Location Change: Future Home of Hynafol

Formal Meeting Outline: Hynafol Zoom Call

I. Call Opening

A. Welcome and introductions
B. Purpose of the meeting

1. Review the February Expedition codex

2. Cover event logistics

3. Share announcements

4. Answer attendee questions

II. February Expedition Overview

A. Event title: The Siege
B. Event dates: February 20–22
C. Host: Court of Valor with King Arthur
D. Location: Hynafol
E. Event flow

1. Friday arrival and opening ceremony

2. Saturday activities

3. Sunday departure

III. Event Logistics

A. Contact information by topic

1. Gameplay and experience questions

2. General information and ticketing

3. Volunteering

4. Camping and logistics

B. Arrival and check-in procedures

1. Friday arrival window

2. Friday check-in closing time

3. Saturday arrival window

4. Registration at entry

5. Ledger check-in requirements

C. Parking procedures

1. Parking lot requirement

2. No parking in campground areas

3. Parking pass system

4. Enforcement of parking rules

D. Age and safety policies

1. Minor attendance with parent or legal guardian only

2. Minor waiver requirement

3. Weapon check requirement

4. Safety briefing requirement

5. Recommendation to review combat rules in advance

E. Photography and technology policy

1. No phones or cameras in play areas

2. Immersion and decorum rationale

3. Personal photos permitted in non-decorum areas

F. Food and vendor information

1. Food vendors on site

2. No meal packages for this event

3. Encouragement to support vendors

IV. Player Participation

A. Volunteer opportunities

1. Volunteer forms available

2. Additional postings on Discord and website

B. Player-run activities

1. Evening activities

2. Merchant participation

3. Trade and barter opportunities

4. Renown point incentives

V. Registration Reminders

A. Online registration availability
B. Day-of registration availability
C. Wristband requirement
D. Ledger visit required for all players

VI. Announcement on Future Hynafol Site

A. Progress on permanent site development
B. Expansion of cleared areas
C. Long-term goal of future buildings and dedicated event space
D. Presentation of conceptual front gate/entry design
E. Clarification that the design is aspirational, not final

VII. Property Development Discussion

A. Community offers of professional support

1. Civil engineering

2. Site planning

3. Utilities and GIS

4. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection expertise

B. Questions about future building ownership or leasing

1. Possibility of house leasing, renting, or ownership

2. Response that plans are still under development

C. Development expectations

1. Many details remain unresolved

2. Shared understanding of community goals

3. Anticipated growing pains

4. Request for patience during site development

VIII. Long-Term Vision Discussion

A. Feedback on concept art
B. Clarification that current visuals are conceptual
C. “Blue sky” discussion of ideal future features

1. Large-scale dream concepts

2. Example: castle-sized structure for major gatherings

IX. Volunteer Work Days for New Site

A. Confirmation that work days are planned
B. Expected work

1. Brush clearing

2. Cleanup

3. Manual labor
   C. Communication channels for announcements

4. Schedule

5. Email

6. Discord

X. Grand Gathering Location Discussion

A. Question regarding Sherwood as the long-term home of Grand Gathering
B. Response that Sherwood remains the location for the foreseeable future
C. Reason given: existing facilities and ease of hosting
D. Possibility of future use of the Hynafol site not ruled out

XI. Community Skills and Support

A. Suggestion to centralize offers of professional help
B. Types of support mentioned

1. Consulting

2. Discounts

3. Skilled labor
   C. Direction to email info for coordination

XII. Final Q&A

A. Question regarding recommended spending money for first-time attendees
B. Response factors

1. Meal situation

2. Shopping plans

3. Drinks and other purchases
   C. General guidance that most of the experience is covered by admission
   D. Estimated drink pricing discussed

XIII. Closing

A. Reminder that additional details are forthcoming

1. Battle assignments

2. Evening activity addendums

B. Reminder that volunteer forms are available
C. Invitation to breakout rooms
D. Final thanks and adjournment

[JORDAN]
All right, everyone, welcome to the IFL Zoom call for the February expedition. We’re going to go over the codex and then do a couple of really sweet, awesome announcements.

