Harvest Festival 2018October 1st, 2018

The annual Maplewood harvest Festival will be taking place on second and third shift, during our October event.  There will be no active plots provided at this time as these will be all PC shifts (There will not be any logistics officers, or GM’s on call during these shifts.)

Players will either need to NPC 1st or 4th shift. 

Any player who does not currently have a PC is more than welcome to create a level one person to participate in the festivities or they can contact Ryan Green to volunteer to work the Inn during the shift. 

There will be Elders, and Constables in play throughout the shift. 

It has been tradition in the past for individuals to hold contests of skill, sport or chance during the festival, we encourage players to take the opportunity to hold these competitions, and offer unique prizes to the winners of said contests. 

If you are interested in hosting an event, and providing a unique prize please send an email to bmcgraham@gmail.com with all of your event details, and prize requests.  Please note, each event host will be responsible to provide their own prize props.  

Contest and prize submissions will need to be placed by October 15th in order to be approved for the event.  There will be no exceptions for late entries. 

Thank you, and Happy Harvest Festival! 

Posted by Julie

2019 Event DatesSeptember 27th, 2018

Regular Event Dates 2019

• January 4-6
• February 1-3  – Founder's Feast!
• March 8-10
• April 5-7
• May 3-5
• June 7-9

Julybilee! June 29th at Delta Lake State Park

• August 2-4

September 6-8 there will be a Tunnel Crawl event at Camp Kingsley!

• October 11-13 – Harvest Festival!
• November 1-3
• December 6-8

Posted by Julie

RP Skill Advancement: Summer 2018July 20th, 2018

Big news! Plot and Continuity will be meeting in the coming months to review submissions for individual RP Skill advancement.

What are the RP Skills?

RP Skills are the closest thing we have to a dedicated character class. They grant access to certain kinds of story and let us in P&C know that you want to be involved in these longer mini-meta-plots that often span between multiple groups across several games. They also include access to unique abilities that go outside the bounds of many basic skills and abilities in the rule set. The RP Skills are Chosen, Druid, Medium, Merchant, and Status.

You may only apply for one level of an RP Skill each cycle, and we only run two cycles per year. The current limit is two RP Skills per character with a total of seven ranks between them, secondary skill currently capped at two ranks. If you don't quite have enough to convince the relevant staff you've earned another rank yet, that's ok. Just be sure to include your accomplishments for the past cycle when you apply again over our summer break.

Friendly reminder: We care about what you've done IC at game during play sessions, and between characters most. Free writing in blogs isn't considered as part of your advancement.

 Anyone wishing to advance in a RP Skill or gain an RP skill for your character please PM myself (thunderstave) or Caitlin U  your request as follows:

Player Name:

PC Name:

Current RP Skills (Level):

Why advancement or new skill?: Please highlight plot interactions, PC-to-PC interactions, character history, and any other relevant information to help us understand the whys of approval/advancement.

_____________________

Plot will meet to discuss so please get your requests in by Saturday August 11th  at 11:59 PM.

Good luck to all our applicants! We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Julie

July-December 2018 Event DatesJune 12th, 2018

July 14th: Junebilee is our annual OOC (Out of Character) Event at Brown Tract Pond! See here for more information http://kingdomsofnovitas.net/junebilee/

Regular Event Dates

•     August 17-19
•     September 21-23
•     October 19-21
•     November 9-11
•     December 7-9

Posted by Julie

Player Profile: Mary WeegJune 12th, 2018

How long have you been playing?: I came to an event in September of 2016 and I was completely overwhelmed! I had never done any LARPing before and I quickly decided that it wasn't for me! My brothers loved it though, and eventually convinced me to give it another try. So September of 2017 I came back and got completely hooked! 

Describe your character: Liliana is someone who will go on any kind of adventure that presents itself, so marriage, monster fights, strange rituals in the woods… It's been a crazy ride! 

What was your favorite in game moment?: My first event in Maplewood, my brother and I went out on an NPC plot where we were orphans who had lost our grandma's treasure. The problem was, we actually lost it! We took a bunch of PCs on an extended wild goose chase and most of them gave up the search. Ta Avon the wood elf was the only one who stuck it out. We ended up getting completely lost, wandering for hours deep into the woods and eventually hitchhiking back to camp! 

Why do you love Kingdoms of Novitas?: It's been said before, but I absolutely love the community! I can't say enough about how wonderful and welcoming everyone has been. It really feels like a family! I've made so many wonderful friends here! 

Who is your favorite PC?: I don't think I could possibly pick a favorite! 

What did you think your character concept was? What is it now?: I had never done any kind of role playing, so I didn't put a lot of planning into my character. I wanted to just go with the flow and see what happened. It's led to quite a few interesting adventures! 

How many PCs have you had? What happened to them?: I've only had the one so far. I'm planning my first alt though, and I'm pretty excited! 

Posted by Julie

Player Profile: Dan MeerschaertApril 27th, 2018

How long have you been playing?: When I was 12 or so, my brother dragged me to a “medieval reenactment” group called the “Empire of the Imperial Magistrocracy” which, when I look back, I’m pretty sure is a cult for people who don’t get fun names in the SCA.  After some years (I was 14) we had a feast event that was invaded by bandits!  Those bandits were visiting from a LARP in Buffalo called Adventures in Mid-land!  Mid-land had an age limit of 15, so after a few months I headed out there and it was fantastic.  For those of you who don’t know, Mid-land is kind of Novitas’s parent.  KoN has grown an incredible amount, but many of our core concepts are due to the work of our predecessor organization.  Anyway, driving from CNY to Buffalo every month was getting old, and the Mid-landers were transitioning to Dagorhir so my attendance to their games went down.  The thought came up that we could host a local mid-land event, “Mid-land East” and get much the same game but less driving.  We (and by we I mean Dave H, Jim R, and others) hosted the first event at VK May 2004.  Shortly afterwards Mid-land said “No we don’t want to do this dance.  You can use our rules but you can’t be Mid-land”.  So that summer was spent world-building and September 2004 I went to the first KoN event.  TLDR: I’ve always been playing.

