^[1]So, this is something a number of us have suspected for a few months, but now there is “official” confirmation. Chris McDonough has sent Open Letter From CCP ^[2] to the membership of the Mind’s Eye Society (aka the Camarilla fan club).

In the letter there is some information about the transition of the club formerly known as The Camarilla out of White Wolf/CCP hands and back to the fans themselves. This has been an ongoing process and I’m on the outside looking in (i.e. a friend, but not an active member of the club), however, I think it is a good thing. Fan clubs should be run by fans and while it might be nice to have a company handle all of the funding and management tasks, it really should fall to the fans to manage those details. Anyway…on the Grand Masquerade part:

As a part of that focus, and as a result of some of the staff reductions, we will not be hosting a Grand Masquerade event this year. Still, after discussing it with other managers within the company, we hoped we could do something more for the community and the club (especially since many of you have set aside your own events in favor of our timetables). We hoped that we could still help produce something that helps the organization stay strong and let you know that we value and respect your time and effort.

Therefore, CCP has entered into an arrangement to have MES produce a Fall 2012 World of Darkness LARP event with Ric Connely as lead, and coordinating the event for multiple clubs. Though this event will not have the level of grandeur of previous Grand Masquerades, CCP will finance the event, and hopes to work with Ric towards an expanded Grand Masquerade concept in coming years. Expect an announcement regarding the details of the 2012 event in the next few weeks.

No Grand Masquerade in New Orleans this year, but a cool LARP event in the fall for multiple clubs. I’ve been to some events like this such as ICC and Midwinter and they can be a lot of fun. Great games, good parties and a chance to hang out with some very cool people from the different organizations. Some of these fellow fans (hey, I may be in the industry, but I was and am a fan first) are people that I only get to see once a year and I’m looking forward to hanging out with them again.

I had a blast at the two previous Grand Masquerades. The first one I was a guest and the second I was managing the DriveThruRPG ^[3] booth in the dealer room. I’ll miss that this year, but as I mentioned I’ve had a great time at ICC and other events in the past, this one will be no different. I don’t know yet if I’ll be selling books or just hanging out…but I’ll be sure to keep folks in the loop as I get the info.

In the meantime I’ll be prepping for the huge White Wolf/DriveThruRPG booth we’ve got lined up for Gen Con Indy ^[4] in August. We’ll have tons of World of Darkness books back-in-print and plenty of new stuff as well. We’ll also have Rich Thomas, Eddy Webb and a number of other creators hanging out at the booth to sign books, talk shop and more.

-MMM