What is a megagame (sometimes stylized as "Mega Game," "Megagame" or "MegaGame")? Gen Con's 2024 program defined them thusly: "Combining aspects of board games and [Live Action Role Playing], megagames often involve dozens of players weaving interconnected storylines through multiple stages of play. Each player is assigned a role (sometimes with a backstory, personality, or a secret goal), and as they play through multiple sub-games, the outcomes of their play drive the story of the larger game." They are generally credited to have started in the United Kingdom by Jim Wallman in the 1970's, but the moment that really made the concept go viral was in 2014, when Wallman's megagame Watch the Skies was highlighted by Shut Up and Sit Down (warning: the article contains some adult language). In the last decade, megagames have become a staple of gaming conventions and major cities.
The megagame definition could also be stretched to include other experiences. For example, Andrew Ashby (proprietor of the game store We Geek Together in a Provo, UT mall) had a dream of beating the Guinness World Record of most Dungeons & Dragons players simultaneously playing the venerable tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), which stood at 500. In April 2023, with the blessings of the mall owners and the help of a volunteer team of Dungeon Masters (DMs), Ashby staged a massive "megacampaign" across two hundred tables; each table had a DM and up to seven players battling through a scenario. The battles and successes at each table contributed to an overarching narrative to defeat an ultimate "boss." By the end of the day, Ashby achieved his world record dream by a country mile, with 1,227 players. Another adjacent example closer to the classroom level are the dozens of role-playing historical simulations of Reacting to the Past (RttP), a curriculum first started by Mark C. Carnes of Bernard College (NY) over a decade ago. Like a megagame, these simulations often involve 30+ college students in various, specific roles played over several instructional meetings. While the use of RttP has spread to universities across the United States, they have recently also been adapted for high school as well.
Nearly three month ago, I had the opportunity to attend my first megagame in person. I had discovered Tony Dougherty and The Dukes of Highland last summer and periodically checked their website for the upcoming Kentucky megagaming schedule. (The Dukes of Highland, while based in Louisville, have held events in multiple states and several cons.)
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| Tony Dougherty, in costume as the "Lead Control." |
Coincidentally, on one Saturday at the end of September, Dougherty was running It Came from the Skies, a variation of the classic Wallman scenario. Although I was tempted to play, I instead thought it better to observe and take notes. And with Dougherty's warm permission to join the fun, note-take I did.
What first impressed me was the organization to keep nearly fifty players joyfully engaged. Firstly, each participant was given a role of an near-present Earth nation which formed a team of four players (Head of State, Chief of Defense, Chief Scientist, and Foreign Minister); other options included playing as the Aliens, or as a member of the Press. Dougherty was the Lead Control (a overall "Gamemaster"), with four staff members as the Control Team. Each Control Team staff member ran one of the four role nation groups' "games," where Aliens sometimes made appearances and the Press wandered around to cover the happenings. (It's important to note that It Came from the Skies occasionally had dice rolling to determine outcomes, but megagames can either lean into or away from this mechanic.) Over various turns, the nation players rotated in and out from their role group game back to their "country table" to share details and plan next steps, feeding into the mega-narrative. As the day continued, the nations of the world had critical questions to answer: Are the Aliens benevolent or here to invade us? What should (and what can) we do about it? And what diplomatic alliances should we make or betray along the way?
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| Each nation team/table received a packet explaining rules, how their various roles worked, and more. |
Like a typical TTRPG, Dougherty and his Control Team offered guidance, made rulings, and imposed gaming structures, but the story was truly co-created by all the participants; the ending could not be pre-determined, nor could a "win" or "loss" for Earth be neatly defined. That sense of uncertainty, urgency, agency and play added to a giddy feeling that stayed with the megagame until its conclusion. Afterwards, Dougherty, the Control Team, and the players socially debriefed at a local bar, sharing the behind the scene conversations they didn't hear and reflecting on choices they did or didn't make.
