What are they? The Houses are just a bit of extra casual fun that runs alongside the festival on a very much ‘opt-in’ basis
How does it work? When you arrive at the festival you’ll be assigned to a Strange Games House (as shown in the flags above). After that, you can choose to participate in the House System as much or as little as you like. Anyone can acquire points for the glory of their House over the course of the festival weekend and then at our Farewell Meet we’ll crown one of them the Most Glorious House of the Strange Games Festival
Scrolls of Glory (or ‘How to earn & record House Points’):
At the start of any game you play at the festival, you can declare that you’re playing “for the glory of your house”, then if you win that game you’ve also earned points that you can add to the ‘Scroll of Glory’ for your House (also known as a scoreboard..)
Note: there are no rules for how theatrically you need to make the declaration that you’re playing “for the glory of your house” but if you wanted to say it with a bit of dramatic flair it certainly wouldn’t be discouraged! <insert your own Gowron, Game of Thrones, Dune, or Harry Potter references here>
Casual Gaming (Self-declared victories) – 5 points each: You can add 5 points to your house’s Scroll of Glory for any victory in a casual game just by writing your name and the name of the game you won on your House’s scroll (yeah, we know you could theoretically abuse this system when we’re not looking but this really is all just for fun so please don’t be that person)
Official Scheduled Games & Events (Awarded by Event Organisers) – up to 500 points each: You can win the biggest rewards for your House from the official scheduled games and events (longer or bigger games may be worth more points than others; points can be split between houses for any mixed teams that win a team game)
Other Acts of General Awesomeness (Awarded by Festival Organisers) – up to ‘who knows’ points each: If you get spotted being an awesome or helpful person (e.g. litter picking) you may be given some bonus points to go with that warm fuzzy feeling of having done a good deed
So Who Wins? Every day (& more frequently if we have the time!), we’ll update the running total of who’s ahead in the points scores on the Scrolls of Glory. The ultimate victors of the Battle of the Houses will be announced on the last day of the festival, at the Farewell Meet
There’s technically no prize for winning.. but the House with the most points will gain priceless bragging rights for the year and of course a momentous opportunity for a group photo with your House flag victoriously held aloft & voices raised in righteous glory! Rawr!