The Rising, Falling

Easter, 1916. A fringe coallition made up of a motley group of socialists, national republicans, and home rule advocates rise up against British rule and sieze the center of Dublin. They expected the country to rise with them in a glorious revolution. That did not occur.

During the early fray, a small force was sent out to take the Mendicity Institute, a large mansion overlooking the river and both main east-west roads, with orders to hold for the 3-4 hours it would take to fortify HQ. Two days later, surrounded by hundreds of British troops, they find themselves exhausted, injured, and out of ammunition, food, and medical supplies. Their impossible holdout is coming to an end, as is the whole rising. All that's left now is to decide how you want to face that end, and maybe come to terms with what it all meant, if anything.

Long Description

Easter, 1916. A fringe coallition made up of a motley group of socialists, national republicans, and home rule advocates rise up against British rule and sieze the center of Dublin. They expected the country to rise with them in a glorious revolution. That did not occur.

During the early fray, a small force was sent out to take the Mendicity Institute, a large mansion overlooking the river and both main east-west roads, with orders to hold for the 3-4 hours it would take to fortify HQ. Two days later, surrounded by hundreds of British troops, they find themselves exhausted, injured, and out of ammunition, food, and medical supplies. Their impossible holdout is coming to an end, as is the whole rising. All that's left now is to decide how you want to face that end, and maybe come to terms with what it all meant, if anything.

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HEY! This is a fairly experimental and odd game. Please take a moment to read through the details and make sure this is the game for you.

• First off, nothing will happen in this game. Seriously. This is a game about characterization and interaction with each other, and deciding how you want the end of your revolution to look like. There is nothing that will occur in game that is not on the tin here. There is no weird stuff, no secret occult time traveling pirate accountants. There is only soul-searching, sadness, resignation, and possibly rage.
• This is not a game about beating the british army. There is no finding the secret cache of weapons. There is no relief coming if you just hold out long enough. You have lost. This is a game about coming to terms with that, and deciding whether it was worth it.
• This game is of an unknown length. Specifically, beginning 30 minutes after game on there is a slim but ever increasing chance that the British will decide to storm the room. When they do, the game will end.
• This game has prewritten characters, but will have a 30-45 minute workshop to build connections with each other and to define some of the group experiences in the past 2 days.

The point of this game, as envisioned, is the character interactions between people who felt strongly enough about injustice to stand up and fight for what they saw as right, and the fact that their optimism was not rewarded. It is a game about saying goodbye, or thank you, or even just spending time with someone you are close to while you still can. It is about deciding whether you thought it was worth it, and how you want to meet the end of it.

It is not only a way to make people be sad while learning about history, but that is also not entirely inaccurate.