Where There's A Will...

After the success of Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll and The Treaty of Berlin, it was time to start thinking about the next murder mystery LARP. Life, however, had changed.

With Jules' birth, life was a lot busier. In the few quiet moments, I started designing a new game, one that would run even longer, with more characters. There were a few weird ideas running loose, and they called out to me. I started with an ambitious plan for the game.

After several starts and stops, I had a long list of characters, the core of the game, and a complex set of amusing plots. Several characters were mostly or partially written. Much of the common background was complete or nearly-complete. There was a detailed set of notes. It was, however, taking me much longer than I'd hoped.

As always, there were people providing suggestions along the way. Charlie McCutcheon provided a number of plot ideas. Kit Carlson and Charlie McCutcheon supplied some of the background materials. Jill Poland provided some ideas and editorial comments.

Work on the game stopped. Having a toddler in the house will do that.

At a party at George and Roberta Berry's house, we got to talking about their next murder mystery weekend. They were thinking about things, but hadn't had an inspiration. I talked about Will..., wondering if there was a way of working together.

They took a look at the game and started running with it. They took what was there, filled it out, expanded it a bit, and added a few new characters. It grew from an all-day game into a weekend-long event. Before I knew it, we had a wonderfully serious-looking game, with a few hints at the real nature lurking underneath.

In November of 1991, we ran the finished game at the White House in Wilmington, Vermont. When Elvis' spaceship gets a standing ovation from people dancing in the cold, as well as slowing traffic on Route 9, well, it doesn't get any better. This was the LARP that just had so many superlatives that I won't dare tempt fate by running it again. The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind will never be the same for me.