Musing recently about the lack of an Assassin’s Creed style James Bond game (How has this not been done already?), the thought, as my brain frequently does, turned to LARP. What followed was a couple of minutes of brainstorming with a housemate and a train ride or two of writing.

1: SPECTRE

It’s that time of year when Number 1 summons all of SPECTRE’s top brass for the annual meeting. Sadly, owing to the activities of a certain British secret agent who shall remain nameless (*cough* Danger Mouse! *cough*), things aren’t looking too good. Can you wheedle enough cash/resources/favours out of the other top brass in time to please Number 1? Perhaps you’ve been skimming and need to get some fast cash, dislike another boss enough to frame them to want to move up the pecking order or are you just James Bond in disguise?

So, what sort of shenanigans can SPECTRE’s top brass get into before Number 1 show’s up? Each member will have a different area of expertise (Smuggling, trafficking, extortion etc) and a certain amount of resources. Naturally, everyone is running short on something and everyone should have something the other wants. Oh, and evereyone hates each other. No honour among thieves after all.

2: PRE CREDIT’S SEQUENCE

Obviously/sadly most LARP’s won’t have the resources to build a lair in a hollowed out volcano, but the pre credits scene from Goldfinger, something resembling that is more doable. What follows is a 10-20 player NERF war scenario.

In short: M has ordered James Bond to blow up a SPECTRE facility, preferably without being detected. Runs should be from 10-20 minutes each (Depending on the venue size), with Bond’s player changing each time.

1 player is James Bond, everyone else is a SPECTRE mook. Bond must infiltrate the enemy base, plant the explosives and get out unseen. He has a silenced* pistol with 2 full loads of ammo, the explosives he needs (Set to a short timer), and his wits. His pistol will kill anything in one shot (No matter where it hits), but he has limited ammunition and probably be shouldn’t be pissing about trying to kill everyone he can when there’s women with sexual innuendo based names he could be trying to seduce. Priorities right?

The mooks start out unaware of Bond and wander the area at random. They can be taken out either with pistol fire, or by incapacitating them with either a tap on the shoulder (Simulating the Bond/Shatner/3^rd Doctor shoulder chop) or by wrapping something soft around their throat from behind – maybe crepe paper or a sock, this takes them down immediately. Bond’s player can drag them into cover if they wish (with the help of the knocked out player). Any mook dragged into a bush must hide and can give no information if found by other players.

The mooks all carry machine pistols (fly wheel guns, in order to distinguish themselves from Bond’s gun). There are several alarms bells scattered throughout the map, as well as the location that Bond has to set the explosives at, which will change with each run. (This is done to stop sneaky players noting where everything is in order to help themselves along.) All mooks will know where the alarms are– if the alarm bell is rung all mooks should head towards the alarm area.

(Whether or not Bonds player wants to wear a tux underneath their spy clothes isn’t necessary, but is highly encouraged.)

The difficulty could be boosted by adding more mooks, shortening the time or allowing them to make a loud gurgling sound when taken down. Alternatively, you could add a SPECTRE assassin stalking Bond (See the opening scenes of From Russia with Love), or another freakish henchman such as Oddjob or Jaws. I’ve not seen a LARP safe version of Oddjob’s hat, but I’m sure one could be worked up.

*Obviously we can’t fully silence a Nerf gun, but between the mooks having motorised guns and playing dumb, we should be able to represent it.