A silent game

[Tomas HVM]

I've read the thread "What is possible to achieve with game design", and had a thought:

How about making a game that is supposed to be played out in silence most of the time?

- What theme could be suitable?
- How do you get the players to follow up on it?
- Is it thinkable that such a game could be a great experience?
- Could such a game possibly give insights on the idiom "weigh your words"?

And I'm not thinking a game played out with gestures or something, but a verbally based game, only with fewer words, less talk, more thoughtfulness and slower rythm...

[Kevin Allen Jr]

I'm very interested in the notion that an RPG is mearly a complicated conversation, i find games most facinating when they deal with that notion. I made you invent language with my first game, Primitive. The game i'm working on now is all about the designer conversing with the reader.

I would love to see a silent game. Would you use writing? Would you gesture? i know you already said otherwise but i have a hard time picturing what the players would actually DO around the table. Perhaps they just play and respond?

Have you ever played a game called Ice House? its a strange game where you stack plastic pyramids on top of each other, the kicker is that there isn't a turn order or a board, you simply move where you want to move when you want to move. The game plays sort of like checkers, its all negotiating the space. Check it out because...

it would be cool to see a game where players sit around and roll dice, or trade tokens, or dance the hula or whatever and only when that exhausts its ability to play, does conversation occur.

[Tomas HVM]

I made a small and silly game some years ago, named Barbarians, where players had to choose words for their characters in the character creation, getting 5 words for each point in the characteristic Roar (a measure of intelligence and lung-capacity). These were the words they would have to make do with in the game. It made for some funny dialogues.

The Silent Game
What would the players actually do around the table? They would sit in silence. They would reflect upon the things said and done in the game. they would take an occational action, and perhaps say something from time to time, but they would certainly not do a lot of things (like play with gamepieces or whatnot).

I made the game Autumn of Life this spring, and playtest of it made some situations where silence were natural, and prolonged, and fine. I'd like to try to make a game were this is the main way of playing it. I do not know yet what the theme would be or how the silence will be "imposed" on the players, but I'm sure that will come to me...

And I would certainly appreciate some thoughts on it.
- What kind of theme could be suitable to such a game?
- How do you impose a slow, deliberate rythm on a game?
- What do a designer do to make players create a positive meditative atmosphere?

[matthijs]

Perhaps it might work if you required each player to think of an action, then think through all his motivations for that action, and its possible consequences, before declaring it? Perhaps even writing it down?

Something like this:

A (spoken): "I walk with you down the stairs, saying: 'Can you hear the echoes of our footsteps?'"
B: (thinking) I'm going to nod silently, smiling. Now, who does that remind me of? My dad, with that sad face he sometimes had when he was happy or emotional. I want to bring him into this game. Also, I like using silence as a theme - it works in this game, and it's underrated in many of the games I play in. On the other hand, it's also a way of - not blocking, but at least throwing the ball back. I'm not exactly taking initiative here - this is passive, reluctant play. Is that how I want this experience to be? Hm, yes, I think so - at least right now. Perhaps A will find this annoying, and do something slightly aggressive - or maybe she'll take it as an opening for further monologue. Or perhaps her character wants to know what mine is thinking.
B (spoken): "I nod silently, smiling."
A: (thinks for a while)
A: "'You know, the echoes aren't of our steps. There's other spirits here.'"

[Tomas HVM]

Yes, it may be that the game should all be about telling the others what your character do, but focusing on the minute details, like:
- He twitch, once, then sit still.
- She stares at him, stares for a long time.
- He places one leg over the other, smiling nervously.
- John opens his mouth, to say something, but close it again.
- etc.

However: that's not enough.

Maybe this will do:

- For every statement a character give, the other characters has to react (player describing a subtle action).
- Only when all of them has reacted to the statement is any character allowed to give a new statement, and that one has to be related to a former statement (or a reaction).
- Then all characters has to react again (subtly).
- Etc.

That may create a calm rythm, or at least fascilitate some calmness.

