Ouija?

[bodhi]

This idea came to me last night, and it's been nagging me ever since, so here it is.



Some Inspirations:

The fictions of Jorge Luis Borges
Umberto Eco
Incunabula.org
the book, Finite and Infinite Games
The Invisibles
The X-Files
Psychic Questing (I stumble on some wierd stuff in my travels)
Ouija; specifically, this one incredible guy I found while surfing the net who creates his own "Ouija" boards.  Each one is painted on glass.  Cool.


Concept:

All that Occult stuff?  Yeah, it's true - for some people.  Consensual reality is cracking bit by bit, and "other" realities are bleeding in.  Most of them are lost in our own noise.  You hold in your hands a powerful tool to cut through that noise, a direct link to an alien reality.  What are you going to do with it?


How it Works:

The Players play themselves.  There are no attributes, skills, numbers or descriptors for characters.  Gaming sessions play out in real time.

A session starts when a player says, "game in".  It pauses when a player says "game out".  Pauses can be of indefinate length.  When a game is in session, the players portray themselves.

The system uses customized Ouija-type boards (there's that quirky guy I mentioned above) to develop the story.  Each board has a separate function - it provides information on a particular aspect of the alien reality.  The game can be played with only one board, or with multiple boards.  

I envision the boards filled with all sorts of strange symbols, and each board comes with supplemental material explaining how to use it: instructions, a reference work with the current understanding of the meanings behind the symbols, and setting information describing the features of the alien reality the board links to.

The story develops as players interact together with the board(s), asking it questions and trying to decipher its answers; and then, acting on those answers.  Whenever direction is needed, players consult the board.  Whenever a player wants to add to the story, she consults the board with another player.


Rewards

I'm not exactly sure what to do here - perhaps additions to the player's boards could be the reward (more power through a bigger vocabulary).  I don't know right now what kinds of actions might merit a reward.


Anyone have any ideas on where to take this?

[Laurel]

What kind of action resolution system are you envisioning?  Have you drawn out any of these ouji boards themselves yet, on paper or some kind of graphics program?

The Premise itself is promising.  I personally don't enjoy RPGs where I'm playing myself, because as soon as circumstances become "unnatural", I immediately become stronger, braver, etc., in game-play than I really would if actually facing raw Evil.  I'd rather portray a fictional character right from the start and be consistent.

[Lance D. Allen]

Hm.. You're playin' with fire, Bodhi. Whether or not you believe in the Ouija board and "All that Occult stuff" there are many people who do. A lot of those people who do are the same sort of people who decry D&D as devil worship.. If this game ever hits the market, you'll create a feeding frenzy the likes of which TSR never faced. I think the only people who will thank you will be WotC, because for a while the focus will be turned away from them..

If you do publish this game, I'd say keep it to web-marketing, and keep it out of the stores. As a victim of the D&D = Evil mindset for much of my youth, I honestly feel you'll be better off.

[Mike Holmes]

Hm.. You're playin' with fire, Bodhi. Whether or not you believe in the Ouija board and "All that Occult stuff" there are many people who do. A lot of those people who do are the same sort of people who decry D&D as devil worship.. If this game ever hits the market, you'll create a feeding frenzy the likes of which TSR never faced. I think the only people who will thank you will be WotC, because for a while the focus will be turned away from them..

I think that this is an overstatement. If Ron can publish Sorcerer and get it on game store shelves without such a boo-ha-ha, I think that a game that has Oija boards will probably manage to sneak by. I think that most of that furor is old news. Still, Lance has a point in general that you might become aware of such concerns.

For updates on the state of RPG advocacy and such issues, see http://www.theescapist.com.  You'd get a better idea there just what the current anti-gaming atmosphere is.

Mike

[Walt Freitag]

The story develops as players interact together with the board(s), asking it questions and trying to decipher its answers; and then, acting on those answers. Whenever direction is needed, players consult the board. Whenever a player wants to add to the story, she consults the board with another player.

I'm not sure I'm following you correctly. Do you mean the players actually operate the boards Ouija-board fashion to get information (that is, really concentrate and really try to elicit movement from the pointer without conscious choice)? Or are they supposed to fake it somehow? (I recall at the age of about seven, using Ouija as a form of arm wrestling, as a friend and I tried to force it to answer either "yes" or "no" to questions like "is [one of us] a spazz?" I'm pretty sure that's not what you have in mind, especially if those suckers are made of glass!)

I'm not sure you'd get much response from doing the "real" Ouija thing with a board full of unfamiliar symbols. I think the principle of garbage in, garbage out applies to all information systems including Ouija boards, so a pretty thorough familiarity with the symbols beforehand might be required to get anything more than randomness. Randomness would be OK, but you might not even get that if the players are really trying to make it work Ouija fashion. (But heck, you might as well try it.) Also, it might be kind of slow even if it works, or might work only for some people.

