Intertwined, a game of lives and lovers

[Meguey]

If I put it up here, I'll write it, right?

[GreatWolf]

Only if you tell us a bit more about it.

[Meguey]

Fair enough. It's a game for two players, with a overt goal being to arouse and be aroused, sensually. There's lots of touching hands, but players otherwise don't really touch, and they stay fully clothed. Characters are lovers through time, and you play one incarnation of these lovers. There will be some sort of obstacles to overcome, and probably a diceless resolution system.

[GreatWolf]

That's very interesting.  I'll be curious to see how it goes!

[Ron Edwards]

Following up much too much later ...

It's my kind of thing.

I don't think I understand the business about lovers "through time," and playing "one incarnation." When I try to extrapolate it a little, I don't see the necessity, or I guess, interest, in what I come up with. Yet the tag-line "lives and lovers" strikes a chord with me. What did you have in mind about that part?

Best, Ron

[Meguey]

The ideas behind the "through time " and "incarnation" are these:
I've always liked the notion of reincarnation, the idea that love might survive death, and that some people are somehow destined to be together, even though all the odds are against them. So if you play two people who you know are destined to be lovers, who perhaps have been lovers in other lives, the challenge is to figure out how that works. Playing characters who are drawn to each other but there's some barrier to overcome is more interesting than just 'they meet, they fall in love, no problem'.

I read Time-Traveler's Wife in the past year, and that probably figures too - the idea that love is worth waiting for, and it's complicated, and sometimes the two people are not in the same place, physically or emotionally, for it to be smooth.

[Meguey]

Start by setting Containment, which I still have to figure out.

Sit facing back to back while you make your character, details as yet unresolved.

To start play, sit facing each other, one set of hands palm-to-palm. As narration happens, eventually you get to a point where there's a "what if?" question.

"What if I was a pirate?" - the implication is 'is that sexy to you?' Then you get to answer by lifting your palm away from mine and touching just fingertips, according to how sexy that is to you, on a 1-not very much at all to 5-damn insane sexy. Then it's your turn to narrate for a bit until the next "what if?'

"And I was your first-mate?" - I signal back how sexy I'm finding that scenario, and it's my turn to narrate

"And we were shipwrecked on a lush tropical island?' - etc, etc

While one person is narrating, they maintain fingertip contact, but the other person may use any free fingers to caress the free fingers and hand of the narrator.

If you get to all five fingers touching, then something else happens, but I'm not sure what yet. Ideas?

[Meguey]

For making containment, you sit touching knee-to-knee facing each other or thigh-to-thigh beside each other. You make the original lovers and agree on the time and place of the next life. Then you turn back-to-back to make the current incarnation, then you turn back and place your hands palm-to-palm to start play.

Containment's going to be pretty important to make this work. Must think about this more.

(You can explicitly switch gender between lives, so the original lovers may have been any two people and they may now be any two people.)

[David Artman]

If you get to all five fingers touching, then something else happens, but I'm not sure what yet. Ideas?

I am guessing the game ends. After all, this game seems very interpersonal and requires an existing relationship of some kind (or the beginning of one); so if both players' "sexy quotient" is ramped to eleven (err, well, five) then I reckon the rule that "players otherwise don't really touch, and they stay fully clothed" is going to be quickly broken.

Then again... maybe it could be about arousal and frustration? Maybe--I dunno--the all-five-fingertips moment signals a complete reversal? You immediately stop touching, and narrate a series of complications in the relationships which (somehow, mechanically) take several gameplay minutes to resolve, and during which there's no touching allowed. I'm seeing it as a cycle of build-up to "full" contact (fingertips) followed by separation and difficulty, which when surmounted allows a return to the build-up.

Hehe... folks could post "scores" of how many cycles they could complete before losing control.

[matthijs]

Meguey, have you heard about the Ars Amandi method? It's been used a lot in Scandinavian LARPs, and is basically a method for symbolizing/playing out love-making using only the hands and arms. It can, apparently, get very intense.

[David Artman]

Might want to take it here:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=25376.0

Multi-treads get klunky, donchaknow....

[Nathan Herrold]

Write this Meg!
I know you're a busy woman and all, but you should really do this!