The Line Is the Game is a short, comedy live-action role-playing game that turns the everyday frustration of waiting into something playful and a little chaotic. Get your role from the ticket machine and join the line — possibly for a bathroom, possibly for art. Complete your task and use your one-time superpower to change the line before the doors finally open. Tired of waiting? Step out, come back as someone new, and see whether how you wait is a more interesting story than what you’re waiting for.
Graphic design Elisa Piazzi
Device artisan Pablo San Gregorio
How to play?
1. Press the button. Get your role.
2. Join the back of the line in character. Play the role your way.
3. Complete your task to unlock your superpower.
4. To use it, say “I’m using my superpower!”, explain it, and tear your ticket.
Superpowers must be followed.
5. Stay in your spot in the line. You can only move if someone leaves or a superpower moves you.
Need to reach someone far away? Ask others to pass the message along.
6. Play as long as you like, switch roles anytime, have fun!
7. The line is the game.
Extended Rules Explanation
The game begins the moment you press the button.
1. Get your role
Press the red button on the machine to receive a printed ticket. This is your role. It contains:
– A short character description
– A few adjectives that shape their personality
– A paragraph explaining why this character joined the queue today
– A clear goal they’re trying to achieve
– A task that gets you started
Take a moment to imagine who you’ve become. You can walk around, find their voice, invent a backstory that fits. Once you’re ready, join the back of the line in character.
2. Playing in the line
Stay in character while you queue. Everything you say or do is part of the magic circle of play. Nothing in the line should be taken personally—people may act eccentric, shy, dramatic, or emotional, but these are choices their characters make, not real-life feelings.
You must respect the physical order of the line:
– You stay on your spot.
– You only move forward when someone ahead leaves.
– You only shift position when a superpower moves you.
If you need to reach someone far away, send messages through others. Passing information down the line is part of the game.
3. Completing your task and unlocking your superpower
Your ticket contains a task—something that nudges your character toward their bigger goal.
Once you complete your task, you unlock your superpower. Superpowers let you alter the line or influence order in specific ways.
To use it:
- Approach the people it affects.
- Say clearly: “I’m using my superpower!”
- Show your ticket and explain what it does.
- Tear the ticket as instructed:
– A one-time power: tear it completely.
– A multi-use power: tear a small piece off each time, till you tear it off completely when using for the last time.
Superpowers must be obeyed, unless yours explicitly cancels others. If several powers are used in a sequence, follow them in the order they are announced.
4. Keep playing—or switch roles
If you reach your goal, you can stay in character and continue—many players find new ways to evolve their role.
Or you may leave the line, press the button again, draw a new role, and return as someone entirely different.
5. The line is the game
The entire experience happens inside the queue itself. Interactions, tensions, alliances, frustrations, misinterpretations, collaborations—all of it is the gameplay. The meaning comes from how your character affects and is affected by others while waiting.
Play as long as you like. Switch roles anytime. Explore different ways of being.
And above all, enjoy the absurdity, strangeness, and unexpected intimacy of standing in line together.
The Line is the Game is created for No Quarter 2025 at NYU Game Center, curated by Marie Foulston.