“Sleep my little baby-oh Sleep until you waken When you wake you’ll see the world If I’m not mistaken…
Kiss a lover Dance a measure, Find your name And buried treasure…
Face your life Its pain, Its pleasure, Leave no path untaken.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
The first and simplest pleasure is just strolling the Faire. Some of the enjoyment is in participating, if you choose; you get more out of your experience the more you put into it.
We’ll have shows in the evenings and performances through the day. You’ll have the chance to meet our Cast and interact with our Story, learn our Lore, and experience the grand and peculiar Concardance which is Wonderplace Alpha.
We’ll be adding programming as the time goes by. Please stop by here to stay updated on our programming and our many escapades to enjoy.
“All reality is a game. Physics at its most fundamental, the very fabric of our universe, results directly from the interaction of certain fairly simple rules, and chance; the same description may be applied to the best, most elefant and both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying games. By being unknowable, by resulting from events which, at the sub-atomic level, cannot be fully predicted, the future remains malleable, and retains the possibility of change, the hope of coming to prevail; victory, to use an unfashionable word. In this, the future is a game; time is one of the rules. Generally, all the best mechanistic games – those which can be played in any sense “perfectly”, such as a grid, Prallian scope, ‘nkraytle, chess, Farnic dimensions – can be traced to civilizations lacking a realistic view of the universe (let alone the reality). They are also, I might add, invariably pre-machine-sentience societies.
The very first-rank games acknowledge the element of chance, even if they rightly restrict raw luck. To attempt to construct a game on any other lines, no matter how complicated and subtle the rules are, and regardless of the scale and differentiation of the playing volume and the variety of the powers and attributes of the pieces, is inevitably to shackle oneself to a conspectus which is not merely socially but techno-philosophically lagging several ages behind our own. As a historical exercise it might have some value, As a work of the intellect, it’s just a waste of time. If you want to make something old-fashioned, why not build a wooden sailing boat, or a steam engine? They’re just as complicated and demanding as a mechanistic game, and you’ll keep fit at the same time.” ― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games*
In most lands, arguments in Wonderplace Alpha are resolved by swordfighting to the death**. However, Earth, being backward in this as in so many things, frowns upon this practice.
Now, there aren’t a lot of arguments or ‘challenges’ that need to happen in Wonderplace Alpha. Many–most, perhaps–enjoy the entire weekend without participating in the story underneath. Like any big story shared with thousands of people, it’s really made up more of what happens when you’re in a special place engaged in magic, and less about trying to rival whatever your local bards or psychic podcasts are singing about this week.
But if you do get into a situation where you need to ask a question of someone who won’t talk, or change a piece of the story and make it your own, or any time when you want to interact in-game with other game elements and you aren’t sure if you ‘should’ win, you need:
A referee
A clear idea of what you want to ask for
Everyone who should be present (if you’re doing something involving someone else, they’re generally going to need to be there, unless it’s behind their back.
And a challenge ball. A “challenge ball” is a small, cheap object which is used to try to alter the Wonderplace reality around you. Historically, we never know how many challenge balls to provide each year. That makes things terrif–er, interesting.
(Most of the time you’re interacting with any game or immersive elements, you’ll be near a staff member who can referee, sometimes in your encounter with them.)
All you need to do is explain your intention to the referee, and hand them your challenge ball. They’ll take the challenge ball whether or not you win, and listen to your explanation. If they’re refereeing, they’ll make the decision between two players.
So an encounter might be of this variety.
YOU: I say that, on the night of the murder, I was actually nowhere near the city where she was brutally slain ten years ago.
REFEREE: Well, in real life, none of us were here ten years ago. But if that was true, it would change the whole story we just heard about this place. What’s your better story?”
Not everyone likes to do storytelling in the middle of their weekends. And if we want to have a story you can actually mold, that does mean it’s not going to be a “start, problem, solution, end” story, as if you were trapped inside it. It’s a “This happened, then we did this, then we did that, then this happened and all these things happened”. That’s not a story with a specific start and end for the weekend; but it’s a story you can take home afterwards.
