Mayfair
RPG system: LARP
Participants: 25 players, Female role: 10 Male role: 15
By
✏️ | Ben Jones |
✏️ | Alison Joy Schafer |
Veronica Melnick | |
Alison Joy Schafer |
Description
These are the times that try men’s souls -Thomas Paine
In the spring of the 1770s, rumors swirl of recent deaths in Boston and the good people of Massachusetts Bay Colony gather to celebrate May Day. Dances around the maypole distract from popular unrest and plots form in secret as all watch the crowning of the new May Queen. Enmity brews among the mixed crowd of royalists, freemasons, Tories, and those hoping to stir the pot of liberty. With the call of revolution echoing in the wind and with tensions growing on each side, the time may be coming for the people of the Colonies to finally decide who they are.
It will be a day filled with war, love, politics, daring capers, questionable rituals, satirical writings, crackpot conspiracies, and inventing the first spy ring, with backdrop of a colonial faire.
Notes:
Players can expect to spend their time on interpersonal connections, deciding what side of the conflict to be on, and pursuing war or caper games as they see fit. Mechanics for the game include a military map, but it not required of all players to interact with. Most mechanics are physical props, such as codewheels and decoding messages, for those wishing to be spymasters in America’s first spy ring.
Time will abstractly take place over a several day period of revelry in order to allow player actions to have in-game effects. There may be crisis events triggered, such as the Boston Tea Party or the battle at Lexington and Concord, which will play out in game with both social and military order, and will result in a win for either the Crown or the Revolutionists. Newspapers will be released detailing player-created choices and outcomes.
Players will be cast as mostly historical personages during the early revolution, such as Paul Revere, Sam Adams, Abigail Adams, John Adams, Betsy Ross, Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, Thomas Hutchinson, and others.
Although inspired by an historical time setting, exploring the historical plots of the revolution, and with historical characters, significant liberties and variations have been taken. Some light supernatural elements are referenced, such as the witch history of Salem and rumors of the origins of the Headless Horseman/Sleepy Hollow. However, no monsters will actively be in game.
Character sheets will have (periodically graphic) depictions of violence, romance, and torture/war. They will not, however, include unwanted sexual violence. Sheets are around 10-14 pages.
A dance with ribbons around the Maypole is included,but not required of everyone.
Content Warnings
War, sexual content, sacrifice, murder, consentual romances with big age differences between partners
Played at
Be-Con (2023) |
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