How Time Passes

By Beren Olean |

For Clarity

A basic timeline to the world of Katalossa exists in the Katalossa section of the website, but we have been informed there is some confusion on how time passes at Crestfallen LARP. We hope this article helps to clear up any confusion. If not, please feel free to contact us at CrestfallenLARP@gmail.com or in our discord for more clarifications.

Katalossa vs Real World

LARPs determine how time flows within their game relative to the real world. In Crestfallen’s game world, Katalossa, time moves forward by one week between each scheduled event. This movement is notated on the in game newsletter, The All-Of Branch, as well as in event postings on our schedule page.

Katalossa has 5 different in game months tied to different portions of the harvest cycle. Each of these months have 8 weeks.

  • The Scatter - Known for the spreading of seeds
  • The Flourish - The time for nurturing growth and replenishment
  • The Yielding - The time for gathering, storing, and crafting
  • The Decay - The time where growth withers and dies in preparation of going dormant
  • The Rime - The time of ice and snow when the growth remains dormant until it is safe to sprout

The first event run by Crestfallen LARP was a test run and canonically occurred during the first week of the Scatter during the 1488th year of the current in game calendar.

Pros

There are a number of good reasons why we have decided to handle time in this fashion.

  • There is less downtime to explain away. It is hard to understand why adventuring only takes place on the weekend a few weeks a year when following the real world calendar.
  • There are less between game actions to track. Crestfallen does not canonically recognize players between game actions. All activities that occur are at events. This removes the ability of players to effect change on the game world through friendship gaming, pay to win mechanics, and other styles of play that we do not condone.
  • It is easier to keep new players and returning players informed. We want players to keep up to date with our story, but not burden themselves by attempting to come to events that they cannot afford at the time. We will provide recaps of previous events so players can stay up to date on major story beats rather than being penalized for missing a game or not remembering between events.

Cons

There are a few negatives to this system as well.

  • It can be difficult to explain the weather. We will always try our best to have reasonings for why the weather may be different between in game and out of game time. To some players this will be important and not important to others. The elements and nature of Katalossa can easily be different from those of the real world.
  • Time may be difficult to remember. Games that follow the real calendar usually have an easy conversion on the year to assist players. This is not the case for Crestfallen. This is why we have the in game newsletter and schedule page to keep players informed ahead of time.

Holidays

Crestfallen does not bring any real world holiday into the setting. There will be no Christmas, Halloween, or similar stylized event. All holidays that occur on Katalossa will be in game created, such as the Empyrean Conjunction. These holidays will have in game meaning but not be tied to real world events. We want everyone to feel comfortable at Crestfallen and want to ensure that real world religion and politics has minimal influence on our productions.