What To Expect This Fall At Nelly’s By Night

“To be a vampire you must choose life—your life, not someone else’s—over and over again, day after day,” Ysabeau said. “You must choose it over sleep, over peace, over grief, over death. In the end, it is our relentless drive to live that defines us. Without that, we are nothing but a nightmare or a ghost: a shadow of the humans we once were.”

– Deborah Harkness, “Time’s Convert”

What can you expect this year at Nelly’s By Night? The things you loved in the first evening, with adjustments to the design and detail that will improve the experience – as we try to do with every experience.

Nelly’s By Night is still a conventional Vampire: The Masquerade event in the most important way: you will play a vampire for the night in a stunning location in Toronto, manipulated by the eldest and most powerful of your kind. Some things might be a little different – both than other Vampire games, and than last year’s event. Here are some things to expect from Nelly’s By Night, and some things you won’t find:

What you can expect:

• A character creation system where your choices will connect you to different in-game groups.
• Full agency over your character’s story and fate.
• Setting and structure that will provide you with ideas and opportunities for roleplay.
• A truly unique “What You See Is What You Get” location that provides the dramatic backdrop for the evening – no Storytellers or descriptions required.
• One night of roleplay – no need to commit to a story or chronicle.
• High-stakes for characters with Toronto’s future hanging in the balance.
• Organizer support for collaborative efforts between players to create story and plot.
• To remain ‘In-Character’ in all in-character areas from the start of roleplay to the end.
• A designated ‘Out-Of-Character’ area for taking a break, snacks, and drinks.
• Quiet space(s) to take a break from noise and roleplay.
• Enforcement of our safe(r) space policies.
• Safety, Consent, and Character Workshops, both online and in person in Toronto before the evening begins.
• In-Character/Out-Of-Character security available through the evening, venue- and organizer-provided.
• Post-game debriefing and decompression time at the venue.
• Opportunities to socialize with other participants before and after the event.

What you won’t find:

• Storytellers or game masters that describe scenes, negotiate conflicts, or tell you what you can or can’t do. You decide what happens along with the other players – the co-creators of your experience – based on your interactions while you play your characters.
• Rock-paper-scissors or ‘time stops.’ All conflicts are settled between players through roleplay and consent, and there is no need to take a long time to figure out the result of any given conflict.
• A main plot or major villain – we provide the setting and structure, you create the story together based on what you choose!
• Conventional Vampire character sheets. When you create your character, there will be things that are the same as a 5th Edition character, but points and dice won’t figure into it.
• Combat – this is not a larp about combat or violence, and Nelly’s is an Elysium.

What comes next?

• We’ll be posting expanded and updated information over the summer.
• We will open character creation for new characters in early August.
• We’ll have online workshops in late August and early September and post them on the site.
• We’ll update you on the workshop and social/brunch locations as soon as we have them!
• We are available for questions at info@fairescapestudios.com, in the Nelly’s By Night group, and by messaging us on Facebook at the Fair Escape Studios page – please ask away!

Only 4 tickets left for September 21st, 2019! Get yours on Eventbrite.