SETTING
THE WORLD
The larp takes place in a diffuse, dystopian future that is created using soft world-building. We only provide a rough framework, details are only defined where they are important for your stories.
ON EARTH
Life on earth is bleak and gloomy, dominated by the hamster wheel of everyday life, by senseless wars and brutal oppression, by abundance, scarcity and emptiness, by wastelands of skyscrapers and a sky full of advertising, by rain and bureaucracy, loneliness, tasteless convenience food and the glaring darkness of neon lights.
Capitalism has got completely out of hand and has led to an extreme division in which a few rich people can do everything and nothing is left for the poor masses. Totalitarianism and oppression reign in many places, and until a few years ago, a brutal, senseless war raged in parts of the world. There is hardly any nature left - every corner of the planet is grey, industrialised and exploited. Inspirations for atmosphere and aesthetics are a dark version of atompunk, the architecture of brutalism, the book 1984 by George Orwell and the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam.
Concrete details - which political system prevails where exactly, why everyone speaks the same language, whether and where national borders still exist - are not relevant to the game. What is most important to us is an oppressive, dystopian and cruel background atmosphere. Where it is relevant, we give you more information in the characters; if backgrounds are very different, the characters simply come from other classes or parts of the world. If you want, you can specify more details among yourselves.
THE COLONY
A long time ago, many light years away, some people started again. A new planet. A simple life in harmony with a fresh world, back to what humanity once was, with fewer resources but more light and togetherness. This is the colony. For thousands of years there has been little contact with Earth, except for the mechanised recruitment offices and the ships that travel between the planets to bring new emigrants to the colony. Anyone can apply, as long as they are prepared to take the risky journey and leave everything behind. An AI selects the new colonists in a long process full of tests and interviews, the purpose of which is not always clear. No one has returned to Earth. Thus, countless myths and dreams surround the colony.
CULTURE
As large parts of society are dominated by artificial intelligence and futuristic technology that solve logical tasks much faster and more efficiently than any human being, intelligence and rationality have lost their cultural prestige. Instead, it is emotions, intuition and instinct that make someone human and are therefore held in high regard.
Superstitions and everyday rituals are more widespread and accepted than in our society. Facts and beliefs exist side by side on an equal footing - different foundations for different areas of life. It is not unusual or frowned upon if someone believes in inexplicable things like monsters - or acts against reason. At least on the scale of idiosyncrasies and minor superstitions if it doesn't turn into more extreme behaviour.
TECHNOLOGY
The biggest scientific breakthrough was the Third Theory of Relativity, which enabled applications that actively influence space and time. The three most important ones are:
Blankspace
In Blankspace, a type of hyperspace, you can travel great distances almost instantaneously. The faster you enter it, the further away you can get out. In order to jump long distances, you first have to accelerate to speeds close to the speed of light. Nobody knows why, but no living being has ever survived a jump. Humans can only survive the jump unscathed in stasis (see below). Digital technology breaks unless it is switched off and completely disconnected from the power supply - which is why there is still a lot of analogue and mechanical technology.
Time fields
Areas within which the passage of time is changed. As long as the time field is active, no interaction between the inside and outside is possible. This technology is used in particular for prisons with accelerated time: People can serve even long sentences in absolutely escape-proof isolation, while no more than a few minutes or hours pass outside. The time prison on board the ship also works in this way.
Stasis
A special case of time fields: Stasis chambers stop time almost completely inside them. This not only allows people to experience long journeys in an instant, but also provides protection against any danger (as long as it does not destroy the stasis chamber). Extremely energy-intensive, but the only way for humans to survive a jump through Blankspace unscathed.
Apart from that, the level of technology corresponds to the future as predicted a few decades ago:
There are some futuristic technologies, but with a retro touch.
In particular, there is no internet, and almost no digital technology on the ship - it wouldn't survive the jump through Blankspace anyway.
Communikation
It is possible to transmit data through the Blankspace using very powerful lasers. The ship has a receiver device for this, on which messages from Earth can be received. However, this is absurdly energy-intensive and expensive, so only short text messages are possible.
Artificial Intelligence
There are robots and AIs in this world. However, these rather resemble 1980s Androids than modern AI. Artificial Intelligences in android bodies can look and act very human-like, but have no consciousness, no thoughts or goals of their own and no feelings. Topics such as AI uprising, android rights etc. are NOT part of this larp.
What does not exist
- Internet
- Everyday wireless connections. Even AIs need to be plugged in to transfer data
- Smartphones
THE SITUATION
ON THE SHIP
The characters are crew and colonists on their way from Earth to the colony. The main part of the larp takes place in the time between two jumps that bring the ship to the colony. In order to get fast enough for the second jump, which covers most of the distance, the spaceship performs a maneuver through the ergosphere of a black hole. It accelerates and then jumps back into Blankspace.
The people on the ship are awakened from stasis for 12 hours to conserve energy - the spaceship is running on minimum life support, with almost all energy dedicated to the shields. At the point of closest approach to the black hole, everyone gathers in the hangar for about 30 minutes to safely watch the flyby. After exactly 12 hours, the ship jumps back into Blankspace and everyone must be back in the stasis chambers.
Space is vast, cold and dangerous. The journey is full of unpredictable dangers and risky maneuvers, and the ship is just a tiny tin box among the giants of the universe. Blankspace is a completely uncharted dimension in which nothing can survive. Some of the ships never reach the colony. For the people who arrive, the journey can be psychologically very stressful.
PEOPLE
The AI
The spaceship flies automatedly. It is a large, intelligent system, controlled by an AI whose instances - subsystems in android bodies - represent all the interfaces to the ship. The AI has two tasks: To ensure that the ship arrives safely with everyone in it, and to prepare the colonists for life in the colony through workshops, interviews and evaluations. The AI conducts psychological screenings and therapeutic sessions. And it can pass on reports of incidents to the colony authorities.
The AI is NOT meant to be an oppressor or antagonist, but to prvide structure and input to your game! You cannot rebel against it or try to destroy it - this is not only an offgame rule, but also a bad idea ingame, as the AI is the ship that keeps you alive. Of course, you can argue with it on a small scale or get upset about its decisions. Also, the AI will not become evil or break down during the course of the game - there may be strange experiences, but these are the characters' imagination and not a plot hook.
AI instances are dressed in white and wear masks.
The Crew
This is a one-way trip for the crew as well. It is the spaceship's last journey: on the colony, the old ship is decommissioned and the crew members retire there. As the AI controls the ship on this journey, the crew's function is limited to social and representative tasks (e.g. security, giving speeches, ...) Some are happier about this than others; many feel useless.
Therefore, the crew members are colonist characters as well, with the same themes and struggles. What sets them apart from the other characters is that each crew member has specific play responsibilities for one aspect of the larp. They are also the only group of characters who know each other well before the game starts; they have flown together before. This gives the game a stronger focus on group dynamics and relationships on a real level.
The colonists
Most of the colonists have never been outside the solar system before, and probably never will be again. Especcially the less wealthy characters have never set foot on a spaceship. They spend the rest of the flight in stasis - these are their 12 hours in the middle of space, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Anyone who registers as a colonist signs a contract that transfers citizenship and all rights from Earth to the colony. Nobody looks at your identity, your past - or criminal records. Life on the colony is easier, more boring and potentially less comfortable than on Earth - but it's a clean slate, a fresh start. Many myths and dreams surround it, and everyone has their own idea of the new world - their own hopes for a new life.
