Written by Emily Rose Cole, Quinn D, Esa Sclafani, and Emry Sottile
A game for 6 players and 1 or 2 GMs.
The Gay-Straight Alliance at Jayhaven University is a real drag – crusty, fusty, and run by a second-wave feminist. Fortunately, the A.C.E.S. (Asexual Community Empowerment Society) knows what’s up and spun off of the regressive old GSA to do their own thing. Things were fine, for a time, but word on the street is that Student Life’s budget cuts mean there’s only enough funding to support one queer student organization next year. GSA paperwork needs to be filed by 12 PM today to get their funding, which can’t happen if said files go missing. In the dead of night last night, the A.C.E.S. collaborated to steal the paperwork in a (mostly) successful heist.
Now, the question arises: do they follow through with it?
It isn’t often when the opportunity to create real change arises. But what does that change actually look like? Will they collaborate, capitulate, or salt the earth entirely? All this group of university queers knows is: this is probably the most important thing they’ve ever done.
A.C.E.S. is a 6 person LARP that focuses on centering platonic connections as opposed to romantic ones. This game explores the nature of queer infighting and experiences of those on the asexual spectrum. Characters will be university students inspired by different asexual community archetypes. The LARP follows the personal drama of these characters after they pull off a heist of the GSA’s funding documents and must decide whether or not to submit their own instead in hopes of gaining a greater voice in the wider LGBTQIA+ community at their university. Play will take place in a community meeting following the heist, leading up to the last minute to file the documents – or not.
Players will have the opportunity to call for flashbacks to moments in their organizational history, personal drama, and the heist itself during the course of the game. This is a game meant to provoke uncomfortable feelings of being talked over or unheard in players, but also gives them moments of catharsis and being heard and understood by others.
Content warnings: This larp includes topics of queerphobia, acephobia, sexism, mental illness, neurodiversity, academic consequences, and anti-kink bias. It will not include racism, transphobia, modern politics, sexual assault or harm to animals.