The Journey of A Single Step Made Quadrillions of Times

Something is happening at the Great Attractor, a large volume of the Deep Dark, a quarter of a billion light years from the Milky Way. With the best technology of the Coterie, a loose coalition of multitudes of sentient races capable of hyperspatial travel in our Galaxy, the trip is still an unthinkable 100,000 years long.

This is not a journey for a single ship, or even a small flotilla. In order to make this trip, it will take an entire Fleet of ships, carrying experts in science, diplomacy, engineering, medicine, and much, much more.

It will be a grand adventure, promising uncountable new First Contacts, new races, and new discoveries, as the Fleet jumps from galaxy to galaxy on its way to the Great Attractor. There will be long, dark passages through the emptiest nothings of the Deepest Dark between galaxies. There will be bright celebrations and glorious welcomes as the Fleet arrives in cultural centers of newly-met galactic civilizations. And those places will be hard to leave for some...

It will be the journey of many lifetimes, even with the best antiagathic life-extension protocols. There will be deaths along the way, some tragic. For the rest, most will find their way, eventually, into a software life, their sentience uploaded. That does not, however, prevent boredom or guarantee immortality.

And so, a diverse collection of hardware, software, and wetware people set out on an improbable trek. The LARP ends before the Fleet reaches the Great Attractor; the Journey is the Story, and these are just a few of the Fleet's Tales.

About The Journey of a Single Step Made Quadrillions of Times

The Journey of a Single Step Made Quadrillions of Times is a dark, philosophical Tale-telling LARP set in the universe of Across the Sea of Stars, The Tales of Irnh, Tales of the Future Volume 1, Tales of the Future Volume 2 and other LARPs. Journey... consists of ten independent Tales ‐ short LARPs ‐ that each cover one moment in the Fleet's incredible journey to the Great Attractor.

These are character-driven, low-mechanic, little-to-no combat five player LARPs. There are no gendered pronouns in the game (all characters use they/them), which means two things:

• The gender of the role is open to the player to define and inhabit, as appropriate for the Tale; and
• Those roles may have important and significant intimate relationships with other characters in the Tale.

If this is a concern for you, please talk to the organizer of your event BEFORE you sign up.

The Tales are small; every player is necessary and expected to drive the action. All players will play a variety of roles during the game, good and evil, protagonist and antagonist ‐ but all critical to the Tale. If you are new to LARP, please talk to the organizers of the event, as this style of LARP can be a challenge to some. That will give them a chance to figure out the best way to cast you; remember this is a tiny LARP, and every part is necessary for everyone's enjoyment in the experience.

The Journey of a Single Step Made Quadrillions of Times is a SIX hour event. Once everyone has submitted their questionnaire answers, the event organizers will be able to cast the game. When the game is cast, the event organizers will send out a zip file containing PDFs for each of the Tales and the characters in those Tales. Please read this material before the game, as it will total around 30-40 pages. There are several bluesheets which are available on this site, which you should also read before the game.

There will be time to review the materials for each Tale before the Tale starts. There will also be a short break in the middle of the game. We will use all SIX hours, so please plan accordingly.

The Tech Requirements page lists the minimum amount of technology you'll need to play in virtual runs of Journey.... This is not a LARP you can play on your phone.

While this takes place in a setting shared by several other LARPs, Journey... will not spoil those games. Similarly, if you've played those LARPs, you can play Journey... without being spoiled.

The Journey of a Single Step Made Quadrillions of Times was a collaborative effort of seven authors during 2020 and early 2021.