At a standard Model United Nations conference, players are diplomats from specific countries, who research and then roleplay how they think that country would react to a certain issue being debated. At the conference, delegates interact with each other and through diplomacy try and come up with actionable policies or resolutions, and try to advance their own/their country’s agenda through these, while stymying others’ agendas.In the background of course - personal conflicts and romance abounds!
Kind of reminds you of another hobby, doesn’t it?
A crisis summit takes that concept and ramps it up to a very hands-on LARP style, asking delegates to take swift, decisive actions, with high stakes and a clear deadline. It’s a more interactive model which has constant news updates and each decision undertaken by the players will impact the story moving forward.
The delegates are high-ranking people within their factions, as the warmasters, and peacemakers of their people. As such, they have influence both within the room where they are negotiating and also the outside world. So during this event, there will be ‘front room’ and ‘backroom’ areas. In Chase the Shadows: 1885, players will be in the front room and will interact with the backroom ‘Oracles’ via notes, where they can influence people and events outside the summit.
There is already a working peace accord between the four factions, however, of there are parts of the Accords that players believe need to be changed or perhaps areas that were missed initially... there will be an opportunity to vote on amendments to the Accords before the final re-signing at the end of the event.
During time-in, as a player, you will have opportunities to both negotiate and discuss your goals in a formal settings, around the table and in more unofficial settings, held between your own faction and the others. You can advance your own and your faction’s goals during these face-to-face meetings, as well as through notes sent to the Oracle and other players.
Create a character: More information will be released ahead of the event around creating a character but character creation will be similar to other LARPs. In the character creation form, we will also ask several questions as to why your character would be willing to come to this summit to negotiate peace (or possibly prevent accords from being agreed). Optional: Reach out to other players and see if they want to have background links with your character. However, this is not a necessary step.
Read the background briefings: Ahead of the event, you will receive a background guide and an attendee guide. These will provide information on both the setting and the delegates you’re likely to encounter. After you’ve read them, it’s worth thinking about these three points: 1) what is a reasonable end goal / outcome to these negotiations given your character’s background views and affiliations? 2) What are a few reasonable steps that your character can use to achieve this goal or outcome through notes or through interactions during the negotiations? 3) What starting resources or allies can you draw upon to achieve this goal?
While the initial prologue event included moderated and unmoderated caucuses in order to produce the final peace accord... the mainline events will be a bit more informal, with negotiations taking place over luncheon, quiet discussions in the hallway and corners, etc. During the 1885 event, there will be also be a table reserved for 'formal negotiations', particularly around the recovered artefacts and any other events that occur. As a delegate, you may request a 'Chair' for these negotiations, and a member of the Fae will be happy to oblige and provide more formal moderation.
During the weekend, it is also expect that there *may be* crises brewing in the background involving all of the factions, and as such, there will be various ‘Crisis updates’ that occur during the day.
A moderated negotiation takes place around a table and is overseen by the Chair. As the Fae have short attention spans and get bored easily, only 20 minutes out of every hour will be allowed to be spent in a moderated negotiation. The Chair also reserves the right to end a moderated caucus early should they think debate is starting to drag or players are getting bogged down in discussing details better suited to a more informal setting.
Only eight players - two from each faction - can be involved in a moderated negotiation at a time, and will act as spokespeople for their faction at this point. We would encourage all players to share this responsibility and rotate in and out of the moderated negotiation so that everyone has a chance to participate in this part of the summit.
Unmoderated negotiations can take place at any point and anywhere in the Fae Realm that players have access to.
While moderated negotiations are the place for both dramatic monologue-ing and and efforts to make the other side look unreasonable... unmoderated negotiations are the heart of this event, where quiet background negotiation, score-settling and consensual flirtation can happen. There are limited rules to this area other than the general ‘ballgown to your heart’s content and help make game for other players’.
Oh- and potentially using your faction’s mechanical benefit to influence negotiations or obtain information (further information to follow on this in the faction briefs).
This is where the meat of the negotiation will likely lie and where you as a player can likely stretch your wings and try to advance your own goals and narrative as well. During times where a moderated negotiation is happening, and you are not in it, you will likely be found in a corner plotting with your fellow members or faction, or quietly negotiating with a sworn enemy or writing a note that will help influence the outside world and bring in assets or resources that will help with the negotiations.
If you struggle to find purpose during unmoderated sessions, you can always turn to your faction’s Advisor, who will be able to offer advice as to where there could be an advantage for yourself or your faction.
As we have a working peace accord, there will be less emphasis during the 1885 event on it, compared to the prologue. However! If you and your faction are keen to re-negotiate any aspect of it, this can be arranged. We would ask that the majority of any rework be done during the informal negotiations, however we may be able to set up a more negotiation if requested.
A copy of the accords:
The Comprehensive Peace Treaty between
Changelings
And
Hunters
And
Vampires
And
Werewolves
Signed on February 15, 1835 at The Fae Realms
Now therefore, the parties agree , on signing this Agreement, the following:
Parties and Territories covered by this Agreement
All Werewolves, Changelings, Hunters and Vampires, new initiates to these orders, and retainers. If the retainer is acting on their own accord, they will be tried by their own merits, If the retainer is found to be acting on another’s orders, their master will also be tried.
London is to be considered as neutral, as are the capitals of Scotland, Ireland, Wales
There will be national parks, a National Trust, set up to protect existing lands of Werewolves and Changelings
Prohibited Acts covered by this Agreement
All retainers must be 18 years of age, at least, well treated and in good health. This will be monitored by the faction they are working for.
No slavery/slave trading.
