(A Penny For My Thoughts) Alternate Settings

[LorenZo_M]

Hi,
I`m trying to make an alternate settings for "A Penny For My Thoughts" set in the surreal and dreamlike universe of David Lynch.
I have tryed a lot of different questionaire...

In this my latest version I think I preserve a drama structure for the fiction. a kind of dramatic structure, a typical framework
of classical myths, tragedies and dramas, common even in the fairy tales and dreams:

- Set-up (place, time, characters)
- Development (plot, presentation of the problem, opportunities)
- Crisis (transformation)
- Conclusion (solution)

I hope you will like this hack.
I'd like to know your opinion about it.
Do you have any suggestions on modifying the facts document and the questionaire?

\thank you in advance for your kindly reply
... and sorry for my English...


A Panny For My Lynch working title
Variant for  A Penny For My Thoughts
Set in the surreal and dreamlike universe of  David Lynch


Facts & ...not so much Reassurances

⦁   It is the twenty-first century. Technology – cars, planes, computer networks, mobile phones, etc. – has not advanced beyond your hazy familiarity with it, nor has humanity been thrown into a new dark age, although the unknown is creeping around every corner.

⦁   The world is a mundane place. Its wonders and terrors come from simple and personal things, like the birth of a child or the death of a love one.  Rest assumed that you could be haunted by spirits. But an inexplicable mystery haunts your existence and, in your restlessness, dreams and nightmare, reality and hallucinations become entangled, in a never-ending short circuit. If you remember spirits, surreal people or situations, sensations uncontrollable by reason, metaphysical locations, don't label them automatically as figments of you imagination. Reality often bends to unreality, layers overlap and things aren't always what they seem.

⦁   You are a normal, everyday person. This isn't to say that you might not be a remarkable individual, but feats like leaping across rooftops or stop bullets with your bare hands are simply impossible . While indeed, some people or entities manage to manipulate minds, see the future, look beyond reality.

⦁   Your condition was caused by physiological or psychological trauma surrounding events in your personal life. It was not caused by a shadowy government conspiracy or similar organization. The drama of your past is as heavy as granite, while you wait for a release that may never come.

Questionaire

1.        Recall a secret you hide deeply inside   $$ 

    When I think off ___________________________________________, I remember:

    What is it that you never told to anyone?

2.   Recall a disquieting memory    $$$ 

     When I think off ___________________________________________, I remember:

     What was disquieting about it?

3.   Do you recall the intensely evil event that caused your loss of memory?       $$$$
     
When I think off ___________________________________________, I remember

     What is it that more than anything else are you afraid of losing?

Do you want to remember your past?

YES      NO


DOWNLOADABLE PDF http://www.formatoql.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Penny_Lynch_ENG_2-8.pdf

[Ron Edwards]

Hello, and welcome.

My only concern is that you might be trying to induce others to play in a way that you might find most fun simply playing for yourself, for your own character, without a hack. But I may be misunderstanding you, because great game designs are around every corner and I don't want to miss one.

The answer lies in the phrase "preserve a dramatic structure for the fiction." You don't have to explain to me what that is - I know it very well. What I need to understand is whether, in playing A Penny for My Thoughts, you have discovered that a dramatic structure appears or fails to appear.  I'd like to know more about the times when you've really played it, and what happened in terms of character development and events.

Best, Ron

[LorenZo_M]

My only concern is that you might be trying to induce others to play in a way that you might find most fun simply playing for yourself, for your own character, without a hack. But I may be misunderstanding you, because great game designs are around every corner and I don't want to miss one.

Hi Ron
I don`t have the ambition to have created something new. I love A Penny for My Thoughts but the origilal Facts and Reassurances  are not suitable for playing in a dreamlike environment. So I try a different setting  and consequently I had fun thinking about a different questionnaire.
Maybe it doesn`t work or maybe it works similarly to alternative sets included in A Penny for My Thoughts.
I`m only looking for suggestions...

What I need to understand is whether, in playing A Penny for My Thoughts, you have discovered that a dramatic structure appears or fails to appear. 

oh... I may be misunderstanding you. Don`t you notice the dramatic structure of "A Penny for My Thoughts"?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi,

My question isn't really about what's in the rules, or how I read them, but rather, how well they worked for you.  - whether the dramatic structure successfully appears in play. It will help to see whether you're looking for a new structure or if the existing one is right for your intended dreamlike/surreal context.

[LorenZo_M]

Hi,

My question isn't really about what's in the rules, or how I read them, but rather, how well they worked for you.  - whether the dramatic structure successfully appears in play. It will help to see whether you're looking for a new structure or if the existing one is right for your intended dreamlike/surreal context.

Hi, sorry for the delay...
You are right.
Let me explain...
I was playing "Penny" with some friends, once... Suddenly my friend began to levitate in the air. This is not posible with the original setting.
Ok, we can hold with a different setting before starting to play... in the Italian handbook there is a setting to play to a sort of Lovecraft environtment, but it doesn't work to me.
So... Maybe we could play "twin peaks" with the original questions, but I thought about a setting and some questions that could hepl me to play in surreal context.
I heve in mind things like "a shocking revelation"; "a secret"; something "particularly wrong"... draw inspiration from things made by D. Lynch, things like Rabbits (... no good memory, a bad memory) or and Inland Empire.
We like Penny... maybe there are other that make that thing better... but I would try... I'll tell you how it went...

I'm realy sorry for my English...
Thank you in advance for your kindly reply.

[Ron Edwards]

If you're thinking about Lynch's work like I think about it, or at least similarly, then maybe these cues could be focused on player responses rather than in-fiction direction. "Shock someone." "Completely reverse someone's understanding of what originally happened." "Challenge someone's trust in humanity." "Challenge someone's faith that this story will reach a conclusion."

In which case, again, there's no direction at all about what must happen in the fiction - the player can do whatever they want to the fiction to generate the proposed effect. I should stress that as a game mechanic, the goal isn't to achieve the stated effect, but to have the acting player try to do it, and whatever happens fictionally is the actual intended effect of the mechanic.

But that might be a little extreme.