Unrest & Unaccountability

System: LARP
Deltagare: 1 SL, 26 spelare

Av

✏️	Gale Pollard
	Gale Pollard

Beskrivning

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” -Jane Austen, 1813

The social season is upon the aristocracy of London once more in the spring of 1816, and it has already been most unusual. Queen Charlotte found herself ill for several months, and all the Ton delayed the beginning of the social season out of respect. Now that she has made a miraculous recovery, she seeks to fully begin the social season this very eve at the Thornley Grand Gala! And more curiously, she has selected twenty-six to come to a ball within the ball, out of the way of those less connected to the nobility of Great Britain. With some of the most fashionable people in London all in one place and preparing to present themselves before the Queen on such short notice, one can’t help but wonder — could there be a better place to find the love match they so fervently seek? While high society demands the well-connected marry the well-connected, the game of courtship is no farce, and the stakes of true love ring loud and clear in the mind of every bachelor and bachelorette entering the majestic ballrooms in their finest evening wear.

Yet not all is well, for the Blue Moon is tonight, and this may prove to be a strange time for the Ton. Strange events have always occurred, but those with connections to the House of Lords know it to be in their best interest to avoid the Unknowable, that which cannot be explained through normal means. It is best to simply not speak of it, sure, but that just beyond human understanding looms so heavily over the aristocracy tonight… Isn’t one’s personal safety more important than a reputation?

Mr. Darcy of the Pemberley estate was found shredded to pieces last week. There are new, conflicting accounts of just what happened at the Battle of Waterloo. Rumour has it that King George III’s insanity grows worse by the day, and it almost seems like it is not of this world…

Unrest and Unaccountability is a horror Secrets and Powers theatrical larp set in the Regency period where Bridgerton meets every genre of horrors and the messy political systems of real-life 1800s Great Britain. It is a game of etiquette, dancing, petty slights, witty banter, strange negotiations, romance, secret trysts, and horrific occurrences which draws inspiration from the works of Jane Austen, the TV drama Bridgerton, the podcast The Magnus Archives, and a slew of other popular horror games, movies, and classic horror literature. Accommodations may be made for anyone unable to waltz, and a brief dance lesson will be held at the beginning of the game. This game requires that characters wear skirts/dresses or pants according to their character’s gender (with few exceptions), or the player will face an in-game penalty. Players should expect that even “winning” may entail an unfortunate fate for their character.

Players should expect dancing, rudeness, in-game additional reading, light puzzle elements, romance, tragedy, flawed characters, resource management, and heavy themes. Nearly all characters have romance as a large part of their game. There is a bespoke in-game intimacy mechanic to represent sex, kissing, and other acts of intense intimacy. All player characters are nobility or royalty. Queen Charlotte of Great Britain will be present as an in-game NPC.

Participant communications
Casting form to be distributed shortly after the game fills. Players will receive a premade character sheet between twenty and twenty-five pages. Expect roughly twelve pages of rules, possible extra reading depending on the character, as well as optional historical context reading. All character sheets come with a summary page.
Content warnings
This game is a horror game with sex and violence. If we were to use the same rating system as movies, this game would be “X”-rated. While there is a spectrum of horror present (from “dark fairytale” to “exceedingly frightening and/or graphic”), it is impossible to play this game without interacting with horror elements in some way.

Included in this game are graphic descriptions of violence, graphic descriptions of sex, murder, cannibalism, religious trauma, cults, Christian cults, religious (Anglican or Catholic) characters, branding, swarms of insects or birds, mental asylums, historical hysteria diagnoses, STDs, human experimentation, madness, xenophobia (against the French, Austrians, and Irish), royal incest among NPCs (but only that which is historically accurate), attempted lobotomy, human sacrifice, self-mutilation, mind control, violence against animals, animal death (including in-game rituals that require the sacrifice of animals), domestic abuse, death of player character’s young children, player character’s having living children that are not in game, family death, pregnancy in backstory, inability to conceive, parasitism, stalking, attempted sexual assault, drowning, claustrophobia, being buried alive, suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts, child neglect, inhuman anatomies, and time-period appropriate homophobia, transphobia, sexism, classism, ableism, and disapproval of polyamory (which some characters face and work to overcome, but others are mechanically incentivized to be prejudiced against). There are no depictions of racial injustice in this game. Some player characters may die post-game due to the actions of other players.

Some touch is unavoidable in this game (specifically, that involved in waltzing) and more physical contact is opt-in. A “touch-sticker” system will indicate player comfort levels for additional touch, but players are encouraged to talk to each other beforehand to discuss specific boundaries. This game also features constant background music at low volume and occasional sound effects.

You will not enjoy this game if you cannot handle in-game confrontation (over etiquette), do not enjoy/tolerate romance, or refuse the costuming rule (male characters wear pants, female characters wear skirts, with limited exception, if this is a struggle gms can help!). There is a bespoke intimacy mechanic in this game to represent sex, kissing, and other acts of intense intimacy, which involves no physical contact and has players use a wooden “Pound a Peg” toy. Players should be comfortable with discussions of sex/romance and the idea that many people in this game will engage in the abstracted intimacy mechanic to represent in-game sex.

If you have any questions regarding these content warnings, feel free to contact the GMs before signups.

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