TEST PLAY · CHI PLAY 2026 · YORK · 2–5 NOVEMBER

Stableford

Four days in one shared world. Players got a character from a capsule machine, scanned it with their phone, and joined everyone else in the same medieval city as it flooded.
▶ WATCH THE REPLAY THE ENDING THE PAPER · ORCHESTRATED REALITY
What it was

One city, everyone playing at once, one writer

On the CHI PLAY 2026 workshop day in York, we put a capsule machine on a table. Each capsule had a character and a QR code. Scanning it opened Stableford on your phone: a city a lot like York, with goblins living under it. The Guild Seal was missing, and the Pageant was four days away.

Everyone played in the same world. Players could type anything, and an AI narrator replied to each of them. But only one agent could change the world. Every find, every step and every lost hit point went through one ledger and was checked against the rules first. Things were limited: if someone took the key, nobody else could have it.

Every morning the water rose and covered more of the map. By Day 4 only Heslington Rise was still dry. Whoever stood there holding the Guild Seal would write the city's new Pact.

Map of Stableford
Map of Stableford. Of its eleven places, ten were under water by Day 4.
The capsule machine, an iPad with the live map, and handouts on the workshop table
The table at the workshop: a cardboard capsule machine, the live city map on an iPad, and the handouts. On the whiteboard: "City will be flooded. What you gonna do?"
01 · ONE LEDGER

Only one writer can change the world. Even with 32 people playing at once, two people can't take the same key.

02 · REAL DICE

The model only suggests which skill to use and how hard it is. The engine rolls a real d20. Typing "I find the Seal" doesn't find it.

03 · A CLOCK

New things appear each day, more if more people played the day before. The flood makes the city smaller every day. Three hidden stories have to be dug out one step at a time.

Replay

Where everyone went, over four days

Each dot is a character played by someone, and the lines show where they walked. Blue rings are places already flooded; faint rings flood the next day. Grey dots are characters who drowned.

—
    The ending · 5 November, 15:00 York

    Nobody got the Seal

    The ending: the Pact ran out. One of four ways the season could end.

    What happened to the Goblin Queen is one of the three mysteries further down. The answers are covered there.

    What the record shows

    Why nobody wrote the Pact

    One player had the goblins' iron key from Day 2, and that key was the only way to the Seal. The ledger shows why they still didn't get it.

    On Day 4 the flood moved everything nobody was holding to dry ground, the Seal included. It went from the Undercroft to Heslington Rise.

    The townsfolk's lines were written before the season started, so they still pointed to the Undercroft. The status bar still said "somewhere under the city."

    The narrator did describe the Seal lying on a scholar's table on the Rise. But in the story it belonged to someone else, so taking it still needed a search roll.

    At 20:57 on the last evening, the key-holder searched the Rise and rolled 11. They needed 15, and didn't try again before the end.

    With only one writer, this kind of failure is easy to see. The story and the ledger disagreed, and the ledger won. Next season we fix the world side: when something moves, the people who know about it should hear that it moved. And when the story hands you something, the ledger should record it.

    The Seal trail: first the iron key, then the lock under the Queen's old lamp.
    Factions

    Six factions, four goals, and only one got what it wanted

    #FACTIONRENOWNLIVEDWHAT HAPPENED
    The season in numbers

    Rare moments and odd habits

    All counted from the record, none written by the model. Every player saw these same cards on their own ending page.

    Achievements

    Who earned what

    Hidden stories

    Three mysteries under the city

    Stableford hid three mysteries, and each was a chain of clues. A townsperson gave the first hint. Players searched the right place, found an item, and only after reading it would the next clue turn up. Below is how each mystery starts and how far players got. The clues and answers are covered; open them if you don't mind spoilers.