A Rough Schedule

The game is divided into four parts. Traditionally this was Friday, Saturday Noon-Dinner, Saturday Night, and Sunday. However, since Clarence occasionally failed to start Friday, the game could be condensed as needed.

Clarence introduces the convention of Theatre Style LARP whereby there is no strict accounting for time. Fights and other events take place in “real time” but armies also march back and forth in the space of a day.

The Structure of the Game has the typical problems with a first-generation LARP. The female plot is pallid and fairly dull - women want to get married. Even Henrietta later bettered that, though it could be argued that she was better at writing the drawing room comedy she had wanted to write than at a “standard LARP,” and criticism aside performed credibly in that genre for years.

So the plot is heavy with diplomacy, and wars, including a badly organized wargame. The economy is actually remarkably robust - in most early games money had no value, but since Kriegspiel troops need to be paid, there is at least one brief period where money is worth something.

There is a first class widget hunt, which is usually unresolvable except through deus-ex-machina. It can be assumed that the GMs never expected all the parts to be assembled, but that the money and time required to repair the elephant is proportionate to their success in gathering the 24 parts.
The game is “hero centric” meaning that it is almost a foregone conclusion that the forces of good will win. The GMs tended to universally back the “good guys” winning. However, there’s a lot of room for granularity within that general paradigm. Some “bad guys” turn out not to be so bad. Some “good guys” play in a neutralistic way that is almost villainous. The bad guys by no means always lose. Lady Grey ended the 1916 run as President of New York, with a treaty granted to her by the United States, which had needed her help against the Confederacy. The Confederates (who are by no means seen as all “bad guys” - Bucher, in particular seemed to consider “The General” a hero - have often ended up with territories or concessions, and in one game, were Victorious, with Duggard as President of the U.S. and “The General” victorious on the Board. The two players were good wargamers, and managed to work the Currency Crisis to their advantage, and effectively swept all opposition - even the GMs could not seriously suggest that the U.S. had a recognizable presence on the field.) That game had a number of odd situations. Thomas Edison Jr., died early and Yen How’s player apparently left the game. But the point is that odd endings can and did occur. The Beetle is the only “absolute” villainess, and even she has escaped death as often as not.

Scene I

The Ball

The Ball is the standard game “non event.” Some punch and cookies were set out, and if everyone was very lucky a gramophone record was put on with some classical music (Bucher despised Ragtime, and King mocked it). It was supposed to be a gay party, but since nobody knew each other, or had any idea why they were there, it was sort of like a funeral. Still, it’s the necessary “dead time” for people to “get to know” each other, and occasionally a couple would waltz. At one of the later games, there were even instructors to help people dance, though it didn’t get very far.

The Nomination

This was the first big event of the game. Everyone must stand on one side of the room or the other and nominate candidates for President. Generally Marsden handled the Democratic Nomination (in Denver for this run), and King handled the Republican (in Chicago), since Walker was unreliable, and Bucher’s idea of politics involved forced marches and leather pants.
William Jenner Bryant has a special ability card that allows him to win the Democratic nomination, however players who opted for the Democratic Convention can’t just switch sides and help select a Republican.

In later runs of the game, some players declared a “Bull Moose” party, and Hartmann obligingly shot their candidate in the chest so he could finish his speech. The idea had been toyed with for a while, so it may come up.

The nomination was handled by show of hands, with Bryant playing his special ability card to negate any results from the Democratic Convention that didn’t favor him.

For the next game period the two (or more) players canvass for votes. Some players had special abilities giving them extra votes. King and Marsden agreed on being rather insistent that the other GMs not unbalance the system, and the votes were pre-printed, so the other GMs usually didn’t.
Being “nominated” for the Nomination usually required a second, then everyone no matter how unlikely who was seconded could be voted on. In some runs, something was made of having American Citizenship, which should disqualify Svengali and a few others, but since it was nowhere writ, this usually wasn’t a major issue.

To accept the Nomination, you must have a running mate (Vice President) willing to run with you. At this time by the way, it was very unusual for anyone to think of a woman, though in the 1916 run, a woman was a Vice Presidential Candidate, and there was also a “Suffrage Party” Candidate.

