Some people roleplay by simply sitting around the table and casting the die of fate. Brave is the nerd that lives it by donning his armor and striding the LARP battlegrounds. Yet braver still are the men and women of Synergon: The BLARP (Business Live Action Roleplaying). Capitalism at its finest, the business office environment is a social time bomb of veiled feelings, buzzwords, and despair. So it only stands to common reason that dressing up in suits and living it as a cutthroat game of politics is only right! Synergon takes the spirits of D&D and the Business world, throwing them together. Part of the hilarity is that there are apparently a few real companies called Synergon, yet the site still remains hidden in the interwebs.
I say D&D specifically because Synergon uses identical character generation rules, though instead of the basic statistics of fantasy you have Patience, Tech Savvy, Eloquence, Charisma, and Creativity; and rather than classes you have a Department and get one Skill. While not identical to D&D in many other regards, it’s similar enough that anybody that knows the basics shouldn’t have too much of a problem as Synergon‘s rules are very easy to understand; with plenty of step by step graphs and clearly labelled sections containing several topics.
I cast the runes seven times to get me seven numbers to put in my new employee’s resume; with a low roll of 6 alongside 15,17,13,13,12,12. For Billium Majar, the latest addition to the Synergon family, I decided to fling the 6 into Education (like anybody cares where he went to school…) and made his primary stats Patience and Creativity, to make him a perfect applicant for the Legal Team, giving him an inherent weakness to Human Resources but making him the worst fears of Accounting.
All employees start by picking one skill of their choosing and get two random ones with a new choice every ten levels. I chose Intimidate as Billiums chosen skill, making him perfect for demoralizing those that get in his team’s way. In addition, Bill is a bit apathetic and couldn’t care less what people have to say, especially about his MBA degree. The same degree lets Mr. Majar use the Catchy Slogan ability to rejuvenate the efforts of the group. For the free item he gets at sign-on, he chose an Inspirational Poster to give him additional Creativity. The ending result is Bill has 23 AP and 15 MP. If he runs out of MP he quits his job and must start over as an Intern, during this time all he can do is regain his AP used for abilities.
An employee of Synergon uses abilities for anything, many of which allow you to be productive and useful to the company, while many others are used to torture and depress your enemies or inspire your own team. Employees can use any Ability at or below his or her tier (1-3), as well as their department unique abilities. When somebody uses an Attack, the target is allowed the choice of using a Defensive Ability that does not count against his actions for the hour. You are only allowed three per hour, and with only so many soul crushing hours of the day, each employee must be careful on how they budget their time, morale, and ability to get things done.
In addition to the players, there are always the hundreds of other drones that reside at Synergon HQ; the Frenemies. The Janitor, CEO, and the rest of the workforce would love to see you stomp off in anger to free up room in the budget for more pay for themselves. Its not that they hate you, they just hate the idea of working with you when they could be getting more money without you. These parasites often swarm around the halls and water coolers, and are known to strike when you really don’t want to acknowledge their existence. Though it may just be a case of the Mondays.
Synergon is easy to understand, easy to play, and just plain fun. It’s taking one of the most serious things and exposing just how silly it all really is. Character creation is a snap, and if you feel all the abilities you use can be daunting just make a list of 12+ abilities that you’d like to use and limit yourself to that.
While written primarily as a LARPing game, it’s worth noting that the game is playable just fine as any other tabletop rpg (but I’m sure in its full suited glory the game is great too)! The office environment leads to intense squabbles and the game’s system is very forgiving while also being very cruel, resulting in an entertaining experience when greed isn’t the motivator of the fighting. You can see Synergon free on their official website!
Necroscourge 5/26/13