So I’m going to screen share and just kind of walk through the codex step by step, and I’d love for you to ask me questions. So if you want to ask me questions, go ahead and hit the react button down there at the bottom and raise your hand. There’s a button that’ll pop up on your screen like that, and then I’ll call on you and it’ll be lots of fun.

But the whole idea for this call is to go over what we’re going to do in February. If you’re new here, welcome. We do events we call expeditions. What is it? Six times a year, and then we do a couple of other ones. We do a courtly night, which is mostly surrounding politics, and then a fantasy ball in the summer.

And so tonight we’re going to talk about the February expedition, which is known as the siege. And so here is the handy dandy codex, that we like to call it. This is basically the document that, everything you need to know about the event if you’re coming, and it is convened by the Court of Valor with King Arthur.

So I won’t read this all because I believe in you and you can read the narrative document, but this kind of lays out what is going to happen and why it’s happening. This is your lower drop, if you will, for the weekend.

And then moving on from there, here’s some basic information.

So the event is from February 20th to the 22nd, so you arrive Friday. We start Friday evening with an opening ceremony. Things run all evening, all day Saturday, and then we pack out and head out on Sunday. It will be located at Valkyrie Ranch, and the host is the Court of Valor with King Arthur.

Here’s the prices to get in. If you have questions about things, this is something that comes up all the time. If you have questions about the game or the experience itself, please send those to gm@hainfall.com. If you have questions about tickets and other general things, just general information, go ahead and send it to information. If you would like to volunteer, hit up volunteers at Hainfall.com.

If you have questions about camping and other logistic things, feel free to email logistics at Hainfall.com. Oops, nope, I don’t want to go to my email.

Please do not email GM at Hainfall.com for things that are not related to the gameplay and the experience. Poor Taylor gets like dozens of emails a week about things that are not that. She just answers things about the game. Let everybody else do cool things.

If you have an emergency on site, call 911. And if you need to get a hold of somebody from Hynafol on site, feel free to probably text this phone number first and then call again if you have an emergency, dial 911. If you’re on site and you need help, you don’t have your phone, no problem. Just look for the people wearing orange and green. We’re out and about all the time, all over. Anybody wearing orange and green will know how to get you some help one way or another.

OK, again, here’s some general information. It’s repeated twice on purpose because often people ask me the same questions over and over again.

Here’s some information about arrival and the gates and how they work. So this is the address you will put in your GPS to get there. When you get there, you will drive through the gates and head on into where the parking is located and check-in will be in a big orange and green Hynafol tent next to the parking. Please have your ticket ready for scanning. If your ticket isn’t scannable, no problem, just have your ID, we’ll look you up, not a problem. You will get in.

Character registry and expedition pay, so all participants must complete their registration upon entering the event at the ledger. So that is our new location in, kind of in the game, where you’ll verify your character information and receive your starting currency as well as your citizen card.

OK, on Friday, you can arrive anytime between 12 and 8. Cars need to be parked by 8:00 p.m. in the parking lot. We’ve had some problems last event in particular where people were parking all over the place. Please park in the parking lot. Leave the campground for camping. I know that that might be an inconvenience to you, but it is for the overall safety and decorum of the event. There’s nothing worse than trying to have fun, roleplay, or sleep, and then there’s a car shining their light in your eyeballs while you’re doing so.

So please park in the parking lot. We will be enforcing that. We will also be implementing a parking pass. So when you come to the event, we will ask you to fill out a thing with your license plate and whatever, and you’ll hang it in your window. We will tear it off and we will keep the other half so we know whose car belongs to who, and we can come find you.

If you don’t park in the parking lot, we will come find you and ask you to park in the parking lot. We need you to park in the parking lot. Hopefully that’s exceedingly clear.

