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Introduction
"All's Well That Ends" is a freeform for 24 players, written
by Russell Harris, Heidi Kaye, Anthony Winter, Jane Winter and AJ Smith.
It is set in a fictionalised version of Elizabethan London, one more
akin to that depicted in "Shakespeare in Love" than, say,
"Elizabeth" or "Elizabeth R".
The next run of "All's Well That Ends" will be in March 2009
at Intercon-I (Chelmsford, MA). Note that you must be registered with
the convention to be able to play.
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General Background
Time: 1580s, a cold winter’s evening
Place: The Final Curtain, a tavern of dubious repute
in Deptford, London, England.
The tavern is much frequented by theatre people, since it is just
around the corner from one of London’s principal theatres, The Swan.
Many theatre patrons stop in for a drink before or after the performance,
and it is also busy with workers from the nearby London docks.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth is on the throne of England - unmarried, and
without a direct heir. Elizabeth rules a Protestant England that
is beset by the two great Catholic powers of France and Spain. War
has been threatened many times but, until now at least, it has never been
loosed.
Tonight, soldiers are on the streets. A Curfew has been announced.
The theatre has been closed and the performance cancelled. A
case of plague has been reported in the district, and no-one is permitted
to leave until this has been investigated.
The cancellation of tonight’s performance - of Kit Marlowe’s well-received
"Doctor Faustus" - is the second tragedy to strike this area today.
This afternoon, the dead body of Marlowe himself was carried from this
tavern.
Now see below ...
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Historical Accuracy (aka "Huh? That
didn't happen!")
As it said in the Introduction, the setting is fictionalised; the
authors have taken certain "liberties" with Elizabethan history. Primarily,
we've condensed events in Elizabeth I's reign a little, to fit into the game.
Players are welcome to read up on period history if they wish, but
it's definitely not necessary. The game is "self-contained"; the
detailed background/history
here is more than you need to play. This will be the "official" game
version of history, ie it's "true" in the game universe, even if not in
Real Life.
(In case you're wondering:
We've messed with history Just A Bit, But Not Very Much. Some
of the characters are fictitious, but not grotesquely so. The authors
promise that:
- None of the characters is a Weird Space Alien in Disguise;
- Time-Travelling Pantomime Quadrupeds do not form part of
the game;
- The characters are not really mind-wiped participants in
a far-future Reality TV show;
- There are absolutely no vampires whatsoever.
We really mean it).
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Mechanics
Almost everything in the game can be achieved by talking to the other
characters. For the exceptions, there are Game Mechanics. These
fall into two main areas, ability cards and contingency envelopes.
An ability card will typically describe something that the
character can do, but that might be more difficult for the player - "Intimidation",
"Really Jolly Cunning Questioning" etc. The card will describe
the effect, and also the usage ("two uses", "tear up when used" or similar).
Contingency envelopes have a trigger condition on the outside
(eg "open this envelope if you see a blue parrot"). Obviously enough,
please don't open the envelope until the condition has been fulfilled. The
contents of the envelope could be some new information, a new ability ...
or just something else to complicate your character's life.
In all cases, if something doesn't seem to make sense, please find
a GM.
The more detailed information about mechanics here will also be summarised during
the Game Brief.
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Timetable (aka "What happens next?")
Sign-up for the event.
The casting questionnaire will be
mailed to all registered players.
We'll cast the game, then send out costuming hints as soon as possible.
Full characters and any relevant background/mechanics sheets, aka
"bluesheets", will follow shortly after. (By default, we'll send out
electronic copies of documents. Paper versions will be included in
the character packets, and available for collection on the day).
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A Note on Characters
This version of "All's Well That Ends" has 24 characters: 11 "male",
11 "female" and 2 "boys". The last category consists of two "boy actors"
from the nearby Swan Theatre. In keeping with the tradition
of the time, the female roles on stage are played by adolescent males. Both
were due to be on-stage this evening, and have been caught up in the Curfew.
On the whole, we'll try to avoid cross-casting if we can. However,
we're happy to cast these roles to male or female players, as required/requested.
Similarly, these players are welcome to adopt male or female garb,
as they wish. (The justification is that they did/didn't have time
to change out of their stage costumes, when the militia shut the theatre).
Yes, we confess that this is a transparently obvious way for us to
juggle/balance the gender mix, without actually having to rewrite any of
the characters. (Some might call this "lazy". We call it "optimising
our precious time" ...).
[Note that the casting questionnaire
includes an opt-in/opt-out question regarding these roles]
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Previous Runs
- Peaky-3 (15-character version)
- Intercon-E, Chemsford, MA (23-character version)
- British Invasion 2008, Chicago (23-character version)
- 2 runs
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(This page was last updated on 17-October-2008).
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