CONIFER

CONIFER is a live action game about the right-wing 1971 coup in Bolivia. Participants will take on the roles of CIA officers assigned to make it happen, and must balance their own morals and ideals against reality on the ground and complex and painful relationships, some of them secret and career-ending.  It is a larp for 5-6 participants and about three hours, with some advance co-creation as well. The game includes 51 pages of historical memos, technical briefings, characters, component missions, and complete instructions for play.

TOP SECRET // KLONDIKE // NOFORN

Dear Officers,

You’ve all been read into CONIFER, and your mission instructions will soon follow. 1971 has been a hell of a year. America is coming apart at the seams–we’re invading Laos in an escalation of the war in Vietnam while a plurality of Americans want out. The New York Times is slowly publishing the Pentagon Papers, revealing how routinely the government lies to its people. A quarter million hippies protested in Washington earlier this summer. The world is full of uncertainty, danger, and occasionally wonder.

But the work goes on, doesn’t it? And let’s be frank. We’re here in Bolivia where CIA careers go to die; we all deserve to be here for one reason or another. Some of us are fuckups, some of us lack the necessary ambition, and some of us went to public universities instead of Ivies. Whatever the reason, welcome to the basement of the Bolivian embassy. Your mission was to safeguard democracy by laying the groundwork to topple the  pro-Communist Torres regime.

Today, we’ll see how we did.