Pride & Paleontology

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a learned man in the possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a fossil collection. Pride & Paleontology is a Regency-inspired LARP about the professional, social, and romantic lives of the 1820s’ most illustrious paleontologists

Long Description

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a learned man in the possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a fossil collection.

From the gypsum quarries of Paris to the cliffs of Great Britain, Europe is full of fossils. These are ancient bones, turned to stone by nature’s providence, and sought after by dilettante collectors, Oxford professors, and Russian emperors alike.

And at the moment, everything’s coming up England. The Baron Cuvier has arrived from France, with his two lovely daughters, to search for Ichthyosaurs along the Jurassic Coast. Rival taxonomists haunt the London Zoo, searching for unusual animal corpses to serve at their next dinner party. In a packed Oxford lecture hall, Anglican priests wave fossilized feces at each other while debating just how long the seven days of creation actually lasted. At Cambridge’s most scandalous soirée, a polemicist named Charles Babbage announces a machine that will calculate the age of the Earth, while the Darwin siblings quietly compare their fellow attendees to various Jane Austen characters.

Something big is waiting, just below the surface, and maybe you’ll be the one to dig it up.

Anyone can search for fossils — all it takes is a good eye, regardless of sex or social class. But it isn’t easy to do alone. So why not invite a friend, bring a protegé, or invite that young socialite you’ve got your eye on to a day of picnicking at the nearest quarry?

E conchis omnia!

Pride & Paleontology is a Regency-inspired LARP about the social, professional, and romantic lives of the early 19th century’s paleontologists. It’s also a game about dinosaurs, focusing on the scientific discoveries that occurred (roughly) from 1821 - 1842 within the world of British paleontology. Everyone in this game will be playing a fossil hunter, geologist, biologist, mathematician, or scientific illustrator.

(in terms of plot balance, the game is roughly 70% paleontology shenanigans, 30% regency-type shenanigans)

Note: This is a first run, and some mechanics will be more tested than others

This game is built around a central peer review mechanic, where characters will seek to discover new fossils, write up their findings, argue in front of a publication committee, dispute each other’s work, and maybe even commit some light plagiarism.

Some characters will be unmarried and looking for a spouse; some will be happily unmarried; some characters will be married (happily or unhappily) to each other. There will be survey opportunities to request marriage or romantic connections with a specific player, although we cannot guarantee enough such connections for every player who requests one.

All characters are based on specific real scientists from the 1820s-30s, though some may feature a bit of “what if,” while others (like a certain Mister Darwin or the young Ada Byron) will still have a long way to go before they accomplish anything significant.

There will be many diegetic opportunities to draw dinosaur art, though you’ll have a lot of flexibility about whether or how much to engage with the artistic aspect of the game.

The scientific process will be divided into five mechanics: 1) searching for fossils, 2) assembling skeletons, 3) drawing “scientific reconstructions” of extinct creatures, 4) inventing new taxonomic groups and scientific theories, and 5) presenting your findings for peer review.

While all characters can participate in any part of the scientific process, existing gender biases mean that women are more likely to be successful fossil-hunters and illustrators, while men are more likely to be taken seriously as geologists, taxonomists, and authors. Mathematicians, of course, are unlikely to be taken seriously by anyone.

No advanced scientific knowledge is necessary or expected. This is a game about speculating and arguing, not about finding the "correct" answers.