Games of Fall 2019

From MIT Assassins' Guild

The schedule of games being run in Fall 2019 under the auspices of the MIT Assassins' Guild is as follows.

Make sure that you are on the Assassins' Guild Mailing List to receive the application forms for these games.

Patrol[edit]

First and Third Saturday of the month, 8-11:00pm, 36-115

Travel to strange new classrooms. Meet interesting, unusual people, and kill them! Patrol is a high-action game of live combat with rubber-dart guns. Shoot your friends, then watch out as they try to take their revenge.

[9/7 Weekend] Persephone's Gift[edit]

GMs: kkb

The Spacer world Persephone is in trouble. A mutation in the native life led to the collapse of Persephone's carefully managed environment. The atmosphere is now unbreathable and human life impossible outside of force-field-covered areas.

The Settler world of Echo is also troubled. The support for colonization was cut before the new ecology was stable. Without an additional injection of citizens the terraforming project will fail.

A plan was devised to overcome both worlds' problems by relocating the population of Persephone onto Echo. For this to work, though, both sides will need to overcome the centuries-long mistrust between Settlers and Spacers, and deal with their cultural differences, especially with respect to the use of robots.

Persephone's Gift is set in the universe of Isaac Asimov's robot novels. Expect to see scheming, politics and robots.

[9/21 Weekend] Ghost Court[edit]

GMs: run by Cel Skeggs, written by Jason Morningstar

What you are about to witness is real. The participants are not actors. They are the living people and ghosts who have already either filed suit or been served a summons to appear in municipal court. Both parties in the suit have agreed to dismiss their court cases and have their disputes settled here, in our forum:

Ghost Court.

Ghost Court is a ridiculous, casual, mechanics-free LARP about ghosts and the people who sue them. It's a published game by Jason Morningstar being run by Cel Skeggs.

[9/28 Weekend] Murder at Elm Hall[edit]

GMs: twohlers

You and five others have been invited to spend the weekend at Elm Hall by the wealthy Lord Black, a famous socialite renowned for his parties. You were delighted to be invited -- but now he seems to be dead! To make matters worse, a storm has cut off all communication with the outside world -- you are on your own, with the killer among you. With no help from the outside world, it is up to you to be judge, jury, and executioner of one of your own peers.

Murder at Elm Hall is a murder mystery where the answer to the question 'who did it' is less important than how six suspects who can't rule each other out deal with being trapped with each other.

[10/5 Weekend] Fractional Games Writing Kickoff[edit]

Organizers: Cel Skeggs

Do you want to write a LARP? Is writing a full one night and bidding it too much work to fit in your schedule? Or are you worried that your writing isn't going to be good enough? Or have you never written a game before? Or do you just want a low-pressure chance to write a game? Come write a game for the Fractional Games event!

Over the course of the semester, gamewriters in the Fractional Games event will write a short (30min-1hr) game aimed at a small number of players, and then run their games in sequence on the weekend of 11/16. Come to the kickoff on this weekend of 10/5, and we'll go over the parameters of the event, help teams form for those who want to write in a team, and get started with writing.

Writing a game is encouraged for anyone who has played at least one game with the Guild. You don't need to have been around the Guild for a long time, nor have any previous experience with gamewriting.

[10/12 Weekend] Refuge, The Boat[edit]

GMs: twohlers

War. Oppression. Disaster.

Throughout history, these things have plagued humanity, driving untold numbers of refugees from their homes in search of respite from their suffering.

You are one of that great countless number. And you are fortunate, for you have found a way out.

There is a ship, a ship which exists outside of time and space, which travels by its own mysterious will for one purpose: to save the fortunate few it selects as passengers from the dire fates that await them in their own time and place, and bring them to a new home, where they can be safe.

And so it is that the group of you, most having never met, from many different times and place, fleeing from all manner of nightmares, became its latest batch of passengers. And as it approaches its destination, you try to think what your new home might be like, and how you will live there.

But as you all struggle to come to terms with the prospect of your new life, with what has happened to you, and with each other, there is one inescapable fact with which you must also deal with: the good ship Refuge is dying.

And soon there will not be enough room left aboard her for all.

Content warning: all characters are refugees from horrible situations. They've all had trauma inflicted upon them, several have inflicted trauma upon others. Specific content warnings include torture, sexual humiliation, forced prostitution, being a passive participant in sexual assault, child soldiers, suicide, genocide, forced drug use, extreme violence, persecution by literal Nazis, collaboration with literal Nazis (this is not an exhaustive list, but covers the more extreme of the content that characters have in their backstories).

Game will involve about a third of the characters dying, beginning about halfway into game, with musical chairs being used as a mechanic to determine which characters will die (players of dead characters are welcome to remain to observe game OOC). Game is vaguely Nordic- esque in style, with no plot and revolving around the characters simply talking about their relationships, past, and feelings. 18+ or with permission.

[10/19 Weekend] Castilian Kings: Intrigue and Inquisition[edit]

GMs: Kendra Beckler, Bram Sterling

In 1328, some of the greatest leaders of the Middle Ages have gathered in Navarre. With King Charles I of Navarre recently deceased, and Papal Inquisitions ever a threat, the negotiating and backstabbing here will set the course for the fate of Europe.

The Kingdoms of France and Navarre have been closely aligned since the late 13th century, but with the French monarchy plagued by affairs and scandals, will Joanna I, daughter of the King of France, break ties with her own family to secure her claim to the crown of Navarre?

In the Kingdom of England, it has been almost two years since the notoriously terrible ruler King Edward II was deposed by his wife then made to sit trial and judged guilty of incompetence (among many other charges). Presumed assassinated, his reunion with his son King Edward III will be a shock.

On the religion scene, an Antipope has risen in the Vatican due to the backlash against some of the current Pope's controversial religious teachings and his radical tolerance of Jews and Muslims in Catholic territories in a time when everyone expects the Spanish Inquisition.

But how much do your political treaties, schemes, and machinations even really matter when the Mongols are invading and laying waste to Europe?

This game features real historical characters and political issues in 1328 but no prior knowledge of history is required to enjoy playing.

[11/2 Weekend] Fall Guild Meeting[edit]

GMs: The High Council

The Guild's semesterly meeting. There will be free food, some policy discussions, possibly some mastering, and free food. If you want the Guild to continue to exist and make good choices about how it works, you should show up to this meeting! And you should eat the free food.

[11/9 Weekend] Murder on the Starlight Express[edit]

GMs: Ken Clary, Jayson Lynch, Jay Muchnij

Welcome to "Murder on the Starlight Express", a six hour, experimental [for its time] murder mystery assassin game. You can be one of ten crewmen trapped onboard the Freighter Gabriel, on course from Ceti Alpha 6 to Epsilon Eridani 4, with a murderer (or two) trapped on board. It's the classic whodonit, but in assassin style, where the criminals can shoot back, and maybe even shoot first.

[11/16 Weekend] Fractional Games[edit]

GMs: You! (Organized by Cel Skeggs)

Earlier this semester, gamewriters started writing a collection of short 30min-1hr games. Now, they're going to run, ready or not, and we need you to play them! Signing up ahead of time is encouraged but not mandatory.

The final blurbs will be sent out at the start of November.

[12/7 Weekend] Laura Boylan and twohlers write a LARP[edit]

GMs: Laura Boylan, twohlers

Laura47 and twohlers are writing a new LARP this semester. What will it be like? We'll find out!