Unheroes
RPG system: LARP X-Card
Participants: 4-9 players
By
✏️ | Joanna Piancastelli |
Imaginary Consequences (2015), Naish Holiday Village, Christchurch, Dorset, United Kingdom
Graham Walmsley |
Description
(Live-action Role Play, Pervasive [intermixed with activity by non-participants])
http://www.goldencobra.org/pdf/Unheroes%20v0.2.pdf
You were superheroes who screwed up big time, though you don’t remember it. No one does. Reality was altered and the history that you used to know no longer exists, and never did. Now it’s trying to reassert itself. Will you leave the world like this, or change things back?
Tags: Serious, Linear story, Amnesia, Superheroes, Relationships
You’re all normal people. You’re here, in this normal place, doing whatever normal thing you’re doing. Everyone around you is etting on with their lives – they’re perfectly normal, just like you.
Except that you weren’t normal, before. You were superheroes, the saviours of Herotopia, though you don’t remember it. No one does. The whole of reality was altered and the history that you used to know no longer exists, and never did. But it’s trying to reassert itself.
What happens if it does? Why did everything change in the first place? You’re the only ones who can find out.
You’re all normal people. You’re here, in this normal place, doing whatever normal thing you’re doing. Everyone around you is getting on with their lives – they’re perfectly normal, just like you. Except that you weren't normal before. You were superheroes, the saviors of Herotopia, though you don’t remember it. No one does. The whole world was changed, and the history that you used to know no longer exists, and never existed. But it’s trying to reassert itself. What happens if it does? Why did everything change in the first place? You're the only ones with the answers.
Unheroes is a freeform game and Golder Cobra winner. It has two phases:
We start with one hour of collaborative story-telling to establish everyone's characters and their relationships to one another, as well as what they initially remember about how the world used to be. At the end of this phase, everyone synchronises watches, then plays in-character for the second hour.
Since characters get defined as part of phase 1, there is no pre-casting (no questionnaire), and you will not receive a character sheet before the game. The game is set in modern day, with no specific costume requirements.
Players of all ages welcome
This game will be running twice: Friday and Sunday. For the Friday run, I would specifically like to invite new LARPers (or new Interconers) to play.
**Content Warning:** Unheroes encourages the players to introduce their own content into the story. It is meant to be played fairly straight and has some potentially dark themes, but the players set the tone. We will use the X-Card system during the workshop phase - if any person feels uncomfortable with a suggestion, they can tap the x-card and we will change the direction of the story no-questions-asked.
You’re all normal people. You’re here, in this normal place, doing whatever normal thing you’re doing. If you’re at a convention, you’re at a convention. If you’re in a bar, you’re in a bar. Everyone around you is getting on with their lives – they’re perfectly normal, just like you.
Except that you weren't normal before. You were superheroes, the saviours of Herotopia, though you don’t remember it. No one does. The whole world was changed, and the history that you used to know no longer exists, and never existed. But it’s trying to reassert itself. What happens if it does? Why did everything change in the first place?
You're the only ones with the answers.
Unheroes is about a group of superheroes from Herotopia who tried to save the world and messed up big time. Panicking, they changed reality so supers never existed, heroes or villains, and ended up living in our world with almost no memory of who they used to be. But they do remember something, and when their powers begin to return they realise something's wrong. They need to figure out what happened, and ultimately decide if they want to leave things as they are now, or go back were and try to deal with the fallout of their mistake.
The game is about hard choices, consequences, and taking responsibility for our actions. Also superpowers.
This game is played with safety mechanics and an X card.
Unheroes includes 1-1.5 hours of pre-game workshop, world-building, and relationship creation, and 1 hour of play time.
Played at
Golden Cobra Challenge (2014) | |
♻ | Imaginary Consequences (2015) |
♻ | The Smoke (2017) |
♻ | Intercon R (2018) |
♻ | Intercon T: Turtles (2020) |
Awards
Golden Cobra Challenge (2014)
Winner, Most Appealing to Newcomers
Unheroes gives us the rich inner lives of superheroes without any of the messy power-point-allocation baggage. From the suspense beats to the time-activated powers, this game is above all cleverly paced and ready for unexpectedly public superhero play. Bravo.
Joanna Piancastelli's game of amnesiac supers, Unheroes, builds on a rich tradition of conflicted bricks and speedsters, humanizing these colorful protagonists and expertly adapting their tropes to the contest parameters. The result is a smart, assured and very playable game that will be appealing to anyone who has ever read a comic book.
Unheroes is about a world where the past has been erased, but comes creeping back anyway. Amnesiatic protagonists discover their super hero past, and the fact that as super heroes they seriously screwed up. With incredibly solid design and a captivating narrative not rooted in whether the Hulk can beat Thor, it's an inviting game that is a fine cap on the current tradition of super hero freeforms.
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