Heya. Most of the people perusing this site don't need this page, because they've been at this LARP thing for a long time and there's nothing they haven't seen, heard, or tried. :-D This page is not for them. This page is for our rookies, random people who happen to stumble onto this site, and for people like my non-LARP friends who ask me, "just what DO you do on Friday nights?"

Some Definitions:

Vampire: the Masquerade (VtM): One of many role-playing games created and published by White Wolf Publishing, Inc. Set in a fictional version of our own reality called "the World of Darkness", VtM is about struggling to maintain control and the semblance of humanity when your existence requires you to be a parasite, about hiding your true nature from the mortals around you for fear of them rising against you, and about surviving in a society of bloodthirsty killers like yourself. Or it's about getting kewl powerz and destroying shit, depending on how you want to run your game. Like Dungeons and Dragons, VtM is a tabletop role-playing game in which one or two people (called Storytellers in White Wolf lingo) create a story for your characters to interact with, and you use dice to determine the results of your actions as your character. It has a core rulebook and many, many supplements. Other games set in the World of Darkness are Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension, Changeling: the Dreaming, and Hunter: the Reckoning, just to name a few.

Live-Action Role Playing (LARP): Instead of sitting around at a table rolling dice and describing the actions of your character, in LARP you become your character and act as your character would. It is a very entertaining and fun alternative to tabletop roleplay, but by necessity the system works differently. See below.

In Character (IC): Actions and events that occur in the setting of the game, involving the characters. Also, any action that you take as an active participant during the game.

Out of Character (OOC): Actions and events that happen to the players, aka real life, hehe. During the course of the game, when players wish to distinguish between an action their character does and an action they do, they make a symbol of a single arm crossed over the chest or two crossed fingers. Or they move to a space designated for OOC interaction.

Mind's Eye Theatre (MET): To help out those crazy few who like to dress up and act out their characters, White Wolf published these series of handbooks. Instead of dice, players throw "chops" (rock-paper-scissors) to determine the outcome of their actions. A MET version exists for just about every White Wolf game. Philadelphia: Nusquam and all games in the One World by Night universe use the MET VtM books as the basis for their games.

One World by Night (OWBN, sometimes pronounced Oh-Bee-One, yes, like Obi Wan from Star Wars, don't you expect that a lot of us gaming dorks would be fans of that as well?): No city exists in a vacuum, but it's difficult for the Storyteller(s) of a single game to create an entire world in which characters move around. OWBN creates a world by linking all the LARP chronicles of different cities together, and actions in one city can have grave effects in another. Chronicles within OWBN have a great deal of freedom and soveriegnty, but they all agree to follow a few basic rules so that interaction between players of different games is possible and everyone's on the same page. The One World By Night site has a better and more detailed explanation.

A Little History of P:N

Okay, so now you know a little more about LARP in general, now for a little about our game itself. Way back in the day (July 2002, to be precise), a little game called Philadelphia by Night started in Keith's basement, run by Big Kev and consisting of about a dozen or so players. At about the same time, Kris and JustDave started a LARP in their house called West Chester: Nusquam. Many of the players from each game knew each other from LARPs past, and since finding a site was a difficult thing, the three STs decided to merge their games into one, the game we now know and love.

The game continued to be held at Kris and JustDave's old house until we moved to the Holiday Inn on Rt. 202 in West Chester to accomodate our ever growing numbers. We applied to join OWBN in January of 2003, and many players from games like Baltimore by Night: Dark Harbor (formerly Bay of Blood), Kings of New York, Southern Maryland: Vitae Aeternus, and East of the River in Hartford CT came to our game, and some even joined our game or became regular players.

After being excepted into OWBN in August of 2003, many changes have happened. The Staff and the Playerbase have increased and the game has seen a change in locale. The game has moved from Collegeville, PA to King of Prussia, PA, and all the way to Claymont, DE where the game is currently being run.

The game wishes to thank the founders of Nusquam and all players for all of their endeavors. Without them, this great game could never have existed.

Anything on this page inaccurate? Please e-mail me: [email protected]