[Epiphany] Twenty Pages in Twenty Days

[Paul S]

Greetings All,

Let me say it is quite a thrill to be posting to the Forge for the first time.  I've been lurking for years, but was always content to watch from the sidelines.  However, I've decided that it is time to get out there and start the design process for a game that has been bouncing around in my head for quite a few years.

I also have another motive for beginning work on my game at this time.  As part of my graduate studies, I am currently enrolled in a class entitled "Improvisation and Creative Writing."  Requirements for this class includes keeping a daily (10 entries) process journal that links class improv exercises with our final project.  Our final project is to generate 20 to 30 pages of creative writing (in any form) informed by improvisational strategies.  While most in the class are understandably working with fiction or poetry, I think that this would an ideal opportunity to design a RPG informed by improvisational techniques.  An obvious way to engage these requirements would be for me to use this thread as an arena for linking improv. strategies with my game design and my final project would consist of a finished (or nearly finished) pre-play tested game.

So, much like the 24-hour RPG project and Iron Game Chef, I am accepting the conditions of this class as creative constraints for generating a role-playing game.  As this is a summer class, the final product must be finished by July 5th.  I'm shooting for around 20 pages of finished text in about as many days.

My method will be to post here fundamentals of my game mechanics and themes, reflections on my class notes on how improvisational strategies might inform my role-playing game design, and specific questions from the helpful members of this forum.  I'll begin with the Power 19, and then on a regular basis, will reflect on how improvisational strategies might inform RPG design and how RPG design might promote and deepen the improv. experience for all involved.

As my second post below, I will answer the Power 19.  In subsequent posts I will propose and reflect on improvisational strategies that might help shape my game.

I know it is traditional here on the Forge to split the different aspects of an individual game in progress into different threads.  For these next few weeks, I'd like to keep all my reflections contained in this single thread.  This is for a very pragmatic reason: I'd like, in the end, to email my professor the link to a single thread rather than a massive list.  I hope this is acceptable to all.  Also, I also think that something might be gained for me by keeping everything contained in one location, insofar as I'm realizing the extent to which improvisational creative writing is dependent on a type of free-form expression that can generate creative gems through its messiness.

Thanks in advance for your aid and support in this, my first, endeavor.

[Paul S]

Epiphany, The Power 19

1.) What is your game about?**
This game is about struggling to break through lies and illusions to achieve meaningful truth beyond the lies and machinations of mundane reality.  Epiphany is a game of little stories and characters, but Big Truths.

2.) What do the characters do?**
There is one character in this game, the protagonist played by a singular player.  This character lives their everyday life, amid the promises and snares of the sublime and the mundane forces of the universe.  The protagonist will, through a My Life With Master endgame type mechanic, ultimately receive an epiphany and will pierce the veil that covers their everyday experience.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?**
Standing against and competing with one other stand the forces of the sublime and the mundane, played by 2 opposing GM's.  The GM representing the forces of the sublime will attempt to wake the protagonist out of their apathy, while the GM representing the power of the mundane will attempt to draw the protagonist into deeper webs of deception and bondage. This RPG is to be played with 3 players and attempts an inverted relationship in contrast to traditional RPGs.  There is only one character, while the other players compete with one another to seduce the protagonist to their cosmological reality.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
This game has no mandated or prescribed setting.  The goal of the game to led one character, regardless of setting/background constraints, toward awakening to truths of the world around them.  Larger questions of setting, however, are extremely important for this game.  Before the game begins, working together, all players involved determine the Truth and the Lie of the setting.  The Truth is what is hidden by mundane reality, while the Lie is the status quo of the world, blinding the protagonist to deeper truths.  These truths could be secular, mystical, or religious in nature.  A fine pop culture example of a Truth and a Lie would be that "reality, as the Matrix, is a computer generated dream world" vs. "reality is the observed world in 1999."  To continue this example, elements of the Truth that the Sublime GM might control would be Trinity, Zion, the Oracle, etc., while the oppressive Mundane forces might include the Agents, the Machines, the Architect, etc.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
The protagonist will have one trait: Will.  All other Aspects of the protagonist's life, such as abilities, addictions, friends, possessions, memories, are controlled by the Sublime and the Mundane GM's, and rated on a numerical basis as to their importance in the protagonist's life, effectively taking a traditional RPG character sheet and dividing it between three players.  A beautiful and devoted lover might draw the protagonist toward the Sublime (and will be controlled by the Sublime GM), while the protagonist's addiction to pain-killers might drag the protagonist toward the mundane.   The competing GM's will use these elements of the protagonist's life to push him or her to the point of realizing the Truth, or closing themselves off to the transcendent.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
Thinking this one over....

