War Birds (2016)

Publisher blurb: War Birds is an anthology of games about women in World War II. These larp and freeform style games focus on the ways that war creates opportunities for women that are at once terrible in their circumstance and beautiful in their capacity to transform lives on the margins.

Designed by an international team of women writers, War Birds presents fun-to-play, easy-to-run games that let you explore exciting stories you might not have heard before:

• Home front factory workers embroiled in racial strife
• Female aviators finding sisterhood and freedom in the skies
• Women finding queer expression and community in a WAC motor pool
• Three generations of Jewish partisans holding on to tradition under fire
• A family in occupied Denmark struggling with resistance and control
• A Japanese-American family under relocation orders determine what to keep and what to leave behind

A collection curated by Moyra Turkington with games written by Moyra Turkington, Ann Eriksen, Kira Magrann, Shoshana Kessock and a bonus game by Wendy Gorman, these games have been put together as an anthology with an interest in creating a multiplicity of perspectives about women in conflict. The games sometimes overlap, reinforce and contradict each other. They provide a broader investigation into the contribution of women in the war effort and they ask hard questions about history and how we interpret and remember it.

Each game is fully complete and playable without any of the other games in the anthology. You can play just one, or you can play them together for a rich play experience where these astounding stories provide contrast and strength in context to one another. These games are designed to give you everything you need to know to run or play them – with no research required.

Honours:

• We Were WASP was a nominee for an Otto in categories: Best Storytelling & Best Roles at Fastaval 2014
• Model Protectorates was a nominee for a Jury’s Special Prize Otto at Fastaval 2015
• Keeping the Candles Lit was a nominee for Indiecade 2016
• War Birds won the IGDN Indie Groundbreaker Award for Best Setting in 2017
• War Birds was nominated for the IGDN Indie Groundbreaker Award Best Game in 2017
• War Birds was nominated for the Indie RPG Awards