Then there is only the challenge of filling the silence with some quality  that makes it more than a boring pause in the gameplay. The silence itself has to be part of gameplay, something the players will search for and revel in. Only question is:
- what quality could that be?
- and how may we get the players to see it?

[Tomas HVM]

By the way: used ideas popping up here as basis for the game posted on the "Endeavour"-forum: "The Dull and The Dramatic". Feedback would be appreciated!

[David Artman]

Random Ideas Mark I

You have so far touched upon silence in narration and acting. But what about silence as a system mechanic? What if the person who is silent the longest--who speaks last--get higher chances of success?

Zen koans lead one to sit and ponder, often indefinitely. What if one can "challenge" the other players with a koan, and the others may only move on if they can "answer" it, in the current game situation context?

Icehouse pieces can be used for another game called Zendo. In that game, one need only use two words (until the end): "Master" and "Mondo". All else is symbolic.

Pantomime is nearly always silent; roleplaying games often want to emphasize acting over telling. Suppose one can only do things that the others can recognize through mime (basically, a charades mechanic for action declarations!).

Silence is golden. Perhaps the game is about a setting in which silence is enforced and rewarded. The player characters are forced to tolerate "wrongdoing" or speak out against it and face society's wrath.

Your game text's writing and language will want to emphasize this tone, this mood. Perhaps some study of Quaker Silence and its theorists would inspire your writing?

Meditations without mantras. What can silence do that words can not? What happens when a mantra breaks silence: the creation of sound or the loss of silence?

In space, no one can hear you scream....

fin pour maintenant;
David

[Bret Gillan]

This is an interesting idea, and I'm compelled by the notion of words as currency or resource, but not in a ponderous way where you're counting digits as you're speaking. Your words count because they have to. In Burning Empires scenes have more impact because they're a resource - could words be used to the same effect?

[Tomas HVM]

David and Bret: beautiful thoughts! Thank you! This is exactly what I'm after with this idea, although I had a hard time seeing it before your ponderings hit the thread.

To take it all the way, making silence the power of the player, increasing the chance of success, or right out being the only chance the character got to awoid devastating conflict... that is a great idea!

The challenge of a "koan" is also something I like.

How to emphasize mood in a text is always interesting. How to emphasize a meditative tone focused on silence is a challenge.

And the notion of the notion of words as resource, making each of them vital to the game development, is something I will explore. It's a great idea!

Thanks, all of you!

[a302b]

There is a game called "The Land of Og" already out there that uses very few words (you have a set word list to describe everything your character does in the game). It is set in a pre-historic setting. I think Firefly Games took over the "Og" series, so they would probably have more info.

[David Artman]

How to emphasize a meditative tone focused on silence is a challenge.

Perhaps, then, I can show you. It takes few words. Sentence structure: irrelevant. Just words.

And white space.

Use white space where players use silence. Show them silence. It looks like...


...ellipses....


Or periods. Stark Stops--but still a susurration of sounds around. Echoes of whispers in soft sleet. Mutters and hums of swarms over soft mums.

But often the simple quiet of a blank page. Perhaps a brushwork scene in a corner. A verse or two near the margin.

But the space in the fore; white paper, a door; clutter abhorred. Maybe a rhyme like a lullaby from a time gone by.
Meter--a foot whose tread you can pace--is your ticking clock; its helpers, dots and dashes, your tools.




Would that be close?
David

[Tomas HVM]

David; that's all fine for making a text full of "silence", but how do you get players of a roleplaying game to get into a positive mode of play, with silence as a core element? I've tried it in the design "Dull & Dramatic", but I have not tested it, so I'm not sure I've achieved that design-goal.

[David Artman]

David; that's all fine for making a text full of "silence", but how do you get players of a roleplaying game to get into a positive mode of play, with silence as a core element?

Hey! I'm just trying to help with one "challenge" at a time, here. :)

Who's makin' this thing, anyway?

