-The Xerox Missive- An rpg based on Philip K Dick.

[Plenz]

Hello all. This is my first post on the Forge Forums so I thought I'd start off with an explanation of what indie-game design means to me.

I have been gaming since I was a kid. I am now 25 years old and still enjoy rpg's a whole bunch. It's a wonderful hobby as we all know.

I've toyed with the idea of creating a game for years. Coupled with home brewed material for published rpg's and alot of years reading the works of Philip K Dick.  I have decided that I want to create an rpg utilizing the greatest parts of PKD's works.

For those of you not familliar with Dick; here's a little, little rundown.

Philip K Dick 1928-1982 was a most prolific sci-fi author who broke the mold of how sci-fi was supposed to be written. He started out as a short story writer- published within the pages of numerous pulps over the years- and eventually, when he realized there was more money in novel publication, began to do just that. Write novels. Ultimately Dick produced over 100 short stories and around 40 or so novels. His body of work is staggering. He was an idea monger. He was a schitzophrenic. He was an addict. He was many things to many people. What strikes me most about PKD is one thing: his uncanny ability of empathy and the plight of the average joe. The characters that he wrote were underdogs. They held weird jobs. Someone is a tire-regroover, another is a ceramic pot healer, another a trader of WW2 items, such as Mickey Mouse watches. His characters were all opressed. Terrible social lives, horrible wives and even worse bosses. The thing that really set Dick apart were the bizzare situations his characters ended up in. Reguardless of their seemingly normal and banal existence they all rose up to tackle something bigger than themselves. In turn, this conflict would jolt the character into another sort of living. That of asking themselves constantly; from seeing all manner of things such as- Psychiatrists in suitcases, drugs that when taken would transport the user into a world of living dolls, and an omnipotent entity who comes from the crab nebula trying to eradicate the true reality of humans by these drugs- these are only three examples that took place in one of Dick's best books- The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch- During the course of his novels we come in contact with certain themes that ring throughout the characters existences and those they come in contact with. -What is reality?- & -What is Human?- We have simulacra; an android Lincoln and Hitler(We can Build You), numeorus androids that masquearade as humans where neither the human or the android know who's who. An alternate reality where the Japanese and Germans won WW2(The Man in the High Castle), A moon where all manner of mentally bent aliens gather to continue their peaceful existence(Clans of the Alphane Moon) and of course Dick's mastepiece- Valis- Valis is a book unlike any other I have ever read. Philip K Dick is a character, twice, within the pages of that book and it is the most detailed account of his religious experiences [/url]http://www.philipkdick.com/weirdo.htm//available%20aside%20from%20his%208,000%20page%20exegesis.%20The%20Exegesis%20was%20Dick's%20attempt%20at%20figuring%20out%20just%20what%20the%20hell%20was%20going%20on%20inside%20his%20head%20and%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20world.%20Dick%20felt%20that%20we%20were%20living%20in%20what%20he%20termed%20The%20Black%20Iron%20Prison,%20that%20time%20stopped%20somewhere%20during%20the%20roman%20era,%20and%20that%20we%20have%20been%20living%20in%20the%20BIP%20ever%20since.%20This%20is%20where%20I%20would%20like%20to%20post%20a%20section%20of%20the%20Exegesis%20entitled%20-The%20Great%20Satanic%20Blasphemy-%20which%20is%20the%20main%20catalyst%20for%20characters%20within%20The%20Xerox%20Missive%20itself.%20[url]http://www.deoxy.org/plurifrm.htm this is a very gnostic view of things. Concepts of gnositcism were featured heavily in Dick's later works. The main reason these characters are doing what they do, is to get out. To get back. To gain back their memory, identity and supernatural powers. Dick termed this The Palm Tree Garden. A utopia.
Another major aspect of characters is the place that amnesis, the return or rather, rememberance of the true self.

So what is the Xerox Missive exactly? Well, Dick recieved a letter which he said "would kill him" in this situation PKD apparently recieved a letter in which he was told that he had to report potential communist sci-fi wirters to the feds. This was the begining of the end. The Xerox Missive is the catalyst that gives the characters knowledge that something else is there, that they do need to question "what is reality" and "what is human" It can come in the form of a letter and video a person a book. Just about anything. The Xerox Missive is the begining of the characters journey of amnesis and the eventual return to the Palm Tree Garden.

