Leaving Mundania

by Lizzie Stark

  This main plot is designed so that any character in town, regardless of level, can participate if they so choose. It is far from the only plot offered. Open-ended plots continue across many events at a slow burn: a daimyo from the East Asian-inspired Khitan is in town for several moons and his intentions are unclear; a pesky group of Londwynians is trashing a local forest and the druids are up in arms about it; the node that enables the town healers to do their work is being overloaded with energy. These plots build gradually, offering one or two modules per weekend, and may eventually end up as a weekend plot. These plots often target a group of players, but anyone can join. For example, the other Khitanians in town will be interested in finding out more about the daimyo, as will the lord of the land where the daimyo has docked his ship. Members of the storytelling team organize and run some of the open-ended plots, and players who want to take a stab at storytelling without running a whole weekend also propose and run shorter mods, sometimes only once but sometimes across several events.

  Invite-only modules run each weekend as well. Thieves and racketeers meet up with the Fence to do jobs for the Rogues’ Guild or to eliminate non-guild members who are horning in on Travance’s territory with non-guild-sanctioned stealing, but in order to participate in this plot, a character has to be a member of the Rogues’ Guild. Team Good, a group of players who are good aligned, mostly deal in epic storylines based around ancient orders of good doers. For example, they might seek to redeem ancient knights of untold power who have been corrupted. Neutral-aligned characters pretty much go their separate ways. Evil characters have been inducted into a dark secret society by one of James’s NPCs, a group known by the moniker Team Evil. Team Evil is sent on missions to fulfill their own selfish, dark aims, to collect all twelve shards of an ancient evil blade, for example.

  The creation of Team Evil, James says, was born out of necessity. Over time, he noticed that evil characters left to their own devices will engage in PvP, player-versus-player combat, out of boredom; they’ll kill other player characters. Not all games allow evil characters or PvP. Permitting PvP has its up-and downsides. To ban it strains credulity—people do fight each other sometimes, even in the real world. If I’m drinking “beer” (represented by Kool-Aid, for liability reasons and because many sites do not permit alcohol on the premises) with my buddy at the Dragon’s Claw Inn, and we can’t get into a friendly bar brawl, where’s the fun in that? However, PvP can also lead to bad feelings between players, which can damage the community and are therefore bad for business. It’s one thing to die fighting a random monster like a phase spider, but to be ganked by a fellow character who is exercising malice and forethought, that can suck, especially if one has invested a lot of time and money into a character via costuming and event attendance over the course of years. At Knight Realms, a character is allowed five “deaths” before he or she is permanently gone.

  James allows evil characters to exist because they can generate interesting conflict and due to player demand—some people want to play villains. Team Evil is James’s effort to direct the energy of evil characters outward, toward groups of NPCs, so that they don’t murder half the town in its sleep. However, according to Matt White, a long-time Knight Realms officer, this works better in theory than in practice. Evil characters have it easy, Matt says. For starters, characters who participate in evil plots can reap powerful items and other benefits. And while James’s evil NPC is supposed to kill anyone who steps out of line, in reality, Matt says, James is too softhearted to do that. Still, game play is not a bed of gold coins and infinite power for evil characters. In some sense, their work is Sisyphean, since they will never be able to win the game and take over the town—even if they did, it wouldn’t last more than a month or two. Just as the Storytellers avoid allowing plots to run that would cause the annihilation of the world, so too is it impossible for evil to triumph permanently over good—to do so would be to do away with the foundation of the in-game world. Good must ultimately win the day.

  Random encounters spice up each event. Unlike the main plot or open plots, these encounters are often unplanned. Monster marshals create them on the spot to fill in slow moments between mods. There are about thirty-five monster marshals on staff who ensure that Logistics is staffed and leaking monsters almost around the clock, save for three hours early Saturday morning and four hours early Sunday morning. They create character cards for the random NPC monsters, sending out bands of goblins to raid travelers, kobolds that hide in the woods, or patients with strange illnesses the townsfolk must figure out how to cure. If it is dark, they might create bands of skeletons, zombies, or rogues who raid cabins and attack unsuspecting travelers on dark paths. Sometimes these monsters are part of the weekend plot. If dark elves are this month’s enemy, dark elves might harangue the town instead of the more usual goblins or trolls. The monster marshals also send out whatever plot encounters the weekend storytellers tell them to. A storyteller who needs NPCs for a scene will simply come and grab them from Logistics. These encounters keep the action pumping throughout the weekend and create the sense that there is something evil lurking in the woods and waiting to attack.

  Character-driven plots are the final type used at Knight Realms and crop up only occasionally. Certain storytellers read through player-submitted character histories and create mods based on them, often for lower-level characters who have come to town, for example, to find their brother/father/sister/lover, or because they are running from their lover/business partner/parents. Some character plots are not driven by the storytellers but by the characters themselves. For example, the alchemist Rudolf von Kruetzdorf wanted to kill his wife, who ended up a horrible vampire. So he betrothed himself to my character in hopes of enraging his wife and tipping her hand. Eventually, the storytellers noticed, and his wife—played by an NPC—showed up for a final confrontation.