OK, and then Friday check-in is open until 10:00 p.m. In and out privileges are available throughout the duration of the event, so you can come and go as you please, but after 10:00 p.m. there won’t be somebody there dedicated to check you in.

And then Saturday arrivals begin at 8 and end at 6. If you haven’t arrived by 6:00 p.m. and you bought a ticket, we’ll still let you in, but you’re going to miss most of the things and it will be, most of the things are wrapped up by then and it’s just the evening activities that are happening.

OK, this is all the stuff that I just said.

Age policy, minors are allowed only when accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, so you must be 18 years old to come to the event. If you’re bringing your child, you need to sign this waiver. If you click this link, it will go to the waiver.

All weapons have to be checked and you have to attend the safety briefing. We offer that every single time. It’s in the schedule. I’ll show you, but we will go over how to use your weapons appropriately and what the Hynafol combat rules are. It is recommended that you read through the Hynafol combat rules before attending the event. It will help you more clearly understand what the heck is going on when you’re fighting with foam covered sticks.

Next, photography and technology. If this is your first time, we don’t allow phones, cameras, and other personal recording devices in our play areas. We want to create a mystique of decorum that you’re living in a medieval fantasy world and so we don’t want you to have your phone out or a camera and take a picture. We have photographers every event. They come around. If you want to take a picture, go into the non-decorum area and do selfies with your friends. That’s all not a problem, but don’t take your phone out during the event.

There will be food vendors on site. There are no meal cards or meal packages. Last time we had both Hadron’s Run and Rocco’s Hot Wings. All the food is awesome. Please eat the food. Just on that as a note, I know that a lot of people bring their own food, which is totally fine and definitely allowed, but we often get asked like, why isn’t there more food available at the events, and it’s because those food vendors have to be able to make money for their time. So if you want to see more food at Hynafol events, please eat some food, and that will help a lot.

Both places make really, really good food. Hadron’s Run had a gumbo, I believe, last time that was incredible, and then Rocco’s hot wings are some of the best of all time, period, full stop.

OK, we do not have any transportation for this event. The rules are all the standard rules, and if you would like to volunteer again, please hit that.

And then next, we need activities for each and every expedition. So Hainfall is, a lot is put on by the organization, the battles, and a lot of the stuff, but the stuff that actually makes the world come alive is all done by the players. So you, the people that attend the event.

So if you have an idea for an activity that you want to do, we have evening slots on both Friday and Saturday night. There is lots and lots of stuff to do. You get rewarded with in-game points called renown points that your house or kingdom can use to do all kinds of special, awesome things in our Carter Arcanum online game.

And yeah, so take a look at that form. There’s lots and lots of opportunities on there. A couple of things to note is, if you would like to be an in-game merchant or trade for barter for Hynafol coin and resources, we would like to hear from you and we can make sure that there is a spot saved for you so that you are in a nice location with lots of traffic and you can set out your wares. That does help bring the world alive. And so we want to have that.

And we are always looking for fun evening activities. Our rules are really simple. Make sure that they’re for everybody, obviously that they’re safe and that they’re fun, and your event will probably get approved.

OK, you can register online if you haven’t bought your ticket yet, do so soon. The event is going to be awesome. We do have a day-of registration, and then at check-in, all participants need to wear a wristband at all times. That’s how we know you belong and that you are supposed to be there for the event.

I covered this already, but all players should visit the ledger. Hi, you got a question? Go for it.

[UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER]
All right, so the line of volunteering that I […]

[JORDAN]
…to quest.

In the future, we’ll be expanding the cleared areas of the property to make room for continued growth and hopefully very soon our first buildings. So for now, we’ve mocked up a little image of what we hope you’ll drive up to someday in the future at the future home of Hynafol, and I will show you this.

It’s just a mockup. We’ll see what it ends up looking like, but this is our hope, something like that. And then you’ll drive in the front doors and the parking lot will be behind there, but it’ll still be awesome.

So yeah, questions, comments.

[UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER]
Hi there, Jordan. For the development, a little off topic, but I’m a civil engineer by trade, so soil testing, site planning, architecture, utilities, all that. I do that planning as a job, so if you need any help, if you need any advice, feel free to ask. I have ASTMs that I can look at. I have UFCs. I have a lot of engineering stuff because I work at an engineering squadron. So if you need any help with civil engineering stuff or planning, GIS, whatever, feel free to throw a bone out there.

[JORDAN]
Amazing. I do not know what half those acronyms mean, but I believe in you and we will put out the call when it’s time.

[UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER]
Porno, I was literally just gonna ask what Reed asked in the chat, but I know that at other LARPs there are opportunities for people in houses to lease buildings or rent buildings or own them. Have you worked out a plan for that yet, or is it in the works?

[JORDAN]
It’s all in the works.

[UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER]
Got it. Awesome.

[JORDAN]
For now, we’re gonna make it a really awesome place to host expeditions and then we will iron out all of the things. I’ll comment a couple of things, just quick, just so you guys know. Nothing’s confirmed yet beyond we’ve broken ground and we’re figuring it out. So there’s probably 1000 questions you guys have that we can’t answer yet because there’s a billion things that we’ve got to figure out.

So that’s 0.1. But we do understand what everyone wants. We want it too. Just so we all want the same thing. We just gotta figure it out.

And the second thing is, there’s gonna be growing pains initially. There’s gonna be a downgrade in quality from going to the Valkyrie Ranch as we’re building it from the ground up. So we need you guys to help understand that it’s very expensive and very complicated. And so bear with us. We’ll get there.

Yep, Phillip.

[PHILLIP]
So to tack on what Anthony said, I’m a mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineer. So if you need help understanding the acronyms he said, call me.

[JORDAN]
I love it. That sounds wonderful. Absolutely. Appreciate that.

Kai?

[KAI]
I am really in awe because the design for the front gate looks actually stunning.

[JORDAN]
Thanks. It’s just a for-fun design. We’ll see what actually pans out. This is not what you’ll drive up to in March. You drive up in March, there’s just bushes, yeah, but in the sky dreaming.

[KAI]
That would be kind of cool though.

[JORDAN]
Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, that’ll be pretty rad.

JP.

[JP]
So I’m sure you guys may have heard that Disney got a new CEO recently. He’s the guy who was in charge of theme parks, and they have a term called blue sky, which is like when they’re developing attractions or new lands or things. The term blue sky is, OK, everybody, just throw out the most wild ideas, like if you could do whatever you want, money is no issue, time is no issue, logistics are no issue, whatever ideas you had.

So now I have to ask you, if you could have like a blue sky, like this is like no problems other than just getting stuff in the ground, getting shovels in the ground, what would you like to see in the future, in a place like this? Because I’m very curious. Like what would you like to see that you think would greatly be, no budget, no time constraints, nothing outside of a trebuchet, which is the obvious answer, right?

[UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER]
A castle that can fit 1000 people.

[JORDAN]
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Thanks, yeah, I don’t know. That’s what I’d have.

Ryland, I appreciate the question, JP. That was a good one. Oh yeah, that’s an amazing question. Pardon my French. OK, or is it my Royland dish? I don’t know.

Right. So, as someone who does volunteer rather frequently and lives in the Austin area, are you going to be asking for volunteer help with any of the stuff going on at the new site?

[JORDAN]
Yes, so we will be having some work days. It’s just raw Texas woods right now. So we will need, there’ll be lots of opportunities to come out, see the property, clean up. There’s a lot of brush that needs to be removed. There’s a lot of manual labor of little things that needs to happen. And we’ve got 7 weeks to do it. We’ve made some pretty good progress already. But yeah, absolutely. And those will go up on the schedule and emails and Discord and all that so that you guys can come on in.

[CROW]
Sweet. All right, crow. I think it got mentioned briefly before, but my ADHD kind of pushed it out of my brain. I heard something about that the GG will always be the, Sherwood will always be the home of the GG.

