New Beginnings!

[obcidian_bandit]

As we announced at Closing Ceremonies at the July Event, Alliance Seattle has begun taking some new and interesting steps into a fresh campaign. Throughout the history of the Seattle chapter, the game has taken place in a variety of locations; Pascale and Crochevia in Gianeria, The Crossroads, Westgate, and Iron Falls in Andar, and countless other one-time event and gameday locations. In the background, many of these changes of location were due to changes in plot teams, either in new members or in new directions that the team wanted to take the game. With the large influx of new players and new plot team members, now seemed like the best time to begin taking steps in a fresh direction where everyone, new player and long-timer player alike, will have the opportunity to grow and flourish.

With that in mind, we would like to announce that after the September event we will be changing the In Game location. The November event will be held in a new and strange location. While we’ll be using Millersylvania as much as possible for the new campaign, we’d like to make the environment feel very different than Westgate, and to do this we’ll be asking for a lot of help in setup and donations from our players in the near future. Never fear! We’re putting out IG reasons for your characters to want to journey to the new land for adventure and excitement! If you haven’t encountered them yet, keep an eye and an ear out, helpful details about the new campaign can already be found! The new land will be far from Andar, but your characters’ ability to return won’t be completely removed.

In Game, Andar has seen troublesome times for many years, and due to the persistence and creativity of the adventurers many foes, new and old, have been defeated in a short amount of time. Though while the undead have been defeated in the west, war still looms in the east while elementals and fey threaten to topple the newly won day back into chaos. Should these remaining battles be lost, Andar could still be pushed over the brink, but should they be won, the security of Andar may be ensured for years to come. Will you be there to turn the tide, or will you stand by and watch Andar slip into the abyss?

 

[obcidian_bandit]

As part of our continuing effort to make our game as new-player friendly as possible, we're making an attempt to limit the number of 'special effects' that we have to announce at the beginning of each event. Most of these sorts of effects are due to special monsters and effects that the Plot Team has concocted to tell a particular story, so our team will make an attempt to use the existing rules whenever possible to diminish the number of non-standard effects while still providing new and interesting situations for your characters to experience. However, over the years there have been a number of magical effects or items that have been orphaned by their original writers and haven't worked their way out of game in a natural fashion. We've been working over the last few events to help wrap up some of these plot lines, but we will inevitably miss one or two. If you feel that this may apply to you, send an email to plot@alliance-seattle.com, and we'll try to help you find closure on those plot lines before beginning the new campaign.

To facilitate this goal, during our transition into the new campaign we will be strongly enforcing the intent expressed in our LCO Transfer Policy for local items as well. Of the three sentiments expressed in that policy, the one that we're most concerned about is obviously the one about 'non-standard effects that cannot be created with the ritual system.' The idea is that if a PC could create the identical item with a normal ritual scroll or production skill, the item is fine. The word "Restricted" on a magic item will ensure that the item is allowed, and while it is mostly LCO items that could be subject to this change, most 'Gobbied' LCO items will continue to be allowed as well.

Items that are not creatable by PCs within the Alliance standard ritual or production system will no longer function in Alliance Seattle as of November 1st, 2011 unless their creation date is after November 1st, 2011. For 90% of our players, this is not a change for to your items or their usability. For the 10% of players who happen to have acquired items such as Enslavement Elixirs, Spell Strike Fear weapons, Activatable Phases, and other things that are not creatable within the ritual or production system, you will be able to use up these items at our upcoming three day event over Labor Day weekend, sell them to NPCs, trade them for normal treasure, use the Merchant skill to be rid of them, or otherwise offload them in a manner that is still beneficial to your character.

Conversely, if you have an item that your character would like to keep for sentimental reasons, you may "Leave it in Andar" for safe keeping without your PC actually 'losing' it. Note, however, that these items won't be allowed to have any impact on the new campaign, even if they're being used in Andar on Andarians (no, you can't use your +4 horse-slaying knife to stop a caravan to the new location before it leaves Andar). If you have any questions on whether your item falls under this category (and 90% of all players don't have any items that will) send an email to plot@alliance-seattle.com with all of the information on the tag and we'll let you know if it does.