Aulos - a storytelling game with cards

[Karoliina]

The game's name is Aulos and it's going to be my diploma work. I'm planning on some kind of publishing, but on a small scale. The game is in Finnish, but if there's enough interest I might translate it. The game includes 50 cards, rulebook (about 5 sheet of text), a box and two 6-sided dies. I've done some playtesting with a few different groups and this is the 4th version of the rules. My schedule is to finish the project by Christmas.
The game is narrativistic and the mechanics are there to stimulate imagination and encourage co-operation. Aulos produces stories that are alike to short stories or episodes of TV-shows.

The core of the game is the structure: The center character is about to be murdered. The game is about the people around the center character and relations between the player characters.  The game has three rounds. On the first round, all player characters and important non-player characters are introduced. On the second round the story moves towards the climax. Third round is the actual climax. On the first and second rounds as many scenes are played as there are players. The third round is just one scene. The center character is never a player character, but an NPC free for everyone to use.

The most important part of the game is the relations of the player characters. The characters are created using special cards that state what the characters motive towards the center character is. These cards include such as enemy, lover, relative and murderer. The murderers' motive is to kill the center character, but that can change in the last scene, as can the other relations. My personal favorite part of the game is creating relations between player characters: every player comes up with the connection between another two players' characters.

The game progresses with cards. The cards are designed to help the players to come up with interesting scenes and ideas. There's no game master, the narration responsibility circulates and it can be bought. In the first and second round, every player has a turn to have the narration responsibility. The one who's turn it is starts to tell a scene as if he/she was a GM. He/she also plays his/her own character in the scene, if the character is present in the scene. When the scene is being played, any one player can play a card (cards have meanings like "people meet", "sickness" or "something is discovered"),  and take the narration responsibility for the duration of telling that card's element in to the scene. The one with narration responsibility can also ask other people to play NPCs.

In the last round every one reveals their character cards and the one who has Murderer, has the narration responsibility. The murderer's want to kill the central character has to be resolved somehow. The last round is only one scene.

There's also a mechanic for conflict resolution: the opposing players both roll a 6-sided die and the one to get the higher number wins. Players have to first clearly state what they want to achieve. The winner has narration responsibility for the outcome. Other players may choose to aid either one, then they also roll a die and the one aided may choose the biggest number. The Conflict resolution can be used for conflicts between characters or players.

I would be very grateful for any thoughts and/or ideas on hte game concept! Right now I'm working on the card illustrations and trying to come up with character cards that make sure the player characters have a relationship to the central character that makes them actively take part in the last scene. Now I have these: Murderer, Lover, Protector, Enemy, and Ally. I'd still need one more.