Intro - Setting - Rules - Char Gen - Downtime - Costumes - Who's Who - Past Events - Future Events - Forum

Masquerades & Massacres is the umbrella term for a series of Regency Romance/Horror events. The date for our next event hasn't yet been set, but it'll be called Pride & Predators. See Future Events for details. Our first main event, Aliens & Alienation, ran on the 3rd-5th July 2009. Everyone spent a weekend acting like characters from the time of Jane Austen- and working out how those characters would cope with vampyres, daemons and aliens. This will be the first of a series of events, with each one jumping forward through history and introducing more classic movie situations to our poor, doomed, characters. There are photos on Flickr here. Our second event, Espousals & Expeditions, was a plot event and ran on the 14th-16th May 2010. There are photos from both our events on our Facebook group here. Not all were taken in character, and some are quite silly... To find out more about Regency views on politics and marriage, read the Masquerades rules. Combat, whether it's duels or alien attacks, is resolved using foam weapons, fake guns and light taps with open hands (like "it" or "tag"). Attacking people generally involves lots of shouting "Ha!", "Take That!", "Missed!" or "Boom!"... Everyone can take a certain number of hits (generally 3 "Ha!"s or 1 "Take That!"), and then they fall unconcious. There are also rules for healing from surgeons & doctors- but be warned that primative 18th-century medical techniques means that there's a chance you'll die on the operating table, or pick up disfiguring scars & old war wounds. To find out more about combat, read the Massacres rules. The game is not pure Regency history, we're also blending in ideas from Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (a book about magic and fairies in Regency England) and Naomi Novik's Temeraire (a book about dragons fighting in the Napoleonic Wars). Just because they're such excellent books! The event is in no way officially affiliated or sanctioned by either author, but it's being run not for profit so hopefully they won't mind... To find out more about our alternate history, read the Setting information. You can play an archetypes straight off the page of Austen's novels (arrogant rich nobles, intelligent & independently minded people, fainting girls, dashing officers...) or can be something more individual. Scheming politicians or radical activists; tough old war veterans or female officers from the Aerial Corps; doctors, battlefield surgeons or cooks with some knowledge of herbs; academics, priests or magicians; even, if you must, vampires, fairies or werewolves. Or anything else you can come up with! Characters are made by mixing Merits and Flaws- Merits generally make you better (either better at fighting, or a better match for marriage) whilst Flaws generally make you worse. Groups of characters (of friends, families, collegues and servants) are encouraged. To find out how to make a character, read the Character Generation rules. To get some costume ideas, read the Costume Guidelines page. If you've got any questions, feel free to post them on the Forum or email at jamesnfishwick@googlemail.com

Intro - Setting - Rules - Char Gen - Downtime - Costumes - Who's Who - Past Events - Future Events - Forum