Well, that's it for now. I just wanted to make a presence here. I plan on using this thread as a bit of a design diary. I'd like to get major points of the game posted in order. Setting, Character, Storytelling, System(In which I have been devising an alternate system where I-Ching coins are cast to determine the fates of various situations. Dick himself was a huge I-Ching user, actually the plot of the Man in the High Castle was plotted using it)

I hope you all enjoyed this little introduction to PKD and The Xerox Missive. Comments are welcome!


Best,

Plenz

[Lxndr]

I'm interested in seeing more.  Mechanics, that sort of thing.

But you've given me enough to whet my appetite.  How are you planning on using the I-Ching?  How man different Hexagrams are there?

[Plenz]

Well in the actual I-Ching there are sixty-four hexagrams. The thing is this though: I have been going through it saying to myself "what can be ommited?" So far, I've not come up with any that I'd leave out. It worries me that sixty-four options is too much; then again, it's really not if a handy reference chart is created. Of course the actual section concerning the system will give detailed descriptions and examples but in the end I don't think it'd be too much. I will, however conitnue to try and cut it down for sake of ease.

[Lxndr]

Sixty-four isn't too many options (in my opinion, at least).  Besides that, removing part of the I-Ching really doesn't seem appropriate.  PKD used all sixty-four, right?  I'd keep them all... a simple reference chart is all you need.

[Plenz]

I do agree with that. I will keep all sixty four; it's just that with all this bitching around about "rules light this and that" it was an idea.

After deliberation I've decided to keep all sixty four. Another interesting point that I did not mention is this: Even if the character is not making a skill based check or if the gm wants the coins cast for any reason, the character can check the I-Ching(a name change for in game purposes?) at their leisure. Whenever they feel the need; they can cast it. This is the thing though: the I-Ching has always been viewed as a living organism. What I mean is this: Once the I-Ching is cast. The end result must be brought into consideration while making their next move. The I-Ching is not an end all answer. It is a number of suggestions and ideas within suggestions.

That's all.

[J B Bell]

Man, you sure broke yourself off a hell of a chunk there. I love PKD in a near-unwholesome way, and I haven't the courage to do more than borrow occasional notions, such as VALIS the satellite itself or simply the idea of what I call "extraneous reality".  Trying to do a game that would somehow play like PKD reads is . . . well, take a look at what the movie adaptations have been like. If they maul his more approachable works like that, there is just no hope for the crazier stuff like VALIS.

You should get some mechanics out there--focussing in on the Missive itself is an excellent start--look around here for the term "kicker" and you will see, I think, that what you propose fits the bill as a specialized kicker. (Upon reflection, this is how I usually started my games back in college.) As for the I-Ching, don't sweat 64 elements. The I-Ching itself is simply and 8 x 8 grid of trigram combinations. This is a fun idea; gamers like weird jargon, and "trigram" has a pleasingly technical sound to it.

But before you get fascinated with numbers, ask yourself what you're trying to do here. Do you want a detailed world incorporating all the interesting doo-dads PKD created? Do you want to emulate the feel of PKD's post-VALIS works? What decisions are up to the play group and what's going to be canon?

Personally I'd suggest going for the feel as much as possible and ignoring ordinary RPG conceits--PKD is nothing if not indie in spirit, if you ask me. If you agree, ask yourself how to mechanically support, not just suggest in the game text, these critical PKD notions you have pointed up already, but which I'll list here for convenience, with some expansions.

[*] The pathetic quality of the characters--they are not superbeings, their lives are almost 100% unsatisfactory, they are not motivated to heroism. Yet, they are brought to an often terrifying awakening and they must respond to their situation.
[*] The alien, helping intelligence (PKD often called it "the Physician"), itself strangely split between overpowering and tragically ineffective. Avoiding deus ex machina in using this would be tricky, however you could do it as a kind of player resource for influencing plot and limit it that way.
[*] The event of anamnesis ("loss of forgetting") itself. Here we have the kicker again, a player-chosen catalyst event in a PC's life.
[*] The jailers or jailer. PKD drew on Gnosticism heavily especially here in characterizing the maker of the visible world as a Satanic, oppressive monster. However it's also been a trickster, a family relation of the forces of light and good.
[/list:u]

How are you mapping this to the I-Ching? Do you mean you would like to use coins for resolution in some way? That could make for a very pretty combined system of Fate and resources--to expand the jargon, there are several games now where dice are both rolled and spent, borrowed, and used as a reward. Coins are a real natural for this, and producing custom plastic (or metal for the high-flying set) coins might be easier/cheaper than custom dice.

