As we get closer to our final event of the year, we wanted to give some reminders about fire safety at our events.
Ground fires are not permitted at Paccar – all fires must be raised off the ground and on a stable, heat-resistant surface.
Fires are not permitted anywhere in the Out of Character camping area, with the exception of camping stoves and similar devices for cooking.
If you are using a camping stove with a gas bottle, please check the gas is connected properly to the stove/cooker before use.
Fires, fire pits and camping stoves should not be used inside tents (unless specifically designed for this purpose, e.g. bell tents with a chimney), close to canopies or to the walls of tents. Extinguished fires and BBQs, including those which appear to be cold, should not be taken into enclosed tent areas (especially overnight while people are sleeping), due to the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Fires should be monitored at all times and should be extinguished before being left unsupervised. Where possible, fires should be extinguished with water before being left overnight, but removing as much unignited fuel should be removed from the fire as possible, spreading embers out in the container to allow them to cool will normally be sufficient.
Ashes should only be disposed of in waste containers when you are entirely sure they are cold. Ashes must not be poured on the ground under any circumstances.
If you encounter an out of control fire, please make a member of staff aware immediately.
As part of changing the world, resources of all kinds will now expire over the course of time. For example, herbs will rot or turn to dust while other materials perish or rust or crumble away. Alongside this change we are introducing mechanisms to ensure that more resources are available more easily, that the cost of using them is, largely, reduced with more ways to use them.
Our principles for how resources will work in game are laid out below and frame our goals:
Resources will be more easily accessible than currently – new options/skills are going to be added that provide more ways to acquire resources than current. Too often in the past it has been difficult or impossible to find ingredients and resources when needed – both limiting options but also limiting trading and collaboration.
Cost Reduction – Most things will now cost considerably less to produce, through a combination of reduced material costs and Work Unit Cost (covered in a future blog). Too often in the past the constraints upon resources have meant that costs for their use have been too high compared to others options within the game.
Increased Purpose – Base lists (i.e. recipes you get for free) for crafting and alchemy are going to be expanded considerably. There are many materials, and under the new rules there will be more – the aim is to ensure that all of them are useful in some way and to promote experimentation as a way of finding out.
Expiration
As alluded to in the title, after we go live with the new rules all resources will have an expiration on them, creating a more dynamic environment for crafting and alchemy.
However, different resources will expire at different speeds, this is predominantly based on how refined they are.
The below table shows the default life of a resource.
Component
Default Expiry in Years
Alchemical Passives
2 Years
Raw Materials
2 Years
Alchemical Actives
2 Years
Refined Materials
3 Years
Essences
3 Years
Ether Spheres
3 Years
New Resources
On implementation of the new ruleset we will be introducing 4 new resources into the world:
Ether Spheres – this is something completely new and we will touch upon it in a further article in the future.
Essences – currently active ingredients are the most refined alchemical inputs available, essences take this one step further and allows for the distillation of active ingredients into a more potent form. Creating essences from active ingredients will extend their life and can be used in more complex/advanced alchemical recipes.
Raw Materials – represent the most basic materials like ores, scraps of wood, ash etc. Raw Materials are not directly used to craft things on their own but can be refined into usable materials by a crafter.
By-products – the process of refinement or manufacture will have a chance to generate by-products. These by-products while individually not representing anything of real value with have uses in basically activities like rites.
Refinement and Distillation
Raw Materials can be processed by a crafter into Refined Material, for example silver ore can be refined into a unit of silver ready to be worked into an item.
The process of refinement will add an additional year to an output material’s current lifespan. Multiple refinements will add multiple extensions.
Example: A new unit of Silver Ore has two years expiration, on its first day it is refined into a unit of Silver which now has 3 year’s expiration, increasing its life by one year at the point it is refined.
Distillation is similar to refinement however with 1 subtle difference, the process of distillation takes multiple alchemical active ingredients of the same type and creates an essence that will be usable in more complex poisons or potions. Essences can also be used to substitute their lesser refined variant but not the other way round. E.g. Essence of Lycopodium can be used in a recipe that requires Lycopodium, but Lycopodium cannot be used in a recipe that requires Essences of Lycopodium. Distilling adds an extra year to the expiry date of the input active ingredient(s).
The below diagram is an example of the refinement of material.
Do I have to Refine?
No – Refined materials will still be available, Raw materials exist to provide additional options to crafters rather than a material everyone has to work with.
Transition
We appreciate that this is a significant change to how we currently manage items and resources in the game. As such all materials when we move to the new system will be considered new and their current expiration set to the maximum date for its type. You will not lose any resources upon transition although they will start to expire alongside all others. There is no need to be concerned about existing stockpiles just expiring on day one. For example an existing unit of Stone will have an expiry of 3 years starting from the point the new rules take effect.
No items will expire on day 1 of the new rules – ALL items will start the clock ticking towards their expiry date. In other words, don’t throw away resources, labs or items now because they will still be useful under the new rules.
NB: All components, regardless of attendance will start their duration on the same event the new rule set goes live.
Anyone who wishes to use a bow or crossbow of any description at Curious Pastimes must first take part in a Bow Safety session. Bow Safety sessions will be held at: Friday – 3:00pm Saturday – 10:00am Sunday – 10:00am
Please meet outside Event HQ for any of these sessions.
If you pre-book for a session, your licence will be prepared ahead of time and your card will be ready to go on completion of the session. If you have not pre-booked, your card may not be available until the following day.
There is a Curious Pastimes Archery group for anyone who may be interested in joining or if you have any questions about archery at Curious Pastimes. http://www.facebook.com/groups/1148630478492403/
Weapons Checking:All weapons, shields and armour must be checked by a Weapons Checker before use to ensure they are safe. Weapons checking will take place in camps before Time-In on Friday, and again before any skirmishes. If an item is deemed to be unsafe or damaged, it is considered to have ‘failed’ a weapons check. Failed weapons, arrows or armour will be marked with a red tag – these items must not be used in the game under any circumstances, and should ideally be stored in an out of character area for the remainder of the game.
Traders’ weapons will be checked prior to the event opening.
As part of our aims to make sure that announcements and information about what is happening aren’t lost in people’s streams we have built ourselves a little space on the website for us to post news and information.
So welcome to the Curious Pastimes blog.
We will post event updates, news and, very shortly, rules review updates directly here and then link to them on social media. Here we can make sure they’re not lost among adverts and cat pics, they will be easier to find.
Additionally we’ll tag them by date and event and subject so they should be searchable when you want to come back and see what’s going on later.
For now comments aren’t a feature – this is largely because it’s a bunch of extra work that we haven’t had time to do – all our other routes for conversation continue and, as soon as we can, you’ll be able to comment here too.
