Initium!
Quest's newsletter
vol. 91 - January 27, 2014
Highlights in this issue:
Events:
Upcoming events
Are you ready for Quest? Come enjoy our next game!
On March 8th in Middletown, CT, "The Copper Kettle: Crossroads" returns us to the titular Steinlands tavern. As winter passes into spring, so too return Crusaders to the battlefields of Bilgosh, traveling past the Copper Kettle and the merchants, traders, and villagers of the Steinlands. Come talk of your victories (and defeats), relax before the long warm days of Crusading commence, trade, entertain, and enjoy! Musicians and other entertainers especially welcome!
Got a game idea?
Are you interested in running a Quest game during the spring, summer, or fall? Got an idea that's ready for action or needs some work? Or are you considering GMing for the first time and would like some help getting your game off the ground?
Contact the Events Committee (events-committee)! We're looking for GMs interested in running games on April 5th, May 3rd, and beyond. We look forward to making your game happen!
Bring a friend
And don't forget the "bring a friend" discount — bring a new player to any game and get the same discount they do!
Board of Directors:
The Board has scheduled its next meeting for Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 4 pm in Middletown, CT. If you would like to attend, please contact the Board Secretary at secretary for more information.
We'd like to thank our current committee leadership for providing their hard work, effort and their excellent service. Without their dedication, Quest could not continue to function.
We are putting out a call for nominations for the leaders of our committees and teams. The list of officers and their respective duties and details may be found below. We ask you, the Quest community, to assist us by nominating the people you think should serve as officers. Self-nominations are welcome as are nominations for anyone in the community who you think might be suited to a given job. Nominations should be sent to the Board Secretary at nominations.
Everyone who is nominated will be contacted by the Secretary to ask them if they accept the nomination. All nominations must be made by March 7, 2014.
The following committee officer positions are up for election:
- CG Game World Committee Chair
- Rules Committee Chair
- Props Manager
- Wesleyan Scheduler
- Events Coordinator
- Weapons Manager
- Publisher
We are also accepting nominations for all Board positions.
On behalf of the Board, Beth Goldgar
Secretary, Board of Directors
Quest Interactive Productions, Inc.
secretary
Quest Committee Officers
Who are the Quest Committee Officers?
The committee officers are the people who provide leadership to the groups within our organization. Officers are, in general, responsible for the normal operational needs of Quest, both at and between games. The qualities looked for in a good officer are commitment, responsibility, and a desire to get things done.
Who can I nominate?
Anyone can nominate anyone for any position. You can suggest someone new for an office, or nominate the current office holder. You may even nominate yourself (this is a useful way of letting us know you want to help out!).
How long is the period of tenure?
Officer positions are one year. This year's term will run from
March 8, 2014 through March 7, 2015.
Committee leadership positions up for election:
- Wesleyan Scheduler: The Wesleyan Scheduler is the officer responsible for securing space on Wesleyan's campus and is a voting member of the Events Committee.
- Events Coordinator: The Events Coordinator is responsible for making sure that quality games happen. As such, the Events Coordinator chairs the Events Committee and handles various administrative tasks to ensure that games run with reasonable frequency. The Events Coordinator may appoint assistants to help him with these tasks.
- Weapons Manager: The Weapons Manager is in charge of maintaining weapons, approving weapons safety, and ensuring combat safety during a game. The Weapons Manager is on the Operations Committee, and supervises the Weapons Staff. The Weapons Manager is also expected to sit on the Rules Committee, though this responsibility can be delegated to a Weapons Marshal, if necessary.
- Props Manager: The Props Manager will be accountable for said maintenance to the Director of Operations. There will be three subdivisions of said maintenance: costumes, check-in bins, other equipment. There will be one head of each, and then they will recruit anyone who's interested in helping. Each holds a key to Quest Stock and has rotating "gatekeeper" duty (be available to go to Stock with GMs--you don't need a car for this, someone can pick you up). Check-in duty is organized among these people as they see fit.
