By Ian McNeely
Hey friends!
We are holding a new and improved Rogues' Gallery Saturday, February 17th at 8 PM. This new offering is a freeform, social megagame—
©2015 Watch the Skies, a megagame in the UK that drew hundreds of participants playing the assorted nations of Earth during first contact with aliens.
A realtime, in-person, social game with many participants: Risk meets Mafia meets a high school reunion. They most often focus on politics and negotiation and frequently resemble a model UN. There are teams within teams with secret objectives (even within a team) that come into conflict and build a nuanced maelstrom of human behavior without a "winner" per se. Instead, megagames are focused on procedurally generating a colorful story.
The Rogues' Gallery is a spy thriller set at a convention for supervillains. Guests are cast as specific gamblers, assassins, goons and gatecrashers, all with diverse goals and secrets for the night. The event is a great way to meet new people (no better icebreaker than a funny character), sip on a drink and see where the story organically leads and with 16 different and distinct endings, it could lead anywhere!
Our ongoing goals:
To be accessible. The rules should be simple enough for anyone to understand them immediately and start playing the game. Who wants to spend time learning rules?
To be engaging. Sure, you could play this sitting around a table like a board game, but wouldn't it be more fun to run through the event on a scavenger hunt or plant a pipe bomb on someone? Action is better than words— though words can be full of action.
To be theatrical. Quality performance enhances suspension of disbelief and not just performances from actors, normal people want to be in the thick of it too. Why do we dress up on Halloween? Why do we sing karaoke? Maybe we could think of a megagame as the acting equivalent of karaoke, where normal people have a chance to reimagine themselves as the star of their favorite movie.
Personally, I'd like to be Samwise Gamgee intrepidly adventuring towards Mordor, but that's just me!
© 1978. Lord of the Rings, directed by Ralph Bakshi.
Which movie character would you like to be for a night?
The Rogues' Gallery, Saturday February 17th, Brooklyn. Exact location TBA. To reserve a spot and request casting contact: brokenghostimmersives@gmail.com. Tickets are $10.