London Particular

[Coyote247]

After completing the Other as a freeware project to prove some artistic sensibility to what started as an irreverent game to play with 4channers, I'v now had my next idea that has me tinkering with "lite gamist utilitarian narrative-driving mechanics" game-type.

That is, I had the inkling of a game about playing unpleasant Victorians put into a series of artificial social experiments or increasingly awkward situations with fae/demon creatures which operate on sort of the classical faerie and more in period to say Wonderland type principles of ettiquette. That is, you have to be polite or they'll eat you. These strange alien things are bound by ritual and formality. So you would think Victorians would have the best chance of surviving them, but I think that this is a great place to show the nasty paradoxes of Victorian society.

Perhaps your trying to preserve your pool of Etiquette Points despite having a cruder inclination towards Gaslight (intrigue and scientific argument), Nonsense (childrens games and faerie tales, rhymes and songs), Hellfire (occultism and alienism), and Vulgarity (sex, slang, crude humour).

I can imagine common characters being a stern gentleman (gaslight), a street whore (vulgarity), a little girl (nonsense), or a learned chap (hellfire), but those are just examples.


Perhaps the Demons/Fae/whatever...the Strangers, perhaps what they say is so intriguing but you can't help but respond. They have a glamour to them that you can't help but converse with them, and your fighting against the draw to speak to think carefully about what you say, and whenever you fall back upon your cruder speech habit it's a risky blow that might take none to some to all of your Ettiquette Points. The point would be to survive all the linked encounters without losing all your EP and getting eaten/taken away.


I think narratively it's a solid premise for a little capsule game, but mechanically it could use some sort of thematic gimmick. I ultimately think little "forgite" games while narrativistic in attention are, in their simple rules that focus towards a single style rather than universal simulationsim, are in fact Gamist by nature. So the important of the engine being thematically tied to the subject matter cannot be overstressed. Which is why I am going to give it much thought and be open to suggestion, hence this thread.

I think that the generation of interesting roleplaying opportunity in the mechanical conflict would be that the Strangers are by nature absurd, just very formal. Your put into increasingly ridiculous situation but you have to restrain yourself and take it seriously without taking it too seriously. Keeping your mind formal but not scheming. Bassically leaving your pragmatism, fear, and social climbing and ignorance behind.

Plus navigating tricky waters of multiple Strangers at once. Imagine being expected to pick sides in a philosophical argument by two child-stealing monsters that speak in riddles!


It's also tempting to make up and overly complicated system with a huge trait list based on finding double-meanings, rhyming slang, and so on with victorian vernacular.


I suppose an in-period set of terms for the victorians and the strangers would be Marks and Lurkers.

[Teataine]

I've noticed Other threads around /tg/ but wasn't really paying attention, I certainly will now.

It sounds like a splendind idea, but at the moment I'm much too deep in my own system to be of any real help. I'm just going to toss around a few ideas.
Inspiration wise, I think The French Liutenant's Woman, albeit a lenghty novel, could be a nice insight into the Victorian mindset from a modern viewpoint, but I think the character of Charles could serve as some sort of a model. I also seem to remember a RPG based on Jane Austen's books that might be of help...but I digress.

The game could run purely as a "debate-simulator", with characters being capable in various fields, and those being opposed in a rock, paper, scissors manner (reason counters faith, nonsense counters reason, maturity counters nonsense, dullness counters maturity...or something, I'm getting lost here). The resolution itself would be partialy narrative, partialy through the "karma concept" with tokens pushed around as stakes to be seen and raised and fallout causing loss of etiquette and control of the situation. Although you'd have to make it setting specific, with some special tricks and twists, or it would be just a mechanic without the oomph your basic concept has.