For ten years, the world has only known her by her capers. As the most stylish and ingenious thief of all time, she has stolen priceless artifacts, recruited a large slice of the criminal underworld into her service, outsmarted the ACME detectives at every turn, and even faked her own death - - twice.

"ACME Detectives Foiled Again" crowed newspapers around the world the day VILE stole the Taj Mahal in their latest escapade, but the mood inside the great monument was anything but celebratory. The accident left in its wake only loneliness, regret, anger, grief, and madness.

The heist had gone wrong from the start, with injuries and then malfunctioning technogadgets and then a big blow-up between Dr Sara Bellum and Dr Paige Turner. The blow-up fight turned into a real blow up. The explosion left multiple VILE agents dead, including Carmen Sandiego herself.

After two previous false alarms, the VILE agents didn't immediately believe that Carmen was dead. But this time was different. There were no ACME agents watching the dramatic display. There was no dramatic display! Everything Carmen had ever done had great flair and the finest finesse; getting peppered with small shards of metal in the dark, dank underground beneath the Taj Mahal with no audience did not fit her MO.

Carmen's henchmen have now gathered for her wake, still wrestling with the fallout of the heist gone wrong above and beyond their already dysfunctional lives. What will become of VILE with its charismatic, brilliant leader? What will become of each of them without the boss they so idolized? The VILE agents know they don't have long to mourn Carmen's death or make sense of it all, as it is only a matter of time until ACME arrives to bust them and transport the Taj Mahal back to where it belongs.

* * *

This game is a serious take on what goes on behind closed doors in VILE, what forms the dark underbelly of the organization. Each member in VILE is there because their life problems have driven them to join Carmen's life of ridiculous, silly, and over the top criminal pranks.

This game includes themes around death and mental health as well as (of course) cartoon violence. All characters are members of VILE and therefore crooks; there are no characters who are completely good and no characters who are law-abiding citizens. Knowledge of Carmen Sandiego TV shows/games is not required. This game is open to signups for ages 15+ (however, anyone under 18 must be approved by the GMs prior to signup).

The whole world knows the name Carmen Sandiego. Her daring, nigh-impossible heists left the public reeling in confusion time and time again. She’s stolen everything from Gandhi’s glasses, to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, to the snow from the top of Mount Fuji. The world lived in fear for where her iconic red fedora and trench coat would next appear. As her notoriety grew, she attracted other villainous characters to herself, forming the Villain’s International League of Evil. VILE has grown to include such renowned crooks as the scientific mastermind Dr. Sara Bellum, the duplicitous Jacqueline Hyde, the crooked lawyer Lee Galese, and yourself. Your disparate talents and proclivities were melded together into a team by your enigmatic leader in red. Working together, your heists soared to new heights.

Before today's heist even started, VILE was mourning the loss of one of its own, the first ever fallen agent in its 25 years. During last week's caper, filching the Washington Monument, VILE's history of flawless heists ended explosively, spelling the end for the fiery Dinah Myte. Stealing the Taj Mahal was to be VILE's tribute to her.

Despite mounting tensions over the Washington Monument caper, today started out smoothly. But at the key moment of the Taj heist, the unthinkable happened.

Carmen Sandiego was killed.

Now, gathered around Carmen’s body in the middle of the Taj Mahal, you must come to terms with yourselves. Who will lead you now? Will you be able to stick together? Or will you devolve into finger-pointing and conflict? How will you celebrate her life? Can any of you really carry on her legacy? Or will you be reduced to mere nameless henchmen for some other villain? And more pressingly, with the ACME Detective Agency hot on your trail, you had better figure out the answers quickly to make your daring escape before the good guys arrive.

The rest of the world may have its own questions, but you must ask yourselves: Where in the heart is Carmen Sandiego?

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Where in the Heart is Carmen Sandiego is a LARP where light-hearted cartoon physics meets the real world, inspired by the 1990s Carmen Sandiego games and tv shows.

Content is family-friendly with cartoon violence. However, the game was written assuming adult players, so players under 18 need to contact the GMs when signing up for the game.