Department Nine I wrote for the 2007 Game Chef roleplaying game design contest. It’s a game about oracular spies fighting the future in an absurdist time travel Greek myth mashup. It’s weird and ridiculous and a bit hard to describe.

It’s a little like watching Minority Report, Back to the Future, The Office, Burn After Reading and Oedipus Rex all at once. Last time we played, we had a were-swan manager being blackmailed by his employee, who was channelling advanced technology (eventually, a doomsday device) back in time to Benjamin Franklin to ensure the Yanks won the Revolution. We had an illicit office romance involving going back in time to have megafauna safaris. We had glyptodon races interrupted by sabertoothed tigers and flying car police chases interrupted by monkeys flinging poo. We had a spy disguised as a pizza delivery guy get in a three way sex scene with a woman and her future self. Okay, so it’s not much like those movies, unless you throw them all in a blender on “high”.

The original Game Chef version worked moderately well, but never fired on all cylinders. This version has had some rules changed substantially, and works pretty well. Still not a totally finished project, but very playable, and hilariously fun when we tried it.

Department Nine Revision 0.3