In the Fall of 2020, Doctor Macauley Yacouba Patton, physicist at UC Berkeley, revealed to several colleagues that he intended to demonstrate the connection between modern and arcane theories by summoning a demon. His colleagues were concerned and amused, until — late on the night of December 12, 2020 — Dr. Patton succeeded in his efforts.

Since that fateful night, a slew of mysterious events have occured. The military has intervened. Dr. Patton has died. The demon has escaped. Somehow, you and a handful of others have come into possession of snippets of the story — clues to the conjuring. Before passing, the doctor learned of his errors and how to set them right. And, he has entrusted the task to you.

Objective

Qybalea involves a fictitious demonic summoning. Whoever succeeds at performing the ritual to summon the demon, and provides the required documentation, wins.

You’ll just have to take my word for it that there is no chance that players will either be destroying or invoking any actual demonic forces.

Required documentation includes clear photos of the ritual preparation and completion according to the clues within the game. The puzzle of the game includes deciphering and gaining clarity about all aspects of successful completion. All that is a given from the beginning is that pictures must be taken of the setup and the completion.

Overview

Qybalea is a role-playing game. It is a hybrid game, collaborative at its core with elements of competition. The objective of the game is to summon a demon. Collaborators seek to summon a demon to its demise. Rather than summoning a demon to themselves they are ‘casting it out’, directly to the crucible of undoing. It is also possible for one player to steal the win by summoning the demon to do their bidding.

Requirements

Availability

If you can make four or more of the live sessions, Tue. and Thu. evenings, if you can occasionally work on the main puzzle with others or on your own, and if you have the inclination and emotional bandwidth to work out both the social and intellectual puzzle of solving a problem as a group, then this game is suited to you.

Technology

The live sessions will take place over Zoom. While you are more than welcome to join using a phone, it will limit your ability to compete if you do not have a keyboard. If you wish to play entirely collaboratively and don’t mind giving away answers, playing from a phone shouldn’t impact you at all. Your teammates will love you.

Good Humor

In the past, these games have gotten a bit tense — especially toward the end. It is wonderful if you can get into it and take the competition seriously. It is also advised that those interested use discretion if competition and conflict can be triggering for you.

Game Play

Over twelve live game play sessions contestants will play mini-games to win clues about the summoning, like a little game show. The details of these mini-games are given below under Mini-Game Rules.

Between sessions, players may share the clues with each other and collaborate however they desire to solve the mystery. The game ends when one player, or a group of players, submits a successful summoning before the deadline, twelve minutes past midnight Fri. April 9 / Sat. April 10 — depending on how you interpret ‘midnight’.

If no player or group succeeds
then everyone loses.

Basic Rules & Game Mechanics

1. There will be twelve game sessions during which students may win points and use them to buy clues.
2. Between sessions, students may collaborate on deciphering clues, share clues with each other, or whatever they see fit to do to win the game.
3. All game sessions are recorded and participants agree to be recorded. Participants are not generally required to have their cameras turned on, but may be limited in some aspects of game play if they do not.
4. There are non-player characters, just like in other RPGs.
5. Anything that is not against the rules is not against the rules with one governing exception — don’t be a jackass. The simplest way to understand what should be thought of as off limits is that this is a game, it will end, and people will remember what you did within it. Merge that understanding with the awareness that this game is hosted by a school of ninjutsu. Do not impose any constraints on yourselves that are not given and are not constructive to your aims.

That’s basically it.

If you really want to know about the rest of the details you can read the rest. The following rules are for the mini-games and will be explained at the opening of gaming sessions. These mini-games are like little game shows.

Mini-Game Rules

All Games

1. Participants compete during scheduled events in games which have point values assigned according to the details of that specific game.
2. The same clue can be purchased any number of times by different players.
3. There is a collective point pool as well as a player ledger column for each player. When problems are solved together as a team, or questions are answered to ‘Everyone’ in chat, the points are assigned to the collective pool.
4. At the beginning and end of each gaming session, participants may exchange points and purchase clues.
5. The group of players present during a gaming session may vote to spend or transfer any amount of collectively held credit. A simple majority vote is all that is required.
6. Points may be freely transferred between players as well as into or out of the collective pool.
7. Clues purchased using the collective point pool are added to the clues channel in Slack for access by all players, including those absent at the time of game play.

Are You Godunov?

Are You Godunov? is a game in which a collection of information is given to players and players are asked questions about the information. It is a game of deduction and inference. The following rules and mechanics pertain to this game specifically:

1. Each question has a point value and questions are asked in ascending order of value.
2. Unless otherwise stated, players will be required to submit textual answers — entered through Zoom’s chat interface. This is much more easily done on a desktop/laptop computer than on a phone.
3. Answers submitted to ‘Everyone’ in Zoom chat will count toward team points.
4. Answers submitted to the host, privately, through chat will be awarded to that specific player.
5. There is no rule against participating from a phone, and students may also give answers out loud. However, only answers submitted through the chat will count — because this makes it clear who submitted an answer first. When a player says an answer out loud, another player must then submit it through chat to receive credit.
6. Following Godunov sessions, the questions which remain can still be answered for half value. To submit answers after a session, message them to the game host, Deacon, on Slack. These post mini-game points can only be awarded to the individual who answers the question, not to any group of persons.

Productively Closed Minds

Summoning mental focus is key to many cognitive and collective efforts. This evening, we will test our capacity to keep a single object, subject, or train of thought fixed in our minds.

1. This mini-game will consist of multiple rounds of turn-taking games.
2. Each round will consist of players taking turns doing some simple iterative task (like adding a digit to a running sum, or naming a film with a beach scene).
3. Players who fail to complete the task on their turn are eliminated from that round.
4. Each time the turn taking completes a full cycle, the point value of the round will increase. The last player remaining will receive the points for that round.

The Power of Creativity

Attempting to solve a problem without creativity is like flipping a coin before even deciding if you will make an attempt. Heads, the typical approach will do the trick; tails, you lose.

1. Players will be given prompts and a set of constraints. They will be asked to come up with possible answers within the constraints.
2. Players will be working both alone and in groups determined by the host.
3. Answers will be submitted directly to the host through chat.
4. A number of points will be awarded for each answer submitted.

That’s it. Creativity is simple, not easy.

Errands of Mnemosyne

The importance and role of the memory has come under great scrutiny of late. Some theorists of education have gone so far as to assert that it is falling into actual obsolescence. Whether or not this is the case, we’ll be trying our hands and flexing ours.

1. Players will be offered various memory challenges and asked to place bets on their success at them into the chat.
2. The players who place the highest ante on their own success will compete in the challenge.
3. Before competing, other players will be allowed to bet on them as well.
4. The house will cover all bets at 1:1 odds.
5. After each memory challenge the cycle begins again.

Riddles in the Dark

Bring all your white horses in mail never clinking out for a night of games on three legs that he who makes doesn’t want.

1. Each riddle will be given a point value.
2. More than one player can answer any given riddle.
3. All answers should be given in private messages to the host and never spoken aloud. This is the main rule of the night. Never answer a riddle such that anyone other than the asker can see or hear your answer. A hefty point penalty will be levied against anyone violating this rule.

See you behind the green glass door.