What is a Mega Game?

A mega game is a huge, collaborative gaming experience with high player counts and a rich setting. They can last anywhere from a couple of hours to an entire day and use physical components like maps and units to represent economies, armies and other resources. They blend the imaginative freedom of role playing games with the challenge and decision making of board games, and often include elements of LARPs and council or negotiation style games.

A key part of a megagame is the team briefing, where players are provided with information on their assigned roles and what’s happening in the fictional universe that they inhabit for the duration of the game. The briefing should cover the time, place and circumstances of the game, and a summary of the thematic background that’s happening in the game. It should also explain the game rules and mechanics, and if there’s any other important information, such as intelligence reports on enemy forces, overall instructions from the high command or secret agendas of the player teams.

The briefing should also provide a starting point for the players to play within, which they will then develop and take in whatever direction they like, using the framework of the setting and game mechanics as their guide. This can lead to a variety of different outcomes, and is a key element of the ‘fluff’ that makes Megagame so fun.

Megagames have been described as LARP/board games hybrids with escape room elements, and they’re renowned for their fluid emergent gameplay. They can be incredibly challenging to play, but equally satisfying and exciting. They bring together the creativity of role playing games with the structure, decision making and satisfaction of board games, and the depth of a world that combines LARPs and council games with the real world – whether it’s medieval Europe, an alien invasion, a humanitarian crisis zone or a fantasy world of magic and monsters.

Megagames have a lot in common with board games, such as a large player count and the need for an experienced team of facilitators to run the game (known as Control). However, they’re more like escape rooms in terms of scale and complexity, and tend to be more immersive than tabletop games or role-playing.