help with meta-game for novel

[adeniro]

Hi there,

I hope this is the right place to post these very embryonic thoughts of mine.

I write fiction, and my first novel called Total Oblivion, More or Less is coming out from Spectra in November. (http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780553592542.html). I'm looking to put ancillary materials for the book online for readers. For my short story collection that came out a few years ago, I put together a combo drinking game/reading group discussion guide, which people seemed to like (www.taverners-koans.com/drinkinggames.pdf  if you're at all interested).

So I'm looking to up the ante a bit with the novel coming out and actually put out a concise roleplaying system that isn't based on the setting on the novel per se, but rather would be a RPG characters in the novel  would conceivably play.

This metafictional conceit is tied very strongly to the characters and narrative aspects of the novel. Here's a Cliffs Notes set up of the story (in book jacket speak):

In the summer between Macy Palmer's junior and senior year of high school in Minnesota, Scythians, Thracians, and other ancient European tribes invade the Midwest. America becomes a ravaged land where modern technology barely works, a strange plague is rampant, and American citizens flee for their lives. Many end up doing what the Empire–which comes equally out of nowhere to keep the peace–tell them to do. Macy and her family find themselves torn from their ordinary lives and in a refugee camp just outside of Minneapolis. They end up making a desperate journey down the Mississippi River, which has mutated into a dangerous waterway.

Why a role playing game then? One of the big reasons is that Macy, my protagonist and narrator, is a big gamer. Warcraft mostly--but in the absence of technology, Macy and those like her would have to "resort" to pen and paper. One of the big themes of the book is how reality and fantasy interplay with each other (e.g., Macy teaches her father to use a polearm, which she knows from her gaming and her voracious reading on medieval weapons). So this gaming system, which would be written/designed as if it were in this world, would provide a secondary interplay (somewhat similar to the role the Black Freighter comics played in the Watchmen).

The constraints would be pretty heavy by definition--because this is a world scarce on material resources, the system would be very rules-light and concise (10-15 pages at most), and not require anything more esoteric than 6 sided dice, if that. In terms of genre, I almost envision the system to somehow be "realistic"--that is to say, based on these characters' world before all of the crazy invasions started happening. This would give the game an almost elegiac quality--they are using this game to tell stories of their old lives. (So I guess, also by definition, this game would part of a Narrativist structure).

I would definitely be amenable to melding these conceits to an already existing rules-light system (with the proper permissions, of course) and putting forth a combo project. I've been playing RPGs off and on for 25 years (wow, that makes me feel old), but I wouldn't consider RPG design a forte of mine by any means.

Finally--will this be playable? Somewhat, I guess. I wouldn't be against it, but more than anything I want the game to function as part of a larger story. To have people be able to play it would be especially pleasing, and a great honor. But I think I need to nail down the larger details first (hence this post). At some point I might go forward with more concrete plans with a tighter scope of work and more concrete opportunities for collaboration. But if you have any suggestions to go about this, please let me know. Or any questions--questions would be good. Thanks very kindly,

Alan
adeniro@gmail.com

[chance.thirteen]

I will say that if the world was truly falling part, I wouldn't see too many poeple wanting to play RPGs.

However, skipping that, or perhaps twisting it, I see a game designed to teach the players choices. How to make alliances, how to just the cost and gain of something. MOst importantly, I think it would be a form of thought shaping, either to support The Empire, or to support individualism and survival skills.

I would use markers of stone, and wood, kept in bowls or in areas on a table or the ground. I might go so far as to have you reach into bag and pull out a handful or pinch of markers (perhaps with a little scoop or a spoon), and have something like divisible by 2, 3, 5 or higher if the markers were small enough (like varied wild rice grains).

I could see some hidden in hands choices for emphasis on differing aspects of a conflict, eg wood for act, stone for resist.

I see it being framed often like most of the narrative style games, the conflicts are defined, either by a GM, or in play, but they are designed to play desirable goals in opposition. Judgement of overall can be by group fiat (which has some nice overtones of conformity and group think issues).

The choices would either be about things relating to survival, or about choosing one course over another within the Empires moral structure.

Nothing more concrete than that.

[JoyWriter]

Sounds like the rpg is acting like a knowledge source, implicitly teaching people how to deal with the world, like some skew-viewed torah! In that sense it probably needs to be reasonably rules heavy, and you might be better of cribbing someone elses game to do the job.

But if your already off to the printers then inserting the name of one of the old-school crunchfest rpgs might not work. Besides, I suspect you want the game to not have too much of a learning curve going into it, and be full of cross-fictional hints. If you want to do that kind of thing really well then you have a stretch in front of you! What functions does the game provide in the story? Because focusing the sim elements on that with a bit of space either side will make producing it a lot more efficient. Having said that you obviously don't want to reduce it to a set of spot rules for all the things it was actually used for, but even so a few solid pieces and a lot of theme can be meshed together via some unified mechanics to hit quite a number of areas.

[adeniro]

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions!

I do see this as a form of campfire storytelling in this world--a received art form that people use to try to make sense of What Happened (which is pretty senseless; there is no explanation, really, for WHY the novel's premise took place). It is a dangerous milieu but there are periods of downtime, boredom, and even leisure in the midst of the chaos.

Alas the concept of this RPG isn't really in the novel itself--I had only really thought of this idea after copyedits were done. :/ But I do think it hopefully fits in the spirit of the narrator, who is a big gamer.

I love some of the tactile ideas presented. Lots of food for thought. Thanks.