Mirror-State Stories

A collection of player accounts from Mirror-State megagames (mirror-state.com)

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Episode 1 - CIA part 2

Nobody knows what the CIA really does - including the CIA at first. Jason and I started with a set of objectives, some intelligence on threats and a description of the actions we could perform. By the end of the day we had crippled an Iranian nuclear program, helped prevent an NSA coup, raided North Korea to steal a cure for a global pandemic and driven a President to suicide. That last one may not have been intentional...

Mirror State sets every player up with different objectives and lets the game evolve. This alone would be interesting but there is also an antagonist - a player whose goal is to throw spanners in the works. These spanners took the form of missile crises, domestic terrorism, asteroids the size of Laurence’s Stetson, anything to keep us looking the wrong way.

But “The End” was already upon us... a virus had spread quickly, driving people insane, causing them to attack those around them (basically zombies, the fast scary ones). The only thing left was the rush to save what remained…

Melodramatic? Perhaps, but that was Mirror State! We were never going to win, but the road to losing was dramatic, and we did it in style! There was the face-off with the FBI - all four of us wearing CSI-style sunglasses despite the fading light, fully in character - before realising that we'd been played by the NSA.

The moment that will stay with me came when half of the Army defied an order to pull back to a safer perimeter. The President launched into a reunification speech proclaiming "You have lost hope but I am here to tell you that we still have it, we have a cure!" During this impressive oratory we received the urgent news and leaned in to deliver it to our leader: the North Korean cure was just water, a fake - and that is how a President broke.

Chris M

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Episode 1 - CIA part 1

Chris and I played as the CIA. The CIA’s primary job was to retrieve and investigate any potential threats to the US. Our first covert operation of the day gave us intel on nuclear enrichment occurring in Iran. We passed this along to the intelligence committee (Kris) and asked for approval to secure some of the nuclear materials. This was approved and we sent our first wet ops force to carry out the mission.

The results from the op came back with confirmed weapons grade nuclear material, but unfortunately our operative had received radiation poisoning in the process. His efforts gave us the confirmation needed to alert the president and vice president to the threat, gaining approval to take any means necessary to stop the threat. Chris also spoke with the vice president about his ties with middle eastern allies (MOSSAD) for a joint CIA, DOD, MOSSAD operation to covertly infiltrate the Iranian government in order to prevent further nuclear development. A plan was starting to come together.

Later we received intel about medium range missile tests in Iran. This was an immediate concern which we forwarded to the newly elected president, who agreed that swift decisive action was necessary. We had the the all clear to proceed with the joint CIA, DOD & MOSSAD operation to neutralise the threat that the missiles posed. We sent the go-ahead for the mission and it proceeded as planned. Success, we had stalled the nuclear missile threat from Iran, at least for now… but had we failed to pay enough attention to a much bigger threat to humanity?

Jason P

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Episode 1 - Texas

In “episode” 1, I opted to play as the Republican senator for Texas; cowboy hat and all. In the morning I found myself in minority position on an ineffective Department of Energy and Commerce sub-committee. Stonewalled by my democratic counterparts, I left them to it and instead spent my time lobbying the various corporations to bring their businesses and jobs to Texas. Hopefully securing my reelection.

In the afternoon I join the Armed Services committee, attempting to coordinate a defence against an overwhelming zombie threat. I found myself dashing from briefing to briefing, considering all kinds last ditch hail mary plans, desperately looking for any way to get an edge on the unrelenting undead hoards. It quickly became clear that there was little hope left for humanity.

This was when my morning of lobbying seemed to pay off. I was approached by one of the corporations about a private enterprize to evacuate a few hundred Texans to form the world’s first moon colony. A little while later the rocket was ready … but plans for mass evacuation had been curtailed by exorbitant cost. Once they had filled up with their own CEOs, they only had space for a single Texan.

After perhaps a full second of hesitation I abandoned my state/country/planet/family to its inevitable demise, not my finest hour, but you just don’t turn down an offer to become a spacecowboy?

Laurence H

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Episode 1 - Indiana

Indiana may be The Crossroads of America, but it sure was quiet there. By the time news of our predicament reached my office the world was already long lost. But here’s the beauty of the megagame: there’s more than enough space to have fun outside of the main narrative.

Let’s take a small example. The election has just been won and in the cabinet reshuffle I end up with the last seat on the science and technology committee. So, step one: make a good impression. Travel whiteboard out, take an inventory of all the emerging issues from the committee.

Not only does this pull together all the relevant information, but now the people around me are thinking of me less as their hated Republican counterpart and more as the group’s facilitator. A few carefully chosen lies later and I’m setting the agenda for legislation to get my pals in NASA the budget they needed to get back to launching missions and working towards a moonbase.

The happy ending of this microstory is that those NASA toys ended up being able to track the spread of the contagion. The relevant bit? The spread was everywhere. Too little, too late.

Ross M

[mirrorstatestories-blog]

Mirror-State Episode 1

Left to right: Ross M (Indiana), Kris W (Georgia), Laurence H (Texas), Chris M (CIA), Jason P (CIA)