Facilitator: Sean Nittner
Players: Krin Irvine, Ben Swinden, Cara Simian, and Isaac Thummel
System: For the Queen
Our very first question set the tenor of your entire game.
“This journey isn’t just about diplomatic negotiations. What else do you suspect is going on, and why?”
Answer – A war of fashion. If the enemy is better dressed then we are, our reputation will crumble and thereafter the support of our allies.
To be told I didn’t think this would be a serious game, until we answered more questions and realized JUST how important fashion was, and how much telling a person what they could and couldn’t wear controlled a part of who they were. If felt like a threat to our freedom than resonates very strongly with me in 2018.
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.
Our roles end up being the queens body double (who tried on all her dresses first), the old servant (who too the fall when the Queen attempeted to introduce snaps into fashion), the guard (scarred and dressed all in the queens purple), the zealot (who would bring buckles to the masses), and her seamstress (who the queen kept closer than any other).
Following the last game I played, I encouraged us to play in the the golden fields of the Great War, with similar primitive automobiles. We also had the advent of strict fashion rules and a lot of value placed around an impossible ideal of beauty, both in terms of bodies and in terms of design.
The game was dark, full of sacrifices made for the good of the many. In the end we had to be sacrificed as well. And yet, look at all these smiling faces:
