Grand Tribunal America 2013: Mythic Trees

Grand Tribunal America 2013, the annual Ars Magica convention, will be held this year over the weekend of August 2-August 4. The attendees will be staying at a vacation rental house in the redwoods region of Northern California, near Santa Rosa, about three hours' drive from San Francisco and Sacramento. There might be a Faerie aura; I apologize for the extra botch dice.

I am currently accepting rental deposits from interested participants ("magi"). Sending me (eriktdahl@gmail.com) $50 via PayPal by May 1 guarantees you your choice of sleeping arrangements for you and those "companions" who are willing to share your room (some have king or queen beds, others doubles, fold-outs, and even bunk beds). Pets ("familiars"?) are also negotiable. Once I have reserved it, we'll divide the cost of the house evenly, including $25 per person for food and prizes. My estimate is that this will run about $250 per magus, which covers three nights. It may very well be less than that.

(There are three potential locations, with the number of rooms scaling up, and I will reserve the one that best fits our party as it looks on May 1. If you want more details about them, just ask!)

If you can't afford to go in on the rental but still want to join us and are willing to sleep wherever there is space, you will be welcome to come as a grog. I'll charge just $25 for room and board if you commit by June 1, and I promise you won't have to take a Ball of Abysmal Flame to the face!

Please write to me if you're thinking of attending, or before you send me money (so I know what to expect before it goes in my account). I look forward to another year of incredible magical power coupled with fun and friends in relaxing, beautiful and perhaps even supernatural surroundings. ARS MAGICA AWESOME EST!

The movement sorta lost steam a few years ago. I would like to try to revive this. Is anyone else interested?

We'd talked some about combining it with a gathering at Gencon. At Gencon, the space/event is already there, we could easily piggy-back and Atlas is even there.

It's not too late to set something up for that space.

-Ben.

:frowning:
Most dissappointing.
I presume the GTA movement is pretty much dead then?

A ars convention in August to compete with GenCon is not good. August is a among the worst time to try to create events: Gen Con, Pennsic War for SCA folks, School shopping and packing for parents with kids, and a lot of small cons taking advantage of gap between summer camp and school.

To be held at Gen Con or during off Gen Con time of year (say Dec or Jan when there are few other conventions and people would love to head to CA, Florida or somewhere south. Even Feb might work. Early June or Memorial day weekend might work. Even mid June after school lets out before summer camps but August is a bad time for trying to set something up.

It certainly wouldn't be competing with Gencon, but being held during Gencon at Gencon, essentially putting our own set of events within the Gencon set of events. So it could work in that regard, Gencon is fairly central.

I know Gencon is a great place for outreach and exposure, people love to play games they might not see elsewhere, and there were a set of Ars games at Gencon which sold out for years. Plus, the Atlas folks are there, and I bet they'd drop in.

-Ben.