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Help run a 60 person game at PAX East 2015! (Now with aliens!)

FifthSurpriseFifthSurprise Registered User regular
edited February 2015 in PAX East
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Edit: Currently, we're at capacity for Control. We appreciate your interest and hope to see you signing up to play at PAX East 2015!

The Megagame Society is proud to announce our plans to run a Watch the Skies event at PAX East 2015 on Sunday (March 8th). PAX management has graciously given us the okay for our running this game in Tabletop.

Currently, we are looking for a bunch (7-11+) people to dungeon-master/game-master the game. Unfortuantely, we cannot provide badges for those helping behind the seens. However, running a Megagame is a super good time! Everyone who's done it so far says so! (For reals!) Come have fun with us! Also, it guarantees you a ringside seat to the drama of 60 people scrambling through intrigue and chaos.

If you’d like to help bring a Megagame to PAX East 2015 please send a private message to us ASAP! You’ll need to be able to meet with us twice the week before PAX (either in Boston or virtually) to go over the game and you’ll need to be able to help run the game from 10am-5pm on Sunday.

What is a Megagame?
Part RPG and part board game, Watch the Skies brings together 60 players who will play on teams as various nations, news reporters, corporate factions, and the alien visitors. As a member of Control you’ll be game mastering your game (for example, the human sciencist's game) and coming up with new rules on the spot. This game is at least half RPG so players will want to do things not in the rules and you’ll be doing your best to encourage crazy ideas and come up with the new rules and benefits for them (which is SUPER fun!)

What is Watch the Skies?
This particular Megagame that we are running at PAX East involves the mysterious appearance of Aliens on our planet and the ensuing global conflict. Players represent various interests including various nation's government leaders and military commanders, reputable (or disreputable) members of the scientific and news communities, and corporate heads. Player activities can include: from holding talks in the UN, researching new and alien technologies, managing the ensuing military conflicts, espionage, journalistic investigations, and corporate warfare. While most players represent human nations, some players will also be the mysterious Aliens with their own secret agenda.

You can see a trailer from one of our past games here.


Past Watch the Skies scenarios have included:
  1. New Zealand developing an extreme fascination with Aliens.
  2. A 6-way war between nations over a mysterious alien structure on the Potomac River in Washington D.C.
  3. Russia attempting to launch nuclear missles at Brazil only to discover a Brazilian agent had sabotaged them all.
  4. MegaCorporations establishing a colony on the Moon
  5. Attempts to nuke the moon.
  6. Kidnapping the UN Secretary General

If any of this sounds interesting to you, come join us as part of Control!

If you just want to play, you might want to look at this particular thread here.

For more information about Megagames see our Facebook page

FAQ:
Why aren't you providing convention badges for people helping to run the game at PAX East?
It costs a bit of money for us to put on the game already and we can’t charge people to play the game (it's just not PAX spirit). We’re going to absorb the costs for the game but we can’t afford to buy a bunch of people badges to run the game as well. PAX doesn't provide us with free badges for people running the game (which makes sense since we’re not Wizards of the Coast paying a ton of money for space).

Wait, you’re losing money by running the game? Why are you doing it then?
Because the game is amazing and we want everyone to be able to play the game if possible. The last game we ran sold out in 15 seconds. But what we would really like is for as many people as possible to have the opportunity to play. We’re excited for people to play what is essentially a new genre/type of game (at least a genre in its infancy). As designers, we’re excited for the new types of gameplay that you can do with a huge in-person game that you can’t do in a MMORPG, tabletop RPG or board game. Also we just love how excited people get for megagames!

I've seen the Shut Up and Sit Down video or have been to Watch the Skies before. Isn't it all spoiled for me now?
We've completely reworked the game, so much so that even the original creator has said that this is a completely different game. Anything that was spoiled has been changed and in fact assuming that things work the same in the Shut Up and Sit Down video/past games will get you into trouble pretty quickly.

Who are you anyways?
We’re the MegaGame Society, a collection of game designers, graphic artists, and megagame enthusiasts that are all committed to developing this genre of game. We all volunteer to run these megagames and no one makes money off this. We’re all just very excited to make these games for everyone! We are based in NYC but we work with groups across the US, Canada and the world to help them setup their own local Megagame group.

You’re in NYC? Any way you can do a game in X city/town?
We work with groups across the world so it’s possible a group is already gearing up to do a game in your town. Send us an email through our Facebook page and we’ll let you know if there’s someone around you doing a game. If not we’ll help you start your own group in your town; you’d be amazed at how many people want to help run or play in these games!

Where’s a good place to find out more info about Megagames?
You can find us on this Facebook page.
Shut up and Sit Down did a great video about the game, you can learn more about it here.
The original creator of Megagames is Jim Wallman, we work with him a lot and he is fantastic, you can see his Megagame group (the Megagame Makers).

Edit: Changed the post subject

FifthSurprise on

Posts

  • Options
    SleepdepSleepdep Registered User regular
    edited January 2015
    how do I sign up to play the game(not be a controller, I have several friends who are interested)?

    Sleepdep on
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    FifthSurpriseFifthSurprise Registered User regular
    Sleepdep wrote: »
    how do I sign up to play the game(not be a controller, I have several friends who are interested)?
    Since the last time we set this up the game was filled with players in 15 seconds, we're currently looking into a fair method to let people sign-up as a player. We'll have a separate post detailing that once it is finalized.

  • Options
    chocojoshchocojosh Registered User regular
    I sent you a PM on the forum, but it wasn't clear if you wanted a PM on the forum or through Facebook.

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    Sir WinsALotSir WinsALot Registered User new member
    Hi. Where can I find the tabletop board game tournament schedule for Pax East 2015?

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    zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Hi. Where can I find the tabletop board game tournament schedule for Pax East 2015?
    This thread is totally unrelated to the official pax schedule. The official pax schedule will come out in the next few weeks on http://east.paxsite.com

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    Midas244Midas244 Registered User regular
    @Sleepdep if you want to know about playing in the game you should check out this thread

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    zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Since the game thread is now active, I have closed this one.

This discussion has been closed.