I need details!  When and where do you plan to run this?

Musica Universalis will be a one shot, weekend long game, scheduled to run May 4th-6th, 2018 at Camp Brantwood in Greenfield, NH. The cost will be $95/player.

Is this boffer? Theater-style? Is this a campaign, or something smaller?

This is a one-shot game that will focus more on roleplaying, characterization, and discussion over combat. We have been describing it as a theater-style game where the combat mechanic happens to be boffer combat (specifically the Accelerant rules set). Not all characters will be skilled in combat, nor does everyone need to fight.

How large is the game planned to be?

We have currently capped the active player list at 50. We believe this will let us write the kind of closely connected game we are hoping to, and really focus on each of the characters we write.

Will there be a waitlist?

If there is interest surpassing our 50 player max size, yes.

What is with the name? Does it mean something?

Musica Universalis is a theory Pythagoras first proposed, which posits that all celestial bodies have their own unique harmonic resonance based on their orbital revolution, and that the state of life on Earth depends on what note these resonances are playing. The theory remained popular for a surprisingly long time, and proving a version of it was a pet project of Johannes Kepler’s. There is quite a lot of information out there on it if you are interested, but most of the concept as it is important to the game can be gleaned from the wikipedia page.

One-shot games can be tricky. How do you plan to handle character deaths?

This isn’t a high-combat game, and we don’t anticipate permanently killing many characters. We have a death mechanic in mind, however, and it is not infinite. More information will be given at the start of game.

I got hit with inspiration, and I have a character concept. How do I get it approved?

Casting is complete at this point, though we do love hearing ideas! Feel free to reach out and let us know you thoughts, if you think we’d get a kick out of them. As mentioned elsewhere, we will be pre-writing the characters based on a combination of our ideas, and player feedback via a casting survey

Wait, pre-written characters. Does that mean I have to memorize a lot of stuff as a player?

Yes, and that is a good point. We don’t know the length of character sheets yet, as we haven’t reached that phase of writing, but they will likely be a couple pages with a world bluesheet. We will try to get this information out to folks early to aid in this, but want to be honest about what the expected load is on players.

I am concerned about some of the themes for this game.

That is a completely valid concern. We know that many of the issues we are dealing with are sensitive ones. We will be rigidly enforcing Accelerant’s rules forbidding discrimination and bigoted remarks. Our ban is not intended to erase or romanticize the past, but to ensure that the game is welcoming to all players. We invite anyone interested in our game to discuss specific concerns with the staff. We are quite open to revising and personalizing as necessary to make sure all players are comfortable engaging their characters and our story. Please have a look at our Intent page for further information.

Will you be looking for NPCs?

We’re definitely going to need some help to pull off some of the things we’ve planned, and would love to have both fighting and role-playing NPCs.  We have a mailing list for NPCs set up – please join us.

I’d like to make sure I have all the information. Is there also a mailing list for PCs?

Absolutely. You can find that here.

This seems like the kind of game that might require an accent, and I’m not good at that. Any advice?

The Dust Bowl resulted in one of the largest mass migrations in American history. Many of these people had only moved to the panhandle area in the previous decade or two, looking to cash in on the farming boom resulting from the Great War. In other words, people come from all over. Accents will not be required.

It seems like there might be a lot of music involved in this game. I am not musical, and/or hate the idea of performing alone. What should I do?

Knowing how to read music or play an instrument is in no way required to play this game, but a love of music is key and a willingness to sing along with others is probably a plus. If you can’t sing, don’t play an instrument, or don’t like to perform by yourself, don’t worry. We have plans for that, and your overall enjoyment of the game shouldn’t be impacted.

What about period music? How well do I need to know that?

No knowledge of period music is needed. Part of the conceit of the the game (music as magic) is to allow us to pull songs we like from all over the place. If the sound doesn’t match the sound of the time, that is obviously because it has a touch of the supernatural about it.