Describe your character: Atticus is all the things Dan wants to be:  Wise, worldly, smart, strong, capable.  He’s a hero who doesn’t care about glory or money.  He’s an excellent fighter, a master wizard, a powerful druid, and a terrible thief.  If you’ve got a problem, Atticus can solve it, and sometimes that means Atticus is going to show up and tell you what the right thing to do is.

What was your favorite in game moment?: This is a hard one, so I’m gonna cheat and list a handful.  The first time I soloed an encounter was eye-opening and exhilarating.  Every time my party is together and out adventuring it’s always a blast.  Once upon a time Atticus decided what the town was doing was stupid, so he sat on his porch and waited for them to do whatever it was; the downside was that while the town was out, a swarm of undead moved in.  Atticus made a terrible bargain with a Nosferatu that he wouldn’t step off of his porch to help or hinder anyone, in exchange for the undead not bothering him.  (Atticus used to be kind of shady)  I vividly remember one time shortly after we added the spell Ruin:  there were bandits who took some local farmers as slaves.  Atticus walked up to one side of their shield wall, cast Ruin and Abomination, and melted all the bandits in seconds.  At VK, our shift structure was different so we had the time to go hide loot in the woods.  We were walking down the trail and I got the sudden feeling to go check inside a stump about 20 feet of the path.  Boom, loot chest, and Loot-dar (loot radar) was born.  The short version is that Every in-game moment is my favorite, because KoN is awesome!

Why do you love Kingdoms of Novitas?: KoN has always been there for me.  It’s helped me grow from awkward 20 year old to whatever I am today.  I’ve seen people gain confidence and translate it to their real world lives, I’ve seen people fall in love, create beautiful works of art, and watched people encourage all of their friends to join this community.  It’s the best game I’ve ever played.

Who is your favorite PC?: I can’t answer this.  Every single PC is a beautiful work of art.  Someone put their whole self into creating something you can interact with, learn about, and even add to yourself.

What did you think your character concept was? What is it now?: My initial concept was to just take healing spells.  The idea was that since healers were necessary, they’d funnel loot to me to keep me alive.  Easymode for gathering loot!  Now though, uh…  I guess “Guardian of the Freelands” is a bit pompous, but also the most accurate.  If there’s a wrong, Atticus will try to make it right.

How many PCs have you had? What happened to them?: Two.  One was back at Mid-land:  Vert Bigolo: Goblin Gigolo.  I thought I was real edgy at 16.  The other one is Atticus.  Atticus actually started at the last few months of Mid-land.  When we transitions from Mid-land to Novitas we allowed character transfer so I think he came in at level 6 or something.

Posted by Julie

Player Profile: Amy BelawskiApril 12th, 2018

How long have you been playing?: I came to my first event October 2016.  I brought my first character in the following summer.

Describe your character: Oma Blake is an old, grandma-like character. She's lived a long, less-than-comfortable life.  The last several decades of her life she's been leading the Merry We Meet branch of the Bless the Mask Players.  The thought of settling down into retirement so she can work on alchemy and weaving is extremely attractive.  Maplewood with its "safe zone" should be a good place to retire to, right?

What was your favorite in game moment?: Oh, so many! It's difficult to pick one favorite. 

These are some of the most memorable:

·         Daitoro creeping up on me and scaring the ever-loving bejesus out of me my very first game. 

·         Organizing the First Annual Maplewood Talent Show with Sabine (Tiffany).

·         Moving Glory (a Dryad) into Elf Town while it was vacant.  Heh heh heh…

·         Just a couple events ago Oma was in the Bazaar and was super excited to be able to watch Orcs from the "safety" of the Helix.  I mean, how often do you get to watch savage creatures in their natural environment? The orcs encroached the edges and Oma started yelling, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU CAN'T COME IN HERE! THIS IS WHY I MOVED HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE! GET OUT!"  Onyx came FLYING from the Spinning Jenny and cast Sanctuary (thank you Onyx) and saved Oma's life.  It was a perfect moment that truly captured Oma's personality.  Oma was super grumpy for the rest of the shift.

Why do you love Kingdoms of Novitas?: For the people!  I've never met so many big-hearted people in one place.  I love my nerd family. <3

Who is your favorite PC?: My personal favorite PC is my wife's character, Sabine.  The amount of background and depth that she put into the character is amazing.  I love her garb as well as her energy.

Oma loves a bunch of people and has the urge to take care of everyone, except Ivan (sorry Dave – Ivan's proven he can take care of himself). The entire merchant group is a blast (Illivandros, Esspernash, Flint, Johan, Helene, and Crispin). The Bless the Mask Players are fun to roleplay with (officially Marcella, Winora, and Sabine). 

What did you think your character concept was? What is it now?: Initially I wanted to play a witchy character, who was like a female version of George Carlin.  I developed Oma's look with this concept in mind, but as I began to play her she developed into a much nicer person than I thought she would be.  Suuuuure, she's a little crabby, but she's more likely to feed, clean, heal, and protect people, than stab them in the face… or back. 

How many PCs have you had? What happened to them?: I've only had this one character. She's still living just outside Maplewood proper, near the Bazaar, minding her own merchanting business.

Posted by Julie

Junebilee!March 1st, 2018

Junebilee is our annual out of character campout!

The date for Junebilee 2018 is July 14th. JULY JULY JULY!

Junebilee 2018 will be held at Brown Tract Pond: https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/24456.html

Posted by Julie