NERO Name change

The NERO Alliance will be changing its name to The Alliance.

"After ten years of operation, we feel like we have built a good reputation in the LARPing community separate from the NERO name and believe it is in our best interest to disassociate ourselves with NERO," stated NERO founder Michael Ventrella, who has been running the Alliance since its inception. "We also wish to avoid the mistakes people have made when considering our organization, and confusing it with NERO International."

This decision was made after much consultation with the owners of the various Alliance chapters and has been in the planning stages for some time.

A lawsuit over the NERO name and copyright was filed some time ago, primarily as a method to prevent NERO International from interfering with the business dealings of NERO Alliance. That lawsuit eventually expired, with no winners and no losers, as the two parties attempted to negotiate a settlement. Those negotiations are ongoing, and there is still no settlement concerning International's use of Michael Ventrella's copyrighted materials, but the Alliance's decision today effectually removes one part of the disagreement.

The new Alliance will be organized differently from the old Alliance. Previously, all Alliance chapters used exactly the same rules system, with no variations, in order to promote cross-chapter players, no matter how distant the chapters were from each other. Under the new system, there will be a series of "campaigns" that chapters can join, and players can transfer within those campaigns.

For instance, the Alliance HQ, which will soon be running its games in Faire Play's permanent site in northeastern Pennsylvania, will have its games continue in the fantasy world of Fortannis, using all the rules in the Rule Book without variation. Other Alliance chapters will remain a part of this campaign. However, some of the west coast chapters may be creating their own campaign, where they will be allowed to have rules variations. Characters will not be allowed to transfer between different campaigns, however.

Further, chapters can have more than one campaign, thus allowing for more games and variations.

The Alliance is also open to proposals from already existing LARP games out there who wish to associate themselves with the Alliance but not have to be tied completely to having to follow every rule in the Rule Book, as was previously the case.

"We believe this is the next step for us," stated Ventrella. "This will provide more freedom for our players, promote our own separate identity where we can expand on our good reputation, and allow us to grow."
 
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