That's right, folks! It's time for the grand exciting fourth season of Westfinder games! We had a TON of exciting submissions, a total of twenty-two, WAY more than we can possibly play in a single season. Picking was not easy, but we like to think we've settled on a good mix of games. We cover a range of genres, from a mix of experienced and new gamewriters. We're sorry if your game didn't get picked--we're keeping all of the games we've gotten in our Story Vault, and they'll be in the running for next year.
Due to our past run-ins with rain, our Winter games include two large-scale Tavern Scenes. This is on top of the small Tavernights, which we'll come back to after the schedule.
We also have included the theoretical dates of the games! These account for SAT dates as well as the schedules of various local high schools. There are still one or two conflicts (October game is on the same day as the PSAT, for example) that were unavoidable due to various reasons. If you foresee any problems with the schedule, please tell us ASAP and we'll see what we can do about it.
Without further ado... WESTFINDER SEASON FOUR!

September 5th
Nolix%Uul: Ozer's Ultimatum, by Tom Kelly and Dustin Katz

October 17th
Awakening, by Ben Schwartz and Greg Schram

October 31st
Halloween Tavernight

November 21st
Corporation, by Rowan Abraham

December 19th
The Lair of Dr. Gideon vonDamien, by Jaron Smith

January 2nd
New Years' Tavernight

January 16th
Better on Paper, by Greg Schram

February 20th
All for the Blood of Myanmar: Expedition to the Valley of Rubies! by Jeremy Gleick and Devon Brinner

March 6th
Spring Tavernight

March 27th
Pantheon: The Return of Frialla, by Jenna Brotsky

April 17th
Through to Wonderland, by Hillary Milton

May 8th
Westfinder Community Service Adventure!

May 29th
MEW, by Riva Morton

It's a really exciting lineup of games! We're really excited! Are you really excited? Get excited! MORE excited!

And you know what? We're taking a SECOND CALL for stories. Specifically for Tavernights! You all seemed very enthusiastic about the idea, so we're going on ahead with it... but we need games to play. We have a few possible ones lined up, but we'd like to open it up for more submissions. Tavernights are smaller affairs on Saturday evenings, and as such, have slightly smaller needs and plans. The game should be written to be played with fairly low-key costuming and setup (preferably stuff the players can bring themselves), and if possible with people creating their own characters. These are meant to be small-scale community-oriented events, but that's not to say the games can't be serious. A Tavernight submission should still have the same stuff as any other submission--world background, who the players are, game conventions... you don't need a Flow for these, but you can write one if you want.
If you are already running a game this season, we ask that you not submit a Tavernight--we will not pick it! If you're not, though, please do! If you're someone whose game didn't get picked this year, maybe you can adapt it to work as a Tavernight? Or maybe you can write something entirely new. Either way, you've got a month to do it--we're accepting Tavernights up until the end of Sunday, July 12th. So get submitting!

What's a Community Service Adventure? It's a crazy idea we had where we all go out and do some community service-y thing... in character! We'll talk about that more later, as we haven't really thought about it ourselves too much yet. Got cool ideas for it? Tell us! It's way off, so we've got lots of time to figure it out.

Obviously, all of this is tentative, and hinges on us finding a Regional Coordinator in the next few months--but of course we will! And, again, if you know someone, anyone, who might be a good candidate for RC, PLEASE tell us! We are all ears. We will also soon be posting a more thorough job description of what we and Wayfinder need on the blog.

Congratulations to all our storywriters, and here's looking forward to a great season!

~Westfinder

Friday Night Tavern Scenes part 2!

Part 2 to the Friday Tavern Scenes idea! The other option that staff has been throwing around is more or less the same, except

-Still run the full 9 games of the season (We got so many submissions, we really want to run as many as possible)
- And in addition, for a /much/ reduced price (5$? Free if you bring potluck food?), run 2-3 of the Friday Night tavern scenes, still complete with potluck, bardic circle, and story circle.

This idea was born partially

Its very similar to part 1 of the idea, but different enough that we want your opinion on which we should do!
Also, because of this, the release of the schedule for next season will be delayed by one or two days (we were planning to have it out this weekend), until we have heard back from most of the community, and you all have given us your input! So please, get back to us quickly!

thanks everyone,
Westfinder Staff

Friday Night Tavern Scenes?

