre seems to be dying again. I will be at LARP next Saturday to finish my characters buisness. After the LARP session I wont be back for a long time. I will miss hanging out with you guys but I need to be able to do that with out stupid petty B.S. I much rather spend my Saturday nights hanging out at a bar or going to see a movie then deal with this stuff anymore. I would like to thank all the the players, old and new, for helping bring about a silly idea to have a LARP in a comic book shop into the success it is today. It has been great fun and I have loved most of it, but I just feel like as with most things in life, there is a time when you just have to move on. Please keep in touch, I am going to miss you guys! See you next Saturday,

Mark: I can see your point, but you say something in your post that I don't think you are even seeing. You're right, it's only a game. It's suppose to be FUN. But when it's not fun anymore, then I'm not wasting my time on Saturday night. Not only do I have to pay ALOT of money to get a babysitter, it's one of the few nights that Aaron and I have babyfree. When it's becomes more frustrating then fun, I would rather spend my energies elsewhere. You only heard bits and pieces of what the problems are. I can deal with in character nonsense and bullshit, but when you start to have problems with the gameplay itself, then it's time to move on. We didn't say we were leaving LARP altogether, just possabily moving to another genre. I want to play a layered, deep character that's more then pencil and paper scribblings without getting screwed for completely out of game things. I'm sorry things didn't work out with the Garou, but I've been in enough LARPs to know that that's just the nature of LARP.

I don't take larp too seriously. It is a game and part of a game is that it be enjoyable and fun. When folks start doing things in or out of character that takes away the enjoyment, it makes you less likely to want to continue either in the character you had or the larp as a whole. We've had one player leave because he thought he was being spun so hard that the game was no longer fun (whether or not he was really spun that hard is immaterial, he felt he was wronged and that's all that really matters). I am not one to stay in a position that I don't enjoy and don't want to get involved in either in or out of character. So therefore, I leave and go somewhere where I can once again enjoy the game. It's a matter of taking my enjoyment seriously, not the larp itself.

An Issue has come up and well, i dont speak a whole lot on here, but i will speak about this. This is 100% OCC. I feel that alot of people are taking larp way to serious. I just recently made a Garou, hoping to join this hudge Garou pack, now just like it did before its falling apart at the seems, everyone needs to just chill out, its a game. One thing happens someone doesnt like everyone takes sides, scraps there character and makes something new. Come on people, this is suppost to be a fun enjoyable thing we do on saturdays. Im just hoping we can all just bury the hatchet and keep the Garou all together, team work is the key here, yes character dont have to agree all the time but we could start working together making this new Carun or how ever u spell it, something cool. Something where we all work as one, working on a common goal. All of you are great people, and im having a blast so far with larp. I drive about a total of 4 hours ( their and back ) to larp every saturday. I thank Pyle and Skippy for bringing me into Larp at Origins. SO what ya all say, lets give it one more shot next saturday, all us Garuo work together before the break, and get some stuff done. If you gusy wanna kill shit rather than each other, kill leechs, there a common fly and they just multiply anyways. Hope fully next saturday we can all get some shit done. Thanks ( just kidding Vamps ) :)

Well, there would be a simple solution: namely to have people come in earlier (6 or 6:30) for downtime. If the STs were willing, that would give us plenty of time for downtime, and would eliminate this problem. Honestly, how much time is it going to take for the majority of downtime? Most of it is going to be simple stuff that takes 2 or 3 minutes to go over; the rest of the time could be spent on the one or two big downtimes. Or, as a compromise alternative, we could institute a simple rule requiring downtime affects other players directly, and isn't a joint action (like teaching someone something, or investigating something together) be submitted ahead of time. That way a) the ST core knows ahead of time about things that will affect the other players and can plan around them, and b) players won't have to worry about making sure their downtimes are in by X time just so they can get an extra level of physics or buy soft toliet paper for their apartments. It would also eliminate some of the time for the ST meetings, if what Pyle said about the time spent on downtime in the meetings still holds true for this group.

