My Game Idea

[Hyper Jacks]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and stumbled across it accidentally.  I have been working on a game and thought I would run the ideas acorss the forum to get some advice.

The premise is the world is ending and there is a small space program that is going to launch people to a space station that is in orbit of the Earth.  The charaters have to go around and try to make a name for themselves in time to board the flight.  At the same time, the other players are tyring to make u look bad to secure their spot on the ship.

The idea is to build yourself up and expose everyone elses flaws.

The world is ending through natural means, so their is no magic or cyber punk elements.  Characters can, however, be different races, but the naturally occuring races in the human genes.

Cuacasian  (+1 corruption)
African American (+1 to sports and +1 gang crime +1 picking cotton)
Asian  (+1 to computers and +1 Martial arts)
American Indian  (+1 camping.  Social Stigma: Heavy Drinker)
Jew  (+1 mathematics skills and +2 economics skills)
Chinaman  (+1 building railroads)
Pakistani  (+1 explosives and +1 suicide bombing)

This is just a premise.  There is a fairly simple system which I am putting into a PDF and will post soon.  The game is inteded to have light hearted humor where everyone can laugh about everyone elses faults and not get offended.

[Spooky Fanboy]

I know this is a troll, but still, I just have to say it:

I'm all for free speech, but that includes my right to say you're peddling poison, and not even bothering to properly disguise it as a game. As game designers, the first instinct of everyone else here is making a game that includes people, instead of dividing them into smaller groups and pitting them against one another. Political correctness is funny, crude racial slurs aren't. It's a thin, tricky line at times, but rest assured you've pole-vaulted over it.

Please go away. Now. Don't let the door hit you in the brainstem on the way out. If you think this game you've made is funny, it's not.

[Hyper Jacks]

I didn't use any racial slurs.  This is a game more about the stereotypes, not attacking them racially.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Spooky', I'm moderator of these forums. Please permit me to handle the moderating. Thanks.

Hello Hyper Jacks, and welcome to the Forge. Here's the deal: anyone who's interested in discussing your game with you is welcome to do so. You may find that its topic makes it less popular than others, or even completely uninteresting to others. If that's the case, then the lesson should be clear.

Please don't use these forums to defend the game's content - you've already presented it, and that's not an issue. The issue is whether anyone wants to help you with it, and that's not up to you.

Best,
Ron

[Jack Spencer Jr]

This is just a premise.  There is a fairly simple system which I am putting into a PDF and will post soon.  The game is inteded to have light hearted humor where everyone can laugh about everyone elses faults and not get offended.

Interesting. I think you're treading a thin line here with the races. There is a very thin line between biting satire and, well, not funny. I'm not telling you to go another way with it, but what you have needs work.

[greyorm]

While I was definitely offended at first by the racist division of the game, I took a second look and put my initial kneejerk reaction into the background to see what you're really saying, rather than becoming upset over obviously loaded terminology.

You mention you want the game to be about "faults" (that everyone can laugh over), but I note these aren't really "faults" as you describe them, they're stereotypes.

Folks can't really laugh over stereotypes in this way, because they're untrue...unlike faults, which are genuine problems which can be exposed and chuckled about.

Stereotypes can be laughed at as stereotypes, when everyone around the gaming table recognizes they are untrue and being played solely for comedic value -- such as an asian commedian making jokes that seem to highlight the ridiculous asian stereotype.

The problem with this type of humor is that it can easily slide into low, racist humor that isn't funny. When done right, you get the Simpsons, which uses such stereotypes as a springboard for social commentary about the public/cultural existance of those stereotypes.

Other than this problem, the stated workings of the game seem fun: expose your fellow characters as ninnies while keeping them from exposing you.

[quozl]

The premise is the world is ending and there is a small space program that is going to launch people to a space station that is in orbit of the Earth.  The charaters have to go around and try to make a name for themselves in time to board the flight.  At the same time, the other players are tyring to make u look bad to secure their spot on the ship.

The idea is to build yourself up and expose everyone elses flaws.

I like this part.  I hate everything else.  What is your system like?

[Jeremy Cole]

Perhaps a better idea would be to have play revolve around making other PCs act as their racial or gender stereotypes, when they are obviously nothing like that.  Play would involve attempting to cause the Asian player to crash his car, when he is actually a very good driver, or make the male character burn the simplest of breakfasts, when he is quite a competent cook.

The setting shouldn't be too difficult, it wouldn't matter if the explanation was ludicrous, it may even help.  I'm not sure how you could pull off the gameplay, mind you.