Lurin
Duke
Foreward
As our first official season has wrapped up, come to a close, and seen the final curtain fall, we have our very first chance to look back at a year of larping and take stock of how we are doing, whats going well, what we can do better on. To that end I will be writing a letter similar to this one at the end of each season to quickly go over how things went, what we are looking forward to in the future, and to most importantly take a moment to thank a fraction of the people that help make this game so great.
Thank Yous
First off the thank yous, I have to start with our plot staff who work incredibly hard writing before games, prepping costuming, and dealing with an egotistical owner who often sounds something like a dictator when he's in a 'directing' mood. So big thanks goto our Plot Staff from this year, Chris Hamilton, Stephen Stana, and Emilynn Henderson. Its hard to describe how much effort goes into not only planning cool things, but also passing them through the gates of Dave to make sure they fit into the existing world and are properly fleshed out enough to actually go into game.
Beyond the plot team who work hard in all areas (not just plot) when needed, I'd also like to take a moment to thank a couple of players that have really stepped up to help with the logistical work of the chapter. Ryan B. who heads our logistics department and preps our food each weekend, he does a great job making sure everyone has something warm (and relatively nutritious) to eat. Brent Woodward who saw a need and stepped up to give his time before events to ensure the pre-regs where completed in full, this saves us quite literally hours of time on site and helps the game run much much smoother. Another big thank you has to be issued to Josh and Joy Clark, who almost single handedly keep our monster camp in great shape, as well as ensure our safety/first aid kits are in tip top condition. Joy also has the special distinction of proving that we don't pull punches in SoMN by being our first permanent death.
Finally while they are too numerous to thank (cheap cop out, I know, yell at me later) all our traveling players, people that take the time to come from hours away, anywhere from Duluth to Chicago, you guys really shine and add alot of character and flavor to our game!
That takes care of the thank yous, I wish I could thank everyone for everything they've done, but I've already got a full time job! (Bada-bum!)...right lets move on before the jokes get worse.
Plotline in Review
First off, its always amazing to me that I find myself going into each game excited to find out were the story will go, you wouldn't expect that since on paper I'm the one writing the story, but in practice it is you, the players, that have really driven the story and made it your own. We provided the sandbox and step back to watch what you will create, and thus far you have not disappointed. (I avoided the Cliche of 'we provide the sand and you mates build the castles' thats worth a few points right?)
Our overarching plot for this year was designed to be the establishment of a new town/outpost. It started officially with our first weekend event, and the Gaden military moving out of the main site of most of our plot and events, the location known as Fort Miller. Since then we've seen the players work with the towns people to solve problems, sequentially awake, anger, and eventually hunt down a fairly high powered liche. The war with the corrupt continues and significant information/inroads have been discovered by the players well in advance to when we thought they would be presented. Only time will tell how the plot continues to develop as the suprise survival of an outpost left to go to seed.
Attendence
From my original experience helping to run the Northern MN chapter last year, it was my hope and plan to have attendance for this year be in the high teens and occasionally breaking 20 on the good events. Instead we've have a solid average (total players/events held) of 29..thats Twenty-Nine people per event, with our high water marks being our opener and our closer rating at 35 and 40 people a piece respectively. Frankly thats blown us away, and we continue to look for ways to improve our staff and system to allow for even bigger and better games in the future. Our smallest game this year proved to be 18 people at one weekend event, mostly caused by a last minute issue preventing about 6 people from being able to attend.
Income/Costs
This is always a touchy subject, nobody that comes to larp (yet at least) is so independently wealthy that costs don't cross their mind. Running Larp is an expensive hobby to get into, and we've made some mistakes and met some suprises that have at times caused us to make adjustments to ensure we continue to be able to keep the game at a reasonable price (such as the short term NPC fee we had to implement). We've learned alot about what expectations to set and how to ensure we continue to offer events at the same rate (roughly 15 for one-days and 45 for weekends with preregistration). One thing we will be keeping much closer track of is with yearly memberships to help defray our insurance costs (which is the entirely why we have the membership fee). Looking over our database, we do not have anyone that will have a membership past April next year so please plan to renew at some point. We will continue to offer memberships for money or Goblin stamps and at various price points (3-month or yearly).
Schedule
Our schedule for next year is likely to be a little more relaxed, with larger gaps between weekends, with likely some one-days to help ease the Larp withdrawl. This is both to help control costs and because we've noted that many events we see players having to choose between two events that run only a month apart do to cost of obtaining the time off considerations.
Staffing updates
Finally in preperation for next year we will likely be bolstering our volunteer staff, currently we are looking at adding a General Manager (to assist with oh so much prep work), a Customer support rep (to handle first line suggestions, answer new player inquiries/assign them to newbie marshals), and we'll be looking for an assistant webmaster to help with the day to day updates of our website, as well as help with adding additional functions. Currently we do request feedback to be sent to info@mnalliance.com and we do read everything single idea/concern/comment that is submitted, but we hope that having a more 'official' dedicated address and contact will help increase feedback, as its the best way for us to know how to make things better.
In Closing
Overall our first season has gone better then expected by alot of metrix and we are excited to continue to do better in the future, the best way for that to happen is to hear back from everyone as to how we are doing/what we can do better, and continue to graciously accept the help of all the talented people who have stepped forward, and who might step forward in the future.
If you've read this entire letter, I assume you are bored, or at work, but I still thank you for your time!