Going over downtime at the beginning of the game would take longer, becuase as it is now, the ST's already have what you did over the week, all they have to do is tell you what happened. You don't have to tell them what you did and have them tell you what happened prior to the game. I don't see how this wouldn't take any longer than it does now. Anyway, I don't want to have half an hour where I don't roleplay. I want the full 5 hours. As for rules relating to downtime, while there aren't any formal rules for it, there are guidelines for it on page 198 of Laws of the Night, Revised...

Thanks for all the input, the issue has been discussed at the storyteller meeting and the policy will be outlined in the announcements. I hope you will find it liberal enough without letting players run rampant over each other and the storytellers out of play.

You say doing downtime at the begging of larp would take up too much time? Doesn't your storyteller go over each downtime with each player at the start of larp anyway? What is the change? I know, not having to worry about a game during your week, that's a change. If downtime was handled in the first half hour of LARP, all these problems about characters "Not doing anything for a week" just because a downtime wasn't submitted would be eliminated. Other LARPs do it and it works fine. As for influence, it was designed to be spent during game play. Remember, LARP was never designed to be a week to week game, it was designed to be a once a month game or a convention game. That is were the majority of the downtime problems come from, this game ain't designed for it. I challenge anyone to show me "Rules" for downtime in any LARP book. However, the issue of downtime will be decided by the current Storyteller Corpse and I will stand by that decision. I think the best part about this LARP is a forum like this were problems can be discussed. See everyone on Saturday!

I agree with Lisa. As it is, we hardly ever start on time. Just think of how playing time would be reduced if the ST's had to go over whatever X player did or bought. They usually have to do this to a point as it anyway. At least the ST's don't require downtime. Two of the games I've participated in required downtime to RECEIVE XP, not just spend it.

Just something small on the DT issue...

I think that the DTs help out the St's. I mean..this way there is a "written" record of who did what and bought what...And to try to take care of all of this at the start of LARP would be a HUGE headache for them and a lot of time spent sitting around for the rest of us. I dont come to LARP to sit.. I come to RP. Maybe there can be a compromise and have them in on thursday before LARP since the meetings are on Friday? That gives them 1 day and the meeting to make plans based on what everyone is doing. Thanks for listening.

Lisa

Bah, speak for yourself Erg. We fae do lots of constructive things, like eating stuff and lying a lot. Besides, eating a police chief wouldn't be much fun...it'd be a lot more interesting to flicker-flash him into the sun. But that's irrelevant. The only relevant thing is how to resolve this situation, and that's simple: a mouth vs. brains test. Of course, the bomb can be thrown if either opponent can reliably demonstrate that they are in possession of a mental trait.

Neither... For the Garou, eating humans is breaking the Litany. Vampires(in general, I can't speak for some) are intelligent enough to know killing the police chief would mean some already ghouled chief would replace him. As far as the fae go on the matter, they're more concerned with doing nothing constructive.

A theoretical question. Player A submits a downtime on Monday saying he ate the chief of police, but does not specify a time for having done so. Player B sends in a downtime on Wednesday saying he ate the chief of police, but specifically states he did it on Sunday. Which player gets a tasty pork sandwich?

