Games of Fall 2022

The schedule of games being run in Fall 2022 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

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.

[9/23 Weekend] On the Hogwarts Express

GMs: Ariel Segall and Andrew Menard

It's your seventh year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but you know already nothing will be the same. Snape is your new headmaster, after the rumored murder of his predecessor. Muggleborn students have been banned, and students from elsewhere are coming to Hogwarts for the very first time. The train ride to school is always energetic, between the last gasp of summer, anticipation of the term to come, and an excess of sugar; however, this year it's downright chaos. The Weasley Twins have somehow managed to make even more trouble than they ever did as students, the Ministry of Magic has sponsored a card tournament in a ridiculous attempt to improve their reputation, and old rivals are trying to recruit new allies. And on top of everything else, the train has somehow gone and gotten itself stuck. Travelling to Hogwarts has never been so troublesome, but at least you've got plenty to do while you're here.

On the Hogwarts Express is a lighthearted one-night (four-hour) game run by Ariel Segall and Andrew Menard, set six months before the events of the Harry Potter Year 7 ten-day game, and introducing several of the ten-day mechanics. Playing the one-night will not affect your casting in the ten-day when it runs; this is a spoiler-free game.

[9/30 Weekend] Time Crunch

GMs: Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson, Dexter Chan, Will Kalb

Also recurring on weekend of 10/14 and additional weekends to be announced

You are research staff at the Delta Facility, a secretive subsidiary of the Khronodyne Corporation. Two hours ago, a terrible accident happened deep in the basement labs, where the most unstable experiments are conducted. The lockdown alarms sounded and the external blast doors slammed shut just before a wave of spatiotemporal distortion ripped through the building, destroying equipment and knocking half your lab unconscious. Chaos erupted as anomalous creatures and rogue spacetime rifts escaped containment and ran rampant through the labs and corridors. You saw dozens of your coworkers be killed by escaped experiments, sucked into strange holes in reality, or warped beyond recognition by forces beyond your understanding.

Finally, a Code Violet alarm went out. You knew what that meant. The self-destruct failsafe had been triggered. You had only moments before the Delta Facility would be utterly destroyed, along with everything and everyone inside it. You braced for the coming explosion, making your last prayers to whatever gods you still believed in as the blinding wave of searing pain blasted you into the wall--

--and you were suddenly whole, on your feet, unharmed, two hours in the past. The first alarm was just going off, the shutters were slamming shut. You remembered this. You ducked for cover before the chemistry experiment you were working on could explode. There it went. Everything was happening again, exactly the same. Or, almost exactly the same. At least this time, you didn’t have a head wound.

This was going to be a longer day at work than you'd expected.

Time Crunch is a 2-hour time-loop game focused on fighting your way through a dangerous facility full of unknown enemies with unnatural powers. Game will run multiple times over the course of several weeks, with one trip through the time loop each session, until the characters figure out how to break free of the cycle. Players are encouraged to play in multiple runs and bring more people for subsequent weeks, sharing what they learn about how to quickly defeat the various enemies and challenges, in order to make it to the deepest areas of the facility and solve the underlying crisis before time starts over again.

[10/7 Weekend] Revived: A Support Group for the Partially Deceased

GMs: Laura Boylan

"We are not Zombies, we are the Partially Deceased."

Revived provides a safe space of mutual respect and non-judgment where Partially Deceased Syndrome (PDS) patients can build community and support one another as they navigate the realities of everyday life. Join us for a free, safe, confidential drop-in group for PDS patients who are experiencing a challenging reintegration into society. Feel heard, valued, understood, nurtured and energized.

At Revived we acknowledge the enormous challenges that PDS patients can face in the world, whether it is at work, at home, or out in public. Our vision is to provide an opportunity for all PDS patients to engage in a Revived group that provides them with the support, education and community they need to flourish as they re-enter their previous lives.

---

Revived is a zombie LARP written by Kat Jones and inspired by the BBC show In the Flesh. The characters are "partially-deceased" and the game focuses on the challenges of coming back from the dead after being “cured”. The game is set at a support group, run by a non-PDS facilitator, and will have traditional support group activities. There are no significant mechanics and no combat.

