The Cuckoo

Your boss at PixID Media volunteered you to compete on a reality show about eight sexy singles who are each torn between two loves. The contract isn't the worst you've signed and who knows, maybe you'll even find a partner. Everything was going as expected until your ship, the Cuckoo, crashed just after picking all of you up from the paradise planet where you'd been filming. You were supposed to rejoin the mothership to film the finale where each of you would get married to (or rejected by) the partner of your choice. 

The good news is that all nine of you survived the crash. The bad news is, your contract doesn't make allowances for things like crashed spaceships, injuries, or being stranded in a forest. You must select your desired partner on camera between 70 and 80 minutes from now. Equally important, you must rig together a makeshift long-range communicator to broadcast the finale in order to avoid being in violation of your contract. With a working long-range communicator, a PixID ship will be able to locate you and rescue you. But if you don't all finish the show as promised, being stranded on this planet will be the least of your worries. 

tl;dr: trashy reality dating show turns unexpectedly into a survival show

Good for players who: like over-the-top melodrama, enjoy scavenger hunts, like flirting

Bad for players who: like deep emotional complexity, are concerned about getting lost in the woods at night, refuse to play romantic/sexual relationships

Run Time:  1.5 hours plus pre-game demonstrations and post-game wrap-up

Players: 9

Suggested player experience level: Novice to expert 

The Cuckoo is a 1.5 hour game for 9 players (four male contestants, four female contestants, and a camera operator/interviewer) set in a dystopian sci-fi universe. You do not need to have played any other Consortium setting games to play the Cuckoo, though as always, it will be funnier if you have.

This game is intended to emulate all the worst reality shows. If you are not just prepared for, but actively excited about, interpersonal drama, sexual innuendos and tension, real or fake heterosexuality, screaming matches whose loudness is rivaled only by their pettiness, mild physical violence in the form of ineffectual slap-fights and light shoving, cheating, emotional manipulation, backstabbing, showboating, and manufactured life-or-death drama in the shadow of actual life-or-death drama, this is the game for you. If any one of those things doesn't sound appealing, you'll be happier skipping this one. There are no predefined correct pairings in this game.

Running Requirements

The game requires a large - several acres or more - outdoor area that gets reasonably dark at night. A forest is ideal, but a large backyard with many visual obstacles can work. 

The ideal props for this game involve some level of soldering LEDs together. Failing that, you can use manilla envelopes, glow sticks, and puzzle pieces. 

Pre-release sale!

This game has not yet been run by anyone other than the writer. That means there is no guarantee that all the necessary material is included in the GM guide. Hopefully it is, but no one has tested it yet! So you get a discount for being a guinea pig. Of course, you are welcome (as always) to email with any questions that come up as you are preparing to run the LARP.