Changes to Season 8

Due to the impact of COVID-19 on our ability to play normally, we’re making a few changes Season 8 of Falnorian in order to compensate. The changes are divided into universal changes (that affect all leagues) as well as league-specific changes.

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Universal Changes

The Big Change: Season 8 of Falnorian will be extended another year in order to give players more time to play in their current locations. This means that the season will run September 2019-August 2021, and there will not be the usual timejump at the end of summer 2020. Players will be able to keep the same characters the whole time if they wish to do so, or make new characters partway though if they want to change things up.

The Smaller Change: Because of the extended season, Season 8 will be run in an alternate format. Instead of one continuous/unbroken year, the story will run in a series of smaller arcs divided up by season: Summer (June, July, Aug), Autumn (Sept, Oct, Nov), Winter (Dec, Jan, Feb) and Spring (Mar, April, May). Each of these arcs will have their own distinct sections of the longer story instead of running together; this is to give a more concrete sense of the passage of time when there is going to be so much of it this season. Each arc will also have its own projects and obstacles for players to pursue during the duration, which will resolve by each arc’s end.

Online Play: Until it is safe to play in person, we will continue the story by running Falnorian events online. This will look slightly different for Junior League and Adult League; each league’s format will be listed in its section below.

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Junior League Changes

Game Format: We will continue running Junior League games on the 2nd Sunday of the month from 10AM-5PM. These events will be broken up into four 1.5-hour “chunks” of time (two for each normal game set); each chunk is a mission slot. Players can join at the beginning of any slot and choose a mission to do together; no baddies will be necessary. Players may join as many mission slots as they would like, but are encouraged to take at least one of the slots as a break (we have discovered that running missions online can be more energy-taxing than one might expect).

These missions will be run over a video call (most likely zoom, but format pending); players are encouraged to dress up as their characters when they can, but this is not required. The link for video calls, as well as the mission board and other relevant information for the day, will be posted in a google doc sent out to families ahead of time.

Future Changes: The Junior League format is subject to change in the future as we experiment with it and discover what does and doesn’t work for this group.

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Adult League Changes

Schedule: Instead of one large event every month, Adult League events are being broken up into several shorter time periods. Missions will be run every Saturday from 4PM-7PM (or on other days, scheduled separately) and have bi-monthly in-game “town hall meetings” on Thursdays from 5PM-7PM. We will continue to have an event on the usually 4th Sunday of the month, but it will be shorter in duration as well and typically consist of an in-game town event as well as time for larger-scale missions.

Missions: Instead of a mission board format, Adult League will be using a bounty board; this board will have rumors and news from around town as well as projects determined by the town hall meetings. Players can also add things to the bounty board as needed.

Small Additions: We are also experimenting with a variety of small additions to adult league games including designated inn-RP times and smaller drop-in missions. These may or may not remain long-term depending on how well they turn out.

Forum: We are also experimenting with the use of a forum to help players coordinate and record missions in a lasting way. A link to the forum can be found on the resources tab above.