Background
Education
2009 - Pennsylvania Culinary Institute - Le Cordon Bleu Diploma, Deans List, Eta Sigma Delta International Honor Society, GPA 4.0
2001 - 2005 - Penn State University - BS Elementary Education, Deans List 3 Semesters, Specialization in Math and Science, GPA 3.2
ServSafe Certifcation, Seafood HACCP Certification
Gaming Background
1997 - Present - RPG Game Master - Experienced in the use of D&D 3/3.5/4/5, Pathfinder, Shadowrun 3/4, Star War WEG/D20/D20 Expanded, Call of Cthulu game systems - Running - Have run multiple year+ campaigns based in home brew game world. Longest campaign 5+ years.
2004 - 2008 - Plot Lead for “National LARP Chapter” - Created long lasting plotlines that have maintained steady attendance - Managed 4 to 25 NPCs per event regarding rules, story, and monster stating - Certified Formal Marshal
2008 - 2016 - “National LARP Chapter Owner” - Wrote and edited timeline from multiple previous chapter owners to form cohesive timeline - Wrote and ran multiple plotlines for a majority of yearly events - Managed NPC shack, logistics, tag database, overarching story, personal plot, and all monster stating.
2019 - Dead Legends - Story Witness - Wrote small modules and plot lines for use during events - Acted as a marshal where needed
Aligned Interests
- Streaming
- Video Production
- Zine Publication
Business
Owner of a Food Production Facility - Making seafood based products for sale at local grocery stores and sold through distributors.
Owner of BearNPC Productions inc. - Focusing on production of Crestfallen LARP as well as digital LARP content in the form of articles, rules, and videos.
About
Beren is named after a small character from The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien, solidifying him into fantasy culture from birth. He grew up with a love of Star Wars, comic books, video games and sci-fi/fantasy novels through his school years. Often times he would stay up late listening to his mother playing original Final Fantasy, Metroid, and Zelda 2 on the family NES. He would look over her hand drawn maps of the game areas on engineering papers and make his own dungeon maps with friends at school. Highschool was when Beren made the jump to tabletop games. Starting with West End Games Star Wars, Shadowrun, and eventually D&D, he often watched others running games but never fully agreeing with how things were handled.
College allowed Beren to focus on running games on his own and forming his playstyle, which often differed from other players. His first full campaigns were year long epics that included 5 to 7 players every Friday during his last two years at Penn State. This formed the basis for the Katalossa history and depth. Also during this time Beren started LARPing at the “national based game”, which quickly led to Tavern Keeper, NPC, Plot Runner, Duchy Plot Lead, and eventually Chapter Owner.
Following college, the owners of the chapter of the “national game” had a difficult time. Being young and not having a lot of money put a strain on the owners and eventually lead to problems. The first few years had very few events, but over time confidence grew as did attendance. The ownership team added some more veteran players and hit their stride, running multiple events and allowing the owners to play alternating events. Sadly, due to a number of issues stemming from disagreements with the “national” structure, Beren quit as owner and removed himself from the game.
Over the course of the next few years Beren worked on the beginnings of Crestfallen with some different people, as well as attended other LARPs such as Dystopia Rising and Dead Legends. He took on a small position at Dead Legends, hoping to get back into story telling. This position did not last long due to differences in game and running style.
Crestfallen was slowly developed and eventually delayed due to pandemic issues. With the rules complete and the hopes of getting back into story, Crestfallen was pitched to a small group of like-minded individuals during 2022. A few playtests were run during the end of that year and officially opened in 2023. Over the course of this year Beren has worked with a number of great people to build the rules, website, tools, and shack to become more professional and ready for a full season in 2024.
Beren wants Crestfallen to become self sustaining and to provide a great story and fun time to all players. He hopes to show people that the story is the product and the progression is only a small part that should not be the focus.
Contact
Email - CrestfallenLARP@gmail.com
Discord - BearNPC - BearNPC#4093 - Beren Olean
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/beren.olean