Monday Mashup #3: Narnia

Sorry about the missed week last week; Gen Con killed me. I was gonna take a suggestion from Eric McErlain this week, but it’s a little too close to the last one in theme, so I think I’m gonna save it for a little while.

Also, I put together a Monday Mashup page for your delight and amusement.

What else… oh, yeah, I need to come up with something this week. OK, let’s pick some low-hanging fruit. Your inspiration this week is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Go.

The hook for the first Narnia book is children seeking to escape their mundane lives. Through a world of fantasy, they find their true purpose. That’s pretty easy to work with.

Let’s do this one Unknown Armies style. It’ll need to be a street level game, with PCs unaware of the occult underground. They’ll be the rank and file office workers and temps of America — in fact, let’s ride that hook and go Office Space. They are temps and office workers, all of whom happen to work in the same building, although not necessarily for the same company.

When the ragged old guy who used to work in the mailroom dies, the PCs are all down there picking up packages. And an angel comes to claim his soul. When they investigate further, they find a passageway in the back of his dingy little workspace. Said passageway leads to one of those special little extradimensional spaces you get in UA from time to time.

It’s, ah. It’s a fantasy world created by the old mailroom guy because he refused to deal with the ordinary world. I think we’re looking for a Henry Darger feel — beautiful but somewhat akilter. But there should be a lion, a witch, and a wardrobe — let’s say the guy was influenced by C. S. Lewis.

The “angel” was really one of his creations, and it took his soul back into the fantasy world. Which, as it turns out, sucks — it’s a sterile place to spend eternity, and he badly wants to get out and go to the proper place. Meanwhile, various adepts and avatars noticed the mystical energy released by the guy’s death and they want to get themselves a piece of that, which should keep the game firmly grounded in the grit of the OU.

Moral of the story: if you hide away in your own mind, you’re stuck being a mailroom guy forever.