David Glaeser,
Owner, Alliance Southern MN
As our first official season has wrapped up, come to a close, and seen the final curtain fall, we have our very first chance to look back at a year of larping and take stock of how we are doing, whats going well, what we can do better on. To that end I will be writing a letter similar to this one at the end of each season to quickly go over how things went, what we are looking forward to in the future, and to most importantly take a moment to thank a fraction of the people that help make this game so great.
Thank Yous
First off the thank yous, I have to start with our plot staff who work incredibly hard writing before games, prepping costuming, and dealing with an egotistical owner who often sounds something like a dictator when he's in a 'directing' mood. So big thanks goto our Plot Staff from this year, Chris Hamilton, Stephen Stana, and Emilynn Henderson. Its hard to describe how much effort goes into not only planning cool things, but also passing them through the gates of Dave to make sure they fit into the existing world and are properly fleshed out enough to actually go into game.
Beyond the plot team who work hard in all areas (not just plot) when needed, I'd also like to take a moment to thank a couple of players that have really stepped up to help with the logistical work of the chapter. Ryan B. who heads our logistics department and preps our food each weekend, he does a great job making sure everyone has something warm (and relatively nutritious) to eat. Brent Woodward who saw a need and stepped up to give his time before events to ensure the pre-regs where completed in full, this saves us quite literally hours of time on site and helps the game run much much smoother. Another big thank you has to be issued to Josh and Joy Clark, who almost single handedly keep our monster camp in great shape, as well as ensure our safety/first aid kits are in tip top condition. Joy also has the special distinction of proving that we don't pull punches in SoMN by being our first permanent death.
Finally while they are too numerous to thank (cheap cop out, I know, yell at me later) all our traveling players, people that take the time to come from hours away, anywhere from Duluth to Chicago, you guys really shine and add alot of character and flavor to our game!
That takes care of the thank yous, I wish I could thank everyone for everything they've done, but I've already got a full time job! (Bada-bum!)...right lets move on before the jokes get worse.
Plotline in Review
First off, its always amazing to me that I find myself going into each game excited to find out were the story will go, you wouldn't expect that since on paper I'm the one writing the story, but in practice it is you, the players, that have really driven the story and made it your own. We provided the sandbox and step back to watch what you will create, and thus far you have not disappointed. (I avoided the Cliche of 'we provide the sand and you mates build the castles' thats worth a few points right?)
Our overarching plot for this year was designed to be the establishment of a new town/outpost. It started officially with our first weekend event, and the Gaden military moving out of the main site of most of our plot and events, the location known as Fort Miller. Since then we've seen the players work with the towns people to solve problems, sequentially awake, anger, and eventually hunt down a fairly high powered liche. The war with the corrupt continues and significant information/inroads have been discovered by the players well in advance to when we thought they would be presented. Only time will tell how the plot continues to develop as the suprise survival of an outpost left to go to seed.
Attendence
From my original experience helping to run the Northern MN chapter last year, it was my hope and plan to have attendance for this year be in the high teens and occasionally breaking 20 on the good events. Instead we've have a solid average (total players/events held) of 29..thats Twenty-Nine people per event, with our high water marks being our opener and our closer rating at 35 and 40 people a piece respectively. Frankly thats blown us away, and we continue to look for ways to improve our staff and system to allow for even bigger and better games in the future. Our smallest game this year proved to be 18 people at one weekend event, mostly caused by a last minute issue preventing about 6 people from being able to attend.
Income/Costs
This is always a touchy subject, nobody that comes to larp (yet at least) is so independently wealthy that costs don't cross their mind. Running Larp is an expensive hobby to get into, and we've made some mistakes and met some suprises that have at times caused us to make adjustments to ensure we continue to be able to keep the game at a reasonable price (such as the short term NPC fee we had to implement). We've learned alot about what expectations to set and how to ensure we continue to offer events at the same rate (roughly 15 for one-days and 45 for weekends with preregistration). One thing we will be keeping much closer track of is with yearly memberships to help defray our insurance costs (which is the entirely why we have the membership fee). Looking over our database, we do not have anyone that will have a membership past April next year so please plan to renew at some point. We will continue to offer memberships for money or Goblin stamps and at various price points (3-month or yearly).
Schedule
Our schedule for next year is likely to be a little more relaxed, with larger gaps between weekends, with likely some one-days to help ease the Larp withdrawl. This is both to help control costs and because we've noted that many events we see players having to choose between two events that run only a month apart do to cost of obtaining the time off considerations.
Staffing updates
Finally in preperation for next year we will likely be bolstering our volunteer staff, currently we are looking at adding a General Manager (to assist with oh so much prep work), a Customer support rep (to handle first line suggestions, answer new player inquiries/assign them to newbie marshals), and we'll be looking for an assistant webmaster to help with the day to day updates of our website, as well as help with adding additional functions. Currently we do request feedback to be sent to info@mnalliance.com and we do read everything single idea/concern/comment that is submitted, but we hope that having a more 'official' dedicated address and contact will help increase feedback, as its the best way for us to know how to make things better.
In Closing
Overall our first season has gone better then expected by alot of metrix and we are excited to continue to do better in the future, the best way for that to happen is to hear back from everyone as to how we are doing/what we can do better, and continue to graciously accept the help of all the talented people who have stepped forward, and who might step forward in the future.
If you've read this entire letter, I assume you are bored, or at work, but I still thank you for your time!
David Glaeser,
Owner, Alliance Southern MN