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
Again, I'm considering this one as the actual mechanics of the system haven't completely jelled.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
The competing GM's will alternate framing scenes and role-playing all aspects of the scene concerned with either the Mundane or the Sublime, while the protagonist player take on the traditional RPG notion of character.

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?).
Every bit of the system will be centered around telling the story of a singular character.  Competing GM's will attempt to bring the protagonist to their "side," while the protagonist player will have a great deal of spotlight attention.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
Resolution will be centered around a bidding mechanic, with each side in the struggle wagering power tokens, derived from their respective Aspects.  I see this system as diceless.  Both GM's will secretly bid tokens by placing them in a shared container and the protagonist will draw the results.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
Each person must take what fate has dealt them, although they can choose amongst possibilities and possibilities for obtaining truth, perspective and transcendence often clash with the everyday concerns, status quo assumptions, and pragmatic ways of living in the world.  These themes will be reinforced by competitive bidding whose economy is based solely on the Aspects, divided amongst the GM's, of the protagonist character.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
This game will be designed for play in one long session, or several short sessions and much like My Life With Master, will have endgame mechanics for the protagonist  to reach Epiphany.  As such, advancement mechanics will not be included.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
N/A

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
Reflection on the forces that shape their everyday lives and life-altering realizations that can dramatically change the course of our time here on earth.  While dealing with Big Truths, this game will focus on the life of one individual and their struggle to free (or fail to free) themselves from the mundane reality.  The protagonist will be seen as a character with little power to shape his or her life beyond the ability of free will to make life-altering choices.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
The competitive mechanics between GM's will receive the most attention as they will drive the story forward.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
I'm most excited about the player-GM inversion as well as the competitive aspect of the oppositional GM's as sort of "devil and angel on the shoulder."

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't?
Epiphany center on the life of a singular character's struggle to come to grips with deep philosophic questions.  It also attempts to, based on the themes of the struggle between the mundane and sublime forces in our lives, to invert the traditional GM-player dichotomy.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?
To start, as a free PDF distributed via the internet.  The ultimate goal would be to release the game as a 30-40 page staple bound book with minimal art, such as "Breaking the Ice."

19.) Who is your target audience?
I hope to reach the ultra-niche RPG players interested in blending a strong dose of dramatic philosophy into their games.

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Question for consideration:  As of now, my initial thoughts for the premise of Epiphany have a strong philosophic leaning, with the protagonist always orientated towards being transformed by a "Big Truth."  Might I want to scale down the parameters for Truth, such as the Truth for an alcoholic being "drinking is killing me and destroying my life" vs. the Lie of "my drinking is under control and I can stop anytime I want?"  Could these very personal insights be considered "epiphanies" by traditional standards?

[Paul S]

Reflections on Day 1 of Class

Day 1 consisted of a few prefatory notes concerning improvisational vocabulary.  I'll introduce them and attempt to extrapolate them for RPG design purposes. 

A few prefatory notes:  Let me say at the outset that my grasp on gaming theory is extremely tenuous, so many of my declarative statements concerning RPG's here may be attempting to re-invent the wheel.  If some of what I write here re-iterates earlier theory, please let me know and help me refine my gaming-theory vocabulary.  Also, many times I will refer to the "actor" in improvisational space and make connections with RPG's; I am certainly aware of including authorial and directorial stances.  I include all three spaces as part of both the improvisational and narrative RPG practice, and use the title "actor" for brevity.