- Publisher: The Publisher is responsible for publishing the rulebook and any other permanent publication, for maintaining the Quest Web site, and for distributing information to the player base (through Initium!, other e-mailings, and snail mailings).
- Game World Chair (Continuing Game): The Game World Chair heads the Game World Committee, which is responsible for approving honor codes and status proposals. The purpose of the Game World Committee is to maintain the continuity and integrity of the game world. They will facilitate flow of information, compile information brought into game by GMs and PCs, and facilitate reconciliation of contradictory material when necessary. They are intended to help, not squelch, people who want to develop more game material. The Game World Chair is a member of the Events Committee; when a proposal for the Game World Chair's gameworld is introduced, the GWC is a voting member; when only proposals for other gameworlds are introduced, the GWC is a nonvoting member and not required to attend.
- Rules Chair: The Rules Chair supervises the Rules Staff and maintains consistencies of rulings. The Rules Chair heads the Rules Committee, and is responsible for maintaining the consistency of rules interpretations both during and between games.
Rules:
The 2014 rules are now in effect! You can read them online, or download a copy of the print handbook, over at the Rules page.
There are only two rules changes of note in the 2014 edition:
- We've added "Mage kits" for Mage Magic. Similar to the previously existing Cleric Kits that customize magic for clerics of different CG deities, we now have Mage kits that customize mage magic based on the five elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Aether), plus Void, the absence of elements.
- Quicktalk has been renamed to Persuasion. "Quicktalk" isn't a real word, and was confusing to newer players. "Persuasion" is a real word, and describes the skill's effects just as succinctly.
Continuing Game News:
Interested in running a game set in the Bilgosh arc?
- The Crusade story is being driven by what GMs write and how well PCs do at those games. There is no secret, pre-written master storyline, and the background material is available to GMs. If you want to run a game set in it, just talk to the CG Chair at cg-chair so we can be sure you have all the necessary stuff!
- The Crusade story has no specific plans to end at a given time. Our intention is to keep running for as long as it makes sense story-wise, and for as long as it still has steam. As long as people want to run games in it, and as long as people want to attend games set in it, we’d like to keep it going.
- It will end at some point. We'd like it to end with some high-stakes game(s) in which the PCs deal a solid blow that can plausibly be the straw that breaks the camel's back. If you are thinking you might have a game idea for that, please let the CG Chair know!
January 27, 1014:
Togova, Bilgosh:
Crusaders suffered a defeat at Togova after inflicting heavy losses on Dark Lady Narcisa.
As Narcisa is a vampire who has apparently ruled her isolated valley for centuries, most of her troops were (mortal) peasants loyal to the figure they credit with protecting them from outsiders and danger for as long as anyone can remember. As such, the Crusaders’ holy magic was ineffective against their foes, turning the battle largely into more of a traditional fight.
However, the Togovan peasants were fighting on their home ground and defending same, giving them a fierce morale and no reason to flee the field. The Crusaders -- or, as the Togovan armies called them, “the foreign invaders” -- took heavy losses attempting to surmount the trenches and palisades that the locals had erected around the entrance to the valley. The Crusaders managed to push the fight further into the valley and left many Togovans dead, but were unable to reach Narcisa’s manor house before Dame Florentina de Accorsa called a retreat, unwilling to lose more of her forces.
Greywatch Point, Bilgosh:
In response to intelligence gathered by a small infiltration force, Allondine ships in the south of Hesket joined forces with their Yamamotoan allies to strike at the stronghold of a weakened Dark Lady who had been attempting to amass a fleet to blockade the Bilgosh coast against the Crusading navies. On October 21st, the allied fleet struck the fortress, a lighthouse standing on a promontory overlooking the southern sea. The Yamamotoan ships leveled a heavy barrage from their fire lances at the stronghold, while Allondine ships prepared to guard them from the Dark Lady's defending forces. They were unprepared for the response by the Dark Lady, who summoned powerful demons which flew out to harass the attacking ships; the Yamamotoans and their Allondine allies suffered heavy losses before the fell creatures were slain. Eventually, the tower collapsed under the sustained assault from the Yamamotoan vessels, but no trace of the sorceress who had held the fortress was discovered among the wreckage. With the way cleared past the southern tip of Bilgosh, commanders of the Crusading forces have begun developing plans for a naval push in the spring.