  James estimates that between 100 and 150 people show up to each of his events, and between the set-up, the crowds, and the different plots that run each weekend, the potential for chaos is high.

  I followed James one weekend, walking where he walked, trailing behind him in the garb of a generic townsperson—boots, flowy white shirt, satchel, scarf. James put a couple miles on his boots during that event. He was everywhere at once. Early, before lay-on, he brought his interior decorator’s eye to the inn, the monastery, the Mages’ Guild, and the count’s manor, directing volunteers to decorate these spaces and then tweaking the results before the game began. In the Mages’ Guild, for example, he artfully moved the leather-bound New York Times bestsellers along a ledge so that they appeared casually placed instead of rigidly stacked. At the inn, he arranged carelessly placed leather-covered bottles and battery-operated candles into a still-life arrangement with rubber grapes, while in the monastery he did the same thing with a selection of crystals. As we walked from building to building, a constant stream of people ran into James, saying hello, asking if we’d seen so-and-so, and confirming details for the weekend’s plot.

  Generally, after set-up is finished, James runs check-in, shaking each player’s hand. He meets with the various marshals and coordinates with whoever is running the weekend plot to make sure they have everything they need. Somewhere in the mix he calls lay-on, gets into costume, and ensures that the first shift of monsters is ready to come out so that players have something to fight immediately. Over the course of the weekend, he switches costume at least six times, more on a hectic weekend, in order to play his continuing NPCs. As Jonas Kane, he smokes a fake cigar and serves as the proprietor of the Dragon’s Claw Inn. In this role, he is able to interact with a wide variety of players, especially new players, and chat them up like a bartender would, giving them a shot of “whiskey” on the house. Jonas also organizes the evil characters. As the Count of Winterdark, James wears a deep blue coat and a wire circlet for a crown. The count fuels political plot and intrigue, mostly for high-level players, although he is also tied into a plot run for low-levels and will help wr
angle some of them out onto that mod. As Cardinal Haigan, he wears white robes and entertains the priests and clerics who worship the light gods, bringing them together, organizing them, and in doing so, reinforcing the way characters who worship light gods should role-play. Cardinal Haigan has the weight of the world on his shoulders and a mental illness. James plays him only sparingly, because taking on Haigan’s personality makes him feel exhausted afterward. James plays several other NPCs whenever they are needed.

  If one of James’s NPCs dies, he simply rolls up a new character. He used to play Kartagus Kane, the previous owner of the Dragon’s Claw Inn, who also happened to serve as the head of the Thieves’ Guild. When the town found out about Kartagus’s criminal dealings, they killed him, and ownership of the inn passed to Kartagus’s brother Jonas. Similarly, about five years after Knight Realms was founded, the evil characters in town assassinated Baron Klarington Everest, also played by James, in his sleep. The title of baron then alternated between player characters and NPCs, and a player currently holds the title. The higher-level NPCs that James plays are his way of keeping his finger on the pulse of the game; sometimes he uses them to introduce weekend plot, sometimes they provide a failsafe to save a plot that is going badly, but most often he uses these NPCs to entertain players who want different things out of the game, to engage in political intrigue, for example, to preserve goodness and justice, or to learn about the town’s history.

  So much goes on during an event that there’s no way James could handle it on his own. Fortunately, he has a staff of fifty-eight people, all of them unpaid volunteers, who keep the game running smoothly. Six of these staff members are officers, each with a major responsibility to the game. For example, the character card officer updates character sheets in between events, while the technical officer manages the website. Some officers oversee certain sects of volunteers. The rules enforcement officer, for example, deputizes rules marshals and clarifies vaguely written rules. Knight Realms has several different types of marshals who help keep the game running smoothly—many of the volunteers hold multiple titles, so while there are fifty-eight total staff members, there are six officers, twelve storytellers, twenty-six rules marshals, eight kitchen marshals, thirty-five monster marshals, and thirty-two role-play marshals. Most immediately, the storytellers generate modules for the players. The kitchen marshals make sure there’s a hot feast on Saturday and keep the kitchen organized and stocked. Rules marshals answer rules questions and watch combat and role-play to make sure people are being honest. They also perform spot card checks to ensure players are marking down their used skills and defenses on their cards. Monster marshals staff Logistics and send out beasties. Finally, the role-play marshals try to engage people who are behaving in an out-of-game (OOG) manner and return them to the medieval age.

  Role-play marshals also bolster community pride, both by doling out role-play points to people who are portraying their characters well—accumulate ten and earn an extra build—and by judging the monthly contests, which include character of the month, NPC of the month, and cabin of the month. Role-play points and the monthly contests aren’t Knight Realms’ only way of building community pride and support. Knight Realms also has a system of service points. Players earn service points by donating time or goods to the game. Service points are awarded to players who help clean up after feast, who help set up before an event, or who donate items such as costuming, makeup, or latex weapons to the NPC stash. Service points may be cashed in for all sorts of goodies, from build points to trinkets, limited-use spells, or special magical items. This system encourages players to contribute to the game, and, in doing so, it creates a congenial atmosphere of helpfulness that sets the tone for the community.

