Astrology From Hell

a 15-minute ritual game about self-definition

with images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public domain digital collection

 

FORM:

Players: 2 – 8

Time: 15 minutes

Setting: Hell. (What is Hell? Play to find out...maybe.)

Combines well with a session of: lyric games, ritual games, house larps, freeforms.

 

The group will need:

• A quiet room where nothing else is happening, with a place to sit in the center (a table and chairs works best), and enough space to spread out into the corners.
• A candle, placed in the center of the room.

Each player will need their own:

• matchbook:
  • You will be striking matches at (approximately) the same time in different parts of the room, so you will each need your own striking surface.

 

CONTENT:

Astrology From Hell is a 15-minute ritual game about using the creativity of self-definition to endure a hostile world. The game is anti-essentialist and rejects the idea that our personalities are determined at birth by the stars. Instead, it suggests an approach for dismantling and repurposing the insights and aesthetics of astrology to suit your individual needs. This is also a metaphor for gender and sexual orientation.

You can play Astrology From Hell on its own, or as a warm-up or wind-down game to open or close an evening of games. Astrology From Hell pairs well with lyric games, ritual games, house larps, and freeforms. 

This game feels like a short ritual with 4 steps and an anticlimactic ending – similar in pacing to the Jewish Shabbat ritual of saying prayers over candles, wine, and bread. This game is different from most roleplaying games, in that the goal isn’t to sink deeply into detailed creation of character, setting, or story. Instead, it will begin and end quickly, with brief gestures toward larger ideas. The experience itself may feel understated at the time but sow the seeds for later thought. Just like a prayer.

You can play this game as an entirely fictional roleplaying game, an embodied philosophical exercise, a magic ritual, or a combo. Similarly, you can play this game in the role of a fictional character, as yourself, or as some blend of both. By design, it is unnecessary for all players to approach the game with the same attitude or beliefs. Astrology From Hell encourages you to form your own individual conclusions after the experience.

 

GAME JAM:

Astrology From Hell was designed for Fraudulent Gays Jam in December 2019 – January 2020. Some uptight gamers on twitter accused some streamers and game designers of being #FraudulentGays for attention, so creative folks turned it into a pro-queer meme. Astrology from Hell encourages fraud.