Games of Summer 2019

The schedule of games being run in Summer 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

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.

[6/1 Weekend] Golden Cobra Sampler

GMs: Laura Boylan

Golden Cobra is a yearly writing challenge to write short freeform larps that can be run easily. Specific LARPs will be picked and scheduled based on interest from people who sign up. Here are some possibilities from the winners and honorable mentions (with selections from the judge’s comments). See them all at: http://www.goldencobra.org/

Homunculus, by Anna Kreider

Reminiscent of an episode of Black Mirror, Homunculus brings to the surface all the conflicting emotions of what it’s like to have a loved one pass away and come back to life as an AI. As one player acts as the deceased/Homunculus, the other players are the connections to the deceased, who must decide whether to keep or remove the Homunculus. The game is tense and full of melancholy and we are very excited about it!

The Long Drive Back from Busan, by Clio Yun-su Davis

Finally, a game about K-pop! The Long Drive Back from Busan is about the relationships between bandmates in a K-pop group, as they go through the stress of dealing with fans and their manager. The game combines some of our favorite mechanisms in role-playing and even leaves behind a video artifact of the players to leave for their “fans”. It’s a game about rising to the top of an industry, while making personal sacrifices on the way, a theme that isn’t explored enough in larp. We love this!

Sign, by Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalioglu

Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalioglu’s game about deaf Nicaraguan children in the 1970s is direct and unflinching. Sign dares to take up a difficult subject, and have players understand a small part of a real journey that transformed thousands of lives. It centers on agency, connection, and the struggle of understanding each other in a silent world.

A Crow Funeral, by Timothy Hutchings

Have you ever wanted to be part of a murder? Of crows, that is! In A Crow Funeral, players take on the roles of a community of crows that have discovered the body of one of their own. As they crowd around in a mournful-yet-raucous circle, the crows must determine how their friend expired. In the opening explanation of the game, Timothy Hutchings states “there is no conflict resolution mechanic.” This statement is three things: true, untrue, and sneaky. This game’s deployment of touch is both simple and entertaining, and you’ll find that conflict most definitely gets sorted out. This game is fun, light, and great to play in public spaces.

The Other Place, by Banana Chan

Kids go up into the attic, where there’s a soul-sucking mirror and two kid spirits trying to replace them. Banana Chan has written – no, illustrated – a simple, eerie trip into the fantastic that will likely take under an hour. Evocative drawings model the characters, play, and everything else one would need to understand to make the game interesting. Multiple outcomes, including several that are devastatingly creepy, make the emergent play of this game an object of considerable interest.

[6/22 Weekend] Good Intentions

GMs: Will Kalb, Kim Beder, Haley Bates

Heaven has gone way over quota and Saint Peter is looking for any and every excuse to send people to Hell. To deal with the sudden influx of darned souls, Satan has opened up a Tenth Circle of Hell called Scarytown, to punish people who have committed minor sins. So if you’re the type of person who never leaves a tip, texts in movie theaters, or hits the “door close” button in people’s faces, you might just find yourself in Scarytown when you hit that light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a place where the bus is always late, the coffee is always cold, and the tap water smells like brimstone.

Satan is stopping by for his annual inspection, and the residents of Scarytown are scrambling to get their usual celebration ready. Unfortunately, the decorations are all overpriced, the only place that caters is Pizza Hut, and nobody can agree on a party theme! Plus, there is a strange visitor in town who claims to have seen other afterlives… the party is starting in less than four hours and it’s looking like a total disaster!

Good Intentions is a four-hour game of sin, eternal damnation, and party planning, running the weekend of 6/22.

[7/13, 7/20, and 7/27 Weekends] Guild Camp

GMs: Ken Clary

Guild Camp! Is it something you're up for?

Traditionally, Guild Camp is a 2-week "boot camp" for game writers. You take a game from initial inception to runtime in 2 weeks, which is an intense feat. It's a great way to get a crash course in gamewriting, get practice at writing and producing a game, or get your feet wet at helping out.

Other, less intensive options will be available.

[8/3 Weekend] A Single Silver Coin

GMs: Laura Boylan, Peter Litwack

A Single Silver Coin is a four hour dark fantasy LARP about death, loss, love, faith, regret, and forgiveness. Written by Laura Boylan and Peter Litwack.

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To enter paradise you must pay a toll - a single silver coin. When you first arrived upon the shore of Sea of Shadows, you were clothed as you chose to dress in life but your only possessions were three silver coins. Only one coin is needed to enter paradise but you know that souls are often easily parted from their coins during the passage across the sea. Will you pass all your tests, retain a single silver coin and be admitted to eternal paradise? Or will you fail, or be unable to pay the toll, and be condemned to oblivion?

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This is a game about emotion and roleplaying. There is no combat. There are very few mechanics. All of the characters are dead and traveling to their afterlife. The game is about people reflecting on their lives and talking to other people who were significant in their lives. There are secrets to be revealed, apologies to be made, forgiveness to be given or withheld.

[8/14 Weeknight] Midnight at Mysterious Manor

GMs: Jakob Weisblat

You all came to Mysterious Manor for different reasons, some willingly and some not. That doesn't matter much now - what matters is that you're stuck here, with only each other as company, until you get out of this most confusing place or you die trying. But why would that happen? This is a perfectly normal abandoned mansion and nothing spooky whatsoever will be going on.

Midnight at Mysterious Manor is a high-shtick one-night game of spooky exploration and being stuck with people you might prefer to stay far away from, played almost entirely in the dark.