What is a megagame?

Megagames put you in a role rather than a character (mostly), and even when you do have a character, it's only there to provide you with connections to other players. You’re not expected to role-play the character (but you can if you want), you’re encouraged to take on the role and all the authority and knowledge it comes with. e.g. as an engineer, you’ll be the go-to person to help with all engineering problems. I like this because it lowers the barrier to entry for folks not comfortable leaning into the Role-play.

Megagames also usually put you on a team so you always have someone else to lean on when you're confused and not sure how to have fun.

Megagames have more board-game style mechanics than LARPs. Sometimes these are thought of as mini-games which generate resources for your team, or allow you to develop technologies, etc. The board game mechanics will never be more than a couple of pages and will never take more than 20 mins to explain. They’re great because they give players something to “do” and provide focus for players. They provide an engine to help the story move forward. For example, if your ship is lacking resources, you’ll need to engage with other ship captains and negotiate deals. If you’ve just discovered an alien because you drew it from a deck, you’ll need to be careful who you share this information with!

Megagames attempt to make everyone feel important - you’re never just a side character. They try to provide everyone with important things to do (only the scientist can learn new technologies). Megagames are also very player driven, so if you suddenly decide you want to kill a God, you can work with the control team to see if they can realize this and craft how you might achieve your new objective.

Additionally, roles are more-or-less designed equally. The kings and generals of the faction can only affect the game in limited ways. They’re no better than you (despite what they tell you)!