The Albatross

The Albatross, Splicetek Designs' newest prototype ship, was on a medium-range cargo run to test out some cutting-edge technology under realspace conditions: a custom holo-polymer coating that can cover the ship with an animation of the user's choice. The ship was attacked by an as-yet-unidentified hostile vessel. The Albatross failed to take successful evasive action and the hostile ship hit the engine with a missile, causing it to explode. Five of the seven personnel on board successfully evacuated via escape pods, though two had to receive costly medical treatment (which will be coming out of the project's budget). The prototype holo-polymer controller was severely damaged and the test data is, of course, worthless. This will delay the product launch by at least two weeks and will directly cost millions of credits. The only positive thing is that the press hasn't heard the news yet.

How could this failure have happened? The buck stops in this room: at least one of the five people in this meeting must be to blame, whether directly or indirectly. In one and a half hours, the group must explain themselves to the VP of Operations. Someone's career is going down in flames tonight, and you refuse to let it be yours.

tl;dr: Corporate backstabbing in spaaaaaace

Good for players who: like fast-talking, like social confrontation, want catharsis from their dysfunctional job

Bad for players who: do not like being socially attacked, cannot handle losing, don't want to be reminded of their dysfunctional job

Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes plus pre-game demonstrations and post-game wrap-up

Players: 5

Suggested player experience level: Intermediate to expert; it is not an ideal first LARP

The Albatross is a LARP designed for play via text and video chat set in a futuristic libertarian dystopia. All the characters are having a video call while having private text conversations; that is also what all the players are doing. 

If you are triggered by being blamed or ganged up on socially, this is not a game you want to play. If you enjoy fast-talking your way out of the consequences for your actions while throwing someone else under the bus, and don't mind the possibility that the bus might land on you instead, this is the game for you. 

Running Requirements

This is an entirely online LARP with no physical requirements. It requires a platform that has all of public video chat, public text chat with a way to embed images, and private text chat. The GM guide assumes that you are using discord but other platforms are viable. Configuring your discord server or other platform will likely require less than half an hour of pre-game set-up.