Custom tarot decks with the same alien symbols might be a more reliable option (not as original, but I've never heard of a game that would put quite the same interpretation on it as what you describe).

- Walt

[Jared A. Sorensen]

First of all, let's be adult about this. Ouija boards are dumb. And the chances of you actually making a dent in the RPG market (enough to elicit condemnation from religious figures) are slim to none. So don't worry about it...

Second, what is it about a Ouija board that makes it interesting. Not what it's "supposed" to be about...but what exactly engages us? I'm guessing that in RPG terms, it'd be the ability to exercise control/influence over the outcome.

So that's what the game should be about. You can do it with any kind of mechanic (dice, cards, a board, whatever). The trick is to figure out how the toy works and apply those principles to the game.

[bodhi]

Sorry everone, I've given the wrong impression here.  I used the easiest analogy I could think of to describe the vague idea that was in my head, and in hindsight I should have expressed myself with more precision.

Second, what is it about a Ouija board that makes it interesting. Not what it's "supposed" to be about...but what exactly engages us? I'm guessing that in RPG terms, it'd be the ability to exercise control/influence over the outcome.

So that's what the game should be about. You can do it with any kind of mechanic (dice, cards, a board, whatever). The trick is to figure out how the toy works and apply those principles to the game.

Yeah, Jared has it right.  Ouija was an inspiration, but the gameboard I have in mind is a mechanic to give players narrative control in the game.  Really, the board is color.  Dice, cards, or whatever could be used instead, I just like the idea of a "symbol board" in a roleplaying game - I think it could be tactile and weird in a way that dice just aren't anymore.  It's the symbols/pictograms/languages on the board that are important.  They give the players inspiration and narrative control while simultaneously limiting that control.

Here's a brief example of what I mean:

There is no planchette (is that what the pointer is called in Ouija?).  The players toss coins instead.  Depending on where the coins land on the board, or what face each coin shows, the player is left with a group of symbols.  The symbols don't correspond to the alphabet; each symbol relates to a concept or legend.  By stringing the symbols together in some pre-arranged way, the player is given a framework to describe the results of his actions, or what happens next in the narrative.  I hope to make the game as "gm-full" as possible.

The gameboards are all based on cultures from the setting.  They act as a kind of character class for the players.  Each different culture may have different symbols, different methods of threading those symbols together, or the same/different interpretations for common symbols.  I envision the boards being compact, maybe 8x11 inches - small enough to tote around, easy enough to whip out almost anywhere for a quick session.

I hope this clarifies things a little more.  Thank you everyone for helping me to see where the idea might go.

[Big Talk]

yes, my friends + I planing to design a very loose narrativist game simply called 'DIVINATION' that would allow any stochastic process to be used to add to the story.

depending on the GM/PC/premise you could turn to:
ouija
I ching
Bill Burroughs' cut-up technique
situationist derive
media divination (a la munchkins)

and more

I like the idea of adding to the board.

let's work on this- I'm available.

Big Talk

[Jared A. Sorensen]

You could fashion a "board" out of some Tarot cards. Draw a bunch at the start of the game, lay 'em out and roll dice at 'em, craps-style. The card the die lands on is one result, the number on the dice is another.

You'd have to build a little rolling table for 'em, but that'd be simple.

Another idea: make a collage of different elements from magazines, comics, newspapers, whatever and use that as the rolling surface. OR, get some magnetic poetry sets and lay out a few dozen random words.

[bodhi]

Hey Big Talk,

Yeah, let's!  I have to work right now, but I'll be around later tonight or tomorrow.  

BJ (bodhi)

[Big Talk]

alright, I'll admit it- I've been hoarding concepts.  here's to my first communal game design.

If you'd consider putting the ouija boad idea aside for now, I think the hottest thing we could do would be to design a narrativist game with a strong gamist bent- based on cards drawn randomly from a tarot deck.

1) tarot cards offer an almost infinite amount of symbolism + creative material- from the images + the standard fortune-telling interpretations to their connections to Kabalistic + archetypal systems- have you been reading Alan Moore's Promethea?  there seems to be a dissertation in each card.

dig this depth:

Key 4 - THE EMPEROR - The Zodiac Acting Through Aries Upon the Sun, Initiating Spring, the Originator and Wisdom of Sovereignty and Beauty.