* Or possibly ‘to the pain’.
** Have you read “The Player Of Games”? Whether or not you know the rest of Iain M. Banks’ “Culture” series, ‘Games’ is an intense tractor-beam of slow-building obsession. I don’t know what I would do if I were a slightly superhuman games expert, playing a game so large an entire species built itself around that game. I don’t think I have the courage to try to write it. But Mr. Banks did.
“There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t even started wondering about yet.“ ― Roald Dahl, “James and the Giant Peach“
Some of what we are is quite simple. We’re located in your lovely city of Lake George, New York, at a very pretty and rather capacious venue. We’re not floating in some fairyland in your dreams; that costs extra. Our areas are big, outdoor spaces full of vendors and interesting people. You’ll need to do a bit of walking to get around. (There are some golf carts available for rental.)
Some of what we are is rather more complicated. You never know who, or what, you’ll encounter at Wonderplace Alpha…and honestly, neither do we.
We hope that’s comforting.
You’ll be able to go back and forth between our various places, and will probably want to explore our whole grounds. (Although if you just want to spend the whole time hanging around the Pub or the Barnyard Market, who are we to stop you?) They are functional spaces and decoration is variegated but the inhabitants are…colorful, to say the least. (Would you like to assist us? If you want to volunteer to be part of the heroic team of pioneers who’ll be helping us decorate in the days before the event, do get in touch.)
In each area, you’ll see many people wearing the garments and gear of their assorted persona and stations.
You’ll also see people wearing normal everyday clothes, because all are welcome at Wonderplace Alpha.
But thing might get a little weird.
Albion is our Steampunk, Mad Science, and Eccentric Weirdness area. Do say hello to one or more of the Mad Hatters, would you?
In this area, you can expect to see things that are medium-tech. But there’s a lot an Artificer can do with 19th-century tools. Given that engineering insanity is involved, it can be hard to predict what you’ll see here.
Dress has rather a whiff of 19th century Great Britain, at least as viewed through the eyes of Young Dr. Frankenstein. It’s a quirky blend of technology and hand-labor here. Some clothing is quite elaborate, with suits and dresses (though dresses are terribly impractical for our terrain, but they’re just grand for tea) and some clothing is very simple.
A number of our attendees from Plain Boring Regular Earth tend, by choice or through the difficulty of acquiring good anti-phlogiston goggles in the average Home Depot, to wear basically everyday clothing with a few accessories. And that’s more than fine, as well.
Your vendors are particularly likely to have offbeat, ‘punk, alternative, and other strange gear.
Dress is likely to be anything ranging from the human Middle Ages and Renaissance, to Fae fashion. It’s where you’d be most likely to see nonhuman folks. It’s where you’re most likely to BE nonhuman folks. Titania has a secret for you.
You know, we do sometimes encounter Faeries. And it’s very difficult to predict what they’ll wear or or do. Some are very traditional, some are very punk rock.
When the going gets weird…
The Barnyard is our general marketplace, gathering area, and communal hall.
It’s the friendly gathering area of our outpost.
The Wasteland is our post-apocalyptic, scifi, future, and Gods-only-know-what.
We’re not saying that everyone here is a misfit, a punk, a loner, or a trickster. Some of them are also a little weird.
Darkling is a haven for souls who celebrate the night, and its oddities.
Dress is generally (but not invariantly) with an eye towards that which is darkish, Halloween, Samhain, midnight, Gothic. They’re not necessarily evil, any more than anyone else; just the Winter Court.
Darkling has no leaders and no special missions.
Honest.
While Darklings, like the Goths of other places and times (both the Peter Murphy kind, and the sacking-Rome kind) often wear black, black and also, for variety, black… like all Elements, they do value individual freedom, and you can wear what you want. Those who want to keep in theme often tend toward looks like those found in Villains, the Undead, the Zombie Zoo, and pretty much how we tend to dress from about August first to about November 23rd.
The Wasteland, as seen by Mr. William Broad (you might know him as Billy Idol.):
