Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Another reason why privacy could be just a passing fad, terrorism is going to get too good. [1997]"
- Larry Niven
 |
| International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS) | ||
| A group dedicated to playing live action role-playing games. |
The IFGS has an interesting history, which starts with the description of the organization in the novel. The IFGS runs live action role playing games (LARPs), in which a scenario is established (like an expedition to Tibet). Everyone plays the game out in something like a real-world setting (not necessarily Tibet), while a Game Master keeps score.
| A year ago, Chester had taken an expedition into "the mountains of Tibet" hopefully to bring back a mammoth. The party had met disaster, three out of thirteen surviving, and no mammoth. Chester had dropped several hundred Gaming Points, threating his standing in the International Fantasy Gaming Society. And who had been Game Master on that ill-fated expedition?
Aha! Richard Lopez. Chester had yelled Foul to the I.F.G.S., and they had passed down the decision that although something called "snow vipers" were unusually lethal, all of the nasty tricks used against the expedition were within the rules... |
| From Dream Park,
by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes). Published by Ace Books in 1981 Additional resources -
|
After reading the novel, John Cade and Mark Simmons of Boulder, Co., created a real-world organization called the IFGS. Together they ran a game called "The Truing." By the late 1980's, there were also chapters in Dallas, Los Angeles and New England.
Authors Niven and Barnes attended an early IFGS convention; Barnes played in an IFGS licensed game in Colorado. In future Dream Park novels, Niven and Barnes adopted the "real-world" IFGS as the historic background for their future one.
Read a bit more about the history of the "real" International Fantasy Gaming Society.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Dream Park
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
Tech news articles related to Dream Park
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
| 'Snapchat Dysmorphia' Now A Thing, Say Plastic Surgeons |
| Bot Tweets Venmo Drug Transactions |
| Ontario Starts Guaranteed Minimum Income |
| Save Your Brain's Connectome, Upload Yourself Elsewhere |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'...lifted themselves to skimming flight upon whirling helicopters."
'Twenty rocket tugs towed it from its Earth hangar out into space.'
I don't need it to go fast, it just needs to amble along.
'The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.'
'... a sound tape to supply the noise'
'The spotter descends, and we think it searches the vicinity, looking for the victim's face...'