Perkoj, Bilgosh:
In November, Crusader armies successfully destroyed a vampiric Dark Lord, and then caught a Bilgosh unit of undead werewolves unawares and were able to destroy them.
Crusader armies operating out of the outpost at Gershon were able to slay Dark Lord Radovan, a vampire of some significant power after an extended siege. Under the command of Lord Bradley, Earl of Felmouth, and Lady Maurine, Countess of Bersinais, the armies brought down the walls of the vampire’s stronghold with siege engines, then made a sharp strike into the heart of the building with holy symbols and holy water at the ready. Crusader knights were able to incapacitate, stake, and then burn the vampire after some significant losses.
After Dark Lord Radovan’s death, a group of specialists retrieved information from his lair suggesting that the Dark Lord had begun experiments to reanimate the corpses of deceased werewolves. These new abominations had the might of dire wolves and the tireless strength of the undead.
Crusaders were able to intercept the first squadron of these undead werewolves at Perkoj, where the Dark Lord intended to test their capabilities. With the element of surprise on their side, Crusader forces slew the abominations and their handlers in a bloody skirmish.
While the source of the zombie werewolves has not yet been found, the destruction of their test squadron is likely a significant setback for Emilian’s forces.
Lugoj, Bilgosh:
Outside of the village of Lugoj, as the Crusaders advanced upon the zombie and vampire troops lead by the dread necromancer Herj, an unknown wizard shoved his way to the front lines of the Crusader army. With much maniacal laughter, the mage created a fiery explosion that blasted a hole through the darkling troops. He then walked through the hole his magic had created, cackling and casting fire at any darklings that got in his way, before wandering off.
Their once-organized front line in disarray, Herj’s army fell apart, and the Crusaders stormed into the breach, making quick work of the now-smouldering undead. Within several hours, Herj and his armies both lay in defeat.
Crusaders at the battle observed that explosions continued throughout the day, getting further and further away as the unknown mage headed deeper into Bilgosh.
Northern Bilgosh:
The approach of winter brought an end to military campaigning, as the Crusaders set down in the liberated regions in northern Bilgosh, fortifying their gains.
The Queen of Chardreau and the young King of Allondell have both made camp within the borders of Bilgosh, as have most other Crusader leaders. This contrasts with previous years, where the Crusaders camped in the Steinlands, but this year the Crusaders have made enough gains inside the borders of Bilgosh. Most also believe that the Crusaders planting their standards within Bilgosh for the winter is intended as a symbolic gesture, intended to demonstrate their progress.
The harpypox, which had spread throughout the army camps several years ago, reportedly resurfaced in Alsoria and northern Bilgosh once the winter frosts set in.
Silech, Bilgosh:
Yamamotoan soldiers met up with the monarchs of Allondell and Chardreau, as well as the other Crusader leaders, in this town in northern Bilgosh on December 30.
After breaking the sea blockade that Overlord Emilian’s forces had established along Bilgosh’s southern shoreline, the Yamamotoan and Crusader ships were able to proceed to northern Bilgosh and allow the Yamamotoans to disembark. As the Crusader armies have not yet fully secured the northern shoreline, the Yamamotoan companies proceeded overland through Zdunarova and the Steinlands to join up with the main Crusader army.
Reportedly the meetings have been tense, with many in the Crusader camp uncomfortable working alongside their longtime Yamamotoan foes, and the Yamamotoans in turn unaccustomed to taking orders from Hesketines. However, both groups do seem to acknowledge the military advantage of incorporating the Yamamotoan fire-lances and fire-wands into the Crusaders’ battle plans.
Gameworld news comes from GMs, story authors, and other Quest participants, not from the Game World Committee. If you have material to contribute, please email it to cg-chair.