It was not unusual for Tom Edison Jr., to be the Republican Nominee.
The President has the ability to collect a tax, allowing him to pay his troops from tax money. Once the Confederacy is declared, the Confederate President can declare a tax, but there’s no guarantee anybody will pay it. In the 1916 run, New York became an “Independent Universal Suffrage State” and the President of New York (Lady Grey) also collected taxes, and in fact did somewhat better than her competitors.

Scene II

First Military Move

The Kriegspiel system is detailed elsewhere, along with the troop values.

Trilby’s Performance

Usually someone brought a record for the poor girl to lip synch to. On a few occasions, Trilby may have actually been able to sing - that wasn’t as unusual back then as it is now. The point of the performance is to distract the players a little. Generally Carmilla tries to feed during this period, resulting in someone collapsing.

The Election

The Second Military move immediately follows the election which sort of sets the social disintegration of the game into motion. If Bryant wins, which isn’t terribly likely, but did happen, there is generally peace for another half turn while he secretly negotiates to recognize the Confederacy. When the Confederacy proclaims itself, he then usually makes a rousing speech (betraying them) and says that he has arranged for powerful foreign allies to help the Union put the Confederacy down.

If he fails to win, then he tends to proclaim the Confederacy and announce he’ll march on Washington with - big surprise here - powerful foreign allies.

If Hartmann assassinates the President (only likely if it isn’t Yeng How or Thomas Edison, Jr.) then the VP becomes President.

Second Military Move

Generally units begin popping up on the map about this time at their start points. If Bryant doesn’t get his Chinese Horde into play by this turn, they generally have little chance of getting into the fray, even with one of the engineers helping to move them by railroad (if Bryant appears to still be on the level, Edison may help him move his “allies.”) Bucher tended to fan the flames because he wanted to get a war underway as quickly as possible, but Marsden and Henrietta both felt that the game ran better if battle wasn’t actually joined until Scene III.

Scene III

Dr. Schultze’s Demonstration

Dr. Schultze should have, by this time found some hapless anti-social to strap down. The throwaway is Hartmann if he didn’t succeed in assassinating the President.

Third Military Move

War generally starts on this move or the next. By now there are forces clearly visible, but it isn’t necessarily clear who they answer to.

The Wedding

If Henrietta has done well, she usually has someone to try and get married at this point. At one game, it is said that she actually forced a man to marry a hatrack, but that’s never been confirmed, and is probably an apocryphal story. The wedding stops action for a little while and is a big deal. It also provides the Anarchists with another target. Generally kidnapping the bride was a popular goal for all the villains. It seems to have been a foregone conclusion that if you had an airship you could kidnap the bride on it.

Fourth Military Move

If war hasn’t started by now, it’s going to be rather short.

Scene IV

The Evil Ritual

The Forces of Evil are generally called by the “Beetle” to an evil ritual about this time. Walker may have had the ritual in the Beetle’s original sheet, but apparently she got a verbal briefing most games, or was simply nudged by the GMs that she needed people to worship her. Often the ritual was to sacrifice the Bride kidnapped in the previous Frame. Of course the “Good Guys” usually try to intervene and combat results. Sometimes players are killed..

Fifth Military Move

By now, war will have started. Sometimes this move got truncated, or was played pretty much directly into the Sixth, with everyone standing about, since nobody’s movements are secret anymore.

Sixth Military Move

The results of this move determine who controls the United States at the end of the game. Bucher and King usually made an announcement. Often to get a decisive result there were extra rules or double ammo.

The “Climax”

Nobody agreed on what the Climax to Clarence should be and often there wasn’t one. Henrietta of course wanted it to be another wedding. Bucher often tried to get some sort of “final battle scene” together, for example Tom Edison Jr. Storming the White House to dethrone Yen How.

Spontaneous Events

These are events that might happen at any time during the game, based on player actions. There are of course other things that may happen, but these are events that almost always occurred. To some extent these events were GM guided, in terms of pressuring or holding players, and represent the very most primitive version of “Pacing Controls”

The March of The War Machine

“Never Give a Player a Battleship if you Don’t Expect them to Use it”

The Martian War machine was indestructible, and was meant to be a sort of apocalypse weapon - like we might use a hydrogen bomb in game today. Realistically it was over-rated, however since the player had no other sling stones, this one had to be fairly good.

