The Osiris Sanction is a collaborative effort run by Irish Ivey, Inc, and Ford's partner in the venture is Aidrian O'Connor, who he also collaborated with on The Isles.
Ford's History:
After attending the University of Texas school of Architecture, Ford Ivey worked in all parts of the construction industry, doing everything from design to supervising construction on some major projects in the Boston area. He got disenchanted with the construction industry and went back to one of his early loves, opening The GameMaster, a full service game store In Arlington MA. This store had tables for playing roleplaying games and miniatures. While doing this, he heard about a Live Roleplaying game in New Hampshire called Mid Realms Adventures, based on The Treasure Trap games in England.
While he enjoyed this game, he was convinced that it could be done in a way that would allow the characters more freedom of action. He ran a series of games for a couple of years in Sudbury, MA, under the umbrella of the Explorer Scouts, then (with input and assistance from several others) developed the idea of everyone playing the game: everyone was someone else’s NPC. This was the infamous Shandlin’s Ferry event, which ran in the fall of 1987 and was the immediate predecessor to NERO.
NERO was a unique development in LARPing, based on character growth and freedom of action. It grew far more quickly than the organization could handle in those early days, after an article appeared in Dragon Magazine, written by Mike Ventrella. NERO suddenly had over 5,000 active members.
NERO began to expand with new chapters quickly, starting with one in New Jersey, called the Ashbury Campaign. They later broke off to form what is now LAIRE. Other early chapters were the Pittsburg chapter (now PRO), and the Atlanta chapter, now running a game based on an early set of our rules and calling themselves SOLAR.
Ford ran the first game to own its own site dedicated to Live Roleplaying in Ware, Massachusetts. This site had 105 acres of woods and fields and 27 structures, including an old New England Inn, barns, and many cabins.
Ford, suffering from ill health, sold the game in the late 1990s to Joe Valenti. After overcoming most of his health issues, Ford is now involved in several new projects, including a new concept in LARP, The Osiris Sanction.
Ford has received the Lifetime Acheivement LARPY Award in 2006, which was named after him. Ford was also the LARP guest of Honor at the 2007 Origins Game Convention in Columbus Ohio.