It is July third, 1950. The Korean War is eight days old. National Security Council Report 68 is sitting on Harry Truman’s desk, a grim outline of the Cold War that is to enfold the world for the next 40 years. Alan Turing’s paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” is circulating for review. Cinderella is a box office sensation.

And you have invented a computer that can see the future.

Employing cutting-edge Ward-Takahashi identity derivations outside their quantum-theoretical framework, JUGGERNAUT processes enormous data sets, ostensibly in the service of code-breaking once the technology is proven and refined. The unstable geniuses behind the math have reached some curious conclusions that only experimental evidence can confirm. By the numbers, JUGGERNAUT —given enough resources— should be able to crack ciphers before they are even invented.

JUGGERNAUT is a live-action game by Jason Morningstar about free will for 4-6 players and 1-2 hours that plays like a creepy Twilight Zone episode and requires almost no prep. Replay value is high and it is always weird and intense To play.

Registration for small larps is now open. We don't have very many this year, so space is limited (of course if you want to offer one, you can submit it via the usual form).

We're not running any larps in rounds 1 or 2 this year because of the Megagame, but we've got stuff in later rounds. Specifically:

• Round 3 (Sat evening): "Drink Me" (3 players) and "T.R.Y.S.T." (12 players)
  
• Round 5 (Sun morning): "Night Floors" (8 players)
  
• Round 6 (Sun afternoon): "The Demon Gate" (12 players)
  

If you'd like to register, please email me on kapcon@gmail.com. As with tabletops, I'll be running a "shark week" with allocation on preferences (for round 3 at least), after which it is first come, first served. If you are a GM, you can beat the system by exercising a GM pick (so GM a game, people :)

Squatting outside the city the Demon Gate, roofed as it is, is an uncertain haven for travellers, vagrants, mendicant monks, criminals, lost spirits... and you.

There was a trial, about a man that died. They made you speak there. You saw something, right? You still don't understand it; the pieces don't fit. There was a trial, and there will be an execution, and your part is done. But it haunts you.

There are two hours before the ferry comes and you can get out of here. Which leaves you stuck with answering the question: what exactly happened?

A storytelling game for 10-12 players loosely based on The Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa), and "In A Grove" and "The Rashomon" (Ryunosuke Akutagawa). While relatively dark, this game won't have any themes of sexual violence.

Written by Betsy Isaacson

Three mysterious travelers, all hailing from Victorian London, run into one another at a place of great power and mystery -- the famed Cave of Elixir. Within the cave there are six potions, which could perhaps grant their deepest desires, and they all seem heedless of any price they might have to pay.

Alexander Clay doesn't age and doesn't die -- he's as beautiful now as he was at twenty-five. This wicked immortal has spent heartless decades seducing and discarding a string of innocent lovers. What could he possibly want with a cave of potions and wishes? He already has eternal life at his fingertips, so what could be worth risking madness and destruction?

Vesper Von Eternity lives a life of danger and adventure on the edges of the empire. She's stared down tigers, tamed snakes, studied with mystics and riddled with rajahs. In more "civilized" climes, the public thrills to reprinted accounts of her exploits. But some tragedies can't be averted with fame or guts or brains, so Vesper is determined to claim the magic she needs before it's too late.

Edgar Eakins might have been celebrated for his genius in a more tolerant age, but his obsessions and eccentricities have left him on the outskirts of London society. This shabby, sunken, despised man is rumored to have wrought hellish wonders in his taboo scientific experiments. His true goals, however, remain unknown...

It is no coincidence that these three have come across one another. Now they must parley, and palaver, and gamble their fortunes, and risk their very lives -- and drink.

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Note Drink Me is only 1-hour long
Trigger warnings: Suicide; Sexuality

The ArtLife Foundation is a non-profit organisation that purchases property and rents it out to professional artists at low cost. However, no building has given them more trouble than the MacAllister building. For some reason there always seems to be a high turnover of tenants.

As residents of the MacAllister building you know things that the ArtLife Foundation could not even imagine. By night the building changes, doors appear where none were before and the exit which once lead to the roof now leads into a near-endless expanse of rooms where nothing is impossible anymore. For some of you this is exhilarating, for others terrifying. However, you will soon discover that the true cost of living in the MacAllister Building is more than the rent charged by the ArtLife Foundation.

