Several years ago Alex and I wrote Space Station Fobolex on a whim, trying to meet the heavy demand that her intimate two-player game had at conventions. A big room full of people playing Star Crossed would be fine, but we could not resist the urge to do something special with that energy.
So we wrote up a silly space station and tied it into the shared universe from a larp we wrote called The Fobolex Interstellar Corporate Retreat. Then at the event we cast 20 players as weirdos, aliens, and lovelorn space nerds just seeking real connection in the big, empty galaxy. All the characters worked well together—in the sense that they all have something keeping them apart—and Space Station Fobolex has been a big hit at conventions!
For Star Crossed: Love Letters, we wanted to repeat and expand on this success to really show how you can play the game with a crowd. We were both all-in on another pulpy genre, and paranormal romance was right there. Originally titled Fobolex Landing, we sketched out a gritty industrial zone in a big city where the freaky monsters came out to live, laugh, and love. We changed the name to avoid confusion, and Alex laughed when I suggested “Bayshore”—apparently the name of a not-too-appealing corner of somewhere she used to live.
Bayshore Landing wrote itself. We drew up a long list of weirdos (mummies, werewolves, larpers, angels) and an equally long list of adjectives (gentle, lonely, dirtbag, regal) and then paired them up. After that, each got a short paragraph positioning them in a gentle but humorous search for love. I adore them all, but here’s a taste of who you might end up playing:
Dirtbag Werewolf
Clueless Larper
Hapless Alien
These strange denizens of the shadows will work well in two-player as well as three-player Star Crossed. When a worried swamp monster, an overconfident slayer, and a shifty goblin fall in love, it is going to get weird in the best way.
--Jason
What weird and exciting settings would you like to see for playing Star Crossed with a big crowd? Tell us in the comments!