The GMs never learned to handle it well. Unlike the Astronard, and Sky Courser, it didn’t fight in the Kriegspiel system. It just sort of came in and trashed the place.

Usually the players were told it was marching on Washington (or Baltimore or wherever - the GMs wrote the political plots with the idea the game would be in DC, then found a cheaper site in Baltimore) and would arrive at the beginning of the next turn. They then had to scrape the bottom of the barrel and come up with ad-hoc attacks on it, which the GMs handled in a fairly random and chaotic fashion. The War Machine usually ended up destroyed however it had a tendency to kill characters and in one game killed three PCs before it was stopped.

The Anarchist Attack

At some point - usually the Inauguration - Hartmann makes an attempt on the President. If Hartmann has the Machine Gun, then he may succeed. In two runs Presidents were killed. Hartmann’s escape is largely a matter of GM fiat and panache - Marsden tended to let him escape, because there was usually a shortage of replacement characters, and because he felt it was more dramatic if he took refuge with the other villainous characters to be hounded down.

The Fall of The Beetle

Because virtually nothing really points toward the Beetle, the character tends to be “set up” by the GMs acting through Flaxman Low. Eventually Low “senses” information about the Beetle, usually just in time to prevent the Evil Ritual. However this sometimes mapped out differently, depending on what friends the Beetle had made. Whether the Beetle dies or is merely banished again is largely a matter of luck and fiat. The GMs had different interpretations of the death condition. In at least one version, the Beetle had been assisting the New Confederacy (led by Bryant) and had a Cleopatra-esque suicide scene as the Confederacy fell.

The Attack of the Astronard

The Attack of the Astronard is a chance for the GMs to dole out some random damage, scare the players a little bit, and provide a chance for various thieves, assassins, what have you to do their job. Sometimes the Astronard is shot down at this point by some good planning on the part of the other PCs, but more often it is not. It usually ends up a victim to the Kriegspiel game, where it has considerable value.

Elephant Parts

As it becomes clear that the Elephant would have a strong value in the Kriegspiel game, various leaders start to get interested in assembling it. Since it is patently impossible to get all the parts, they usually get as many as possible, then try to build replacements. Depending on the number of scientist/inventor types this can work or not.

The Attack of the Yellow Danger

The Yellow Danger is mostly a Kriegspiel event, but it does sometimes run over into the main game, with the GMs and a few other loose bodies taking the roles of marauding Chinese invaders, who must be combated. One suspects this could be pretty tasteless by modern standards.

The Currency Collapse

When the Currency Collapses, it becomes drastically more expensive to provision and pay for armies. This is a real problem, since armies in the field may desert or defect (based on a game of Rocheambeau) if they are not paid for. Money theoretically suddenly has a meaning as various leaders scramble around to dig up enough money to pay bills. Once the Beetle is brought down, Money immediately returns to normal value.

Expedition to the Lost City

It is clear that the Lost City plot never got fully written, and in fact there is evidence that it was completed for one of the later runs, along with about eight additional characters. However, in early runs, it was handled on an “ad hoc” basis, with players climbing on chairs to simulate being “on the airship” and flying to Tibet, where one or the other of the GMs would imitate various Tibetan Lamas and Mandarins and perhaps reward the players, or fight them. The non-existence of cast, and the banality of the combat system made combat challenges unusual and fairly ineffectual. In one cast a “Great Lhama” thumbed through a stack of Special Abilities reading out...

“Death comma instant comma painful...
Death comma slow comma painful...”

Until the combined might of several of the Psychic characters led by Flaxman Low brought him down. The players were then given some aid against evildoers, though exactly what isn’t recorded.

The Expedition didn’t happen in every game, but it’s a necessary on the fly fudge if the players follow up the incorrect trail that points toward the Gold coming from Tibet, and the GMs seemed to manage to work together - though largely through player intermediaries - to resolve the situation.