THERE WILL BE MONSTERS is an immersive role-playing game for communities in the Hudson River Estuary bioregion to practice building a hopeful climate future through collective decision-making and imaginative storytelling. 

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The objective of the game is to increase the Strength of the region as much as possible, making communities more resilient to climate “Monsters” and altering the future for the better. Players representing a multispecies group of heroes travel through a magical version of their community, attempting to build resiliency projects and gain allies. Along the way, they must defend against Monster attacks and confront mysterious “Sourcerers”, manifestations of the root causes of the monster crisis. 

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TWBM is set in a fantasy world that is based on a real-world municipality. In advance of gameplay, a fictional version of a HRE municipality is created by community members, who translate real places, problems, and solutions into a magical avatar of their home. 

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Additionally, the structured role-playing in There Will Be Monsters offers an arena for community members to practice deliberation, civic creativity, and empathy– key tools for improving our democratic systems. In this way, TWBM is a “serious game” for local changemaking.

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Every part of the TWBM process is led by theater professionals trained in facilitation, improvisation, and social justice. The culminating game-play is a hybrid tabletop game experience and immersive theater experience, with actors, sound design, and intricately crafted props helping to bring the fictional world and participants’ ideas to life.