Recurring Advertisement in The London Times throughout the summer of 1876:
Wondrous Opportunity for Leisure and Health!
Gambling is the preferred entertainment of ladies and gentlemen of the modern upper class who may indulge in games of chance and speculation to achieve a healthy balance with the rationality and order of daily life. They take advantage of this opportunity for leisure and health by visiting the famous Casino and Spa at Monte Carlo. English travelers, after visiting the warm lands of the south of Europe, often decide to stay here for the cold season, many for the rest of their lives.
Monte Carlo has one of Europe's leading tourist resorts. It is hard to imagine that a few short decades ago, the prestigious square was nothing but overgrown wasteland over seawater-filled caves. The visionary François Blanc, founder of the Société des Bains de Mer, transformed it completely within three years; he built the Casino and, a mere ten metres away, the Hôtel de Paris. In 1861, a 50-year concession to operate the gaming rooms in Monte Carlo was granted to
M. Blanc.
The resort includes a Spa with the latest inventions in health and relaxation, and the Beaux-Arts Casino with exceptional gaming facilities. The newest Turkish bath cabinets and innovations in galvanic treatments are located under the same roof as our relaxing gambling entertainments, including roulette, card and dice games, a new version of bagatelle (called billiards), backgammon, and chess, for which the French are famous. Intriguing sandwiches, invented in 1762 for the 4th Earl of Sandwich to be eaten with one hand while gambling, are provided to our customers. Our health-giving mineral waters can relieve a variety of diseases from gout to liver disorders and bronchitis.
In July 1875, Englishman Joseph Jagger gained the Casino at Monte Carlo great publicity by
"breaking the bank" (meaning that he won all the money held on the table by the croupier). You too may win!
The casino is exclusively for the benefit of tourists. The citizens of Monaco are exempt from taxes and are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms.
A Single Evening Live-Action Roleplaying Game
set in the Brassy's Men universe
Written and run by Dig, Gail, & Kerry Freedman
Saturday, August 5th from 7pm to Midnight
At a private home in St. Charles, Illinois
"It is 1876, a time of great change and progress. The influence of steam within the last century has allowed us to travel further and faster than we ever dreamt possible. Our golden age of progress has produced engineering feats that are daily transforming London into a city of innovation and modern wonder. The darkness and superstition of the un-Enlightened era are soon to be long behind us..."
The Brassy's Men Campaign premiered in the Spring of 2004 in the Baltimore/Washington area and is a rich, character-interaction driven Campaign LARP set in late Victorian-era London. It is a time of politics, intrigue, heresy, espionage, and corruption. A technological mask of progress and intellectualism hides the dark and scaly underbelly of the city. The world of Brassy's Men is an alternate history London where weird science is the rule of the day, while magic lurks in the shadows, and the wrong word can get you imprisoned, scandalized, or dead.
Dig, Gail, Kerry and a number of other local players have continuing characters in this campaign, so we have decided (with the approval of the Brassy's GMs) to run a "between game event" in the famous Casino in Monte Carlo. This game is not only a social event for existing Brassy's characters, but also (because this is just the sort of thing we DO) a stand-alone LARP with fully-plotted one-shot characters set in the Brassy's universe.
Come spend an evening in Victorian Monte Carlo, gambling in the glamorous Casino and rubbing shoulders with royalty, the famous and the fabulously wealthy!