Inspired by the DELTA GREEN Scenario of the same name by Dennis Detwiller

This is a strategy roleplaying Megagame, incorporating themes from the Bronze Age of Classical Greek history, Plato's writings, giant steampunk robots, the Cthulhu mythos and the gonzo pseudo-history of Atlantis.

At the start of the game most players are members of an Atlantean noble House, as it starts to use its superior technology to conquer the world. Key player activities include exploration, governing colonies, trade negotiations and warfare. Teams compete in technological research to build the best bronze colossus to smash their way across the landscape, and in occult research to summon eldritch horrors to devour their enemies. The temptations of power being what they are, corruption can set in and doom may fall on Atlantis.

A megagame is a combination of strategy boardgame and live action roleplaying, where the players compete in teams against other groups of players. Success in the game requires imagination, dedication, and the ability to make decisions while under pressure. Megagames have attracted a bit of media attention over the last year, with the success of the "Watch the Skies" megagame, and the Facebook group Megagame Makers now has over 1,200 members worldwide.

Unlike some LARPS, there are no hidden secrets or bait and switch plots, instead the player facing rules of the game facilitate emergent gameplay. In the Colossus of Atlantis, players can swear mighty oaths in the Temple of Poseidon, with dreadful consequences if they break their vows, or they can present legal cases in front of the sacred Kings when other players engage in dishonourable behaviour.

Anyone wanting to assist with game control or playtesting should contact the designer, Dillon Burke, at grand.vizier@gmail.com. Further information can be found here: http://housewar.org/Megagames.php

As usual, KapCon is running a number of small larps this year alongside the ordinary tabletop sessions. Because these larps require costuming and casting, we are allowing players to preregister for them.

The larps in question are:

Round 3: LARP: On Display (6 spaces)
Round 6: LARP: Raising the Standards (12 spaces)
Round 7: LARP: On Display (6 spaces)

To ensure everyone has a fair shot, we will be running a mini "shark week". Initial registrations will be taken by email between Monday 30 November and midnight Friday 4 December, after which games will be allocated. Where a game is oversubscribed, the decision will be random.

Following the initial signup period, games will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you would like to preregister for one of these slots, please email kapcon@gmail.com. I'll let you know next week which game you've been allocated to.

Note that there are still spaces in the round 1 and 2 larps (which you sign up for using the registration form, and in the flagship Apotheosis (which you can sign up for here). There's also a host of fantastic tabletops as well, so don't worry about missing out. There will be something good to play regardless.

A LARP by J. Tuomas Harviainen and Eric Johnson.

For a few years in the early 21st century, "The Liberated" was an active religious sect in the Boston area. It's leader was Timothy Barke, who claimed that God spoke directly to him. Members lived in a communal house, donated their income to the sect, and lived by a strict code of conduct so that they could receive Timothy's sermons. In 2002 Timothy passed away, and soon after The Liberated collapsed. Members went back into the real world and tried to lead normal lives; communication between them all but ceased. Now, five years later, several of them have gathered together for a few hours to discuss how The Liberated affected their lives.

A Serpent of Ash is a larp about the dark side of religion: What happens when former cult members meet again? What has been left unsaid? A discourse-oriented game for 6-12 players that has been run at major conventions in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Contains heavily religious themes

This is an experimental Larp based on the Philip Ridley play of the same name. It relies heavily on collaborative storytelling and improvisation (if that sounds scary, this may not be the game for you.)
We are all people with no memories. We find ourselves in a broken place where we will name each other and tell magical stories. In these stories we will take on the roles of Princes and Queens, Witches and Monsters.
Maybe, as we become other people, we will discover some of the truth of who we are.

Twelve famed New Zealanders (none of whom have any design experience) have convened to decide on one flag design out of ten possible choices. Each committee member has their own favoured designs, and with a bit of luck, enough people will be able to agree on a design to be voted on by the wider public. Exciting, right?

Oh, there's one other thing.

The *reason* that everyone has their own favoured designs is that, unbeknownst to the others, everyone in the room is an acolyte of a different arcane being. Your being has promised to bring about the apocalypse, and spare you, if a particular design is selected. So you'd better make sure that flag has a fern on it if you want to be alive this time tomorrow...

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'Raising the Standards' is a LARP of two halves. In the first half, the players must try and agree on a flag design, trading off various 'win conditions' about the contents of the flag. In the second half, players must attempt to survive the apocalypse that the first half has caused. This is a costume-light, rules-light, seriousness-light game, where the OOC goals are to stack the deck against the characters, and then to either survive or die in a satisfying way.