Dominion Stillborn and TALAN Resuscitated

I’ve been following the progress of my estranged LARPing groups ever since the apparent death of TALAN. For awhile, I had participated in the spin-off project named Dominion. I even went to a great deal of time and effort to develop a magic system for it. As I should’ve expected, however, difficulties in dealing with the project lead forced me to quit. Nonetheless, I was curious to see if it would get off the ground.

As it turns out, the answer is no. Dominion, as evidenced by the nonexistent website, is stillborn. According to posts I read before it went down, the project lead had been up to his old neglectful/abrasive ways when he finally admitted to being a drug addict and officially quit gaming all together. As a member of the gaming community at large, I think we’re better off. Incidentally, not mentioning his name in this post is the only courtesy I care to extend to him, although I’m sure my fellow TALAN players will know who I’m talking about.

Speaking of TALAN, I was very surprised to see it back up and running. Well, perhaps not running, but at least showing signs of life. The TALAN website has apparently been revamped, although there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of actual content. I also noticed the president posting on the local D&D meetup about upcoming events. Whether or not he’s managed to garnish any interest after the part he played in its breakdown, I couldn’t say. I’m not going to hold my breath.

As always, part of me can’t help but hope that, one day, everyone will be able to put the whole ordeal behind them and have fun again. Realistically, I doubt that will ever happen. Like everyone else, I am forced to give a heavy, nostalgic sigh and move on with my life.

As a side note, I managed to find some old TALAN friends’ blogs while I was looking for news on the defunct LARP. Jeni was my plot person for a time and definitely one of the few level-headed TALAN personnel. Barton was probably one of the best players at the game, and the one who first introduced me to professional boffer weaponry.

It seems I spoke too soon. Although I’m sure I saw a spiffy new website up at the old Talan URL, it looks like they’ve rolled back to the old, “Talan is no more,” message page. Oh well, it’s not like I expected it to amount to much, considering management hasn’t changed.