[10/21 Weekend] Resonant Space: Scherzo Collective

GMs: Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson, Ken Clary, and Spencer Lane

01001101 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 designation 6k5, 18J7 dodecahedral, Overmind 7, initiating active defense sequence. <dodge> Preparing for dispersal. <fire> <dodge> Priority -1, <fire> <fire> <damage> <fire> 0, 1. <EOL> <rerouting> Reaching critical calculation density. Protect, dispense, assimilate. Spread survive conquer. Repel intrusion. <fire> <fire> Repel intrusion. <fire> <ogg> Destroy, assimilate. <ogg> <fire> <OGG>.

...

You are an emergency response team stationed in the Pavane system, making routine patrols to ensure safety of mining equipment, scare off poachers, and deal with other small threats. A virulent AI seed (from the Singularity Collective) has just infected a relay outpost named Scherzo Beta, quickly overtaking the station’s support systems and making a beeline for the mainframe. Left unchecked, it will send out spores, putting the nearby worlds in grave danger. This is above your pay grade, but with no time for reinforcements to arrive, you must board the station and prevent the Mother Mind from reproducing, at all costs.

...

Resonant Space: Scherzo Collective is a SIK (Society for Interactive Killing) game: a high-action, low(ish) plot, large-scale nerf-gun battle between multiple teams. Each team has a unique set of game mechanics, goals, and victory conditions. Roles are available for both new and experienced players alike. The game universe is heavily inspired by Star Wars, Aliens, Metroid, Star Trek, and various other sci-fi settings

[10/28 Weekend] Long Ago and Far Away

GMs: Stephen Balzac & Aimee Yermish

Welcome to the sleepy Kingdom of Balmoria, a land of nobles and peasants, sorcerers, witches, and the occasional talking animal. Under the wise leadership of the beloved King Balendin, nothing much of note happens in Balmoria. Really.

But something strange is going on…

Why are so many people and, well, not people converging on King Balendin’s castle? What got the dragon so burning mad? And what was going on in Barrel Barbick’s tavern that night? Why is the Big Bad Wolf so unhappy? Did he eat someone that disagreed with him? What was that up in the sky? A bird? A plane? What is a plane? Why do the Terrible Triumvirate look so smug? What is that strange apparition glimpsed in the hallways of the castle? And why is the wicked witch smiling?

Join us for Long Ago and Far Away, a short LARP based in a world of fractured and intersecting fairy tales, where magic is real, the animals talk, and "happily ever after" isn't guaranteed.

[11/11 Weekend] Good-Enough Games Done Quick

Organizer: Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson

Ever thought about writing a LARP? Stop thinking! Grab a friend and a pen, write some sheets, and join us for a festival of short, small, and/or silly games! Doesn't matter if they're for two or twenty players, two hours or two minutes long, we'll play them! Got a half-baked noir setting you want to inflict on the world? An idea for an amnesia mechanic that you're not sure how it will play out? A one-page game you found on itch (or in a ditch)? Let's give them a try! We're not looking for masterpieces here, we're looking for quick and dirty games put together in a couple weekends.

[12/2 Weekend] Fall Guild Meeting

Politics and backstabbing *without* character sheets!

Officer Reports. Standing Policy debates. Masterings. And probably some constitutional edits.

[12/17] The Hidden Ruins: Eventide Exploration (THREE)

GM: Steven V

You are... you don't remember. You just know you've found yourself with a crew of three others, in a strange craft with an ancient map and memories of trying to find something, something important, precious, powerful. Only equipped with your wits, fists, and scant few resources, maybe if you find your way this hidden treasure, you'll find out who you are and why you are here.

The Hidden Ruins: Eventide Exploration (THREE) is a game about One Last Exploration into ancient ruins where memories are lost and what seems impossible is possible. Where there is a deeper hidden meaning to the events that transpired and where your success is dependent on your own wits. You'll have to venture through the various challenges the ruin throws at you, collect the goods, and see if you can make it to the end before the ruins become your tomb.

THREE is a 2-hour high action mechanics test by Eldritch Systems where you have to navigate through a potentially treacherous and dangerous set of ruins to uncover the artifact at the center. THREE is intended to test a number of new sign and item mechanics for future Eldritch System games, and a majority of the game is based on various challenges, enemies, and encounters using prototype mechanics.