O memory! thou midway world
'Twixt earth and paradise,
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise...
"Memory"
Abraham Lincoln
after life was a live game developed for Enigma, UCLA's science-fiction, fantasy, and gaming club. It took place during an Enigma meeting on Monday, February 24th, in room 2412 of the Ackerman Student Union.
Special thanks go out to Mark Hopkins, Nick Ingwersen, and Stephanie Ikeda for helping to run the game. I'd also like to thank Mark, Nick, Tony Chu, and Amanda Lam for developing and/or organizing materials for the game, despite great distances, pressing romantic engagements, bruised limbs, medical school acceptances, and sudden illnesses. I couldn't have done it without you.
Many thanks go out to all the players, who were dealing with a number of role substitutions, a crowded room filled with debris from a train wreck, and a confusingly labeled assortment of index cards. I'd also like to thank a large number of people who sent a variety of supportive messages to me during this harrowing experience.
The game is set some time in the future, beginning on a high-speed train traveling from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Players take on the roles of the passengers of one car, whose lives are unexpectedly cut short during a tragic accident. However, the regular mechanisms of the afterlife are somehow suspended, leaving the dead to find their own way to a final reward or punishment. The wayward spirits may have one last chance to second-guess a lifetime of decisions...