Is that gonna be like a, I meant eventually, whenever the new location gets built up to be large enough, the Grand Gathering will eventually move over there, is that, or is—

[JORDAN]
Yeah, I think for the foreseeable future, Sherwood has the facilities to make things exceedingly easy for us to host the Grand Gathering. But maybe someday we will use the Hynafol village that is yet to be named. Or maybe we’ll use both. We’ll have activations all over the place. We’ll just have to see how things pan out, but for the foreseeable future, we’ll be at Sherwood just because it has everything that we need.

OK.

Yeah. Melissa.

[MELISSA]
Hi. So, it sounds like there’s a lot of really skilled denizens, mundanely skilled denizens in the world of Hynafol, and I was wondering if you guys had thought about a sort of email or something where we can send like, hey, I do this and I’d be happy to consult for free, or, hey, I do that and I’d be happy to give you guys a discount. So that way you have an email where people can send those things because I bet that would be helpful to have free labor.

[JORDAN]
That is always helpful, yes. It’s very generous of you to offer and a great idea. If that applies to you on this call, feel free to send an email to info@nfall.com and Jocelyn would be glad to put you on a list and help us get that sorted. That would be great.

[MELISSA]
Cool. It sounds like this is gonna get super amazinger.

[JORDAN]
That’s the plan, as amazing as it can be.

[MELISSA]
Awesome. Cool. Thanks.

[JORDAN]
Yeah, thank you.

All righty. Well, if nobody else has any more questions, that’s all the big news that I have tonight. We’re very excited for February. Hopefully you’ll come out and take part in the siege.

Like I said, the addendums for who’s fighting in which battle and evening activities will be coming out soon. Volunteer forms are already on the Discord and ready to go. They’ll also be up on the website very soon. So if you’d like to volunteer, we’d love to have your help.

I guess one more question from Frederick. There you go.

All right, hello, can you hear me?

[FREDERICK]
Sorry, I just had a quick question. It’s kind of subjective, really. I was curious about, like, sorry, the Grand Gathering is giving my very first event, and I’ve never really done LARP or anything, but I was curious about outside of the regular budget that comes with all the one of the big purchases, what would be a good amount of extra money to kind of bring to the event?

[JORDAN]
Yeah, I think that depends on you. Right. So if you get a package that has meals, I would probably say you need significantly less money than if you got one that didn’t have meals and then you were going to come to the event and buy all your meals there.

So it’s kind of subjective. I’d be really curious what, I’ve never gone to the event and not run it, so I don’t know what everybody else spends. It’s actually a fantastic question. I’m sure that lots of people have lots of opinions on that. It depends. Do you want to go shopping? If you want to go shopping, that’s going to be variable, right? Do you want to have drinks at the bar? Right? So those, that’s a variable. And then the meals are all reasonably priced. You can see the meals on the 2025 Grand Gathering page and kind of get an idea of what you would spend if you were coming.

Other than that—

[UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER]
Wait, wait, how much are drinks?

[JORDAN]
Well, they vary. I don’t remember off the top of my head, but I wanna say like a glass of mead is like 6 dollars-ish, something like that. They’ll probably say in the chat almost immediately because everybody else knows. I just don’t remember. But something around there, 6 to $7 depending on what you’re getting.

Yes, OK. Whatever this means.

Sorry, that’s not the most helpful question. Usually I know everything, but I don’t know. Yeah, not a ton. Once you’re in the door, most of the entire experience is covered, right? So there’s no paywalls or anything like that to do various different things. It’s really, do you have food to eat, do you have drinks to drink, and do you want to go shopping? That will really depend on what you need.

Cool.

All right, everyone. Well, thanks for being here. I’m gonna do breakout rooms if you wanna stay and hang out and meet people, and then I’ll hang out here in the main room if you want to talk shop and ask me anything at all. I appreciate you all being here. Have a great night. Love you lots, and we will see you in February.