The Dove

RPG system: LARP

By

Description

The JMS Dove is an exploratory ship on a mission to the far reaches of space for reasons that are as much political as they are scientific. The Consortium of Free Planets and the Autarch Alliance are locked in a decades-long cold war that occasionally erupts into outright violence. At the edge of their disputed territory is an asteroid belt rich in valuable minerals that shows indications of containing elements not yet found outside a lab. The Consortium and Alliance have agreed to launch a joint scientific venture to examine the asteroid belt. Those hoping for an end to hostilities see this as the first step towards forming a lasting peace. But there are those in both factions who would rather see this mission fail.

The Dove is now three hours out from the warp gate and it seems the warmongers might win this round. Several critical systems on the ship have been sabotaged. Without operational systems the Dove will be denied entry to the warp gate, if the damaged ship can even make it that far. Losing this gate window will mean months of additional negotiations while warp equations are recalculated, contracts are extended, and power brokers on both sides jockey for advantage. Can the crew of the Dove fix the damaged systems and find the saboteur in time to save the mission?

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tl;dr: political who-dun-it adventure in spaaaaaace; cross between The Captain Is Dead, the Resistance, and Clue

Good for players who: like pursuing fixed goals, like tabletop-esque mechanics, like shouting

Bad for players who: like deep emotional complexity, like freeform goals, have difficulty absorbing written information

Run Time: 3 hours plus pre-game demonstrations and post-game wrap-up

Players: 7

Suggested player experience level: Novice to expert

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The Dove is intended as a bridge from TTRPGs or complex board games into LARPing. It uses custom playing cards to represent items and die rolls to represent physical abilities. The things that tend to make LARPs stressful for new players - lengthy backstories, extensive pre-existing character relationships, vague and feelings-based goals - are not present. Instead, all of the characters have just met each other and have straightforward goals. That's not to say this game can't be a lot of fun for experienced LARPers or become deeply emotional if the players take it in that direction.

Links

• Website