Hello Wonderful Larpers of the World,

Welcome to the Monday Morning Message and the general hope that it finds you in fine form, fetlock and fettle and that you had an excellent weekend wherever you were and whatever you were doing. We are still basking in the froth that was generated by the Cthonian Discordant Symphony but that doesn’t mean that we have been resting on our proverbial laurels. This weekend marked a culmination of many months of work and if you have been following RoC this post is definitely worth the read as we bring you up to speed.

Before we kick off we are underlining our support for all things front line emergency services and continue to offer free games and priority bookings. The appreciation is, as ever, huge for the commitment under continuing and difficult pressure. Much love.

It is about to be twenty five years of RoC; all of those years have been a rollercoaster of events, people, love and support from all involved with the game. There have been huge ups and terrible downs which the system and its community have weathered and learned from. 

The last five years have marked a huge cycle of changes, not just in the game and the people around us but in the DNA of what RoC is, in the identity of what it offers and what we, as the Team of people behind it, want to bring to the world. Since around 2016 we have been building for a change and that change is upon us.

The Rising of Chaos has been trying to support a million projects all at once with a dedicated but exhausted group of humans behind it. That group has kept growing and has filled the pages of our story with brilliant ideas, projects, enthusiasm, kindness and hope for a better future for any lives that we touch.

So: The big stuff! This is a very basic run-through to keep you up to speed with where we are and where we are going. What follows will be receiving its own pages, its own messages et al in the coming weeks. The RoC family is about to spread its wings and move into new projects that we have been planning as well as welcoming new members to its ranks. 

For the last year we have been building towards buying land for a whole host of projects and Larping was only one of them. Each of the projects that we intend to bring out of the Freight Train that the Rising of Chaos has been deserves its own engine now and that starts with The Rising.

The Rising was born from the way that land needs to be owned and becomes the central organisation that will be supporting the spokes of the other Risings around it. The Rising will be responsible for looking after Calix Woods (our land) and ensuring that it is cared for and environmentally sound.

It will be the part of us that looks to train people, to get them counselling and therapy and find them the support that they need as they need it and will inform all other things that we do. Each spoke will be able to draw resource from and feed resource to The Rising to ensure that we can reach as many people as possible.

The Rising of Chaos then: It was our first and we love it and in its new incarnation it is being, as we speak, reborn as a CiC that specifically supports the community around it. Rising of Chaos will no longer be the name of our High Fantasy LARP, instead RoC in this format will support several games.

Over the last few years some fine and amazing people have brought to us some wonderful ideas for games and we have been looking for ways to allow them to run them. Which we now have. They are being built from the ground up: Props, story, site etc etc so most of them won’t be available until next year but they are on the way.

The Chronicles of Daer Akmir (CODA) – Becomes the rename for the High Fantasy game, Daer Akmir being the location where the game is mainly set. In 2022 it will see its full and proper re-release after several years of rebuilding and covid.

It will now be under the supervision of Jon Wickenden, Shadow Hibbert and Anthony Gunfield who will be supported by a full team of refs, storytellers and writers. They are also able to call upon the Viginti, or the twenty, who are twenty dedicated crew that will be running the game with them.

CODA will be running with the Low Rules version of ROC which will be used for several sequences of games that we use that will be in for release at the latter end of the year. CODA also gets the full use of our new site and everything that will be built there.

Discordant Symphony (DS) – Is the Cthonian inspired story that has received nothing but froth and love since its opening event that ran in October 2021. It will be led by Stephen Canfield and Holly Goodall who will be supported by a full team of refs, storytellers and writers. It will be running with the No Rules version of RoC which will also be used in other games to come.

DS will be a much smaller and more personal game for the party of investigators with priority bookings going to previous players to carry this campaign forward. It will be run across the country at several unique venues with announcements for next year’s games due asap.

The campaign began in 1970 and will be set across the following years with some special events visiting the past moments of the chronicle and will feature specifically built props and special effects alongside cunning use of LARPtronics style wizardry.

Later in 2022 we will be launching a Sci Fi game and a story based on the concepts of the World of Darkness from two entirely new to ROC writers. There is a lot of work to do for those and we’ll be looking for anyone that has a keen for being involved next year.

The Rising of Creativity is next: We have been supporting parts of the community that want to express themselves through their creativity or that want to be able to build into the world through their abilities. The Rising of Creativity is being set up, also as a CiC, to support, specifically, that area of the community. It will be headed up by Holly Goodall and Lina Koevchinova who, themselves are creators extraordinaire.

We will be looking to help people through tutorials and workshops that will be running virtually or at Calix Woods which would feature: Painting and Artists workshops, Writing space, prop making workshops and storytelling sessions. We will also be helping people through upcycling and repair guidance as well as the best way to get what you need through Charity shops and the like.

Finding peace throughout planting season, helping with propagation on site and providing regular space at community halls for crafting and building days will also be key to what the Rising of Creativity achieves. 

The Rising of Chicanery comes next: Representing our dedication to gaming and the outlet that this offers to people, this CiC will be dedicated to providing the current online and physical space that is enjoyed by people and building on that to bring more folks together for events and other excitement. It will also be headed up by Anthony Gunfield who is the King of games and Jack of cards in all things.

We will be providing sites and venues for games as well as minibus services for those that are out of the way to get to them. The Rising Discord will provide tutorials for the unenlightened as well as a platform to stream your games (lessons, again, included) and receive RoC support while you are doing it.

Calix woods is also being crafted into a, thoroughly upcycled and environmentally sound, location with three distinct clearings in which you can run your games or instead have games run for you. Food will be provided by onsite ovens and overnight excitement can be had if you want to enjoy the full immersion of this experience.

The Rising of Calix Woods represents the Bushcrafting side of The Rising: We have teamed up with Bushcrafting experts and will be opening yet another CiC that will be focussing on Mental Health and how that can be helped through working outdoors and learning new skills. 

It will be headed up by Kristie Clark who is new to The Rising but provided the game with a site when it needed one back in July! This side of The Rising is something that we are really excited about, specifically the help it will be bringing to children who suffer from not being able to learn in the classroom environment.

Alongside that and yes there is a little more, we will be providing a Social Media and Website Team, A Film and Editing Squad, a gang of Storytellers and an entire admin department that will be supporting the Risings as they stand. 

Blimey!

So that’s all the changes which leaves us with little else to add in, which is probably a relief for all still reading this. 

  • LARP-wise, Coda will be announcing its Christmas event this week and will be back to rules finalising now that this is all sorted out.
  • Table top wise – Monday night slots are opening up for: Star Wars, Kids on Brooms, Honey Heist and Crash Panda – All of which you can find in the Discord. Mike has a slot open for his extremely popular (two tables) Tales of Wildemount in the Wednesday night game if you are interested.
  • Trews is also opening up a film critique night in the coming weeks if people are interested, I think we are starting off with the Shawshank Redemption.

Ok. That’s all we have time for today folks. If you want to get involved, tell stories, play games, run games or whatever we are continuing to build that community and you can find us here and that goes doubly for anything you need for the LARP or just for company on long locked in days. Equally If you want to join us on Patreon we are here.

As ever folks: If you need us, for any reason, let us know and if we can help in any way we will, whatever you are up against.

In the meantime have a Foxes and Crows week people, we look forward to seeing a whole bunch of you at the online game and bumping into even more of you, online, between now and then. 

Take Care of Each Other

Much Love,

Stephen and the RoC Core Team x