Well on downtimes. I think that they are important. I mean without it, how do you handle influence wars, gaining and holding of influence. Performing certain rituals, and several other things. I mean part of haveing infulence is describeing how you keep those people loyal, and also how you gained it in the first place and who they are. If you want to spend a few hours every game session running this out ok...I suppose it could work, but would prevent much else from happening and we would need several storytellers, all working at once...and how would they decide who got to the cheif of police or some such first? If I put in my downtime I did it on thursday, and someone else did it on Sunday...they beat me to the punch but I dont know they did. If we dont have downtime how is all that decided? And if you wanna run keeping your influences up, paying all your bribes feeding all your ghouls and what not...again that would take hours...Maybe for Werewolfs, or Fae, who as far as I can tell dont have much influence, or at least dont start with much at character creation and may not buy them, this isnt a problem...but for Vampires it is...I mean just running Kafir alone through keeping up with his downtime would be almost impossible without a good deal of time set aside. Downtime allows for this, and gives the Storytellers time to decide who won out in what area and such. Also it allows them to keep track of who controls who and how they control them. Pluss its a good way to justify experience:). As for the date its due thats up to them...I agree I dont see why it cant be due the day before rather than Wed but if thats what the storytellers want thats what they get...They volunterred for this job. We arnt paying them so why should we presume to tell them when they can do things? The more time you put into the larp the more incentive's you should have...And Im sorry these guys run our larp, and deal with it alot more then any player has too. If all they are requesting is a downtime for our characters, and to have it in by Wed thats not that bad. Maybe Im wrong Im human so I have a possiblity of error. But its how I feel after reading all these posts. See you all Saturday I hope.

Hey, I just want to add that I don't want antone to lose too much prespective on this downtime thing. This ia not a LARP destroying issue like some of us have seen in the past, nor is this a reason for friendships to be tossed callously aside. This is a game. I have my reasons for not playing this week that are related to administrative policies of that game, but I am not angry at anyone at all. And, whatever relationship a player or Storyteller may have to this topic I suggest that they not lose sight of this either. I have seeen frindships destroyed over LARPs before andthis is not aomething that should happen over this. In the heirarchy of LARP problems, this is small stuff. If you don't believe me use "Truth Of Gaia!" on me.

Here is something off the Downtime subject. Mark has made a web site for the Garou players but I say all are welcome to check out a superior genre. The address is http://userdata.acd.net/emce/. Feel free to post something!

My two cents on downtime (boy these pennies are really adding up):

Even though the only day we can get together is on Friday, I'd still rather have downtime in earlier. Each of you individually may not have the time to write it up for a few days and run into problems and put it off, but think about the storyteller corp who all of the sudden, one day before the LARP has to go through all the downtimes and come up with decent replies. If they come in on Friday, chances are you're going to see much more "I didn't have a chance to go through them." than already is happening. Not to mention having to take care of all the experience in one day.

With that said, if all you are doing is summarizing experience I dont have a problem with it being late, though I'm sure others might since they are more into keeping track of it than I am. (I do keep track of it by the way, I just do it with a less time consuming method). Still, it's something to discuss, and we'll take it up at the meeting tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have news at the LARP.

I agree with Mike. Speaking as a storyteller for 3 years, downtime had very little to do with plot development. Most of the time it was dealing with player ego's and silly requests. My downtime for my current player consists of only justification for experience point expenditure. As I stated earlier, all of this could be done before LARP started. As for the experience award, I created it as an incentive for people to actually do downtime. I wanted character created plot. It never worked. Most people don't do downtime and those who do make it stupid. I still say get rid of it.

How is it harder for an ST to come up with the results of a surveillance than coming up with any other plot device? And you wouldn't have your street thugs trying to rough up a PC during downtime either. Most people either used downtime to spend experience or do really stupid spinny stuff (I am reminded of many load guffaws at a certain squirrel's downtime, or Rafe's ever popular Hang out at the Vu) that can be done in five minutes at larp. And as for the 1/3 exp, we had a hard time keeping track of it and I don't see any indication that the current corps is doing any better.

Eliminating downtime might cause more problems. Its hard to ask an ST to have them come up what happened with a week long survelliance of a corporate building, or how your street thugs are doing after attempting to rough up some weak neonate or cub on the spot. Attempting to kill a PC during the week is rather absurd. The other player has no chance to react. There are benefits to doing downtime. You can receive additional information you couldn't get otherwise and what not, not to mention the 1/3 XP bonus.

