Experiment on pervasive role-playing

[Montola]

Hi,

There's a (shameless plug) very interesting project coming soon in Sweden, an experiment in technologically enchanced (enchanted?) larping in cityspace. Prosopopeia Bardo 2 will run for weeks, straight, as a hazy diegetic mixture of ingame and offgame interlacing for the whole duration.

If you are interesting in participating the experiment -- it's likely that there is a chance of participating via telephones, email et cetera as well -- or want to learn more, check out www.prosopopeia.se. This is nothing like the Forge games, actually I guess as far as you can get from it.

Two quotes from the game website:

Prosopopeia is a role-playing game. You pretend to be possessed by a rebellious ghost, moving, talking, thinking, carousing and scheming as you imagine the ghost would. You may even want to talk to yourself or think in two different inner voices. This is the first and most important rule - always act as if the game was real. Pretend to believe and the rest will be easy.

The interactions with the invisible world are performed through a small array of wireless devices. Magical incantations are transmitted from digital tablets as a part of player-designed rituals to allow a wide range of spell effects. Sensors measure the key actions, biometrics and environmental conditions that must complement the player's work with the tablets for the rituals to manifest their effect. Deep breathing while remaining motionless in darkness might protect you from curses, while dancing naked in front of a bonfire could be one way to build the force of your aggressive spells. Wage magical war against other players or fight the power with a technoccult system where your skill, location, environment and dedication really matter. Based on the real tradition of Enochian magic the system uses no visible statistics and resembles the rituals of western magic as closely as you are comfortable with.

and

When the game is on, it's on for real. Even when you are not actively possessed by your guest you exist in the game-world and can be affected by it. A part of the thrill is juggling the struggle against the gray and your private life. If your boyfriend asks you why you sneak out in the middle of the night to shout curses at arms-factories we expect you to brazenly lie or smile and say "hey, it's just a game", while secretly knowing that it's for real. This is the aesthetic summed up in the old tagline "This Is Not A Game". And if you think about it for a while, what proof do you really have that this is a "just" a game and not a very real radical occult action? Some people actually believe that the authors of this game are leading an "army of the abandoned" against the establishment. Are they wrong? Others believe our objective is to discredit the role-playing community. Really? Still others blame madness or just plain poor taste. Take a look at this guy's webpage and you'll know what Prosopopeia looks like from a "T.I.N.A.G." perspective. (www.de-doda-lever.nu)

- Markus

[Kicker]

Hmm.

If I ever find myself involved in a cult in need of new members, I'd definitely try to emulate the technique and design here; It's sophisticated as all heck.  Eons beyond Empire of Satanis.  The premise pre-sorts for people interested in pursuing confusion of reality and identity, that it may or may not be a game allows the participants to decide their own levels of involvement, making it easy to identify the most vulnerable and pliable of the players.  Those with enough sense of self, if treated carefully, might not even know that they were assissting an actual ritual or recruitment drive.  Very clever.  Kudos to those responsible.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong.  But in that case, it's a shame it has to seem so sinister.

[Eero Tuovinen]

It's probably best not to start a long thread about what Prosopopeia is or isn't here (being that it's not a Connections topic). But as the issue of cult activity has been raised, it's perhaps best to say something instead of just leaving it hanging. To wit: I know some of the people involved in Prosopopeia (not very well, but I've met them), and I also know the kind of stuff these wacky Nordics get up to. Based on that my call is that they aren't actually creating a cult or just being contrary for destructive purposes. It's more of an "edgier-than-thou" situation. The justifications I've heard for what they're doing are inane, but as far as I can tell they're still considering it a game.

Also: if somebody who actually participated in the first Prosopopeia game (Markus?) wants to start a thread in Actual Play about it, that could be interesting, and certainly within the portfolio of that forum. But I strongly recommend that we keep our criticism of the concept to ourselves, unless invited to discuss the topic in Actual Play.