FACES: roleplaying within the subconcious

[Kirk Mitchell]

Recently, I watched a production of Bombshells (a dramatic monologue where a woman, I can't remember her name, plays out the inside lives of various women at extreme emotional states) and the movie version of Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman. On my way home from Bombshells, turning over my mind how the thoughts of the women were protrayed and listening to a Linkin Park song on the radio "Papercut", a thought occured to me (or rather numerous ones): what would it be like to play an RPG where you are able to access a person's deepest thoughts? This eventually developed into the idea that I present now, with only the most basic of mechanics and very little development.

Players play as various aspects of a Person's subconscious, called segments. They create their Segments using a quick chargen system, by dividing points between different characteristics representing the focus of their Segment, and choosing various quirks which formed in the Segment. Each Segment is a "class" which has a different role within the subconscious. There must be at least one of each, and if required, players can control more than one Segment, merging them into one Segment which takes over all of the tasks. The Segments together form the subconscious of the Person.

In rounds of actions called "synapses" each Segment "bids" points (granted depending on how they divide their characteristics) to determine who goes first. The Segment that goes first has the most power during that synapse, the second segment has slightly less and so on. The remaining points are spent on actions. The actions are slightly different in effect depending on where on the scale of first to last you are. The actions alter the Person's psyche, changing how they react.

Once a synapse is completed, the GM narrates what the Person is doing, and another synapse starts.

Chisms and other incidents happening within the subconsciousness between players and each other, or players and outside input cause various things to happen to the Person. This creates mental proplems and other such psychological effects on the person.

Players that play together coherently create a well balanced and at least content Person, and have the satisfation of keeping someone happy. Players that fight with each other and work againste each other will create troubled and difficult People with issues, and have either the dissatisfation of not creating a happy Person, or the satisfaction of sadistically screwing someone up.

Does the idea have any merit (ignore for the moment that I might be insulting some people's views on a person's soul or mind or whatever. Apologies if I am)? Is there anything similar around?

Thanks,
Kirk

[ethan_greer]

Hi Kirk,
Of course the idea has merit. Many ideas have merit. But it doesn't really matter what other people think in this early stage of the design, does it? The coolest idea ever could stink on ice with a poor enough implementation.  And the lamest idea ever could rock on toast if the game system kicked ass. Bottom line: If you want to work on the game, then work on it.

For what it's worth, though, I think it's a pretty doggone nifty concept.

Also, don't worry about offending people - you're going to do that no matter what, even if you're writing a game about cuddly kittens and the innocent children who love them.  You're not writing the game for the people who get offended by it.

Second question: Is there anything similar around? Not to my knowledge. (Well, actually, Wraith: The Oblivion has that Shadow character concept, but that's the closest I can think of.) But, I don't think that matters much, either. Fantasy has been done before, and people will continue to write fantasy games.  Don't worry too much about what's come before.

[Kirk Mitchell]

Hi Ethan,

I was asking if there were others around so that I could see if they had done a decent job on the topic.

So far, I see the game as being completely freeform. The plyaers really have no motivation. If anyone has ever played The Sims on computer (and most people have at least heard of it), the motivation is the same as in that game: the fun of playing with someone's life. Players in The Sims seem to get just as much enjoyment out of making their little people happy as they do wrecking their lives.

How about the mechanics? I know that they are minimal, but is there any sort of diceless point based mechanic around there somewhere that has been done well? And are there any potential problems that you can see?

Kirk

[ethan_greer]

Wait a minute - freeform, but you want mechanics? Confused now. But in any case, I've got some more advice for you.

You're going to want to include a reference to the Sims game in your text as an aid to get people on the same page. But don't rely on that, because many people will have heard of the Sims but never played and not grok what the game is about.

It sounds like the game will require a whole lot of GM creativity. You're going to want to emphasize that, and provide lots and lots of guidelines for the various ways the GM can interpret the players' interactions. Examples of play, basic techniques, etc.  This will be the sucky part of the game to actually write, but if you can really nail it I think the game will be very accessible.

Regarding player motivation: I think a game should consist of the GM coming up with a specific person, in a specific interesting situation. Kinda like Kickers in Sorcerer. The GM then introduces this person to the group in a char-gen session in which players select their segment(s). Ideally, each player will have a way they want the situation to resolve, sometimes at odds with one another. Player interest in this situation will get things going effortlessly, I would imagine.

The initial situation could be the focus of a session or two, and then it would be resolved one way or another. From there you could establish consequences and present them as a new situation, introducing a sort of "campaign" play paradigm, or a group could move on to an entirely new person/situation.

Inspirational suggestions: Check out the movie Being John Malkovich. Active Exploits is a free diceless game that is somewhat popular. I know nothing about it other than its existence. Might be worth looking at for mechanics ideas. Also, Everway is a nifty game with some interesting mechanics. It can be had on the cheap from Ebay and is worthy of picking up. You may want to pick up Universalis for inspiration as well.

[Jonathan Walton]

Hey.  Cool idea.

I'd recommend checking out Jason L. Blair's game "Insects of God," which tries to address similar kinds of issues.  You can find it from the main page of Key20.com; it's the last picture linked on the right.

[Kirk Mitchell]

Its okay Ethan. I have a tendancy to confuse people (including myself :P).

What is your interpretation of "free form"?

I originally come from a computer game background (boo, hiss. I know), and you can still find some computer game terminology in use. When I say "free form" I mean that there is no set storyline or anything, just the players doing whatever they want. The players make their characters (or segments in this case) and the GM makes the backdrop (the Person). The GM then sets the players loose to do whatever they want.

Would anybody be interested in playing a game like this (not just the freeform bit but the whole idea)? If there are, raise your...um...mice. Maybe when the game has progressed you'd like to do some playtesting for me.

Kirk

[ethan_greer]

Ah, okay - Free form to me is the absence of formalized game mechanics or a very limited set of mechanics (rock-paper-scissors or some such).

Anyway, I can't make any promises about playtesting (since I'm having some trouble committing to my own projects of late!), but I am definitely encouraging you to work on this project 'cause I think it's a wicked cool idea, and I'll be paying attention to whatever you come up with.  I say go for it!

[Kirk Mitchell]

Nice to have some support. I'll set it on the backburner for the moment though, the indecipherable mass that I call NightWorld needs to be completed first.