2 Dance 2 Furious

Description

A year ago, you received a letter inviting you to the Midnight Ball, an event arranged by the Emperor where the heirs and cavaliers primary of each house were to meet each other and thereby find their Ordained Thanergic Partners. You attended the Midnight Ball. You may or may not have found your Ordained Thanergic Partner. You don't know, because something went terribly wrong. People died. Possibly including you. Your memory is hazy. You went home and picked up the pieces of your life as if you'd never left, even though you had, and you weren't the same. A year to the day later, you receive a letter. Written on real paper. It reads: "Hello, darlings! The Emperor, the King Undying, Necromancer Divine, King of the Nine Renewals, His Celestial Kindness, the Necrolord Prime, has determined that we can try again! You are all cordially invited to the Midnight Ball. Please do dress well this time. There will be music, and dancing, and even better snacks, and it's so unlikely that anyone will be murdered even a little bit at this one. Coordinates are attached. See you there! XOXOXO, Cytherea the First, your very favorite Saint" tl;dr: a weird art project about being gaslit about having once played a LARP where angsty cavaliers and necromancers danced a bunch of waltzes to find their OTPs Good for players who: like weird art projects, like waltzing, like melodrama, like opening contingency envelopes Bad for players who: do not like waltzing, get frustrated when trying to solve mysteries, need to know what truth is Run Time: roughly 5.5 hours but can go slightly shorter or longer Players: 14 PCs, 2 NPCs Suggested player experience level: Novice to expert 2 Dance 2 Furious: Necromantic Boogaloo: A Harrowing Experience - Now with 100% more 8th House! (2D2F) is loosely based on the structure of Warren Tusk's The Dance and the Dawn games, but with some significant changes; moreso than One Dance, One End (1D1E). It is of course set in the universe of the Locked Tomb books by Tamsyn Muir. The target audience is people who are familiar with the Locked Tomb setting; those who are not may still enjoy it. There are SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS for book content in the game (up through Harrow the Ninth) that cannot be avoided. 2D2F is set several generations before the events of Gideon the Ninth in an alternate universe where the Emperor had a different plan for recruiting new Lyctors. Specifically, his plan was that the best necromancer and cavalier from each of the Houses "do some kind of group activity to get to know each other," which he left up to Cytherea to specify; she, naturally, chose a formal ball. The first Midnight Ball ended with a lot of murder. It's unclear exactly whose fault that was. Now the survivors are trying again. The premise is that s̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ six necromancers and e̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ seven cavaliers will dance a series of dances with one another while each person tries to find their Ordained Thanergic Partner. Some may find their Ordained Thanergic Partner, others may fail and end up with a partner who is okay but not quite perfect, and at least one person will end up alone. ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶t̶h̶r̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶E̶m̶p̶e̶r̶o̶r̶,̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶c̶o̶v̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶r̶e̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶L̶y̶c̶t̶o̶r̶h̶o̶o̶d̶,̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶r̶e̶a̶k̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶n̶e̶c̶r̶o̶m̶a̶n̶t̶i̶c̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶e̶a̶r̶c̶h̶,̶ ̶u̶n̶r̶a̶v̶e̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶t̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶t̶e̶r̶i̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶x̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶d̶i̶v̶i̶n̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶c̶h̶o̶s̶e̶n̶ ̶O̶r̶d̶a̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶T̶h̶a̶n̶e̶r̶g̶i̶c̶ ̶P̶a̶r̶t̶n̶e̶r̶.̶ Once again, despite the waltzing, this is NOT A ROMANCE GAME! Most pairings are platonic. Unlike 1D1E, this game is based thematically on Harrow the Ninth, not on Gideon the Ninth. It is a weird art project about the experience of being gaslit about having once played a LARP about dancing with lesbian necromancers in space. If you don't enjoy that sort of thing, this may not be the game for you. The activities of the game involving dancing, dueling (for cavaliers), trying to solve the puzzle of what happened last time (for those characters who care), and opening contingency envelopes with recovered memories. This game involves a lot of waltzing! Each person will dance approximately 22 short waltzes. You don't have to be good at waltzing, and there are some limited options for accommodating people with mobility issues, but you do have to be willing to do your best to waltz if physically able. Only think how disappointed Cytherea will be if you don't. Running Requirements This game requires a space large enough for seven pairs of people to waltz simultaneously with room around the edges for people to sit and for snack tables, an adjacent space for people to quietly converse, at least two prop swords for dueling, eight unique brooches for necromancers to use as favors, a large amount of printed material, and an audio system. You will also need to acquire 22 roughly 3-minute-long instrumental waltzes to play during dances and, optionally, a dozen or so roughly 90-second-long instrumental songs to play during duels. Copyright laws prevent me from including the music directly.

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