If you haven't already, check out Over the Edge and The Pool. I also really like Pace for very clean mechanics and examples of player-directed story using spending rather than dice.

Good luck!

[Plenz]

Thank you for your kind words and suggestions. They are going to prove helpful. Let me answer some questions that I neglected to cross post from another section.

You should get some mechanics out there--focussing in on the Missive itself is an excellent start--look around here for the term "kicker" and you will see, I think, that what you propose fits the bill as a specialized kicker. (Upon reflection, this is how I usually started my games back in college.) As for the I-Ching, don't sweat 64 elements. The I-Ching itself is simply and 8 x 8 grid of trigram combinations. This is a fun idea; gamers like weird jargon, and "trigram" has a pleasingly technical sound to it.

I came up with the missive after enjoying the notion of John Tyne's -De Profundis- The game itself is pretty much a longer, far more detailed and eternal kicker. The Xerox Missive is to be detailed extensively by the player. It's an important addition towards actual play. I thought of the Missive as a turn based, personal letter format(such as De Profundis)This, coupled with the fact that the Missive for Dick came in the form of a letter(I forget which wife of Dick's opened it for him) So it was: Dick(or character) reads letter(or varied form of XM) and then all this shit goes down...for Dick, if my chronology is correct, it was the break in at his house and the explosion of his safe and subsequent losses suffered(include character version here) That was the formula I was going for.

As for system: The sixty four hexagrams of the I-Ching will stay as is. You are right when you say it isn't too much. The chart could be made up very easily as a minor point of reference; and yes, gamers love weird jargon(not to mention alternate versions of dice. The coins themselves will feature spaceships and rayguns just as Dick's stories  never did use them except for the heavy use of those elements on the covers of his books; it's just a weird design quirk really. I'd love for a book to come with neato coins) It gives it a pulpy feel and a neat element of the "what is real" quotient)). Trigram is a great word.

But before you get fascinated with numbers, ask yourself what you're trying to do here. Do you want a detailed world incorporating all the interesting doo-dads PKD created? Do you want to emulate the feel of PKD's post-VALIS works? What decisions are up to the play group and what's going to be canon?

Personally I'd suggest going for the feel as much as possible and ignoring ordinary RPG conceits--PKD is nothing if not indie in spirit, if you ask me. If you agree, ask yourself how to mechanically support, not just suggest in the game text, these critical PKD notions you have pointed up already, but which I'll list here for convenience, with some expansions.

Agreed. These are my initial plans setting wise: My intention is getting the feel, themes and structures of Dick's work together while keeping an open spirit setting wise. The themes of Dick are more important next to things such as stats for a squibble or the AC of a Ganymede Slime Mold. PKD is nothing if not indie in spirit. No question about this. I would like to replicate certain elements found within Dick's work though. Tastefully done, light references to actual Dick plots would be flavor if nothing else.


*snip*


All except for one thing: The Dickian universe is not coherent. It is, but not in terms of one world for all settings. 1950's thru 1970's Norhtern California plays a large part but the very fact that so much happened so many places leads to this-(Thank you Michael Moorcock) A Multiverse. So all the parts that do not fit will be able to be used anyways. The setting relies on the character first and foremost. The GM will of course extrapolate on the themes of the character but the acutal recieving of the Xerox Missive itself will determine alot about the setting. I plan on posting examples of this Northern Cali -vs- Colonized Mars of the nth dimension thing.


__________________


I must get back to work here at the bookshop; but one more thing: As for how I'm tying the I-Ching into this: Lite version.

*snip*


After deliberation I've decided to keep all sixty four. Another interesting point that I did not mention is this: Even if the character is not making a skill based check or if the gm wants the coins cast for any reason, the character can check the I-Ching(a name change for in game purposes? is the I-Ching copywrited? How could it be?) at their leisure. Whenever they feel the need; they can cast it. This is the thing though: the I-Ching has always been viewed as a living organism. What I mean is this: Once the I-Ching is cast. The end result must be brought into consideration while making their next move. The I-Ching is not an end all answer. It is a number of suggestions and ideas within suggestions. The end result of the casting must follow through with what comes next for the character. It's not as easy as a die roll with a definite result but it's far more free-spirited and gives the player that much more control over this world.


