Event Horizon Reading Megagames

Organiser / Campaign

Reading Megagames

Genre

Horror

Description

A rescue fleet investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now returned... on board are the secrets to save the Earth and unlock the universe beyond.

In the near future, humanity has successfully colonized the Moon and Mars, and is venturing deeper into space. In the year 2040, state of the art starship Event Horizon was sent on a secret mission, but it disappeared without a trace beyond the planet Neptune at the outer rim of the solar system. The official story was that her engines malfunctioned, resulting in a loss that was considered the worst space disaster on record, with her entire 36-person crew missing and presumed dead in a cloud of fiery death. The economic ripples of the disaster disrupted the stability on Earth as the blame was passed around. In 2047, just as all-out war is about to erupt, the ship suddenly reappears.

The international space station for the outer planets picked up a heavily distorted distress signal which identified the ship as the lost Event Horizon. Since the ship had all the major Earth players involved, they called on their best vessels in reach of the outer planets to be diverted to take on this UN-led top-secret search and salvage mission. The Earth’s future is at stake. On board the fleet are military personnel, scientists, medical staff, technicians, and high-ranking officers who command each ship. On the Event Horizon, something is waiting for them.

The international search and salvage fleet consists of vessels representing different nations and corporate entities, all pooling together to salvage the starship, uncover its secrets, and compete for faction-specific and individual goals. Each player will take the role of one crew member in the search and salvage fleet and control their actions on board the fleet or exploring the Event Horizon. Each ship has its own distinct characteristics and specialties. Each crew member has been carefully selected with a set of skills needed for salvaging the Event Horizon and getting back to earth. No one plays a trivial role, and no one is expendable.

The game takes its name from one of the horizons surrounding a black hole, a shell of a point of no return – a region in spacetime beyond which future events no longer can be influenced. It will be a race against the clock for the teams to meet their competing objectives as individual crewmembers start to lose their grip on reality.

Event Horizon is a megagame with lighter board game mechanics and prominent elements of negotiation and roleplaying in a near-future space horror setting. The game is played across two rooms where the first room holds the fleet and the second room holds the Event Horizon. The game has severely restricted communication between rooms, and the claustrophobic setting leaves little room for the “grand scale of things” as each player is ultimately left alone to face what is on the Event Horizon.

You don't need any previous megagame experience to play this game. There are umpires called Control who will help you on the day so you can focus on having fun with the other players.

In terms of roleplay vs mechanics this is very much up to you as a player. This means that the problems you face can be handled through the game mechanics (spending dice from your dice pool) or through roleplay (talking to other players). No roles are more or less mechanical, and your personal playstyle will influence how you play the game on the day!

The game is designed by Johan Olofsson.