Characters are not alone in needing a concept. Our venue, too needs concept, theme and mood. The best characters will enhance that theme and mood, whether through reinforcement, or through opposition. We're all in this together to tell the most entertaining story that we can. Thus, we present the intentions for our venue:

Venue Style Sheet for the Free Commots
The Game:

On the Coast of the Ocean of Atlantis, a small commoner-run Free Commots recovers from years of fear and brutality. Long abandoned, the Commots now hosts recently-arrived kithain in fair numbers. Great opportunity can be found here; this is a new Frontier in many ways, and there is much re-building to be done. There are riches to be had, to those Brave and Wise enough to claim them. The first strike in the War against the Fomorian Invaders has come, and the kithain have survived. Winter is here, and the kithain have survived. Hope is here, but it is hope tempered with uncertainty. The shadows of the past still hold sway in dark corners, and who is to say that monsters are truly Banished. Ancient dreams, after all, dwell deep beneath the waves.
The Theme: The birth of Story. The Shining Host is about stories, and characters - and moreover, those characters know that they are players in grand tales with rich histories. How those characters, knowingly, twist those stories without denying them is a core theme that we are exploring.

The Mood: High Gothic. Gothic horror is a style of horror literture which features antique settings, isolation, family curses, insanity, incest, and often ghosts or vampires. The genre actually began in the 1700s, but was still around by the end of the Victorian era. The two best known Gothic novels are Frankenstein and Dracula. Gothic Horror is the underside of the Imperial experiment, the indulgence and exploration of the shared Victorian phobias and fears. In a society where pedigree is everything, what if there is some abhorent curse in the family past? Where the hierarchy of status is all-important, what if a malevolent kitchen boy connives his way to the throne? What of the miracle of technology when it is used to learn that which man was not meant to know? Incest, lingering ghosts and family curses, darkened moors and ruined cathedrals, melodramatic emotional supermen and Satanic rites mark this genre.

Player Information

Venue Name: The Free Commots CND-019, Domain Dark Citadel CN D06
Genre: the Shining Host
Contact: Andrew Aulenback, acting principal VST CND-019 Shining Host Venue
Place/Time: alternate Sundays afternoon/evenings, announced locally by e-mail and telephone to confirm.
Directions: location may vary, but of late is usually the Fifth Floor Biology Lounge at Dalhousie University's Life Sciences Centre. You will want to confirm for directions.

Theme/Mood: The Growth of Story/High Gothic (see above)

Character restrictions:The venue uses the core Special Approval restrictions of the 6.0 Rules Addendum, with the following additions:
Sidhe: in addition to Mid Approval, requires Special Character application and, this being a principally Commoner game, are exceptionally rare.
Nockers: are especially encouraged.
The extra Arts from the Shining Host Players' Guide, and the Arts Pyretics and Dreamcraft, are generally discouraged. These effects can almost invariably be created with the five Basic Arts. The exception to this is Kryos, which is thematically appropriate to the Canadian Shining Host Venue.
Note that the Halifax venue is a predominantly Unseelie game at present. players are strongly encouraged to determine before proceeding with mechanics, where their character will fit as a hero or villain, within this genre.

Proxy rules: There are no "soft proxies" as such to the local game; all proxies are worked out through e-mail or IRC or the post, rather than at session, so as not to disrupt the flow of the story "on stage."

Travel risks: Traveling to Halifax in the Autumn World is currently very difficult. The city was largely evacuated in December 2004, the North End is a burned and broken ruin, and the Military seeks to quarantine, organize and control continued rescue and relief efforts. Traveling to the Near Dream of the city is potentially dangerous, but distinctly possible for those of a heroic or villainous bent. The Silver Roads to the city trail off in the depths of the forest of Ice and Thorns beyond the city's walls. Darkness crowds in, and the hunting Monsters in the dark avoid the torchlight. Only at the city walls does the watched feeling pass....

Challenges: Challenges will be handled as per the Shining Host and the Camarilla's 6.0 Sanctioned Rules Supplement. The Storytellers reserve the right to make decisions that go against the letter of the rules in support of good drama, and story flow; that is to say that challenges [paper, scissors, stone] will be as rare as can be arranged. Also, the use of bid Traits in descriptive sentences is not only mandatory, it is encouraged - bonus traits may be granted on a challenge to a particularly wonderful turn of phrase; the ornate use of words is part of the Gothic genre, after all.

Characters:
Character concepts should be defined by how they fit into the High Gothic genre. Heroes and villainsalike are welcome. Unseelie predominate; dark shadows are long reaching. The darkness here is the grim and grit of Nightmare, not the bitter angst of Vampire or the enraged violence of Werewolf. Bear in mind your Kithain PC's Chrysalis and Fosterage. Kinain player characters are also welcome, and will need less of a backrgound understanding of the venue - thus perhaps being more suitable for players new to the Shining Host. Nockers, are of course, much encouraged. According to canon source, after all, Halifax is rife with them.

Locations in the Dreaming:
We will coordinate travel to the Far and Deep Dreaming with the High Approval Storytelller for Changeling in Canada.

Storyteller Information

Venue Storyteller
Name: Andrew Aulenback [CA2002022320 mc1] and others
Title: acting lead VST Shining Host
Address:
Phone:
Email: jack@repairman.com
Passed Thespis Test: Yes.
Style:
Antagonists: A combination of PC and NPC antagonists, with emphasis placed upon inter-PC conflict and politics as much as possible. Notable NPC antagonists include an assortment of nocnitsae, dauntain, Autumn People, and the mysterious Murdhuacha.
Particular Rules to our Venue include the following; Note that any questions about Lores in general can likely be answered in the Camarilla's Lores FAQ. Also note, that in the Camarilla Supplement to the Shining Host, it is mentioned that Excessive Influence in the mortal world (more than 5 total influence) accrues Banality over time - our Venue uses this rule. Freeholds and Dreamers are useable per Week for the gaining of Glamour (as per the Camarilla's guide to Shining Host, and the Winter Supplement document). Our venue uses the official Errata to the Shining Host main book, available here or through the Mind's Eye Theatre Journal.
Visiting character/plot policy: Our players are required to put a fair amount of thought and effort [not money, but effort] into their costuming and portrayal of their character. "Playing dress-up" is a big part of Live Action Role-Play. This is strongly encouraged in visiting characters as well. Props or other players to portray prominent Chimerae is strongly encouraged. Some effort at costuming will be necessary for visiting [just as with local] Player Characters to gain the full possible experience for a session.
Current settings: (out of a scale of 1 to 5)
· Intrigue (politics and negotiation): 2
· Action (combat and challenges): 2
· Mystery (enigmas and investigation): 4
· Drama (ceremony and characterization): 4
· Darkness (player character death or corruption): 4
. Manners (social etiquette and interaction): 4, but do remember the social setting involved.
. Pace (story development and resolution): 3 (2 sessions plot, 1 session between)