City of Shadows megagame

Last Saturday I had my first experience of a megagame. It was called "City of Shadows" and although it had elements of a board game (hence a valid topic for this blog) it was much more like a role-playing experience.

OVERVIEW OF THE GAME

Imagine, if you will, around 75 people crammed into a hall – the players. Add another 15 people whose job was to monitor the progress of the game – the control team. Squeeze into this melee six large maps showing different areas of a city, and then picture most of the players having made some effort to dress as if they lived in America in the year 1931. Finally, have all the people mill around and make a lot of noise, and continue doing so for six hours. You have now have some idea of what a megagame is like.

The players were divided into different types – six police squads (one for each map), eight gangs (setting up assorted crime rackets as they expanded their influence across the city), a city hall and a city police department (both on the stage, trying to balance crime and politics), the local press (who produced regular A4 sheets with all the latest news and rumours), a few feds, several men and women of science (some with fawning assistants), and last but not least seven vigilantes (who could move amongst the others either as superheroes or as ordinary citizens). I was a member of this last group, known to the general populous as "Hero By Night".

Each 'turn' of the game lasted half an hour in real time representing one month in game time. The game controllers tried to keep to a strict timetable with the last five minutes of each turn spent in 'teams' (catching up with each other and planning the next turn). But mostly when the whistle blew, you couldn't hear what the control was saying because of the general hubbub. I found myself constantly asking people around the maps "What phase are we on? Am I too late to come swooping in and conduct a raid?"

And who won? I haven't a clue. I'm pretty certain the city lost, what with rampant crime, corrupt police, even more corrupt politicians and whole swathes of the city destroyed by mad scientists. There were so many interconnected stories taking place that there is no way to sum up the experience other than saying everyone seemed to be having a good time.

As an example, here is a taste of what my fellow vigilantes got up to, some of which I didn't discover until the game was over. Captain Union started as the darling of the city but seemed more interested in lucrative advertising deals than actually doing anything useful and his popularity waned. At one point he bought a huge robot suit from a scientist and tried to destroy a tidal wave machine, but as the machine was underwater and the suit was not especially waterproof this didn't end well. Captain Freedom started off by robbing a bank supposedly to provide himself with enough funds for fighting crime. The Fighting Fool seemed to relish violence and turned out to be working hand in glove with one of the scientists. The Fury spent the entire game in a personal vendetta against the Sicilian gang. The City Redeemer soon established a reputation for destruction, having burnt one of the gang bosses so badly that he had nothing left to do but join the vigilantes as a rather ineffective supervillain. But in mid-game she decided to give up crime fighting and run for mayor as an independent candidate. The gangs supported her (by throwing lots of dosh into her campaign) and she was duly elected, but as the game drew to a close she was assassinated by one of the gangs. The Ghost arrived a few turns into the game, and like me seemed to be an honest-to-goodness crime fighter.

In contrast with all of the shenagins of my colleagues my main concern was to reduce crime and protect the citizens. I formed no lasting alliances and often found myself simply wandering the streets wondering where I would be most useful. But I can claim a moral victory. My steady plugging away at crime was recognised and on the 'Moral Compass' I finished the game as the top hero in the good-evil spectrum.

THE ADVENTURES OF HERO BY NIGHT

In the early part of the year I patrolled the streets, warning the gangs that I wasn't happy with their expansionist tendencies. I tried shutting down a few rackets but discovered it wasn't easy on my own. In the spring four vigilantes joined together to capture a gang boss and bring him to justice. Despite the presence of many mobsters we succeeded in capturing the boss only to discover that it was a case of 'mistaken identity'. The boss had slipped away unnoticed and left some poor sap to take the heat. Even when I successfully destroyed a racket it turned out that they simply started it up again when my back was turned. All in all not an auspicious start.

I reckon that I remained the poorest person in the whole city. Apart from a meagre income each turn, which I mostly spent on replacing my used equipment, I gained nothing. I couldn't understand why others were wandering about with fistfuls of cash and mad scientists thought nothing about giving me money ("whatever it costs") to aid my search for the hideout of their arch enemy. My one chance for earning a decent wage came when a toy company decided that Hero By Night was more popular than Captain Union - but I didn't hesitate to turn them down. I'm a crime-fighter. I don't promote toys.

In the summer the first crisis hit. Professor Emilia Gargunza threatened to unleash a virus on the city as a statement of female equality. The whole city was in a panic. For one brief moment I thought I was the one who could save the day. I had previously discovered the professor's lair and liberated some of her equipment. I agreed to return it if she gave me the location of the virus bomb. We even had the press to witness the exchange. She admitted it was under the city hall, so with five minutes to go I had the mayor and his staff frantically searching their location. I did admit that the information may not be reliable. And of course it wasn't. The evil harridan was lying! The bomb went off in the North precinct and several city blocks were infested with zombie-like creatures. So much for my heroic negotiations.

Not all scientists were quite so troublesome. One even invented a confusion gun which I bought from him and used to good effect now and then. Another appeared in a robot spider which a couple of us managed to damage enough to drive it away. But then Tesla let loose his tidal wave machine (to demonstrate the power of alternating current) and Edwin Scott unleashed an earthquake.

My most successful intervention came as the year drew to a close. A huge robot dinosaur was rampaging across the West Side. The Fighting Fool and I joined with the Police to bring it down. The massed police force damaged it and it fled. We followed and brought to bear as much equipment as we could in order to damage it further. Spotting a controller inside its head, we swung into action – literally. (Finally, a chance to use my hook gun!) The villain was knocked unconscious, but then an argument broke out between the Fighting Fool and myself. He wanted to kill the villain and I wanted to arrest him. The Fool backed down in the face of my determination. Victory was ours, and a mere two blocks of the city were destroyed in the process. Sadly when we hauled up the scientist before the judge a corrupt jury found him innocent and he was released. Oh well, I tried.

LIFE LESSONS

It occurs to me that life in a church is not unlike a day spent in a megagame. In a congregation of a hundred and more there are so many interconnected stories it is impossible to keep up with them all. There are factions and alliances forming and dissolving. The property committee have plans to do this and the youth ministry team have plans to do that. The church council tries to monitor it all and keep everyone happy. The little group who sit on the back row have a grumble about the new fangled aspects of worship. A different group rally round to support the old lady who has broken her arm. And no one person (even the minister!) has a complete grasp of all the different things which are going on.

I don't know what I can do about this other than simply acknowledge it. I have my own view of what is going on in the church – but it is far from complete. I need to remember that there are lots of opinions, desires, plans and activities which I am unaware of. It's a good job that the Holy Spirit is wise enough to hold all this together and guide us through the chaos.