Fading Signal

A larp about a mecha pilot dying in space, their last contact with
someone home on earth, and their first contact with something unknown.
Meant to be played digitally, on separate computers in dark rooms
thousands of miles apart.

Sadia Bies
Twitter: @sadiabies
What you need: Before you play:

• 3 hours Find time to talk with the other

• 3 players
• Computers with webcam capabilities
• Your favorite platform that allows group
text chat, group video chat, and screen
sharing. (Discord, rabb.it, etc.)
• An online timer that allows you to edit
the time after it starts running (vclock,
google timer, etc.)
Encouraged themes:
• Even when faced with inevitable
destruction, humanity struggles on
• What we hide from ourselves
• What we hide from others
• What we do when there is nothing left
to be done
players. Videochat right before you
play is preferable, but use whatever
format works for you.
• What themes are each of you
interested in exploring?
• What are parts of the mecha genre
that you all are interested in? Parts
that you don’t like?
• Are there any simple facts about
this world that you want to set up?
Players shouldn’t have a complete
understanding of how mecha or the
monsters they fight work before the
game.
• Are there any topics that you don’t
want to involve in play for any
reason?
• Are there any difficult topics you do
want to include but would benefit
from discussing beforehand?

Safety:

Be mindful of what people said they didn’t want to play with. If you’re worried you’ll
forget keep a list next to you. Even if the subject seems innocuous respect your fellow
players wishes to not engage with that content.

If at any point during play you are uncomfortable or need to take a moment you can
not respond to the chat for a few minutes. The signal is unstable. When you return
you can say that the signal cut out and play will resume without questions.

If you are uncomfortable and need the subject of play to change you can write or say
pause. The timer will be stopped and you can take a moment to negotiate play away
from the area that is bothering you.

If you need to leave the game you may do so at any time. Let the other players know
that you are leaving the game.

Ask before the game starts if people want to be checked up on or given space if they
need to pause or leave play.

Description of play:

Choose who will be managing the timer. Have them screenshare the timer with
everyone.

Play consists of text chat between players. It is a line between the the pilot and the
crew member back on earth. All text chat between the pilot and crew member is
meant to be in character, without any out of game descriptions of what’s happening.
Your character can of course describe what is happening around them. The third
player will join this chat at their discretion.

There are moves that each character can do. You can type the name of the move into
the chat in paratheses or describe the move in character. These moves exist not to
avoid the fate of the pilot dying out in space, but to show what you can do, even in
the context where survival is no longer possible. The one controlling the timer should
adjust it if moves are used that lower the battery life.

The pilot can choose at any point to open a video channel from the cockpit. At that
point their battery life is significantly shortened and they will die when the video chat
is over. If they open the channel the crew member should also go on video chat. The
third player may remain in the text chat, open an audio line, or also go on video chat
at their discretion. Turn the timer off. The pilot is responsible for ending the chat by
cutting their video, at which point the game has come to a close. You should have less
time in the video chat than you had left on the timer but dramatic timing trumps all.
Does the video cut off right before you confess a secret? Do you die after one perfect
final line? It’s up to the pilot to make the ending meaningful.
Pilot: Crew Member:
Ace, rookie, daredevil, analyst, leader, Commander, mentor, childhood friend, ex-
mystic pilot, ex-partner, zealot

Your mecha is a ruined husk. A rend
in your chassis lets in the darkness,
the empty part of space that holds the
mysteries you fight. You’ve grappled
with monsters, felt them grasp at
the shell that made you big enough
to walk amongst the stars. Now you
can feel how small you are, a human
curled in the body of a mechanical
beast, something too soft and delicate
to survive. You watch the slow blink of
your life support. You have 2 hours left
to live.
Why do you pilot?
What is your reason for living?
You saw it go down from back on earth.
Hundreds of thousands of miles away, feet
firmly planted on the ground. The video
feed only came through when the solar
wind let up, but you watched the vitals
on the mecha drop on all the monitors.
You heard them scream in the cockpit.
You were a hundred thousand miles away
and when it came down to it, there was
nothing you could do. Now the room has
gone quiet. The only vital sign that’s left is
the battery life, flashing up on the central
monitor. In life support mode, if the pilot
doesn’t try anything, there are 2 hours
left. There are 6 hours of spaceflight to
reach them.

Pilot Moves: Do you think this war is winnable?

• Reactivate mecha: -15 min
• Fire weapons: -15 min
• Increased heart rate: -10 seconds
• Video chat: -all of the remaining
time
• (Create your own. Remember the
cost.)
What can you do with your own two
hands?
Crew Member Moves:
• Send out tow drone: ETA 6.5 hours
• Send out other mecha: ETA 9 hours
• Fire laser into space: blast ETA 3
seconds
• Scan the area: Scan complete 30
seconds
• (Create your own. Remember time.)
[REDACTED] is a role for players who like world building, dramatic pauses, unusual
speech patterns, and helping others explore their character. It isn’t a GM role but it
is a role about knowing when to step in and when to fade back where the joy comes
from helping other narratives reach their peak over fully exploring yours during play.

Whichever of these roles you play you are the first direct communication humans
have received. You are vastly more powerful than either of these humans. Your role is
to heighten play, to push at the things they don’t want to say, to know more than you
should and to be curious about what you don’t. Your story is larger than this moment,
but for this one human pilot it is their climax. You should be as honest as you can to
playing an inhuman character with different wants and needs, but also remember to
use your role to complicate the narrative rather than solve it.

Monster: Mecha:
hivemind, natural phenomena, soul, ghost, AI, alien, mythological,
terraformer, ancient, returning, fated willpower

You are vast and undiscovered. No one
knows your purpose or your desires.
No one knows if you even think at all.
All that humans have experienced is
your violence. A violence that only you
know the purpose of. Earth is a small
planet out of millions and yet, you are
here. They have built false bodies that
look like their own, large enough to
contend with you. You have never seen
one outside its shell. Now there is one
that you broke, drifting through space,
dark but not empty. This is a chance
for you to learn about these creatures.
What is your purpose?
How do you feel about humans?
You were created by humans, to look
like humans, and to carry them inside
you. You have never spoken to one.
You were made to destroy, to send out
lasers, bullets, and fire, large enough to
fight monsters. You were also made to
protect. You know that what you carry
within you is soft, vulnerable meat. It is
from that center that all of your actions
stem, it is that softest part within you
that births war. You can feel that part,
your pilot, dying with your battery.
How did you first recognize your own
existence?
What do you know about your pilot that
no one else knows?

Monster Moves: Mecha Moves:

• Enter chat: you can enter the
text chat at any time, or start an
audio chat at any time. Wait for a
dramatic moment to reveal yourself,
or a moment when the other players
are struggling.
• You can decide your capabilities.
With that, you are responsible for
not ending play prematurely by
killing the pilot before the video
chat has started or the timer has
run out. Moves you make should be
used to increase tension and further
the scene.
• Enter chat: you can enter the text
chat at any time, or start an audio
chat at any time. Wait for a dramatic
moment to reveal yourself, or a
moment when the other players are
struggling.
• You can decide your capabilities. If
you take actions that are restarting or
moving your body you should assign
appropriate time costs to them. Moves
you make should be used to increase
tension and further the scene.