More later.


-Plenz












][/quote]

[Plenz]

-The pathetic quality of the characters--they are not superbeings, their lives are almost 100% unsatisfactory, they are not motivated to heroism. Yet, they are brought to an often terrifying awakening and they must respond to their situation.

The alien, helping intelligence (PKD often called it "the Physician"), itself strangely split between overpowering and tragically ineffective. Avoiding deus ex machina in using this would be tricky, however you could do it as a kind of player resource for influencing plot and limit it that way.

The event of anamnesis ("loss of forgetting") itself. Here we have the kicker again, a player-chosen catalyst event in a PC's life.

The jailers or jailer. PKD drew on Gnosticism heavily especially here in characterizing the maker of the visible world as a Satanic, oppressive monster. However it's also been a trickster, a family relation of the forces of light and good.



These are all excellent points. The first thing that came to mind after the initial concept of The Xerox Missive was the fact that Dick characters are not your average rpg characters. Nobody has a +4 axe here; we have characters that are underdogs. They are jolted out of their banal existence and forced to deal with the situations within. There are instances where a character may enjoy their dealings in life: the character in Pot Healer who's father was a pot healer before him. Point is these characters are blue collar, The Xerox Missive is a blue collar rpg. Greg Stolze originally brought up this fact re: The WW game Hunter: the Reckoning. It is a most interesting point that you start out at this menial level of existence. I have a character in mind who's entire job requires him to refill fountain pens all day long. That's it. It's the reason why he's refilling them that gets his story going. He works in a place called the scribe cathedral. It's has hundreds of levels with hundreds of scribes copying items. Electronic print has been abolished in this world and all information must be saved. He is prompted to answer to a superior(a Jailer in game terms)and then his whole world is turned upside down after he lives his little room refilling fountain pens.

Bringing the past back into the present.


Amnesis: This is another important part of the missive. It and a couple of other items make up various "meters" in the character. The character starts off having lived in the BIP for numerous years and is now aware of another existence. Throughout certain events after their catalyst of recieving the missive they "awaken" so to speak to the notion of The Palm Tree Garden. All of the characters have an alter ego of some form or another and with time; they begin to remember their past selves and all that happened during that time(For Dick it was Thomas his old age Christian in Rome) Over time Amnesis reaches higher and higher levels and the characters begin to understand their situation a bit more clearly.

Since this is a sliding scale there are instances where the character's Amnesis score will lower also. Contact with the mundane jailer's(The shitty boss, the bitchy wife, the assorted Dark Haired Girls and Boys, the feds, the shifty aliens, etc...)that end in ill result will effect the characters amneisis score. The character essentially begins to forget again. Except this time even more of reality has to be replaced to cover up for the loss of amnesis and the rifts that it has caused.

Empathy: Another important aspect of XM will be a character's empathy. I have already stressed the importance of such items earlier and the incredible amount that Dick himself portrayed in his writings. Another "meter" or "score". A characters Empathic Rating will also rise and fall. In closest terms of "Magic" the Empathic Rating will take it's place. Varied results will follow a higher or lower rating. How the character can affect anothers mind. I'll have to work on this aspect further. Any suggestions?




The alien, helping intelligence (PKD often called it "the Physician"), itself strangely split between overpowering and tragically ineffective. Avoiding deus ex machina in using this would be tricky, however you could do it as a kind of player resource for influencing plot and limit it that way.



The Physician will be an omnipotent figure. Helping and shaming all at once.

The Vast Active Living Intellegence System so to speak.

This coupled with the mention of the Jailer is the gnostic view of things with the demiurge and the jealous, hateful god who turned is back in spite.


That's all for now.

[DP]

I love PKD in a near-unwholesome way

Me too. I'm not afraid to stand up and tell the world, "I'm a big Dick fan!"

The problem with playing a game of this type, no matter how freaking cool I think it would be, is that once you've fallen down this kind of rabbit hole, there's no getting back up--that is, like Kult or Call of Cthulhu, it doesn't lend itself to long campaigns once The Big Secret is out.

Plenz is onto something with the Mars colonist idea. Inuit have 34 words for "snow," but fully 41 for "this sucks." It seems that a low-drama, slice-of-awful-life game would be the thing to start out with; Kickers pack not too hard a kick, being related to the mundane lives within The Black Iron Prison (you have your game's title right there), but as play proceeds, things happen to disrupt their worldview, they realize they're in a construct of the Demiurge, they try to regain their "forgetting," fail, and...close curtain.

