Good evening all,
By way of a more formal introduction for those who may not know me, my name is Chris Lamb, also known as ‘Lambie’ and I am the Creative Director and Head of Game for The Equinox Institute.
In the last month since we launched Equinox, the team and I have been overwhelmed by the excitement and keen so many of you have shared with us about the system – whether that is the world we have created or the rules we will implement to bring it to life. We are so excited to see some of you at the end of March next year and to discover your characters who will shape Equinox’s future.
You will see that this post is a little different from the ones you may have seen recently. This “Development Diary” is the first of many that the Game Team and I hope to share with you regarding our design decisions surrounding the game requirements, rules and plot which make The Equinox Institute a reality. Today, I wanted to talk about how Equinox first came to be created and the core themes which ultimately led us to where we are today.
I started writing Equinox back in March 2023 when I was in a bit of a writing rut when it came to LRP. Prior to the Covid Lockdown, I was writing an anthology of events known as ‘Before the End’, the unifying theme being that each story involved the end of the world. It turns out living through a pandemic does a number on one’s enthusiasm to write literal world ending events – who would have known? As if to contrast that, I had been writing another game known as ‘The Last Etude’, a spiritual successor to another well-known game known as ReGenesis. That game was focussed on humanity and the power of creation – huge, cosmic themes with massive ramifications. There was a lot of interest but, speaking frankly, I was reluctant to return from a four/five year long break from running events to something so huge. I wanted to run something smaller, more intimate, more character focussed. I could have done something bright and light but the itch of the horror genre was relentless and slowly but surely an idea began to form.
Inspirations
Really the origin of my love of horror events can be traced all the way back to a system known as SlenderLARP. Run by a team of incredibly talented individuals, the first event I played (now over a decade ago) was focussed on (mostly) normal individuals trying to study and learn more about the horrors that inhabited their world. Rules light, dripping with atmosphere and with a small but intimate community of incredible roleplayers, I felt very lucky to have been able to attend the system until it went into hiatus in 2016. In the years that followed, I wanted to capture that feeling but tweak it slightly…
You see, I also really love media where secret organisations try to comprehend and manage the existence of the supernatural. I grew up with Torchwood so the adventures of the rag-tag team in Cardiff was always one I dreamed of having the opportunity to play at a LRP alongside my friends. SlenderLARP allowed me in part to do that but as I grew older, media such as Control and the SCP Foundation showed me that there were also stories to be told about larger organisations, the groups within them and the inevitable difficulties that come with balancing politics with protecting the neighborhood from falling into the abyss. A LRP based on that had the benefit of allowing groups to exist with their own goals while also providing a unifying umbrella by which everyone could pull together to acheive wider shared goals.
So why you might be asking am I not running a LRP based on Torchwood, SCP, the Magnus Archives, Control or any number of such inspirational IP? Notwithstanding that I don’t want to take credit for the work carried out by better writers elsewhere – I want this LRP to be accessible to people. It is a lot to ask people to know every piece of lore pertaining to a given franchise (the SCP wiki for example, as of writing, currently has over 8000 articles and no established canon) and in a world where time is precious to everyone, I want people to enjoy that media in their own time and at their own pace.
Additionally, if you run a LRP based on those franchises, then you will know there is established canon as to what is happening and, half the fun of following those stories, is discovering just what exactly is going on. This means that the world of the Equinox Institute has its own lore, history and metaphysics which our attendees can discover. Most importantly for me however is it allows our attendees to help contribute to building the world beside us – through their characters and groups.
The Core Themes
So with the idea of a unified organisation looking into the supernatural being at the heart of the story, I wanted to develop this further. What were the core themes that would ultimately shape The Equinox Institute as a game? It took me a few months but, eventually, I narrowed it down to six core themes which are summarised below:
- The World is a Lie – The world of Equinox is like an iceberg in a vast ocean. Most only see the tip of the structure but below the water, in the dark, lies many mysteries, opportunities and dangers. The player characters of the Equinox Institute have seen this iceberg and have decided, for whatever reason is their own, to dive down and try to discover the secrets of existence. The question is, how far are they willing to dive?
- Nightmares are real – All things are possible. Good and bad. Sometimes you may find all-too-familiar terrors but then there are things that defy even common understanding of what is meant by the supernatural. One thing is certain. The horrors of existence are all very real.
- Maintain the Masquerade -What is considered normal? What is considered paranatural? Should the paranatural be shared if it can help others? What if the end effect isn’t reliable and ultimately, could cause more harm than good? The game asks its attendees to consider why secrecy should be maintained around the existence of the paranatural and to consider the consequences of it ever being widely known about.
- Stronger Together – This is not a story about individual heroes. It is a story about how working together, whether in small groups or part of a larger collective, makes people stronger and able to overcome seemingly impossible odds. It may be the only way anyone can hope to face the darkness and triumph.
- Survival and Sacrifice – Sometimes there are no easy choices. We want attendees to be put in the position where their decisions matter and impact Equinox as an organisation and the wider world. This is a game where the only reward for completing a mission is that your character lived to see another day and now has the benefit of having learnt from the experience.
- No Power without a Cost – At first glance, it is easy to think of paranatural phenomena as being miracles of existence but behind each may lie unintended consequences. Similarly all power – polticial, social, economical comes with challenges. For Equinox the threat of cuts to its funding is equally as dangerous to its long-term survival as the paranatural.
It is these themes we return to when creating the game and each is easily worth a blog post on its own. Rather than focus on these for now however, I want to look at some more pertinent topics as we move towards event bookings opening. Still I hope this has given you a good insight into some of the creative direction behind our writing and thought processes.
Tune in tomorrow for another important development post – this time on Content, Themes and Safety in the context of our game.
If you’ve made it this far – thanks for reading and stay [REDACTED]
Chris ‘Lambie’ Lamb
On behalf of The Equinox Institute Team