No non-consenting injury of Mundanes except in presence of provoked violence.
Anyone who will be changed into one of the Shadows' factions (if not born that way) must be at least 18 years of age.
No member of the House of Commons or House of Lords or other local politician may be recruited as a retainer.
The definitions of assault, affray and self defence, as well as adjacent terms (aggravated assault, for instance) will be imported from English Common Law
Consequences for breaking this Agreement
The system will use precedent to inform future cases in a similar fashion to Common Law
In matters of wrong-doing, a tribunal will be formed to reach a judgement.
The Tribunal will be made up of four judges, one from each faction, from a pool of candidates (selected by faction) selected by lot. If deadlock occurs, a retrial will happen with a newly selected group of judges by the same system.
Judges must recuse themselves if they feel they cannot make an unbiased judgement.
The punishment will be decided by the tribunal with a focus on restorative justice, rehabilitation and the prevention of reoffence.
The punishment will be determined with the offenders mortal lifespan, mitigating circumstances and material circumstances in mind proportionally.
If the sentence is indefinite imprisonment, the offender may choose death instead.
Other matters pertaining to this Agreement
A ceasefire will be in place until the treaty comes into effect.
Actions which would have violated this treaty retroactively will not be punished. All have a month to ensure their circumstances comply.
Mass exposure of the Shadows to the Mundanes will be punished via the tribunal system.
A non-exhaustive list of terms to be defined will be gathered for discussion at future meetings.
This treaty will function where English Common Law is the rule of law.
No head of state shall be taken as a retainer.
This treaty will be scrutinised and revised at regular intervals to allow for changes.
Representatives of all factions party of the agreement will meet at regular intervals (defined below) with the first to take place in a month in a neutral zone for i) the clarification and/or revision of terms, ii) the recording of precedent, and iii) the addressing of any further administrative business.
Emergency meetings may also be called by any of the parties.
The selection of representatives and voting will be the same as the 1st meeting
Appendices
Regular intervals will constitute once every six month for the first 4 years, after which the duration will be revised
A neutral zone is provisionally and for the purposes of this clause only defined as a space identical to the first meeting
Writing notes to both the crisis staff and to other delegates is a time-honoured tradition in Model UN and we will have both options available to players at this event.
A delegate, although isolated in the negotiation room, can affect the outside world through crisis notes. Through crisis notes, a delegate can accumulate resources, discover information, and execute plans to reshape the political landscape of the summit as it is occurring. As a delegate attending this summit, you have a high-ranking position and responsibility within your faction. As such you are authorised to negotiate, though you may wish to gauge the views of other faction members- after all, truces are unlikely to hold if the terms are not satisfactory or even viable to all those expected to abide by them.
Additionally - depending on the outcome of the negotiations, you could risk being overruled by the head of your faction, your faction’s elders or majority of your faction after the event - so best to test it before you sign the accords!
Delegates also have the opportunity to advance their own goals through personal crises - for example, maybe you’re the head of one vampire coven and would like to see the head of a rival coven disappear… and perhaps there’s a Hunter at the summit who might be able to help coordinate this without it appearing it came from you- for a price...
A word of warning though - the Oracles are able to decline or misinterpret any request they see fit. They won’t however in general make you do anything you don’t choose to do, but messengers being killed or underlings misinterpreting orders are a common feature, so try to be as specific as possible in your instructions.
If you wish you write a private note to the Oracles, all you have to do is write your instructions on a piece of paper, fold it in half, and write clearly ‘ORACLE’ on the front. Then pass it to an Advisor, and it will be delivered. These notes have been ensorceled and cannot be looked at by other players.
Notes can be passed to other players at any time during both moderated and unmoderated negotiations. These notes can be used to create alliances, form coalitions, seek out common ground and test out ideas for the peace accords.
For example… perhaps it would not be appropriate for a werewolf to seek out a vampire immediately during an unmoderated negotiation, due to the two factions’ history- but some note-passing to see if they had similar views might allow them to save face in front of their fellow delegates and slowly form an alliance.
Similarly, they can be used for as simple a request as ‘let’s meet later when this formal negotiation ends’, or as dramatic as a ‘I know what you did in the summer of 1822… back my next proposal or I will go public with this information.’
While decorum suggests that notes passed between delegates should be private - hand-delivering it is the best way to ensure this is the case. Otherwise, there is much to be said for a well-timed interception of a note ahead of an important vote. (Of course, this should all be done with the utmost discretion. It would be very embarrassing to be accused of trying to read private correspondence)
There will be several crew around who will be around to assist and guide the event along. Some of those who you will encounter/hear about:
The host of the summit opens and closes the event, setting the scene for the players, as well as the OC debrief. During time-in otherwise, they will be liaising between the front room with the players and back room crew, making sure it all runs smoothly. That being said, players should be aware this summit is being hosted by the Prince of Knives, who is well-known for enjoying stirring the pot
The director of the moderated negotiations, who will ensure that negotiations remain on track. This could be the Prince of Knives, the Lady of the Silver Tongue or one of their retainers.
Each faction will have a Fae Advisor who will pass notes and act as a go-between delegates and the Oracle, as well as acting as a referee and for game mechanics. They will also be available to act as a traditional advisor to their faction’s delegates.
The Oracles are the plot staff and one of their principal roles is arbitrating what has happened in the outside world, and what impact the delegates have had so far with their negotiations. They decide what has and hasn’t happened, they help initiate the crisis by introducing events that have occurred and then keep charge of what occurs by introducing new twists. If the Oracles do not know an event has occurred and if they do not agree that it has happened, then in broad terms it hasn’t.