How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb Shelter (24hr Edition)
“How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb Shelter (24hr Edition)” is a game of paranoia and treachery for at least 4 players. A VIP named Keeton a senior political or academic figure is trapped in a bomb or fallout shelter with people they thought they could trust, but someone is out to kill them.
It is somewhat similar to a murder mystery, except that instead of investigating the murder, players have to carry it out or prevent it, depending on the role assigned to them. The fun lies largely in the fact that roles (with the exception of the GM) are randomly assigned in secret, so that nobody knows quite who to trust. The number of assassins is randomly determined and players draw lots blind to determine their individual roles. All anyone (except the GM) knows at the start of the game is that there is at least one would-be killer and whether or not they themselves are a killer.
The game can be played using different scenarios, which define the nature of the setting and the types of characters. Two scenarios are included in this version of the game: “Get Down In The Bomb Shelter, Mr(s) President” (where players attempt to protect or kill a political figure such as a King, Queen or President in a high-security official nuclear fallout bunker) and “Porterhouse Code Blue” (where players attempt to protect or kill the master of an Oxbridge college in a wine cellar, basement lecture hall or Anderson shelter).
The game is designed to be played in a single sitting face-to-face, but it could be played in other formats (such as play-by-post or LARP) with little or no modification.
Note: “How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb Shelter” requires players (particularly the GM) to separate what they know as a person in the real world from what their character knows within the fiction nothing ruins the fun of plotting, backstabbing, lying and scheming like a player who constantly decides that their character suddenly needs to urinate when Keeton is being discreetly strangled in the bathroom.
Due to the competitive nature of the game, it is unlikely to be suitable for groups containing players who are too immature or inexperienced in RPGs to maintain this separation.
Tags: Luke Hawksbee
July 20th, 2012 at 10:36 am
Ahh this sounds great! Unfortunately the .pdf is not displaying correctly, all the words are instead blurry lines. I am using OSX and preview, any thoughts? I’d really like to get my hands on this :)
September 13th, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Hi Jonny, sorry I only saw your post recently. I don’t understand why the pdf wouldn’t be displaying properly for some people, as it seems to be working for some other people and it certainly displays properly on my laptop and my phone, using various different programmes (Windows and Android respectively). I would recommend that you try using another viewing method (some people have said that it works if they view it online but not if they download it and open the file, for instance). I do appreciate feedback on the technical side of things as well because if I can work out what the problem is I’d obviously rather that more people could read it. If you get it working, please tell me how, and if you don’t after a few more tries, I’ll see if I can arrange for another version to be made available that might work. Thanks for your interest