This one is for all the sci-fi gamers
Do you call yourself a friend of scifi?
You can separate your wars from your treks? When someone finds random eggs on a derelict spacecraft, you know what a great opportunity that is, at least to the company you work for? You know that when someone says that the spice must flow, it’s not necessarily a complaint over bland food? When they design new AI models and robotics, do you have a mental image of what the war at the end of that road will look like, whether it happens on earth or even in deep space? You might even know what it means when someone wants their firefly rebooted?
And maybe you have carried that love of scifi into the world of gaming? Exploring, conquering, terraforming, building alliances or waging war in space and on strange planets. Trying to survive together with your friends or to betray those suckers in the reaches of cold space.
If you answered yes to several of the above, you might well be who we are looking for! And if we venture one guess more, you might also be on the lookout for the next best scifi-game that comes around and changes the whole playing field. Well, if that happens to be the case, this is your lucky day!
Picture: Tuomas Puikkonen
What do you mean by “lucky day”?
Attention each and every scifi-gamer regardless of creed: We are building an actual-size spaceship in southern Finland. No VR needed. No illusions. No tricks of the light. A real gorram tangible, fiddleable, commandable, engineerable, operating scifi-spaceship that functions as a base (and sort of a massive controller) for scifi games and adventures of different sizes in the immediate near future. Never before done in Finland. Never before done on this scale and attention to detail anywhere.
Read that again.
No, not as a rhetorical point. Really read that previous paragraph again.
There you go.
Now that we have your attention - How big did you imagine that spaceship to be in your mind’s eye? As big as your home? Now depending on how widely you live, multiply that by 5 to 50 times. It is going to be that big. Over a 1000m2 of fully playable space and it is going to be fully furnished with bridge, hangar bay, science department, medbay, marine quarters, engine room and crew bar.
All of this with integrated technology and effects so that if a button is pressed on the bridge, the effects are felt shipwide. If the ship gets shot up by intercepting bogeys, the hits can be heard, felt and seen all around. And if the ship gets boarder (!), prepare for battle. As you are probably starting to realize, this will be something else entirely. Forget your bowling alleys, your “same every time” escape rooms, or that stupid walk for your mental health, this is nothing like them. This is something entirely new, something that has the ability to transport you into an experience like no other gaming setup can.
Picture: Sirian Holappa, (Jump engine; Designers: Carita Laajisto and Julius Väliaho, lighting design Maciej Eliot Krzysztofik and Fox Procenko)
But I thought you guys were larpers and were trying to coax me into that?
Now if you have followed us or seen our other material, you have heard that said spaceship will also host a recurring live action roleplaying game, “Odysseus - First Light”. More than 100 players on board the spaceship at the same time. Everyone has a pre-written role. An in-depth plot that unfolds over the entire weekend. Living inside the spaceship that entire time as if in a movie without the fourth wall missing. Cool thought? Sure. But maybe you don’t want to jump THAT deep right from the get-go. Or maybe games quite like that just aren’t your thing. We understand.
The thing is, even at our goal rate of one larp a month, that takes only one weekend out of the total schedule. And though those games are a large reason for having this sort of a spaceship at our disposal, the larps really occupy only a fraction of the total time available. Meaning that almost 90% of the time, our spaceship will be operating for people like you, dear scifi-gamer. Offering you a chance to immerse yourself in a game, like never before.
Picture: Tuomas Puikkonen
Never before you say. Can you give me an idea of what it would feel like?
Over the din of the engines and the science officer’s musings on the artifact that was discovered at a derelict spacestation, a sudden blip on the sensors draws their attention to it. They start the scan as the distance to the blip closes fast. The captain calls: “Yellow alert!” The bridge comes alive with reports. The weapons officer checks systems and keeps their hand on the shield activation button, just in case. The chief engineer goes through a quick systems check and funnels extra power to weapons and frontal shields. The pilot takes a course toward the unrecognized craft and feels the spaceship move slowly, as they handle the steering gear. Suddenly, the relay officer reports: They are hailing us! And on the main screen where a moment ago was a section of space, you see the face of the opposing captain. But instead of fighting today, they are offering a deal to cease hostilities and join forces temporarily, for an even bigger prize than their sorry hide awaits… What do you do?
Whether it is your friends, family, or even your work group, you can gather your favorite people on the bridge of the spaceship, set each one up with a different role on board, and whether you choose to go with “Make it so” or “punch it”, you can command the spaceship towards a new incredible adventure! The setup is designed as flexible, so that groups of different sizes find a meaningful set of tasks onboard. Also, as the spaceship itself is only a base for operations, that also means endless replayability, as on a different day you could take a new adventure for your group with the same ship. Each with its own scripted challenges and choices.
Picture: Sirian Holappa
That actually sounds kind of amazing! How are those kinds of adventures packaged?
The smallest of the game forms will be an about 2h adventure, which you could do during daytime or in an evening and enjoy a moment in the crewbar after your experience. It is perfect for anyone who just wants to try how these adventures would work, or as a part of a friends’ get together, or even as part of a pre-wedding tomfoolery day. Assuredly this would be something that groups that enjoy escape rooms would relish, as they have quite an intense package of solvable moments and overcomeable situations. The tools to do them vary from mission to mission of course, sometimes needing puzzle-cracking smarts, sometimes accuracy and coordination in battle, and sometimes you just need to put your bluffing skills on the table and roll a hard six in diplomacy. The sky isn’t even the limit!
To take that one step further - we are also planning to have deeper dives. Instead of having a lan-party or sitting to play deep boardgames, bring your friends over for a 5-6 hour adventure in space! These will mostly be organised in the daytime, mostly on weekends. Basically comprised of the same elements as the shorter adventures, just with deeper and wider-arching plotlines, more space to maneuver and explore and more time to deepen your cooperation as a spaceship crew. This will be a brilliant way to explore all the capabilities of our amazing spaceship.
The plan is to also organize events that combine elements from the above mentioned adventures to suit different sized work- or hobby groups that wish for space adventures for example team building needs, combined with a laid back experience and easy time spent together in the crew bar afterwards.
Eventually we also hope to be able to be a base for other larp creators, event and game organizers as well! So if you have always wanted to organize something in a spaceship, this might very well be your chance.
Picture: Sirian Holappa
But how to support us?
If anything we have mentioned so far has got you thinking, that this is something that you would like to see happen, please consider supporting us on our crowdfunding, because the time for that would be right about now! The success of that will solve whether we have any chance to go forward with the other plans we have. It is only open until April 16th, so please support us before that!
The way to support us through the campaign is via pre-ticket sales. For us at this stage it is vitally important to know that the large spaceship is warranted, and so at this stage the priority is on gathering as many people who might be interested in the larp Odysseus First Light at get-go.
And even though you might not have done it before, take our word for the fact that experiencing the larp version of our adventure is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and very much recommendable even for people with no larp background whatsoever. So if you find it in your heart to try that, please buy our pre-sale ticket as the more people purchase tickets to the amazing Odysseus - First Light, the more secure our funding becomes, and all the more likely that in the future we will all share the coolest spaceship that has ever been built! For all the different plans and ideas that you might have for the spaceship as well.
Please support us, you’re our only hope!
If you are still hesitant (or even if you aren’t) please take a moment of your time to answer a couple questions that help us plan things in the spaceship:
https://forms.gle/55w2QfPoo2W1UQce6
TL;RD: Please help us build the coolest spaceship in existence! https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/ellarion-tales/odysseu...
Header picture: Tuomas Puikkonen
Picture: Lenne Eeronketo