Harlekin-Maus monthly: Cubes

[Zak Arntson]

Roleplaying at the office.

http://www.harlekin-maus.com/games/cubes/cubes.html">Cubes

Game design notes:

This game came in a flash. I was really sick of work, so I wrote a quickie on Cubes (you can find it somewhere at http://www.livejournal.com/~zaka">LiveJournal). The Premise is: "How do we deal with the everday drudgery of the office without succumbing to the company's will?"

I decided on a competitive game, where Issues would arise (busted copier, misplaced paychecks, shrinking cubicles) and the Players would then come up with solutions. The mechanic is http://indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1211">Player-Influenced where the Issue has a poker hand, and all the Players are trying to come up with a better hand. So the Unknown Factor is the various poker hands, with the Players influencing events by being able to draw more cards.

Strategy comes in when the different traits are used. The management-driven traits (Drive, Big Picture and Seniority) let the Players draw many cards at the high risk of worsening the Issue. Non-management traits (No 'I' in Team, Investment Risk and Misallocation) give a smaller reward to the Player but offer a lower risk. I'm hoping this will keep Players from making too many management-driven actions, reinforcing the Premise.

When one Player wins against the Issue's hand, all the losing Players increase their negative Assets (management ones), losing their Employee when an Asset gets too high and the Employee becomes management. This is where the friendly competition plays in.

So there you have it. Gamist, implicit Fortune-in-the-Middle (you come up with a solution, draw some cards, and roleplay the success/failure) and a Player-Influenced mechanic.

In retrospect, I may make the Fortune-in-the-Middle explicit, creating a stronger social contract (and less arguments about what-happens-when). And since it should consist of some competitive strategy, the basic mechanic should be playtested for a good (read: fun) balance of luck and strategy.

I also may want to reinforce the Premise with some stronger sense of management-driven = raised chances/high risk.

[contracycle]

Don't miss the opportunity for Tilted Cubes: The ENRON Supplement.  The you can can include things like "Pre-emptive Accounting", "Shift The Risk", "Oiling The Wheels Of State", "Petty Patronage", "Bonfire Of The Auditors" and "My Manager Got A Retention Bonus But All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt".