RENEGADE CONTINUUM A game of imaginary time and little space SET UP This is a very active game. You and the other players may be asked to run around, perform stupid tricks or sing songs. You might have to make and do crafty things. Therefore, you must find a play area with enough space for all the players to do such things, for when they choose to participate. (All participation is voluntary.) SPECIAL CONDITIONS Multiple Rutters This means you can have competing teams. QUIET GAME If you're playing someplace with strict rules on noise control, or if you feel more like talking than physical exercise, use this starting page. Start the game with the Quiet Beginning on page ROWDY GAME Even in a more rambunctious game, where you have lots of space and privacy, you should make sure to limit players touching one another to a level everyone is comfortable with. Some people can't stand being pawed and it's always a good idea to be careful of accidentally hurting or molesting other players. THE FIRST JUDGE To begin, hand the rutter (this booklet) to someone who doesn't want to go first. That player reads the first entry and will act as the first judge. All they have to do is decide who wins the first contest. The position of judge will pass from player to player, along with this rutter, from turn to turn over the course of the game. A turn as judge usually works like this: 1. You receive the rutter from another player (usually for winning some sort of silly contest or argument. Sometimes you'll receive it for a good bit of playacting.) 2. Read the entry at the top of the rutter to yourself. This is new information you may add to the game at any time (or keep to yourself if you don't like it.) 3. Read the italicized intructions below the entry aloud. Use the entry you just read to make sense of the instructions to other players, if you like, or use what has gone before in the game. 4. Allow the other players to follow the instructions any way they see fit. 5. Give the rutter to the player who has best followed the instructions or most pleased you with their playacting or just whoever you think ought to have it next. Hopefully, you find these five steps easy to understand. Please feel free to photocopy this page and give a version of it to each player. QUIET START ROWDY START You hold in your hands a rutter. This is a special guide to an imaginary time-space continuum called The Broken Universe. Rutters work like a map to all the secret paths through the broken universe. You can use one to pass from one world to another as easily as, well, walking backwards through a hidden alleyway on a moonlit night while whistling a forbidden tune. But, since the universe is broken anyway, lots of these passages exist. You could go from Victorian London to the first human colony on Mars with just a skip and a twirl if you knew the right candle to light in the right Hawksmoor church on the right Sunday. And, with a rutter, you do! Rutters are also chock full of other useful information, usually notes and advice other travellers who used them before you have written down. No one knows who wrote the first rutter, but many copies and variations have been made since. Most writters are hand-written, but a few badly-printed copies, such as this one, do exist. INSTRUCTIONS All players, including you, must invent someone to portray in this imaginary universe. The person can be old or young, fictional or historical, Based on who made up the most interesting persona, or whatever criteria you like, pick a new player to hold the rutter and whichever event you'd like to see happen next (from the three below.) If none of them seem quite right, just pick the one which comes closest Conspiracy (turn to entry #21) Disaster (turn to entry #42) Invasion (turn to entry #88) FURTHER ENTRIES Blurb INSTRUCTIONS Players Pick a player and one of the following options (Whichever you think comes closest to what you want to see happen next.) Escape Eavesdrop Enlist ESCAPE EAVESDROP ENLIST Hunt Labor Rejoin Sabotage Confront Betray (gives you a chance to betray the others)