Official Rulebook Copyright 2012-2016 Darksteel Games All Rights Reserved. Occam’s Razor makes use of the Accelerant copyrightrules system Darksteel developed Games and maintained by Robert Ciccolini and Chimera Entertainment. Occam’s Razor Whisper Hill, NH Wish you were here! Among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected. Occam’s Razor When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Sherlock Holmes Year after year, science finds explanations, scientific reasons behind all the legends. They think this proves that history was not as myth has shown it, but in fact it proves that all the myths were true. ”All the Myths are True” Abney Park What is all this? Occam’s Razor is a Conspiracy Horror boffer L.A.R.P with cyberpunk and modern dark fantasy elements. This means players can assume a persona, or “character,” they create for themselves, and through this character interact with others in a world of conspiracies, secret wonders, and disturbing secrets. Furthermore, players will use Nerf guns and boffer weapons to enact a free-form theatrical style of combat. Occam’s Razor makes use of the Accelerant gaming system owned by Chimera Entertainment. The Method to the Madness Occam’s Razor is set on Earth in the present day. That said, the Earth of Occam’s Razor is somewhat different from our own—unknown to the public at large, normal people exist side by side with supernatural entities, paranormal beings, and futuristic technologies. Conspiracies and corporate states wield tremendous power, controlling the world and the destiny of humanity. The mood of paranoid discovery and increasing alienation from the unsuspecting, uncaring people of the world is only sustainable through consistent, persistent roleplaying on the part of Staff and players alike. With your help, Occam’s Razor will be a thoroughly entertaining (albeit mildly disconcerting) game for all. Occam’s Razor is for mature participants only (ages 18+). A Note on the Typeface Generally speaking, information provided in this type-face is open to interpretation. It is provided “in game,” as it were, and may not be entirely... accurate. On the other hand, information presented in this typeface is to be treated as entirely truthful and accurate. In essence, rules of play and the like will be written like this, whereas rumors and things your characters think they know will appear like this. 5 Department of To: From: Re: Date: Project Curtain Wall enhanced interrogation techniques : Whisper Hill? We’re a small town. A quiet town. The way New England used to be. A sense of community, of order. You know. A sense of belonging. Maybe we’re a little out of the way. A little small. Kids’d say a little isolated. It’s a small town. A quiet town. It’s home. The mail might be unreliable, but our neighbors come through for us. Radios act up, but the hills around here are high. Cell phones and the internet don’t work so well, but what can you expect from city gadgets? The roads are bad, though—- I’d leave while it’s still light out. Sometimes outsiders get lost and disappear. And you? (shuffling) You’re not from ‘round here. END TRANSCRIPT The Modern World You think you know the world. You think you know the Truth. You’re wrong. Through a Mirror, Darkly The world of Occam’s Razor is a darkened reflection of our own. When in doubt, assume that politics, geography, and history match the real world (more or less). Everything is just... worse. Cities are pollution-choked megatropolises, riddled with poverty and plagued by violent crime and corruption. Rural areas are as economically devastated as the cities (often more so), but the population density is much lower than the real world. Small towns are small, and outsiders are few and far between. Suburbia is a cookie-cutter fiction where everyone whitewashes the problems around them, and all manner of issues and societal rot lurk just behind the scenes. Paranoia, isolationism, and xenophobia aren’t just ways of life—they’re survival mechanisms. People don’t know what waits in the darkness—but they know something’s out there. A Veil of Lies and Secrets The public knows very little of what goes on in the world, and they care about even less. Whether a drug is recalled due to “a minor fault in a distributor plant” or because it “causes hallucinations, acute psychoses, and homicidal tendencies coupled with permanent and debilitating brain damage and opportunistic homophagia” is really just a matter of spin, and who notices these kinds of things, anyway? Everyone lies about everything. Governments, megacorporations, and ancient conspiracies perpetrate all manner of atrocities behind closed doors. Insider trading, assassinations, and human trafficking occur with numbing frequency and sickening scale. Scientists experiment on their fellow people as though their victims are naught more than cattle. Criminal empires are rivaled in might only by the zaibatsus of the neon jungle. Cults and secret societies trade in comfortable lies and terrifying secrets. And mortals are not the only players on the shadow stage. The wings are full of powers, both those aged and terrible and those newborn and hungry. Ghosts of dead worlds haunt the living, while nightmares born of technology and unrepentant progress seethe quietly in dark alleys. Do Not Stare Long Into the Abyss Occam’s Razor, perhaps above all else, is a game of secrets and paranoia, a game of wonders and horrors walking our own world—just barely out of reach. It is a game of discovery and revelation both internal and external, a game of evolution and revolution. Player characters are expected to be fully fleshed out, three-dimensional 8 people, with both admirable qualities and lamentable flaws. Players are expected to play their characters as realistically as they are able, and their characters are likely to change over the course of the game. Turning over the old and moldy stones of the world may reveal secrets best left alone. Poking around in the dark corners of the earth is very dangerous—and no one survives unscathed. Welcome to Whisper Hill Occam’s Razor is set in a tiny town in rural New Hampshire. Player Characters are almost certainly from a good distance away, and in all probability will not have heard of Whisper Hill until very recently. Fate and the secret masters of the world work in strange ways, however, and forces from around the world have begun to turn their eyes towards a backwards town in the middle of the New England wilderness. Technology in Whisper Hill Technology is an odd thing. Everyone knows that machines can be incredibly temperamental, despite being built on hard logic and ones and zeroes. Whisper Hill seems to have an odd effect on modern technology. On the one hand, any signal broadcast over the electromagnetic spectrum seems to degrade and break down very rapidly. Radio signals from outside, cellular phones, wi-fi—anything of that nature is rendered more or less useless. On the other hand, closed systems seem to work as well or better than they do in the outside world. There are times when technology seems to fail inexplicably, but by and large any piece of technology which is self-contained works remarkably well. Most of the time. A glaring exception to the closed system rule are recording devices such as cameras and recorders, which function only in the hands of people who REALLY know how to use them. In short: No using cell phones, walkie talkies, or any other wireless device without explicit plot permission (it breaks the mood and we don’t want people losing or breaking their smart phones in the woods). For a number of reasons including but not limited to player safety and comfort, in/out of game confusion in a modern setting, risk of device destruction, and possible plot reasons, cameras and other audio/visual recording devices are not to be used during game. The exception to this rule are players who have purchased the “Press Pass” Journalist specialization skill and sanctioned NPC photographers. Flash photography is STRICTLY prohibited. 9 Playable Races Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Arthur C. Clarke The information listed below is unusual. Most people think that humans are alone on Earth, and to suggest otherwise is to court accusations of insanity. That said, it is possible (though very unlikely) that any given player character knows the information given below. Under the Accelerant system, “there is no out of game information,” and a player character knows the game-related information that the player herself knows. It is up to a player how much of the following information their character knows at the beginning of the game. We encourage you to know as little as possible. Human Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And fifteen minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow. Agent K, Men in Black, 1997 Humanity is one of the most ubiquitous species on the planet. A variety of creeds and cultures interact in countless ways in countless places every second of every day. If only they knew what was really going on... They don’t though. For good or ill, the vast majority of humans have no idea of the currents that sweep through the world, the vast conspiracies and unseen empires that control the ebb and flow of human history itself.