Two months later and I'm back with another update! I feel like I've hardly had the chance to breathe since the last week of August. Let me get you up to speed.
Throughout September and October, I was hard at work facilitating the games I'd created for the Ohio Renaissance Festival with Roll of Destiny! Almost every weekend of those months, I'd take a three-hour expedition to the southern side of the state and get ready for another weekend as a theme-park worker.
Even without the extra travel time, working a Ren Faire is absolutely exhausting! I was surprised and humbled to learn, though, there were several other vendors like myself there—multiple people I met had multi-hour drives each weekend (or even each day), just so they could peddle their wares to the guests. There were so many fascinating, talented, passionate people I met throughout my Ren Faire experience. When you're backstage before a Renaissance Festival, you understand the unwavering commitment that resides in every person there. Each one of them is committed to creating special memories for the guests, from those who volunteer their time to those who've made their livelihoods on the Faire and festival circuits. It takes a remarkable person to work nine hours at a rain-or-shine festival: I'm proud to have shared my time with so many remarkable people.
As for facilitating the games, that was incredible, too. Watching so many people stop by our tent each day to hear what we had to offer. Seeing so many faces light up when we said the word quest or told them we were offering games for them to play at the festival. The excitement on the faces of adults and children alike as we told them about the Theurgists or the Meridian Alliance, or when they'd step up to our dice-rolling station to roll their destiny for the day. We met so many families, so many D&D adventuring parties, so many game enthusiasts, all who were thrilled to experience these things I'd written. There aren't words to describe how meaningful it was. A special thank you to a certain customer who asked me to sign their booklet after learning that I'd written and designed The Theurgists' Vault—I'll remember that moment for the rest of my life.
The secret society from The Theurgists' Vault experience was brought to life by our amazing volunteers: people who offered their weekends to help us bring our game to life. Some of them were friends from the first interactive experience we hosted, A Festival of Fae, others were family members and close acquaintances of the staff, and still others were completely new faces willing to take a chance on our team and help create an adventure for their fellow fairegoers. We truly couldn't have done it without any of those incredible people. It takes a massive number of people to make live-action games happen, and our volunteers stepped up and helped us deliver a magical experience to more than one thousand people. That number still blows my mind.
We closed out the Ohio Renaissance Festival's fall season on October 29th. That night we faced the complicated task of disassembling our tent in the rain, by dark of night. We took everything back to our cars by hand, then drove it all to our storage unit where we packed everything again late that night. It was definitely one of the longest days of the entire experience, but I ended that day and the run with a sense of relief and satisfaction. Despite all odds, we'd managed the goal I cared about the most. Our group had approached that run with the goal of inviting patrons to play while visiting the Renaissance Festival, giving them a quest that would bring excitement, adventure, and a sense of purpose to their day. Now that we've reached the end of it, I can confidently say we made that vision a reality.
I think I should wrap this update here. I'll have another update soon, since I've just reached the finish line on a different project as of today, but it think each of these projects deserves its own special debrief. In conclusion, I can only say these past two months turned my life on its head. There were so many obstacles my team faced when bringing our games to the Ohio Renaissance Festival's 2023 fall season, but we managed to make it through (with a lot of help from our wonderful supporters, at home and at the Faire). It was absolutely thrilling to watch people of all kinds enjoying the games I'd written and designed. Whether it was watching patrons solve puzzles in the field or listening when they brought back stories of their adventures before they left, to witness each person's enjoyment was rewarding beyond measure. For all the stress and Herculean effort of the past two months, it's wonderful to know my games really did inspire people, fill their days with unexpected joy, and give them a sense of accomplishment after a successful quest.
Thank you to everyone who's supported us and helped Roll of Destiny begin to realize its potential. See you for the next adventures!
~Hannah
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