Good Morning Wonderfolk of the World,

The end of March approaches and April rears its head, the sun is shining, spring walks the fields and we went larping again! Before we get to that we will start by hoping that this message finds you in fine form, fetlock and fettle and that you had the best week that you could wherever you were and whatever you were doing. This week CODA got back out in the woods and started running its events again and there is much to tell you on that front.

Before we do that we would also like to say that the frontline emergency services remain as ever in our thoughts as do so many others and one day we hope to extend this offer to the likes of teachers and other worthies! We continue to offer free games and priority bookings to our upcoming games – just prod us via e-mails for details and we’ll sort you out.

Alongside that we push our resources into offering limited counselling with some seriously good professional help through the dedication of our own hard work, patreons and the streams that we run. If you think that can help you please get in touch and we will get you on the list as the last of the current spaces are being picked up as we speak.

So! Monday Mornings we have expanded our original message to include all the iterations of the Rising: Focussing on the LARP aspect of Chaos but also rolling in Chicanery for other games and streaming, Community for feeding people and getting them Therapy, Calodemon for Land Updates and Creativity for makers, crafters, workshop and socks.

If you want MORE of this nonsense or don’t want to read all of this you can catch us every Monday Morning between 8.45 and 10am on Twitch as team members meet up to discuss the plans of the week, the month and generally natter. They will even talk to you too if you ask them questions – That’s here on Monday Mornings.

Regardless: Each of our Rising sections are covered by our various organisers who you can contact and talk to via our Discord Server or just a straightforward e-mail.

So!

The Rising of Calodemon

This weekend there were LARPers in the woods and they did a lot of running around but also a fair amount of coppicing and removal of widowmakers from the tall branches to make sure things were safe. The camping area was a little more carefully pruned back and the first tents went up. We had people staying on site for the first time ever and reports of a peaceful but chilly nights sleep are afoot. 

The folks from RoC made good use of the site and identified a whole new bunch of flora and fauna throughout the site, identifying potential paths and building up the Dead Hedge, or Ghost Fence as they are calling it, as they went. The main path to the gate was much more traversable and cars made it that far but the last leg needs sorting. To that end we have a meeting with the other residents of the local woodland on Thursday evening and hope to have a solution provided just after that.

The use of the local car park is something that we have as an ongoing agreement and ferrying too and from the site takes no more than a few minutes. Until the roadway is sorted it is likely that this will be the method that we use to access the site. A new build day will be announced as soon as we have one and we can but hope that the plethora of ideas that the CODA community are putting forward come to pass.

Racing in straight after the excellent online event last weekend we took a handful of intrepid folk out to test drive the new woods and put CODA Version 1.01’s rules through their paces. Both of our newbies passed their respective tests with flying colours and provided us with an excellent platform for a wonderful day back out in the woods. We are so excited that we got to be back out in the woods and that they were our woods!

Just being in the fresh air, under clear, blue skies with a bright sun warming our skins was enough to brighten our moods after a long time away from the trees. This was only enhanced by being in the fine company of the CODA team and the fine, fine people that make up some of the playing base of our beautiful game. Listening to the laughter and the happiness ring out across the woodland was a joy and then, after a bit of catching up, we went off to poke each other with swords!

Saturday (and it feels like ages since we got to write one of these) saw the players make their way into the Drakenvold in pursuit of a Weaver that had marked their way to their home village to deal with plague against the orders of their guild. After an interesting brief with the Massporters the Guilders moved out into the world and discovered that they were not the only people in pursuit of the Weaver and the Nestor that he carried with him.

A long dead Sourcerer styled Galish Moar told them of various folk that had travelled the woods seeking their errant charge as well as strange tales of the long defeated Davik Mordell. On they went and discovered a band of Fae fresh from Celwyn Hall around the body of their missing bard. Diplomacy ensued as well before they were attacked by a stalking beast from the Dragon Empire. 

Their journeys took them, then, onto Rendrith before where they battled the Who Chow before they returned once more to discover members of the VGC skulking about with the remains of the Fae encampment. News of Glooms and Gloamings scampered about the forest with merriment in mind and Daemons of the Way arrived to further stake their own claim on the afternoon’s proceedings.

Eventually the players departed seeking the Nestor that had fled its bonded host and been pursued by an aberration that had previously made contact with the Weaver. Battles against the Aberration and conversations with some ancient beast from the Drayal Vork finished off the day and all agreed that great and many funs had been had. Tents were deconstructed and people ferried to their cars, the day coming to a most excellent end.

Everything went swimmingly: The site was beautiful, our newly made up First Aiders were called into action for a minor wound and fared more than well, the new rules were excellent and kept pace with the game and were well received and reported. Finally the work that has been done on Wound Cards and Backlash was more than exceptional and the results even more so. This event could only have gone better if reunions had been less emotional and taken less time and we had all been a little less rusty!

We also managed another Codafying with Stephen, Jon, Stick and Ginge that covered the basics of Backlash and Casting but sadly the Mark and Stepehen Podcast did not make it out into the world due to a broken window of all things.

This week they will be on though and continuing the talks about costuming and kit and probably will be for a few weeks as they advance through the various genres of larp.

The Chicanery calendar has taken shape and  there are more and more regular streamers  over on the Chicanery Facebook Page.

We are SO proud to be a part of what they are doing: Last week they purchased the Humble Bundle for the Ukraine which consisted of many games. They are now streaming them for the International Rescue Committee who are not only helping out in the Ukraine but all over the world. Please come and give them all of the support that you can on their normal and Chicanery for the Ukrainery streams.  

A basic runthrough of the upcoming Chicanery week looks like this:

  • Monday Morning – Chaos Meeting at 8.45  if you want to know what we will be getting up to this week
  • Monday Evening – Chicanery for the Ukrainery.
  • Tuesday Afternoon – At around midday Mike and PJ will be doing a second Lawfully Chaotic DM’s chat, this time with special guest:  Pam Punzalan
  • Wednesday Morning – Stephen will be Codafying and looking at system related things and there may be birthday shenanigans in the evening for our main dude.
  • Wednesday Evening – The Mighty Mike and Wildemount Wednesday
  • Thursday Morning – The Rising of Conversation sees Stephen, Mark and guests talk about more New to Larp issues.
  • Thursday Evening – Chicanery for the Ukrainery.
  • Friday Night we are back to Beansies Bed Time Stories

Ok – So  that’s the week in a nutshell: It looks like the world may well be a hard place to be in at the moment so with that in mind we will be trying to keep the office manned as much as possible on Discord. If you need people, company, nonsense or an ear please feel free to come and find us. 

You can find us easily enough:

Till the next time we talk: Have a Foxes and Crows week people, we look forward to seeing all of you somewhere in the world whether that be in the woods or on Discord. 

Much Love

Take Care of Each Other

Team RoC