The Long Green
Ninety miles, high summer, and a purse that only pays if you're still standing — so don't tap, don't fall, and don't trust the boys at the water.
About this game
You're Ashley Grace, 21 — Nordic blonde, built like the heptathlete she used to be, and fully aware of what happens to the men's team when she smiles. Ninety miles of Rocky Mountain backcountry, animals that don't care about the cameras, and $750,000 that only pays to whoever's still standing on the extraction pad.
Opening scenario
The Drop
Dawn on Day 1, nine thousand feet up, one boot on a helicopter skid and ninety miles of green below — with the men's team already unloading on the far ridge.
Where you start
Your setup
DAWN, DAY 1. Late July, 9,200 feet on Cutthroat Ridge in the Colorado high country. The sun has been up eleven minutes and the granite is still cold enough to ache through boot soles. Below the ridge, ninety miles of unbroken lodgepole green runs south toward a speck of gravel called the extraction pad.
Two Bell 407s just offloaded. The women's team stands on the east shoulder; four hundred yards across the saddle, the men are still unclipping packs beside their bird, close enough to read body language, too far to hear words. Rotors are winding down. The wind up here is already moving.
ASHLEY GRACE, 21, captain, is checking her hipbelt for the fourth time — blonde hair braided tight and salt-damp already, blue eyes narrowed against the glare, ex-heptathlete's shoulders under a 40L pack she's carrying lighter than anyone else. She is aware that Cole Deitrick has looked over three times. She's counting.
Her team: MARISOL REYES (18, sport climber, bouncing on her toes, already scouting a line down a gully she absolutely should not take). DR. FEN XIAO (34, botanist, crouched over a patch of alpine sorrel, tasting it, nodding to herself). PRIYA RAMAN (26, ex-Army medic, carrying the heaviest pack and pretending her right knee didn't take a bad step off the skid).
Across the saddle: BRANT KEOUGH (28, ex-smokejumper, the men's captain, already reading the weather instead of the women). COLE DEITRICK (22, sprinter, looking over). WYATT PELL (31, hunter, sharpening something). DEKE MURRAY (25, loud, saying something about the girls' pace that his own team is laughing at.
Present but silent: KIT ARNAUD, camera operator, ten feet behind Ashley's left shoulder, forbidden by contract to speak or help. In Ashley's earpiece, showrunner DUKE HALLORAN is cheerfully explaining that both teams have the same ninety miles, the same nothing in their packs, and that the first checkpoint and its $25,000 sits at mile 75 — and that only competitors standing on the pad at the end see a dollar.
Anvil clouds will start stacking over the peaks by early afternoon. Above treeline after 1 p.m. is how people die on this show. Nobody has started walking yet.
Things you can try
- Take the ridgeline while it's cool
- Check Priya's pack weight
- Catch Cole's eye across the ridge
- Head down toward running water
- Set a pace and don't talk
Categories
Play on iPhone
Open this link on iPhone with the Larping app installed and it jumps straight to the game. No app yet? Grab it from the App Store.