Seriously, though, I would have to give a LOT more thought to that than I did to the above inspirational effort(s). As others have mentioned, it seems quite antithetical: using a conversational medium to emphasize silence. Then systematizing that use of silence--and, presumably, its interruption--in a compelling game product. Then making the play of the system apparent through both the tone and the actual words of the game text (i.e. the writing techniques I was emulating while describing them, above).

Gimme more than a couple of days. This question of technique is hard to pin down, without the comfort of an agenda at which to aim it.
---
Hehe... I just had a thought. This game is designed to be played in a library or crowded movie theater (Ooo... or a funeral, for the Hard Kore!). Getting "shushed" by the librarians or movie-goers is how one's action declarations "fail," so the players are highly motivated to use economy of words, low voices, and body language and gestures. Hehe... and character death? That happens if one is actually kicked out of the place!
---
On a scarier note: What if everything said in the game has to be "critical" of the another players (NOT character, player)? Basically, to advance your character's agenda, you have to state a clearly negative thing about the other player--or several other players, for greater effect on the game. That would CERTAINLY create a disincentive to speak out, a reluctance that is put into tension against the ostensive desire to advance the game in one's own way.
And it would CERTAINLY require the most mature and "RP-tough" participants, to avoid degeneration in minutes.
---
No matter what you decide to run with, I wouldn't go too far along the road of "tokens for syllables" or anything grossly mechanical like that. The game wouldn't, then, be about silence--it would be some kind of game about making words do a lot of "work" and about managing resources, where silence is a negative of inactivity, rather than about the positive use of silence.
---
I still say start to grok Zen and Quaker Silence. Hell, just getting Quaker and Zen into the same conceptual arena would be quite a feat!

I guess that was Random Ideas Mark II from...
David

[Tomas HVM]

I wouldn't go too far along the road of "tokens for syllables" or anything grossly mechanical like that.

Neither would I. I'm very much into games that are ruled by modes rather than mechanics these days. To make design on modes of play, without the use of mechanics, but still with a high degree of precision in what the design achieve of gameplay, that is my field of work for the time being. I find it very interesting.

This idea of silence in a roleplaying game is a challenge within that field of design. I've given one example of how to solve (or so I believe, in the "Dull & Dramatic" game). I would be happy to see some other take on it too. Maybe those of you familiar with zen koans and the like, could work out a small design on it, with the sound of silence incorporated? And then we could compare the games...?

[itesser]

From the basic idea, my brain thought two things:

- A game where the players don't talk, and
- A game where the players can't talk. I like thinking about art and media for the sensoy impaired.

Both ways (mostly with the former), I want to include some visual element to hold the interest of the players. It seems like a silent/minimalistic style-heavy game would only appeal to people who are really into gaming. That's all fine and good, but I'd have a hard time drumming up support with my accessable players.

If, from this prompt, I was inviting friends over to play a game, it would be a silent movie of misunderstandings, and look a little bit like a board game. There would be a map, and there would be a token for each character. Also, each player has a limited number of blank cards (similar to dialog cards used in silent movies) which they will use throughout the game.

The role play comes in the form of moving your character on the map (however and whenever you want) and drawing (not writing) facial expressions on the blank cards to show your character's emotions. Other players are free to interpret your character's actions and emotions in any way they see fit. Used cards are put into a communal discard pile.

Typically you can only move your own character, but you may silently offer one or more blank cards to another player. If they take the cards, you may move their character once (house rules: it can be right then, or it can be later). If they refuse the cards... you're out of luck. Try someone else, maybe.

During play each player keeps a notebook of their interpretation of the events unfolding. The game is time limited  and can thus end on episodic cliffhangers.

At the end of a game, each player can pick one card out of the discard pile to use next game. Each player shares their version of the events that conspired. In a continuing game, discuss and choose one version to be the stating point for the next episode.

----
I intended to poke out ideas for simply one mode (Don't Talk), but that would work for can't talk as well (of course).

For a Can't Talk game, I'd probably include something more mechanical and try harder to make a game a deaf person can play that doesn't involve sign language/interpretation. But there would probably be writing involved.