Here are some foundational improvisational terms introduced by the professor to help frame ideas of improvisation:

Offer = Anything an actor does or says.  For RPG's, any statement, ranging from the social contract, interpretations of shared texts (game books), descriptions of character actions or dialogue, etc.  Indeed, I would find it difficult to exclude anything from the gaming activity from the category of "offer," unless it is a block or acceptance.
Block = To reject an offer.  In effect, this is a veto of a previous actor's contribution to the shared imaginary/creative space with no contributive effect beyond simple negation.   For the improvisational practice, this has no place and must be fiercely avoided.  As many are aware, blocking offers have a long and sad history RPG development and practice, as the traditional GM has been given absolute power to block any player offers based on the whims of his or her "vision" for the imaginary space.  Blocking should be avoided, or at the very least, tightly constrained.
Accept = To take the offer.  The offer is welcomed into the shared imaginative space as a condition for the possibility of further imaginative development and is taken as "fact" for the purposes of the collaborative space.  This is the baseline of improvisational practice.  From an RPG perspective, this would mean that dialogue, description, color, etc., is accepted by fellow players/collaborators into the shared imaginary space as acceptable and is accepted as "fact" of the constituted world/story.  A player stating that his dwarf character has gray eyes and that his or her declaration met with no argument from other players regarding that introduced fact would be a simple and common type of acceptance in RPG's.  Accepting offers would have to be the baseline practice for a non-dysfunctional collaborative game space based on improvisational practice/theory.
Building on the Offer = To accept the Offer and to extend it further from its originally established boundaries.  In terms of improvisational practice, this is the most desirable level, as every actor involved confirms previously stated Offers and collaboratively pushes their momentum forward through additional, confirming offers.  Much like the "story now" ideological framework that characterizes much of contemporary narrative game design, improvisational practice is looking for, from every actor, a "yes, and...."  I would also think that a "yes, but..." or roll the dice could be situated in relation to narrative RPG practice and is encouraged by many contemporary "indie" style RPG's, most notably, Polaris.

From this list, a RPG shaped by improvisational sensibilities would explicitly structure its design towards the fullest possible encouragement of building on offers.  Accepting offers is taken as the baseline for functional play, while collaborative offering should be encouraged through explicit egalitarian game design (alternating proposing stakes, framing scenes, narrating resolutions, etc.).  Conversely, game design informed by improvisational practice would attempt to minimize blocking of offers to the highest possible degree.

As mentioned above, I would like Epiphany to rely as little on dice as possible and work on a token economy.  Incorporating above improv sensibilities could place ranging values on corresponding behaviors.  For instance, building on offers could gain a player two tokens, offering an element could gain one token, simply accepting would gain zero tokens, while attempting to block an offer could cost several tokens.  This would encourage continual building on offers, confirming previous player contributions while pushing and expanding the shared narrative space.

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Questions for Consideration:  As described in the Power 19, I've initially described Epiphany as a game with two players locked in competition, as sort of devil on one shoulder and angel on the other shoulder in the attempt to win over protagonist.  Is competition necessarily antithetical to improvisational practice and RPG's structured around improvisational perspectives?  How might, through game mechanics, I discourage blocking offers and encourage building on offers while also promoting creative competition?  Or, is it possible that certain forms of blocking should not be excluded from a collaborative RPG form?

[matthijs]

Very quick note: Are you aware that there already is an RPG named "Epiphany", published by BTRC?

[Paul S]

Dang.  No I didn't  :-(  I just got finished reading the RPG.net review.

Well, alright.  It looks as though I'm going to need a new name as well.  Very frustrating.

Suggestions?

[Paul S]

I'm a bit saddened that I'll have to abandon the original title for this work.  I've grown somewhat attached to it over time and it framed perfectly what I was attempting to communicate.  I'll take this as a "creative constraint" and move on from there. 

When originally considering titles, by second choice was "Sudden Light," taken from the poem of the same name by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Research leading me to http://www.mrbauld.com/epiphany.html states the following:

"Later in the century Dante Gabriel Rossetti experienced epiphanies which were sudden and unexpected, and on the borderline of the secular and religious. The classic poem is Sudden Light:

I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell;
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before, -
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall, - I knew it all of yore. (lines 1-10)"

How does this new title strike you?  Are there other suggestions for titles?

Given this new development, I'll probably start a new thread with and will leave a link to it here. 

Thanks, matthijs, for catching this early.

[Paul S]

Ok, "Epiphany" is now "Sudden Light" and you can catch the updated thread here

Ah, Epiphany, we barely knew ye.