Twinkies, Beer, and the End of the World: ‘The Bunker‘ (A NoPro Adventure)
Broken Ghost Immersives’ latest work mashes up the best of LARP, theatre, and gaming
Ian McNeely is a Renaissance man in a hazmat suit. Leading the NYC-based experience company Broken Ghost Immersives, he serves as the Gamemaster for The Bunker, the company’s newest role-playing experience. The hats he wears in this role are numerous: he adds a casual dose of comedy to an otherwise dark plotline; he physically guides the audience through the space in which The Bunker resides; most importantly, he is responsible for dreaming up and narrating back to audience members the entirety of the story that drives the experience. Without him, the world of The Bunker would not exist.
It’s hard to discern what the actual nature of such an experience will be upon reading the description provided for The Bunker during ticket purchase. Multiple buzz phrases are thrown around: “LARP,” “tabletop game,” “video game,” “immersive theatre.” It almost seems like bait, as if the company is trying too hard to appeal to everyone. It’s difficult to imagine any one experience which can encompass all of these genres, but, when it comes to The Bunker, it actually works.
The Bunker brings together a small audience of players (8–15), fighting for survival following a nuclear catastrophe. It is located in the beautiful and underground space at Wildrence, using its existing cozy living room set as the location of the nuclear bunker. In addition to this, the experience extends into the surrounding hallways and adjoining foyer, making room for further secret adventures between the audience members and McNeely. Through clever game mechanics, these players (now residents of the same underground bunker) are required to keep tabs on their inventory of supplies, protect themselves from outside threats, and (spoiler alert) find a way to survive when their bunker is compromised. Guided by McNeely’s affable narration, the audience is taken through a series of problems that they choose how to solve — whether they decide that as a group or alone. Players are encouraged to strategize for their own survival, which sometimes means lying about their communications with the world outside the bunker, or hiding their inventory from others (there’s benefit in having rations when everyone else has eaten theirs). The Bunker allows players to choose exactly how to fight for survival and the moral choices that come along with their decisions.
If I had to pick a single category to describe The Bunker, I don’t think I could without doing the experience an injustice. The true magic of The Bunker lies in its innovative form; it seamlessly incorporates everything from a tabletop card game to a tech-focused ARG, used as supporting devices to the greater choose-your-own-adventure style immersive experience. The use of each of these tools to enhance the experience is strong to begin with, but the opportunity to use all of them at the same time, and as means of strategizing with your team, is revolutionary. By combining multiple formats in this way, The Bunker allows audience members to make their own choices in terms of how they want to interact with the narrative and with each other.
I have attended The Bunker a couple of times, and each time, I saw an even divide of people who wanted to focus on different parts of the experience, meaning our team could work together, while still enjoying different types of tasks. Some audience members choose to zero in on the tabletop gaming elements, crafting survival supplies through a series of card-based logic puzzles. Other players cued into the four tablet computers included in the bunker, in which they could communicate with other “bunkers” in the story, and gain more information about the fictional world surrounding them.
What drew me in was the immersive roleplaying, supported by the supplies made by my table-topping teammates. With their newly-constructed hazmat suit and weaponry cards, I could “leave” the bunker, venturing out into the nuclear wasteland, as constructed in McNeely’s imagination and narrated to us with fervent excitement. Through his oral narration, the adjoining room and hallway of Wildrence became a multitude of locations, whether it be forest or city or battleground. As McNeely told me about creatures I met along the way, I’d be presented with decisions: Do I talk to the creature? What happens if I do? Do I fight? The format brings to mind an exceptional Dungeons and Dragons campaign: the too-rare fun of playing make-believe, solely through verbal storytelling. With each trip I took outside of the bunker, the plot grew thicker, and the map of the fictional world of The Bunker in my head seemed endless and tangible. There were even in-game rewards to be had if you (literally) played your cards right.
There is, in my mind, a huge appeal to an immersive experience that allows you to decide how you wish to participate. “Agency” is one of the core pillars of the immersive experience, and the ability to choose how to play in The Bunker is absolutely a celebration of that. It presents a fulfilling experience for all players, regardless of their desire to interact as a team or solo participant, or solve puzzles or role-play, or whatever path they may pick. It also makes The Bunker replayable; with an infinite amount of choices you could make and terrain you could explore, it seems nearly impossible that you could ever play the same game twice, not to mention the abundance of possible endings you could encounter. Not only is this experience’s model a sustainable approach to interactive entertainment, but it encourages the audience to try something new each time. The Bunker is a tribute to the imagination, hidden in the shell of a desolate wasteland, and if that’s not something to commend, I don’t know what is.
(Oh, and despite the end of the world, your bunker is well-stocked with good, old-fashioned cans of Budweiser. That’s pretty commendable, too.)
NoPro is a labor of love made possible by:
…and our generous Patreon backers: join them today!
In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.
