Facilitator: Alex Roberts
Players: Tomer Gurantz, Erik Bell, Nadja Otikor, Andy Munich, and Sean Nittner
System: For the Queen
“Unnamed Game Playtest” was the billing. By the end of the game we were using the name “Atrocity: The Queen’s Receipts”. By the end of the weekend (thanks to Stras) were were calling it “For the Queen”. I hope that name sticks!
For the Queen
Here’s how the game opens:
The land you live in has been at war for as long as any of you have been alive.
The Queen has decided to set off on a long and perilous journey to forge an alliance with a distant power.
She has chosen you, and only you, to serve as her retinue, and accompany her on this journey.
She chose you because she knows that you love her.
That’s all you know when you start the game, but as you play, question by question you define the Queen, and your relationship to her. Unwittingly you craft a story of being her banner-person, her cook, her servant, her adviser, and her body double. You find that she’s shown you great kindness, staying your execution, and great wrath, forcing you to sacrifice yourself for her, over and over again.
Our queen cared greatly for her people, so greatly that she closed the gates and let countless die of a plague so she could save the ones inside the keep. We were loyal to her unto death, so loyal that we set her up to be ambushed, in the last moment we could not carry through with the plan and fell to protect her. We loved her and yet in ways we could not forgive her. She showed us beauty and ugliness, kindness and cruelty.
Our characters started as archetypes but through the questions they all became more and more complex. Each question re-contextualizing the answer to the last. The Queen and our relationships with her developed with each answer as well.
Just look at this retinue, ready to serve!
What Rocked
The Game.
The People.
The Questions.
The Answers.
I’m serious here. You’re not going to know what I’m talking about because this game isn’t out yet, but it’s fucking amazing. When it does come out, you’re going to play it and love it as much as I did. I’m sure of it!
