What is Dogmas of the Stormy Past?

Dogmas of the Stormy Past is a 48-hour high-immersion live-action roleplaying game of negotiation, religion, magic, and heroism in a time of crisis. It has run three times to excellent reviews.

Where and when is the next run?

We have no plans to run Dogmas again in the near future, although we probably will at some point.

How does the game work? What do I actually do in the game?

A month before Dogmas, you will receive a character background describing your story up to the point the game begins. Your character background will run about 150 pages all told, including 40-50 pages customized just to you and another 100 pages about the world, your own kingdom and town, and any groups you are a part of. This is the first half of the novel.

Before the game begins, you'll have time to interact with a few of the other characters you know (by email or in person). You'll also be able to take some actions before game starts. You can costume for your role. (You'll receive guidance for costuming, which is optional but encouraged.)

The game begins at about 6pm on Friday. You'll walk into game as your character, and from then on everything you do is what your character does. Perhaps you'll negotiate with others over the fate of your land, or perhaps you'll sneak off into the woods to perform a secret ritual. Perhaps you'll have an epic battle against a giant monster, cast a powerful spell, or get into a heated argument about the nature of the gods. Whatever you do, your character does. In the morning, the conversation you have over breakfast about the events of last night—that too will be the conversation your character has. (We will have ways of simulating things you cannot actually do, such as fighting and spellcasting, without disrupting the flow of the story.)

Like any good story, the game will have a build-up, climax, and denouement. When it is done late Sunday afternoon, we will clean the house together, have a brief wrap-up, and then go to dinner to share stories of the weekend and find out what happened!

I've played a lot of LARPs before - what makes Dogmas different?

Dogmas is foremost a high-immersion game. This has several consequences that may affect your enjoyment of the game.

• We have constructed a highly detailed world. As previously mentioned, you will get roughly 150 pages of background to read before the game, 40-50 of which is your character's personal life story. If you have a question about the world of Dogmas not covered in this background, we probably have an answer.
• We stay away from out-of-character mechanics (things like solving a sudoku to simulate picking a lock). When you want to stab a monster, you pull out your boffer and stab it. When you want to interpret some magical writing, you stare at it and try to interpret it.
• Production values are fairly high. We run the game in a large hunting lodge with 200 acres of private woods. Everything in the game is represented by a physical prop, not a piece of paper.
• There is no out-of-game time: you are in character from when you arrive on Friday to when you leave on Sunday. (We do have a rule that sleeping characters must be woken up before anything else can happen to them.)

Who is involved with this?

Past Dogmas Storytellers have included Reuben Aronson, David Farhi, Yuri Lin, Casey McNamara, Catherine Sheard, Eric Wofsey, and Dan Zaharopol. You can reach us at dogmas-gms@mit.edu.