I had a chance to play Andrew Medeiros’s The Forgotten at Dreamation, and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

I had a chance to play Andrew Medeiros’s The Forgotten at Dreamation, and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

I had a chance to play Andrew Medeiros’s The Forgotten at Dreamation, and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

First of all, the overall experience was incredible. The game is about civilians in a small, makeshift shelter in the middle of an urban war zone. It’s played out over multiple day/night cycles. The day scenes are all about learning to live with each other, and making tough decisions, like how to ration the available supplies and who to send out on the nighttime scavenging missions. You also have to cope with the consequences of whatever happened the night before. It’s often noisy and stressful, but also punctuated by occasional bursts of humor and kindness. It feels very human.

The night scenes are quieter and more tense, as some of the players have to go out to scavenge, one player has to keep watch at the shelter door, and the rest do the best they can to get some rest, though usually they end up having anxious, whispered conversations with each other. Sometimes the scavenging missions go well, and there is a genuine sense of relief and happiness in the shelter. But sometimes things go badly. Other scavengers, soldiers with itchy trigger fingers, and raiders are a constant threat; sometimes your own scavengers have to do things out there that make them feel remorseful. There is an end game condition that I believe can lead to one of several different conclusions. Ours involved the UN taking over the city and ending the war. When one of our people came back to tell us it was ok to leave the shelter, that everything was ok, we were in genuine disbelief, and some of us didn’t even want to leave (it almost felt like a sort-of Stockholm Syndrome).

In a lot of ways, The Forgotten feels like “My First LARP,” and I mean that in a complimentary way. It’s definitely a live action game, and has the improv-y style of play you would expect, but it also has mechanics and procedures that make it feel like a traditional tabletop game. I found that very helpful, not being much of a LARPer myself. It uses a deck of cards to manage shelter resources and to trigger different events throughout the game, so you always have something to react to; I never felt like I was floundering around for something to do or say. It has a system to track your personal traumas, such as injury and your personal level of despair, and ways by which you can alleviate them, usually involving some sort of scene with another player. It’s a solid mix of ‘game’ and ‘improv,’ and I really enjoyed it. At times it was stressful and emotional, but when our time slot was finished, I wanted to keep playing.

Anyway, check out the KS. If you’ve been thinking about LARP, this one is really easy to get into. The amount of inputs you need to play are really minimal (really just the cards, something to play audio with, and a few friends). I promise you’re going to have an awesome time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287928832/the-forgotten-a-live-action-game

16 thoughts on “I had a chance to play Andrew Medeiros’s The Forgotten at Dreamation, and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.”

  1. I used to be so sniffy about LARP but with games like these and the enthusiasm of some of the guest on the podcast, I’d love to try it. However finding a game in the UK is hard and the only ones I can find are rubber swords and capes in the woods games. The quest continues!

  2. I used to be so sniffy about LARP but with games like these and the enthusiasm of some of the guest on the podcast, I’d love to try it. However finding a game in the UK is hard and the only ones I can find are rubber swords and capes in the woods games. The quest continues!

  3. Eadwin Tomlinson I can’t speak for all LARP, but it would be a breeze to switch up your normal FtF group one night with a session of The Forgotten. It’s very easy to get into. The transition from tabletop is pretty minimal.

  4. Eadwin Tomlinson I can’t speak for all LARP, but it would be a breeze to switch up your normal FtF group one night with a session of The Forgotten. It’s very easy to get into. The transition from tabletop is pretty minimal.

  13. Jason Cordova​ Thanks so much for pushing me to play this. I normally don’t do midnight games but your recommendation was so strong I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. This and The Watch (both I think were your suggestions) were the games that left the biggest impressions on me. It was an emotional roller-coaster but so very worth it.

  14. Jason Cordova​ Thanks so much for pushing me to play this. I normally don’t do midnight games but your recommendation was so strong I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. This and The Watch (both I think were your suggestions) were the games that left the biggest impressions on me. It was an emotional roller-coaster but so very worth it.

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