“But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast foundation.”
Wisdom 4: 3-5 (King James version.)
Last night, we had a meeting covering our progress with crew recruitment, and a little more work on the skeleton of the event. We’re looking at the key historical decisions, and how they might translate into game activities. Rolling some 9 months of history into a three hour game means the usual assumptions I make about larp events don’t hold true. It’s all looking a bit timey-wimey.
Letters about the event have been sent out to parents, and bookings have begun.
The biblical reference is from a sermon preached by Dr Ralph Shaa on the 22 June 1483 at St Paul’s Cross concerning bastardy: history is not unanimous on which specific bastards he was referring to, or indeed what exactly he said. One of our decisions is how to handle this: one of our players’ is what to do about it. He definitely didn’t use that translation, which came 128 years later…
Meeting notes below, additional recollections italicised.
7 factions
What a “character card” needs…
Levers (Every character needs more than one lever. This might be purely mechanical like “a vote in the Privy Council”, or “On the Star Chamber”, or “In the Commons”, or mor interesting, such as “Can ruin a specific MP.”, “Has access to the Tower”)
Objectives (Most factions have a ladder of conditions, from victory to defeat, and each character must have more.)
Status (It would be good if players who adhere to medieval notions of status. we will endeavour to encourage that.)
William Collybourn
– Virgil
– Gregory
– John Russell
Secret chronicler
unmask the secret chronicler
secret group that meet
marriage
swopping sides (and a change of tabard…)
spying
crowning a king
breaking sanctuary
murdering princes
murdering henry tudor
Parliament
– impeach
– offer the throne
Acclamation of Londoners
Star Chamber
– sanctuary (Is Elizabeth Woodvilles sanctuary legitimate? Is the prince’s sanctuary legitimate?)
– (Approval of other Houses’ decisions, which will sway our NPCs at least…)
Talbots as Londoners
Next time – Branches
Death of Edward
Who is Lord Pretender?
Who brings Edward into London?
Stillington’s news – bastardy
Withered arm
The truth about Clarence (“Truth”)
Is there a coronation of Edward Vth
Does someone kill the Princes?
Do the bodies get displayed?
Is there a coronation of Richard IIIrd?
For next time…
How might a specific chain of events, triggered by the kinds of inflection points that we can handle mechanically look as the “branches” of the event?
How might we make status stick?
LARP experience 
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