obcidian_bandit
Pioneer
I've got good news and bad news for all.
The good news is that we had around 80 people at the February event! That's awesome! I'd really like to be having 100 person events, and we're on track to do that within the next year I think. I know our numbers were a little higher than average because it was a 3-day event, and we had a freakin' dragon, but we've been having a steadily climbing playerbase for the last while, which means that everyone has been doing a really good job of bringing in new players, which is the best thing you can do for the chapter. Keep up the good work!
The bad news is that if we have 80 people at this event, we can't fit them all on site. The April game is at Brooks Memorial State Park ELC, which only sleeps 72. Now, since it's not a three day (and we don't have a dragon this time, sorry guys) I don't expect that we'll actually have 80 people, but I do expect 50-60 or so. Since every cabin sleeps 10, if we save one cabin for modules, we'll hit capacity at 60 (if we get more than 60, we won't be able to save one, but otherwise we always like to have a module cabin). Since we need to split the PCs and the NPCs, this leaves us 2 cabins for NPC sleeping (and we'll need both for sure) and 4 for PCs (exactly the same way that Oregon uses the site layout).
That's it, 4 cabins. This might mean that not every group that normally has their own cabin at some of our larger sites can have one to themselves. There are a number of groups that frequently stay together at Sheppard (because the cabins are so huge), and I want to encourage everyone to do the same at this site. We can't have a cabin with only 3 people in it and have everyone have a place to sleep OOG. Please try to figure out how many people will be in your cabin ahead of time so that you can figure out how much open space you'll have and work with another group so that groups don't get split up. If your group is only going to be 4 people, try to find a group that's only going to have 5-6 people, and go in on a cabin together. If it works out that we have an open cabin, we're going to set it up as an "Inn" for individuals and very small groups (2-3 people). If the opposite happens and we get really close to capacity, you might be asked to house an extra person in your cabin if you have space.
From personal experience, I know that the cabins can sleep up to 12 if you pack people in really tight and put two people on the floor (bring an air mattress!). I believe that most of the beds are mobile in the PC cabins, so you can change the layout of the room if you need to (but all of the bunks have to be back where they started at the end of the event). If your group is bigger than 10, you can still probably cram in another person or two.
In Game, Wards are in South Millbrooke (the location of the event) are illegal. Out of Game, if you decide to put up a Ward, you'll be allowed to use a tapestry wall as a boundary and only Ward "your half" of the cabin, following all of the rules for Warding an area (one entrance, outside Ward has to go up before an inside Ward, etc). Make sure you have marshal notes on your cabin, and probably a nice sketch of what defenses are where.
Remember that this is a location that no events have been held at, so we shouldn't have a problem with anyone thinking that one of the cabins is "theirs" when setting things up. There is at least one group that I know of that has a full cabin already, and if there are more then that, let me know, and we'll try to make sure that at least that many cabins are left alone until a member of the group shows up. If you're on site early, don't just throw your stuff in an empty cabin, try to figure out where you're going to be ahead of time or find a group that knows they won't fill their cabin, and bunk there. Hopefully this way we'll prevent any problems of people getting stuck in cabins with characters they don't trust or big groups getting split in half because a small group set up in every cabin before they got there.
The good news is that we had around 80 people at the February event! That's awesome! I'd really like to be having 100 person events, and we're on track to do that within the next year I think. I know our numbers were a little higher than average because it was a 3-day event, and we had a freakin' dragon, but we've been having a steadily climbing playerbase for the last while, which means that everyone has been doing a really good job of bringing in new players, which is the best thing you can do for the chapter. Keep up the good work!
The bad news is that if we have 80 people at this event, we can't fit them all on site. The April game is at Brooks Memorial State Park ELC, which only sleeps 72. Now, since it's not a three day (and we don't have a dragon this time, sorry guys) I don't expect that we'll actually have 80 people, but I do expect 50-60 or so. Since every cabin sleeps 10, if we save one cabin for modules, we'll hit capacity at 60 (if we get more than 60, we won't be able to save one, but otherwise we always like to have a module cabin). Since we need to split the PCs and the NPCs, this leaves us 2 cabins for NPC sleeping (and we'll need both for sure) and 4 for PCs (exactly the same way that Oregon uses the site layout).
That's it, 4 cabins. This might mean that not every group that normally has their own cabin at some of our larger sites can have one to themselves. There are a number of groups that frequently stay together at Sheppard (because the cabins are so huge), and I want to encourage everyone to do the same at this site. We can't have a cabin with only 3 people in it and have everyone have a place to sleep OOG. Please try to figure out how many people will be in your cabin ahead of time so that you can figure out how much open space you'll have and work with another group so that groups don't get split up. If your group is only going to be 4 people, try to find a group that's only going to have 5-6 people, and go in on a cabin together. If it works out that we have an open cabin, we're going to set it up as an "Inn" for individuals and very small groups (2-3 people). If the opposite happens and we get really close to capacity, you might be asked to house an extra person in your cabin if you have space.
From personal experience, I know that the cabins can sleep up to 12 if you pack people in really tight and put two people on the floor (bring an air mattress!). I believe that most of the beds are mobile in the PC cabins, so you can change the layout of the room if you need to (but all of the bunks have to be back where they started at the end of the event). If your group is bigger than 10, you can still probably cram in another person or two.
In Game, Wards are in South Millbrooke (the location of the event) are illegal. Out of Game, if you decide to put up a Ward, you'll be allowed to use a tapestry wall as a boundary and only Ward "your half" of the cabin, following all of the rules for Warding an area (one entrance, outside Ward has to go up before an inside Ward, etc). Make sure you have marshal notes on your cabin, and probably a nice sketch of what defenses are where.
Remember that this is a location that no events have been held at, so we shouldn't have a problem with anyone thinking that one of the cabins is "theirs" when setting things up. There is at least one group that I know of that has a full cabin already, and if there are more then that, let me know, and we'll try to make sure that at least that many cabins are left alone until a member of the group shows up. If you're on site early, don't just throw your stuff in an empty cabin, try to figure out where you're going to be ahead of time or find a group that knows they won't fill their cabin, and bunk there. Hopefully this way we'll prevent any problems of people getting stuck in cabins with characters they don't trust or big groups getting split in half because a small group set up in every cabin before they got there.