#blip.

In the far off summer of 2014 I went to the Larpwriter Summer School (LWSS). It was a life changing experience, but that's a tale for a different time. At LWSS there were 3 important things that came together. We played White Death, which was later referenced in a talk about the verbal/physical design decision. I.e., White Death is an almost purely physical game, with what little verbality it has being unintelligible. I started wondering what the inverse would be – a game that is almost completely verbal, but still counts as a larp and not a tabletop RPG. 

Over the course of 4 hours I had a prototype. This is where the third thing came in – we had access to a black box during the evenings. So I jumped at the chance to test my newly born gameling. It... went poorly, but not in a crash and burn and cry in the corner kind of way. It failed better. I got a lot of good feedback from the players and a lot of good observations. 

Most notably, I dropped an entire section of spaceflight theory that is cool to know, but has absolutely no bearing on the game. I wanted to have a second test of it, but things did the thing they do best – happened – and I didn't get my second playtest in.

However, at the end of LWSS I signed up the game for Blackbox Horsens. Which meant that I had to eventually bring it over from paper to a printable format. Thanks for the push, Simon!

The game was mostly stuck in a state of mulling for the rest of the year. I had my 2nd run only at the very beginning of 2015. It failed even better. I hadn't given enough basis for the characters, even as thin as they are in the end. This run also prompted a range of usability improvements. This was also the occasion to try making a blackbox in my own home, which worked wonderfully!

I did want to have a third run before going to Denmark, but it never came together. So my last test was also my first "public" run. And, despite being written on the plane/train, it went wonderfully. The expectations were clear, the characters worked and the drama, OH!, the drama! A bit of sacrifice, a bit of giving up and a great deal of bad jokes about Starbucks. 

Earth below us Drifting, falling Floating weightless Calling, calling home

Goodbye, Carter and Padilla