Or...Plenz, you could try to create this as an add-on to any other game, like Power Kill by John Tynes (who--bzzt, sorry--was not the creator of De Profundis). Not so good perhaps for D&D, but for a modern game or a space game in which "reality" (including perhaps the human-ness of the player characters) becomes questioned...it could be interesting, and create a Jacob's Ladder kind of mess.

To avoid getting a big Moderator boot in my ass, I have to comment on mechanics and say the I Ching sounds like it'd be useable, but the trigrams would have to be "interpreted" in a broad sense in the rules to indicate if only roughly "what happens," that is, does the Prison become stronger while a character succeeds, does a character create a complication for him- or herself, and so on. Perhaps the I Ching could be a device used by PCs/NPCs within the setting, as well as in the mechanics of the game: since it seems to be something of true stability (that is, able to point people in the Prison to cosmic truths), it'd be interesting to have that parallel of player characters having access to that which the players use to determine their actions.

Okay, that just made my brain hurt.

[Plenz]

The problem with playing a game of this type, no matter how freaking cool I think it would be, is that once you've fallen down this kind of rabbit hole, there's no getting back up--that is, like Kult or Call of Cthulhu, it doesn't lend itself to long campaigns once The Big Secret is out.

I agree. I never felt that the game would have the potential for *really* long stories. It is difficult to get out of the mess that the situation of the Missive puts one in.

Kult was always a favorite of mine and the use of gnostic ideas throughout it's text have inspired me in certain respects. It is a far lighter game than the madness of Kult or that of CoC. It is madness but in another respect.

Plenz is onto something with the Mars colonist idea. Inuit have 34 words for "snow," but fully 41 for "this sucks." It seems that a low-drama, slice-of-awful-life game would be the thing to start out with; Kickers pack not too hard a kick, being related to the mundane lives within The Black Iron Prison (you have your game's title right there), but as play proceeds, things happen to disrupt their worldview, they realize they're in a construct of the Demiurge, they try to regain their "forgetting," fail, and...close curtain.

That's it. Dickian characters are "low drama" to an extent. It's the onslaught of information that follows(falling down the rabbit hole) that really kicks it up.

The characters worldview in an upset is another essential part of the game. They realized these things through Amnetic potential and can also forget them through Anake, a greek word(thanks to Sutin's index within "In pursuit of valis" meaning that the character falls into a blindness through hubris. All manner of the intricacies of the BIP that lower the characters Amnetic score causing their amnesis to back-fire.

These elements are a sliding scale and will fall and rise throughout the game. returning to their existnence prior to the xerox missive would "close the curtain" That's it. End of that charactetr's story. There are ways to make it last for a good amount of time though. The games name will remain The Xerox Missive though.


who wrote De Profundis then? Oh yeah, tynes did the cover, right?

I have been a fan of the Ladder since it's theatrical release. It is the jam.

To avoid getting a big Moderator boot in my ass

I don't get it. Why a boot in the ass?

[Cemendur]

My simulationist and situationist game SNAFU was originally based on Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary's 8 intelligences for ability scores and magic modeling. I have expanded from that and incorporated intelligence models from cognitive psychology and a magic model based on Hermetic and Chaos Magic (as a model that embraces all religions as maps of reality).. I originally had an 8x8 grid incorporated into this, now it's a 5x5 grid based on the law of fives and the five elements.

I have considered an Asatru or Druidic rune-based fortune mechanic. Also a law of 5s or Law of 8s (octave) rune fortune mechanic.

I have myself tinkered with using an I-Ching fortune mechanic.

Have you examined the work of Terence McKenna, Carl Jung, or Marie-Louise Von Franz on this subject? "I Understand Philip K. Dick" by Terence McKenna is superb. It originally appeared as the afterword in the book "In Pursuit of Valis: Selections from the Exegesis" edited by Lawrence Sutin. This essay can be found online at:  http://www.sirbacon.org/dick.htm Have you read "Schizophrenia & the Book of Changes" by Philip K. Dick? It can be found online at: http://www.geocities.com/pkdlw/schizo.html

Carl Jung's book On Synchronicity is also recommended.