I hate the concept of downtime, always have. It has always been misused ("I kill the Ratkin in my downtime") and misunderstood. When I was storyteller I tried many times to element downtime. I hated dealing with it, hated the fact that it took about 2 hours of a storyteller meeting time to discuss it. Then I hear about this crap. Why do we have downtime anyway? Is it REALLY important that a storyteller knows that your charter during the week is having tea with Mr. Policeman? NO! Especially since this is a game played once a week. Why should people have to give up time during the week to write done what an imaginary character was doing? The only thing useful about downtime is spending experience points. As I have stated in the past experience points could be spent during a downtime period before each LARP. Other groups have done it this way and it has worked fine. Experience points awards should, like table top, be given out IMMEDIANTLY after the LARP, not thought about during a week later. How can the events of a LARP still be fresh after a week or in this case two weeks? This LArp was pounded as a Larp for the player's and I'm sad to see concerns of the players ignored like this. Something has to be done. My suggestion is to eliminate Dumb time all together.

It may not be that hard to do downtime by Wednesday, as the Bomb says, but some of us live in the real world and may not think to do the downtime or have other things that force us to put the downtime aside. When I used to work for EDS, it was common at times to have to work late for several days in a row, so if I had downtime, I couldn't do it. Maybe an extra day or two won't help, but it can't hurt.

Sometimes people forget about doing downtimes right away, or simply put it off. If someone forgets their own downtime, I agree, its their own fault; however, this particular instance involved another player who submitted their down time well ahead of the deadline but is now being punished because someone else did not. While I agree that the player who did not submit their downtime shouldn't expect special concessions for their own character, it hardly seems fair for another player to be punished, especially when the tardy downtime was going to be limited to only allowing this other player to complete their plans. As for the time when downtime is due, thats up to the STs; obviously, it seems rather pointless to have it due on Wednesdays when the meetings are fridays, but that's up to the ST core to decide.

This may ruffle a few feathers, but I don't see the problem with doing a downtime being submitted at the required time eventhough the ST's have their meetings on a different day. Perhaps they want to go over each one prior to the meeting to get ideas, or maybe they want to correspond with the players before the meetings. Is it really that hard to send an E-Mail with FOUR days of leeway inbetween? I know I'm going to get a good for you reply to this, but every game I've attended since I started participating in this game had its downtime to the ST by the next day. IT ISN'T THAT DIFFICULT.

There seems to be confusion and folks being upset over downtime. I just want to clear something up to the current storyteller core about the downtime due date that's in the rules. I have heard it said, that the "old" storyteller core made the rules... but they were that way for a reason. Downtime was due Wed by the time Fortress closed, because that's when we had our actual storyteller meeting. If we would have had our meetings on a different day, the downtime would have been due on the day we had our meeting. Also, we allowed e-mailed downtime up until the point when we actually had the meeting. So, if we had our meetings at 9pm Wed, you could e-mail downtime until then. Now I understand you as the storytellers are going to uphold and make your own rules, and you should also know that you can change the rules. But before you follow the old rules, I thought it best if you understood why they were the way they were.

Redcap Moonshine? Hmm... bring it by and I'll drink your ass under the table!

As I understand it the Storyteller meetings are on Friday. Yet the downtime collection is Wednesday at close of Fortress. Because of this policy I and another player who does not even realize it yet have been screwed out of a downtime. Our charcters have apparently been in a vegetative state for 2 weeks despite her having submitted a downtime. I protest this policy of not accepting downtime after Wed despite the Frday ST meeting time. I will do this by simply not being at LARP on Saturday. It may not be much, but it is all a player can do. There are no challenge cards on policy.