Number 4 is the number of the physical plane, and the corresponding geometrical figure is the square, the base of the pyramid, the most stable of all forms. The various forms of the cross also symbolize 4, representing Spirit (the vertical line) penetrating matter (the horizontal line). Tarot Key 4, the Emperor, similarly represents the solid material plane. This card typifies order, reason, boundaries, discipline, morals, and ethics. Its focus is self assertion and clear, logical thinking. Key 1, the Magician, is the active principle of life; Key 2, the High Priestess, is its opposite - the passive principle; and Key 3, the Empress, is the "word made flesh and dwelling among us." The Emperor is the active Father force contrasted with the active Mother force through whom his characteristics are brought forth. He is the Magician after his union with the High Priestess has changed her into the Empress and made him the father of her offspring.

The Emperor stands for domination in the material world, authority, paternity, and the regulation of life by law. The word emperor means "he who sets in order," for he is the mate of the Empress, and they empower and complement each other as interdependent co-creators. The Empress produces the imagery of desire while the Emperor produces the will which empowers it. This implies that the Emperor's active power of regulation has to do with the control of mental imagery. The Emperor takes the manifesting energy from the Empress and passes it down to the Higher Self of the individual.

This Path connects the Solar Logos (Tiphareth) with the energy of Chokmah, the all-begetter, whose Divine Name is YHVH or simply Jah (YH), the stimulus for all manifestation. It is the manifestation of this Logos (the Word) principle in its identification with the Constituting Intelligence that creates everything in existence, and there is a strong creation theme in this Path because it crosses the Great Abyss separating existence from the Supernals. To "constitute" is to set up, establish, compose, and order, which is represented by the image of the Emperor. In Gematria, the word "constituting" (MOMID) has the same numerical value as "the Pillar" on the Tree of Life (164), the OMDIM, which are the same letters rearranged. This points to the fact that this Intelligence constitutes the structure, support and equilibration of the whole
Tree. This path inspires and activates the processes of organization and
fundamental laws, constituting the substance of creation in pure darkness. The manifestation of this principle is that which creates, frames and composes everything in existence.

The 15th Path is the letter Heh, a "window." In the Divine Name YHVH, Heh is the feminine aspect, the Creative and Sustaining force of Tetragammaton. Qabalists call the letter Heh the archetype of Universal Life, for it is contained within the roots of all verbs in the Hebrew language which relate to being. Heh is the first of the 12 "simple" letters in Hebrew and is therefore assigned to Aries, the first of the Zodiacal Signs. Aries, or the Ram, is the Lamb of Gnostic Christianity and refers back to Tiphareth, the Solar World. This is the first path to which a sensory function is attributed, i.e. the sense of sight, referring to the contemplation of Spirit upon Itself during Its descent.[/size]

2) there's endless amounts of books of interpretation + multitudes of decks out there- if you hit the new age store you'll see (among others)- the Native American tarot, Cartouche (Egyptian tarot), the witches' tarot, the african tarot, Crowley's Thoth deck, 2 Golden Dawn decks, etc.  so there's a huge amount of source material + add-ons already out there.

3) if we use your idea- PCs as ourselves. or regular people, then not only does the game encourage us to learn more tarot in preparation but asks to use that knowledge to create change to drive a story.  magical consciousness?

my first big idea would be that everyone should bring their own deck(minus the minor arcana?). I like the idea that all would be shuffled together, forcing players to interpret each other's decks regardless of how bizarre they are.

[Seth L. Blumberg]

my first big idea would be that everyone should bring their own deck(minus the minor arcana?). I like the idea that all would be shuffled together, forcing players to interpret each other's decks regardless of how bizarre they are.

Unfortunately, unlike decks of playing cards, Tarot decks are not all the same size.  (Some of 'em aren't even the same shape--there's at least one fairly popular deck with circular cards.)

[Big Talk]

yes, card shape is all over, for sho sho.  I don't think it matters- far more important is that the cards, conceptually, are somwhat standardized- 20-25 major arcana:

The names of the Major Arcana cards frequently change from deck to deck, but historically they've been The Fool (un-numbered or 0), The Magician (I), The High Priestess (originally the Popess) (II), The Empress (III), The Emperor (IV), The Heirophant (originally the Pope) (V), The Lovers (VI), The Chariot (VII), Strength (VIII, originally XI), The Hermit (IX), The Wheel of Fortune (X), Justice (XI, originally VIII), The Hanged Man (XII), Death (XIII), Temperance (XIV), The Devil (XV), The Tower (XVI), The Star (XVII), The Moon (XVIII), The Sun (XIX), Judgement (XX), and The World (XXI).  

which means that when a player is holding cards from decks other than his, he has some similar elements to draw on, as well as (potentially) completely totally different graphics, and genres.

take a look at the run-downs of many different decks here:

http://www.advancenet.net/~jscole/tarot.htm