Another resource I am using iis "The Man of Many Qualities: A Legacy of the I-Ching" by R. G.H.  Siu.

Also, why change the name of the I-ching? We don't change the name of dice for RPG fortune mechanics or of cards or of runes? Philip K. Dick himself called it the I-Ching to call it anything else is outside of canon.

I would be highly interested in any advancements you make in regards to an I-Ching mechanic or any resources you have found useful.

Also, as a Dickhead, I am emotionally attached to seeing your dream realized.

[DP]

I don't get it. Why a boot in the ass?

Why indeed. This forum is generally given to very nuts-and-bolts issues concerning the design--primarily mechanics--of indie games. You'll see that Ron and Clinton do an excellent job keeping everyone on track.

This thread is especially difficult, since head-hurty intellectual matters are bound up in the very essence of this game, but we need to get more granular when it comes to expressing through "system" the play experience of The Xerox Missive (duh, I'd ignored the fact that was the title, and a much better one than the one I suggested).

Okay, one final scattergun blast of semi-topical stuff:

- I'm digging the conversation here. Xaos is a breath of fresh air from Xtian.

- Too lazy to research the matter (google "de profundis" hogshead [and if need be] Tynes), I'll only say De Profundis was authored by "some Polish guy."

- In explaining LARP to a couple of ex-L.A. people, the woman turned to her partner and said, "That sounds like those things that Bob would put on."
I had a hunch. "Bob?"
"Yeah, Bob Wilson."
"You mean, Robert Anton Wilson?"
"Yeah--Bob!"[/list:u]

[Plenz]

Thanks for your comments and enthusiasm. I am not terribly familliar with the work of Wilson past parts of the Illuminatis trilogy and ocassional visits to his website.

What are the 8 intelligences exactly?

magic model based on Hermetic and Chaos Magic (as a model that embraces all religions as maps of reality).. I originally had an 8x8 grid incorporated into this, now it's a 5x5 grid based on the law of fives and the five elements

This is very interesting. I like the idea of 5x5 grid. Nice addition.

Glad to know another has tinkered with the oracle as a mechanic.

Mckenna and Von Franz I am not familliar with. I have a working knowledge of Jung though and am utilizing Jungian Archetypes for character creation.

The essay by Mckenna -I understand Philip K Dick- I have read. It is fantastic. Actually, Sutin's -In Pursuit of Valis- & -Divine Invasions the Life of PKD- have proved as invaluable resources througout my research. The mini PKDicitonary in the back of IPoV is fantastic. It has thouroughly helped me with in game terminology.

I will have to check out Marie-Louise Von Franz. Who is/was she?

Carl Jung's book On Synchronicity is also recommended.

Yes, it is rather helpful. Also: Jung's various Gnostic interpretations are also interesting.

Also, why change the name of the I-ching? We don't change the name of dice for RPG fortune mechanics or of cards or of runes? Philip K. Dick himself called it the I-Ching to call it anything else is outside of canon.

Agreed.

would be highly interested in any advancements you make in regards to an I-Ching mechanic or any resources you have found useful.

I will keep updating my work on this aspect. I plan on using an example casting for a character in the next couple of days.

Also, as a Dickhead, I am emotionally attached to seeing your dream realized.

These are very kind words. Thank you.

[Wormwood]

As I was reading this thread I was continually reminded of a little game called Psychosis[\url]. It's been out of print for quite some time, but had several innovative elements which are close to what you seem to be doing. It was one of the first games I recall which used a Tarot deck as it's randomizer. It was also based on a network of different warped persepctives of reality. But perhaps the most intriguing element was the use of the cards as the sole "reality" of the game. Player's had no character sheets, and couldn't take notes, and their abilities were entirely determined by the hand of cards thet currently held.

Psychosis was published with a pre-developed setting, where the PC's are crygenically frozen astronauts whose job it is to land a generation ship (Ship of Fools). Unfortunately, there is an open conflict about whether the ship should land or not. As a result the PC's were improperly thawed, and so have begun to hallucinate, percieving different variants on reality. The ultimate goal is to suceed in the mission, and ideally achieve some sort of sanity in the process.

I suggest hunting down this game, if you can, since it will likely be a gold mine for your design.

Otherwise your game sounds very interesting, and I look forward to hearing more.

  -Mendel S.

[Plenz]

I do recall the game Psychosis. I never picked it up and I know very little about it but I will look into it. Thank you.