Ship of Theseus

Ship of Theseus is a philosophical transhumanism-themed support group LARP. Imagine that it has become possible to seamlessly transform from a human to a non-biological construct over the course of several weeks with nanotechnology. Think for a moment about what that would mean for those who undergo this Process and for the world they live in. This is a game intended to provoke conversations about life, death, what makes one human, the existence of a soul, disability and illness, social equity, queerness and queering, immortality, neurodiversity, and whether you’re the same person throughout your whole life, even if you don’t leave your humanity behind.

Long Description

Ship of Theseus is a philosophical transhumanism-themed support group LARP. Imagine that it has become possible to seamlessly transform from a human to a non-biological construct over the course of several weeks with nanotechnology. Think for a moment about what that would mean for those who undergo this Process and for the world they live in. This is a game intended to provoke conversations about life, death, what makes one human, the existence of a soul, disability and illness, social equity, queerness and queering, immortality, neurodiversity, and whether you’re the same person throughout your whole life, even if you don’t leave your humanity behind.

The game is intended for 4 to 8 players, and takes 3-4 hours to play. Players will play people who are going through the Process and attending a support group, while the facilitator plays the role of a therapist and/or scientist. The purpose of the support group in the world of the game is both for characters to process the changes happening to them and for those enacting the Process on them to monitor their progress.

Leading up to the run of the game, signed up players will make a list of lines and veils. A line is a “hard line”, a topic that will not be present or discussed at all in your game, and a veil is a topic that will not be discussed in detail during the game, but can be mentioned or alluded to. For a list of potential safety tools that may be useful in playing this game, see http://bit.ly/ttrpgsafetytoolkit. See the list of content warnings for content that is baked into the design of the game.

Setting Info

In this world the (Singh-Gurantz) Process is a relatively novel method that uses nanotechnology to gradually transform a person’s brain and body from a biological to nonbiological post-human construct, with no lapses in the consciousness of the person throughout the process, aside from sleep. While it is fairly new, it is legal to perform and non-threatening to one’s continued existence, though what that means is up to debate. Various changes can happen to the patient’s mind and body over time during the Process. Some changes are guaranteed in those who go through the Process. Some are seemingly random and unpredictable. Some changes are fleeting, while others are permanent. Patients can choose to stop the Process at any time, though stopping late may mean that some changes are not fully reversible.

While there are versions of this game where the setting is more collaboratively developed in a pre-game workshop by players, this version of the game will use a near-future setting similar to our own world that will be provided to players by email. Players will still be able to customize a few aspects of the setting during the game slot.