King’s Stoke Wassail X is an event in Profound Decisions’ Empire world, aimed at Marchers and their friends.
Characters from all nations are welcome provided that they can find a Marcher to invite or vouch for them, and are not a character who would not be welcomed to King’s Stoke (see the ‘What’ section below).
Where
The event will take place at the Yorkshire Farming Museum and Danelaw Viking Village, Murton Park, York, YO19 5UF.
What
Characters are invited to King’s Stoke for wassail; however, King’s Stoke is a village not far from barbarian territory, and is not always a safe place. There will be opportunities for combat at this event; if you play a character who would be willing to engage in combat, we would recommend bringing weapons and armour. There will also be plot of various kinds run with the sanctioning of Profound Decisions.
The central concept of the event is of a village festival to which people will have been invited by someone from, or closely associated with the village. Irrespective of any out-of-character qualification to attend, the organisers and the players of King’s Stoke reserve the right to say that our characters would not have welcomed a given character to the village (this is likely to apply to people currently banned from the King’s Stoke tavern, the Mandowla’s Arms). If this is the case we will discuss that with you; it may be possible for your character to attend without an in-character invitation, but there may be in-character consequences for doing so.
We also reserve the right to refuse or cancel any booking at our sole discretion.
When
The event will take place from Friday 19th-Sunday 21st January 2024. The main activities of the weekend will mostly take place on the Saturday, so if you are only able to attend for the day you will still get most of the fun.
It will only be possible to bring cars on site after 4pm on the Friday and the Sunday. Please bear this in mind in your planning – if you have a luggage trolley it may be useful to bring it to allow you to get your kit off-site before 4pm on Sunday.
How much?
Prices are on our booking page.
There will be around 75 full-event character spaces.
We will also looking for around 20 crew. Crewing is free, and includes catering. For crew with Empire characters, we can usually offer the opportunity to play your character for some of the event, though this is not an absolute guarantee.
Takedown Crew
We need a few people to commit to helping with final site takedown, and staying on site until this is done. This isn’t normally ridiculously late – the organisers left site at 4pm last year – but we do need to avoid takedown getting down to only the two organisers at the end!
If you are a player, we are offering a £10 discount on your ticket for this.
If you are crew, we are already not charging you so can’t offer a discount, but will have a list and try to give you some extra time off or exemption from other duties.
Sleeping
There are around 40 bedspaces in the Dark Ages Village, for in-character sleeping. These consist of either sleeping shelves or straw mattresses, in wooden houses with firepits. Please bring plentiful and very warm blankets and sleeping bags.
Some people may prefer to sleep with out-of-character rather than in-character contacts (e.g. real life partners who play in different nations); we expect any unexpected in-character combinations to be disregarded in-character as much as possible.
There is also some space for sleeping on the fort; these may be allocated to a particular group or groups.
There is also space in the village to erect your own in-character tents, or space nearby for out-of-character tents.
Unfortunately, we are not able to offer any indoor out-of-character sleeping. The York Hull Road Travelodge is probably the most convenient nearby accommodation.
Eating and Drinking
Food will be provided by Serve it Forth, and will consist of Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch, and Sunday breakfast and light lunch.
We would ask everyone to bring and look after your own drinking and eating vessels and cutlery.
Saturday dinner will be a traditional wassail celebration around the houses of the village. Please bring some food and/or drink appropriate to your character or nation, and enough to feed a hungry person. We will also provide some food for this celebration.
The Mandowla’s Arms will be open, serving beers, ciders and soft drinks for IC and OOC money; you are also welcome to bring your own drinks.
Terms
King’s Stoke Wassail is a private venture of Tim Packer and team trading as King’s Stoke Events. Plot will be approved by Profound Decisions, but full responsibility for the event lies with the King’s Stoke Events team.
Places are allocated at our sole discretion, and we reserve the right to refuse or cancel bookings at our sole discretion.
Bookings are confirmed only on receipt of payment, or if we agree to accept a booking with payment deferred to a specific date. If we take your booking with agreement to defer payment, you are liable to pay whether or not you attend. Refunds for cancellation will be issued only if we are able to fill your place, or in special circumstances at our sole discretion.
Equality and Diversity
We subscribe to Profound Decisions’ Equality and Diversity statement.
If you feel that someone else booked for this event would make you feel unsafe, please let us know and we will consult with you about the best way to resolve that.
Main organisers for this event are Tim Packer and Susie Freeman, and can be contacted at kingsstoke@gmail.com; if you experience any problems related to safety or discrimination, we would like you to let us know, if you feel able to, either directly or through the crew member you feel safest talking to.