Seeking office horror stories

[jducoeur]

I seem to have accidentally wound up with the high concept for my game for Intercon next year. (As so often, it's all Christian's fault: he is always a font of game ideas.)

To that end, I am looking for any and all ideas for Drip -- the water-cooler horror game. It's going to be a vicious satire of All Things Office. The ideas are already flowing pretty quickly, but I welcome more: if you have character ideas, situations or just war stories about Office Life, send them along and I might work them in. Feel free to brainstorm wildly: weird and unlikely isn't necessarily a bar here. (Those who remember Panel will know how willing I am to get downright strange in my scenarios.)

(No, tpau, I'm not bidding it yet. Among other things, I haven't figured out the game's scope yet. It might be a one-hour 10-person Z game, a two-hour 20-person Sunday-or-Friday game, or a full four-hour 25-to-30-person slot. Once I understand how big the game is, I can think about bidding it...)

Comments

[de-gonzac.livejournal.com]

My department was evacuated because of suspected asbestos in the building. Four or five work groups were scattered to other buildings without furniture, computers, or paper records (like licenses and engineering drawings). We left on less than 5 minutes notice and couldn't take anything at all from the old building in case it was contaminated. My work group ended up all 4 of us in a small conference room with no ventilation. Our engineering team is located in one corner of a cubicle farm in a building almost ten miles away (where there is no visitor parking).

Scenario 1 - a small work group in the office has nothing whatsoever to do with the main office function, but has been assigned there anyway and has to get by on borrowed supplies and equipment.

18 months later, with the 35 or so asbestos refugees finally settling in, the Big Boss has decided to move all 800 employees to a single office in a bad neighborhood with insufficient parking and less individual work space for everyone.

Scenario 2 - the office will be moving shortly, and only half of your stuff will fit in the new smaller workspaces.

I don't know if either of these fits with the game, but they are frequent topics of conversation where I work.

[jducoeur]

We left on less than 5 minutes notice and couldn't take anything at all from the old building in case it was contaminated.

Wow -- that's an impressive little horror story. I imagine a lot of companies wouldn't even survive that particular experience. Definitely some possibilities in those proposed scenarios -- thanks!