Kenji Baugham

and the Celestial Committee of the Eternal Circle of Suffering

The Celestial Committee of the Eternal Circle of Suffering exists outside of time and space, sitting in judgment on the souls of those who die. The soul of Dr. Livingstone now stands before them, and his many lives, reincarnated throughout history, pass under review. In this game you will play a member of the committee, and determine the ultimate fate of Dr. Livingstone’s soul.

On the morning of April 3, 1872, golden with the glory of the tropical dawn, Dr. David Livingstone leaves this world of suffering. Kneeling at his bedside his head falls to his chest, his glasses slipping gently from his hand onto the floor of the tent as with his last breath his ancient soul departs at long last from his tortured body.

The jungle around him fades slowly, blurring into a jungle of tall skyscrapers, pinpoints of light pouring through glass looming up into the sky. The pinpoints of light become the stars behind an unfathomably massive, looming, shape, larger than a moon, spinning and lurching rebelliously through the void of space. The great wheel rotates beyond the heavens, blurring once more as the wheel of a chariot appears, skittering over the bodies of the fallen, blood spraying into the air. Grief, anger, and above all an overwhelming fear drive its riders into acts of great heroism, an arm thrusting a great spear. Hurtling through the air the world spins and blurs again, and a stone tip strikes into a great bison as a young hunter shouts with the thrill of the hunt. The shout echoes through the night until it comes from a dark alley, a young woman screams out what may be her last breath at the mercy of her jealous rival.

Dr. Livingstone reaches down, picks up his glasses, and puts them back on.

“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” The familiar voice causes his consciousness to focus suddenly on another place, a place outside of time. He sees the face of Henry Stanley.

“Yes.” Dr. Livingstone reaches up to tip his hat, only to find that he is not wearing one.

The face blurs. Other faces appear around it, blurring and twisting, each new shape sending a wash of conflicting emotion over him. They sit facing him from up above behind a long and austere row of raised desks, furiously scribbling down notes as they begin the interrogation.

One of them speaks again. “Dr. Livingstone, we wish to discuss the events of January 19th, 200284. It is your third day as governor of the British colony on Mars, the life support system for the biosphere is running at 3% capacity and steadily dropping, and you are presented with a most unfortunate dilemma. Do you recall this day? Please describe to the committee what you do on this day.”

Dr. Livingstone remembers. He wishes that he did not.

Ingredients & Limitation: Companion, Accuser, Invincible, Uses Cards

Malleus Maleficarum is a game about how a small, rural, 16th century, European village unravels in an orgy of intrigue, fear, hatred, and fire during the height of the great witch hunts of the Inquisition. There is no magic and witches are not real; however, this is not reason enough to prevent the hunt, for the hunt is not about witches. The hunt is about envy. The hunt is about greed. The hunt is about those who are ruthless enough to orchestrate this destruction to further their dark designs with malicious precision.

Companion, Accuser, Wine, No Character Sheets, Pre-generated Characters

In a Grove is a game for four players about the fallibility of truth as experienced through the divergent accounts of four different witnesses to a single event.

Chairman’s Second Challenge: In this game you don’t directly play a human. What you are actually playing is a representation of a human in a fictional account as narrated by a faulty narrator. This is highlighted by the fact that the narrator has unlimited veto authority over your actions and your actions change each time you run through the same time period as narrated by different people.