Beer? Bah, that's pussy shit! I've got some homemade brew here that's loads better. Its my patented Redcap moonshine, best hard liquor in the world. I should really give some to the duchess. I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

Lady Selena, you openly mention that you have Black Spirals guarding your property and you want us to treat you with respect. When we happened to be near your property to have a little fun with the Ratkin, your people shoot at us with flaming arrows and you want us to be your friend. As I recall, we went nowhere near your gates. Is this how you deal with people who take their constitutionals near your property? Remind me to never go jogging around your neighborhood. If you want to deal with us, you must be prepared to offer us respect. The "rebellious fae", as you call them, may be incredibly insane, but they have not given us any disrespect. I suggest that as a token of your respect for us, you dismiss your wyrm eaten Black Spirals.

Nan, that was a lovely bit of poetry. Almost makes me feel sorry for the leeches, almost. Keep up the good work. BTW, did you like the suits I bought for your people?

Corbitt: I get it, they are alot like our Silver Fangs! Don't know about the no tits thing. Maybe you ought to direct her to a good plastic surgeon. Either that, or just two huge grapefruits and a gift certificate to Victoria's Secret! Thanks for the info. Maybe we should get together and have a beer sometime! We can exchange information about our pretentious governments and ruling peoples! It'll be fun!

Kindred of Lansing, it appears that a matter of some importance has come up at Alamut, and so I must depart the city for a short time. I will return when the skies run red with blood, which, contrary to Father Ely's beliefs, will happen in the near future. I pray for your sakes that you will ignore his pretentious religious babbling and prepare yourselves. Until we meet again, all honor to your names. Fare thee well.

Here, Nan, lemmee give you a crash course in fairie lore. Sidhe: Like elves, only dumber and more pretentious. Parliment of Dreams: Like a normal governmental body, only dumber and more pretentious. In addition, its run by sidhe. Noble Sidhe houses: Like medieval noble houses, only dumber (except for Scathach, which aside from one members inability to see the stupidity inherent in fighting a werewolf when one is already wounded, are alright folks). House Balor: Like other sidhe houses, only dumber. In addition, they wanna be vampires (oooooh, look at me! I'm dark and angsty, this fairy life is soooooo tragic!) but can't pull it off due to their pointy ears and the fact that even the bloodsuckers don't want people this fucking stupid in their ranks. Lady Selena: Like a normal woman, but with no tits. Hope this helps Nan!!!!!

Betsy was a stupid girl...

She put dirt in her eye...

Betsy would put marbles in her butt...

Then her mother would have to take her to the hospital.

One night a vampire came into Betsy's bedroom & turned her into a vampire.

Betsy was a stupid vampire.

She thirsted for blood.

She bit a tree.

She bit a wig store.

She bit the statue of a woman with a clock where her stomach ought to be.

She bit poo...

Betsy laid down on the sidewalk to die but alas, death would not come, as she had already joined the ranks of the undead...

Morning came & Betsy turned to ashes.

Her mother didn't care.

THE END!

Corbitt: Well okay. To tell you the truth you can't be scared of something that you have no idea what the fuck it is. ohh...ohh... I'm shaking. Not the parliment of dreams! Sounds like a chic ice cream palor or something. And the sidhe... they sound very scary.... all i know is the fae are fucking out of their minds. I deal with enough craziness, don't know if I really want to get involved in this one.

Riiiiiight...you had the interests of newt at heart. Which is why she hates ya all and can barely talk 'cause of the fear your lack of tits put in her. BTW wolfies, don't listen to her fucking bullshit about "I have the backing of the parliment of dreams and therefore all of changeling society blah blah blah blah", its bullshit. What little miss "I wanna an innie and and outie all in one" didn't tell ya is that no one listens to the sidhe anyway. We just let 'em run around claiming lordship and all that because then they go off to their councils and battle schools and other stupid pointy-eared daisy eater bullshit and leave us commoners alone. So don't be worried about a changeling army coming to kill you guys; the only people who are likely to show up are sidhe, and the only thing those guys are good at is manifesting latent homosexual tendencies and eating fucking daisies. They can't fight worth shit; that's what the redcaps and to a lesser degree the trolls are for.