Maelstrom (live role playing game)

Maelstrom
The Maelstrom logo
Parent:	Profound Decisions Ltd
Founded:	2004
Location:	England
Structure:	National business
Genre(s):	Fantasy
System:	Copyright free (foam weapons)
Style:	Weekend fest events with about 900 participants
Active:	Yes
Website:	http://www.profounddecisions.co.uk

Maelstrom is a live action role-playing game campaign run in the United Kingdom by Profound Decisions Ltd. The campaign consists of four events held each year at weekends during the British summer at a variety of locations. Although founded in 2004^[1] - more than a decade later than Lorien Trust's Gathering campaign and nine years after Curious Pastimes' Renewal campaign - Maelstrom attracted 900 players to the last event of 2007,^[2] making it the second most attended fest LRP in the UK based on single event figures and the second largest based on overall annual participant count.^{[citation needed]}

The game is a "frock-coats and fantasy" campaign set in a pseudo-renaissance period, high fantasy landscape. It is a fest game, in which the majority of the action is provided by interactions between player groups rather than non-player characters and monsters. By contrast with the Gathering and Renewal fest campaigns, pre-arranged mass battles do not play a part in the events; what conflict there is generally player-driven and carried out between player groups.

Setting

Reference: Maelstrom Almanac

The Maelstrom game is set within a world during what might be seen as its colonial period, initiated by recent supernatural changes opening new avenues for exploration and exploitation.

The Known World had thought itself bounded to the north by sheer walls of ice and to the south by a raging storm of magical energy known as the Maelstrom. Recently, a passage has opened up through the Maelstrom allowing brave explorers to pass through. What they discovered on the far side was not hell, as legends told, but a land of strange creatures and peoples. Primitive in many ways, they live in a land rich in resources and new manners of crops such as tobacco, tea and gossamer. In short: the New World was exploitable and so the major nations of the Known World set out to establish great colonies to establish profit and expand their power.

The five great trade houses have followed after, seeking to sell their goods and services and so garner a cut of the nations’ profits. Representatives of the five gods of the known world have also come: setting up churches and ministering to the faithful. The gods known as The Teacher, The Weaver, The Smith, The Huntress, and The Merchant all grant their blessings to this endeavour, if in differing forms.

The many and varied peoples of these colonial efforts meet up every three months on the holy days to do business, broker deals and make plans for the coming season. But they are not alone. The native tribes sent envoys to speak their piece and gain allies in their struggle against neighbours old and new. Bringing with them their own lore and faith in five mysterious New World gods.

Strange beings have begun appearing in the New World with the wakening of magics that came when the Maelstrom opened; Facets of crystal, Golems of stone and Dryads of wood. Now, too, can men of learning weave magic into objects or distil it into potions, as well as wield it as a physical force, turn it to spiritual ends or darken the barrier between life, death and un-death itself.

Amid these great changes Eidolons, ancient messengers of the Gods, have returned to the world. Some serve the known gods, some the new and some only themselves... for this great gift has been marred by great tragedy: with them came also the Fallen ones, who had once rebelled against their divine masters and stole the souls of the mortal dead to gain power for themselves.

The game takes place at the regular holy-day meetings, where the player groups represent the various trading interests, religions and native communities that gather together.

Find Out In Play

Whilst the background to the setting is given in the players guide and an in-character almanac, players are actively encouraged by Profound Decisions not to reveal information not publicly available via these sources. This information is not 'secret' but as a large part of the game revolves around concepts of discovery giving away this information out-of-character can spoil the game for other players. This is commonly referred to as Find-Out-In-Play (FOIP) information, indicating that player characters should seek out the information in-game rather than their players asking out-of-character for the information. Other parts of the system, such as how downtime operates, are not. [1]

1. ^ LARP Mag Issue #2, June 2006, Section IX: "The History of UK LARP". Retrieved on October 16, 2007
2. ^ Hook, Nathan (2008). "The Children of Treasure Trap: History and Trends of British Live Action Role-Play". In Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros. Playground Worlds. Ropecon ry. ISBN 978-952-92-3579-7. "Player numbers have gradually risen, with nine hundred players attending the last event of 2007" 

• Profound Decisions' Maelstrom LRP website