The Forge Archives

Warning: rambling, since I'm writing this as the ideas are coming.

Well, the discussions about the GM (argggl, acronym collision) got me thinking (as most discussion tend to do). As well as this quote:

QuoteIn 5 minutes I could give you a great and exciting setting, want mechanics to play it with? erm.. I'll get back to you.

... and with a little help from this weekend. You see, this weekend I went with 16 close and distant friends to a castle in Belgium for beer, canoo-ing and roaring good time. Looking back on it, I had the most fun doing several things, but most memorable are the canoo-ing and the Friends game, which is a party game about guessing things about your friends, and the discussion that spawned after that.

Looking back, I can see a lot of people in the same room, talking freely and (re)imaginatively about past events that were obviously alive and meaningful to them, as well as what they meant for their view on life and on things they still planned to do. I'm sure you all have had similar experiences (at least, I hope you have!).

So this is coalescing into the following basic concept for a party RPG-esque thingymagig. I'm calling it 'Ideal Holiday' for now because I think it would be one of the easiest themes to explore in SIS for mixed groups. More themes could easily be explored, but I'll keep it narrow for now. For now, the whole thing that people would have would be just one sheet of paper - but some enthralling physical objects might help to captivate people and get them both in the 'fun' and 'game' mood without scaring them with dice of the need to perform ad-libbed masterpieces of storycraft.

1. Get together a bunch of people, around 6-8, or discover that such a bunch is already gathered together (preferrably).

2. Tell these people this is about exploring a concept - a theme. Tell them it's like telling their friends how great <the chosen concept> was, like it already happened. Like, for instance, the ideal holiday. Everyone can chip in with a concept/theme to explore (scariest haunted house, best place to have sex, ideal holiday destination, coolest place for astronauts to accidentally land, most tired feeling anyone's ever had), but not everyone has to chip in a concept - just people who want.

3. Then, by concensus if possible, but just by straight vote if not, the group picks the coolest/most fun concept to explore. In case of a tie, flip a coin, or get a round of drinks to get your concept through.

4. Everyone who wants to tell a story about the concept, can. These are not monologues - building on each other's stories (with a little common courtesy) is heartily encouraged. After a while, you'll have a number of cool stories, and can go on.

5. Again, by consensus, vote, or drink-getting, pick the coolest story told. Now, from this story, everyone in the group can/may pick one or more personages in that story, and embellish their actions, and make up new ones. Or maybe inject characters from other stories into the 'current' story.

6. Again, once everyone told to their heart's delight, decide with the group which additions to the Ideal Holiday (in this example) they accept as having actually happened.

7. Now everyone in the group gets to tell about something that's threatening the concept (bad weather, stupid tourists from disfavorite country X, food poisoning, being kidnapped, whatever). Again, the group decides which 'threat' (or combination thereof) is the real one.

8. Finally, everyone gets to tell an outcome of the threat. This can be a heroic solution where everything turns out all right, or a bleak, horrific, dramatic end. Again, in the end the group decides which ending (or combination thereof) is the chosen ending of the story. And there the game ends. Beer, wine and soft-drinks for everyone, and cheese and chips to boot.

If you want to add a more clear reward system than just having a person's story chosen to be added to the central story, just have 10 points up for distribution in each decision round, and who has most points in the end wins. Points could be tracked with empty beer bottles, pretzels, shiny jewelry, or lip-stick kisses on cheeks. Heck, maybe you could even use points gathered in previous rounds to 'steer' the story. But both of these are easily presented as variants on the central game, though.

Some important things:

- All in all, a casual atmosphere is wanted (thus the drink-getting example).
- Side-conversations are encouraged.
- Important: play each step as long as the group's having fun with it.

Does something like this exist already?

Would you play it? What would make you (or others) play it more readily (rules, rewards, system, props)? What would stop you/others from playing something like this?

Am I in line with the Greer Manifesto?

If anyone wants to split off a sub-thread from this one to make sure we don't discuss 10 questions and answers in the same thread, feel free.

This reminds me of a party game where somebody first writes a sentence on a piece of paper as the beginning of a stroy.

Then the paper is passed around the room with everybody adding one line.

When everyone has written a line, they read the paper to the group.

It's pretty fun, but the stories tend to ramble on in strange directions.

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

Yeah, that one popped in my head as well. This one's a bit free-er than that though in that it allows everyone to get their own say before somethings decided (i.e. veers wildly and rambles off out of control). And there's a bit more attention for personages in the stories that are told.

I really have the feeling there's something out there that is somewhat similar, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it would be.

Greer Manifesto Links

1. The Original Thread:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=11751&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0


2. Greer Manifestor Versions 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1:

http://www.diceless.com/greer/g1.html


Erick

That sounds like a good game, Tobias, but that "write one line then pass it around the room" thing has me thinking...What if we (sort of) combine the 2? For example, Everyone writes their name next to the line they are using, then writes their line. For each round, every person writes one line, and then, if the players have no revisions to make (if you allow line-revisions) then everyone gets to vote on whose line gets to be part of the "real" story. Periodically, the players will be asked to vote wether or not to end the game after the next round (a vote to end could be initiated by one person suggesting to end the story, then if 1 other person "seconds" that motion, they all take a vote). When the game finally stops, you count up who got the most lines into the "official" story, and theres' your winner.

Jack,

Sure, that's an option. My first thought is that it would probably stifle the creative process - slow it down with accounting - too much for it to be a 'role-playing' game. It would most certainly still be a game though. A group story-writing game. And a fun one, probably.

I'm hoping that the step where players add characters from other stories gets them into (the habit of) playing (1 or more) roles. In fact, you might even get a cast of favorite recurring personages. If this happens, it would be an easy step to start a series of stories around those ´characters´ with the players.

Maybe that´s a good tip to use... that after each game, each player can claim one or more of the fictitious personages from the stories as theirs (possibly by spending some of the points they earn)

Hi Tobias, I like your ideas. I would encourage you to flesh them out and playtest it. Reading what you have, I don't see any particular problems that leap out at me, and I can't come up with any particular improvements beyond a general clarification and elaboration where necessary.

Thanks, Tobias. I also had another idea, although this one would fit in much better at the beginning of an actual RPG. First, every player secretly writes down 3 ideas. They could be anything from characters to setting to storylines. Then the players vote Yes or No on each idea on a secret ballot which they then turn in to whoever runs the game (the person who made the idea is not listed next to the idea, this would act to stifle more creative ideas). The GM secretly tallies the votes, and the ones that make it with more Yes votes than No votes, he can use in the game. This could also lend itself to a "Djini" type thing, where the players "get what they wanted", but not exactly the way they thought.
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That might be interesting as well. Or as a meta-event determinant for a RPG campaign (play on a small scale, work out politics/world events on a large scale).

That's a great idea. Could answer questions like "who wins this war", "who gets elected", "does nation A succesfully invade Nation B".
Could very easily play a central role in a purely political game as well.