- First of all the subtitle is "Plying the Courts of the Hidden Kings." What are hidden kings? Amoungst mortals these would be people like the Capo Crimine of the Cosa Nostra or the venerable 'Boss Hogg' (portrayed by the late Sorrell Booke) of Hazard County.
Except when you enter the world of modern fantasy. Magic is real. Dragons are real. Færies are real. Typical mortals cannot perceive the strange and unusual or just about everything mentioned in this game. Thereby you can have clans of vampires, tribes of werewolves, guilds of ghosts, traditions of magic users and so on. Dozens of groups functioning secretly from each other, vying for control of resources both real and fantastic. That's where the shadow kings and tension flow from. - Now as an ARG, each player will have a cover; they will pretend to be themselves. They will go along with their 'normal' lives only spending as much time as their mortal guise can spare to delve into the politics of occult. For the sake of privacy, people will be cautioned to fictionalize themselves (changing the names to protect the innocent). This allows people to play whenever they want wherever they want and with whomever is available, even asynchronously.
Needless to say, in the nearly impossible case of chara death, players will simply refictionalize their lives for a new chara. - As an example of a 'secret society', I offer the Red Caps. These are fæ who engage in human cannibalism; they are not related as a species, but as a movement. The wearing of the red cap is a call out for support of other members of this seemingly disorganized body; it is also a threat to any who champion the cause of the mortals.
I imagine the fun of putting on a red stocking cap (the cap can take any form) shopping for Xmas presents, flaunting your in-game status, but only to other players. It may be still more fun to wonder about every red chapeau wearer who could be a player on a 'mission'.
Fang
(Who doesn't own anything red...yet.)
