The Gehenna Memo

run by malcolm harbrow

Bletchley Park - the most secret place in the British war effort. Five thousand boffins and debs work on cracking German codes. The resulting intelligence, code-named ULTRA, is so secret that entire cities have been sacrificed to protect it.

But there are secrets here even darker than ULTRA.

While the staff of Bletchley are discouraged from talking about their work, everyone knows that There Is No Hut 13. The eyes just slide off it. And in that gap in people's minds, the Research Section of Special Operations Executive division 3 - also known as the "Laundry" - works on countering Hitler's magical war effort. Officially, their job is to research the implications of the newly-discovered Dee-Turing theorem and its applications to the war effort. In practice, they're the crisis team. And the crises just keep on coming. Byakhee night-fighters, oneiromantic debriefing, glamoured infiltrators - the mathematicians, old-school sorcerers, and computers of the Research Section have found solutions to them all.

And now they have a new crisis: REVELATION. The Nazis are close to completing their secret Wannsee Invocation, and the latest intelligence is that if they are successful, they will win the war in a matter of months. The Research Section needs to come up with a strategic response, and fast. But the cost of winning the war may very well be destroying
the world...

THE GEHENNA MEMO is a larp of bureaucracy, sorcery, espionage, and Lovecraftian horror, inspired by The Atrocity Archives and ENIGMA. It was first run at Phoenix 2015.

Content warnings:

  • Lovecraftian horror,
  • madness,
  • sexism,
  • homophobia,
  • the ethics of mass destruction.

The core mechanics use simple mathematics and cryptography.

A cast-list is available HERE.

 

Game Details
Session: 2
Number of Players: 13 characters (5F, 5M, 3E)
Genres: 1940s, historical
Costume: 1943 "make do and mend"