Hey guys! An idea that some of the other staff and I have been bandying about due to the sheer volume of game submissions we've gotten is Friday Night Tavern Scenes. We got WAY more submissions than we can run, and a ton of them are incredibly cool. So the idea runs thusly:

--Cut back the number of full-scale Bootlegs to, say, seven, and space them out slightly more.
--In times when there's a larger gap between Bootlegs, have a Friday Night Tavern Scene!
--These would be considerably lower-key affairs, and much more community-oriented than our usual events.
--They'd be on a Friday evening, when people aren't generally doing anything, though they coudl be on Saturdays if people preferred.
--We could charge less for them ($10?) and have them be a good ground-level event recommended for first-time players.
--Pot-luck style dinners?
--We could have a Bardic Circle after the game was over, in the same location as the game!

What do people think? Do you like this idea? Have ways we could make it even cooler? Think it's silly, and we should focus more on our big epic games? Should we incorporate them into this season's schedule? Some variation there on? Tell us your thoughts!

Current Economic Status

Here's an update of our financial situation, and what we're hoping to do with that money within the next year:

Total munnies: ~$635

This will (hopefully) go towards...

--A satellite phone
--More costuming, including rented costumes
--A place to store all costuming/equipment
--Creating real sets!
--Finding a warehouse/urban location to play more urban games
--Paying the Regco (only after we've sustained ourselves so that we can do so easily. Until that happens, Wayfinder will pay.)
-- Getting more spirit costumes

These are the things we have been brainstorming thus fair, but if you guys have any brilliant ideas like usual, please let us know.

~Westfinder Staff

Grim Tidings

Yesterday, Westfinder received this letter from Johan Sheridan, CEO of the Wayfinder Experience. We've decided to post it here for all to see:

Hello my friends,

I am writing this letter with the unfortunate duty of informing you of the decisions that WFE's Executive Board have made. It is probably going to be taken as bad news for you guys, and for that I'm sorry.

For a few reasons, which I will do my best to outline, the Wayfinder Experience must insist that you guys stop running Wayfinder programming in California until or unless we hire a Regional Coordinator in the area.

The same fears and flaws present in January, when we were going to hook up with Robert Easley, remain present. When the deal with Robert fell through, and I told you guys to just continue as normal, it was not the most well-reasoned decision. I'll be honest, it was very stupid and I shouldn't have given you guys the go ahead. It was a lazy decision, for I sensed a very strong resistance to potentially ceasing programming out in California and I wasn't up for the "fight". I still sense this resistance, but the bottom line is that things can't continue in this way and we don't have the resources at present to make the changes we would like to make. I am hoping that perhaps this little taste of "damage control" can help you guys see where we're coming from.

We have not made this decision to be mean or exclusive, or because we don't trust you. But human error can only be expected, and Ronald Reagan said my favorite quote, "Trust, but verify." We cannot verify, and we cannot confirm. We have made this decision to keep us all safe.

Until legality is straightened out, until there is a responsible and dedicated adult on-site, the only feasible move is to stop running programming. You guys have expressed specifically the fact that you are not taken seriously by your particpants' parents; some of your own parents have contacted us to inform us that the program was being run.. chaotically, to put it kindly. Please do not think that we believe that "kids today..." and all of that malarkey, but there is a lot to be said for perception and for experience.

We are indeed dedicated to expanding WFE's teaching method across the world. We just want to do it responsibly, intelligently, and well. We do not want to put the eternal kaibosh on Westfinder. We simply must insist, however, that for the time being, in light of all of these concerns and the upcoming summer season, that Westfinder ceases operation within the next 14 days.

Peace and love and thanks!

I don't foresee this email being the end of this conversation - far from it. I want to really encourage you guys to say what you want to say, because at the end of the day the last thing I want are feeling being hurt for no good reason.

--
-Johan Sheridan
C.E.O. | The Wayfinder Experience, Inc.
(845) 340-9880 | (732) 771-7106
61 O'Neil Street | Kingston, NY 12401
wayfinderexperience.com