  Ultimately, James is responsible for everything that takes place in Travance. It’s his baby and one of his two sources of income, the other being a house he owns and rents out in New Jersey. While he wouldn’t say how much income the game generates, it’s enough for him to live on without having another day job. The fact that James earns money through Knight Realms is the source of some grumbling among the player base, especially since everyone else who works on the game does so on a volunteer basis, because they’re his friends, because they want to contribute to the community, or because, depending on the type and amount of work they do, they are able to receive benefits such as free admission, service points, or magic items in return for work they put into the game. As James puts it, among the players, there is the sense that he sits at home with his moneybags twirling his moustache. But the fact that the game is managed by James alone, and not by a committee of people with day jobs, is partly responsible for its long life. James is quick to give credit for the game’s success to his volunteer staff, but behind that volunteer staff, he’s there, with an I-need-to-make-therent incentive to ensure that the game succeeds.

  James works hard for the game. Before anything, he thinks of Knight Realms as a social network, and he’ll sacrifice almost anything to keep that network happy. People get really invested in the game. IfJames is considering a rules change to make the game more balanced—to prevent one race or class from having an unfair advantage built into the rules—and a player he respects really opposes the change and decides for some reason to leave if that change is enacted, James won’t make the change. For him, the game’s social aspect trumps its technical aspect. Sometimes that social aspect can be a big headache. Any community with a couple hundred members is likely to generate gossip and drama, and at Knight Realms, this effect is, perhaps, heightened since a large contingent of players, now in their mid-twenties, grew up playing the game, starting in their teenage years. A substantial number of players have been part of the game for five or more years as well. Over the course of time, a number of people have accumulated a complicated web of friends, enemies, and exes, part of what players have dubbed the “drama llama.” There are established cliques as well as burgeoning ones. James spends much of his time keeping his staff and players happy, negotiating between factions of people who dislike each other, and attempting to mediate the rare out-of-game drama that interferes with running events smoothly. That’s the worst part of his job, he says.

  However, in return for prioritizing people and relationships over game mechanics, James inspires loyalty in the friends and associates who help him, many of whom said that they help primarily him out of friendship and concern for the game. As the director of Knight Realms, James wields his power softly; if he is a dictator whose word is law within the universe of the game, he’s a benevolent one who cares deeply for the well-being of his staff and players.

  However, James’s desire to please everyone can mean that he doesn’t take a clear stand, which can be confusing for staff. From time to time, too, over the course of Knight Realms’ existence, he’s stepped away from the helm, gotten distracted by a new project, acting classes and the dream of acting professionally, for example, or the drive to write a novel based on the game world.

  In 2010, James had his shot at finding a permanent home for Knight Realms—one of the Girl Scout camps that Knight Realms used was up for sale. It was a stretch to think he could purchase the two-hundred-acre camp, and dozens of banks rejected James’s loan applications. But he and his fiancée, Misha, kept trying until they found one who didn’t. He was lucky. A Knight Realms player put up a fifth of the loan principal, and finally, in November 2010, James’s new company, Camp Sacajawea LLC, bought the Sparta, New Jersey, property from the Girl Scouts for $875,000. Now James has a mortgage on the property and dozens of ideas for how to use it to make money. Already three other area larps—two medieval boffer games and a zombie apocalypse boffer game—have signed on to rent the camp regularly, and, of course, Knight Realms will use it as well. The Society for Creative Anachronism will also hold some events there. Eventually, James hopes to start up an annual Renaissance Faire.

  For now, though, James is addressing more immediate concerns of atmosphere. He wants to transform the Girl Scout camp in
to a Bavarian village, and the renovations began before the ink was dry on the land deal. In addition to structural improvement—the installation of insulation in the main buildings, for example—James is focusing on immediate aesthetic improvements, repainting the rooms so that they look like a stucco white with dark wood trim, for example, and removing the nailed-up tin-can lids painted by generations of Girl Scout troops. He’s also creating more sleeping areas in the inn by finishing its attic space. He has grand plans for a boathouse down by the lake, lean-tos, storefronts for Ren Faire merchants, and permanent mod sites that use wire and canvas to create fake caves, for example. He also has small, detail-oriented plans, such as using black caulk to make lattices on the modern windows he can’t replace, to mimic old-fashioned stained glass panes. The goal is to make the camp look like a medieval movie set, to achieve a level of aesthetic immersion so complete that anyone who larps at this camp will never want to game anywhere else.

  It’s a huge job and a huge responsibility, so it’s lucky for James that he has an army of willing volunteers, four larps’ worth, some of whom are licensed in construction management, to help get all that grunt work done.