Declan's Gamne Thread - Memoir

[R00kie]

Hi guys,

I've been fiddling with the Ingredients most of the day - I've got 6 pages of hand written notes and I'm now fairly sure of the shape my games going to take.

I'm looking at a game which follows a number of individual from birth all the way through to death, looking at the impact they leave on the world. Its going to be fairly structured starting with first steps in the 'Playground' stage following their experiences of early life, and how this builds the skills and personality they need for later life.

I then see them moving to 'the City' - representing the compex interpersonal responsibilities and relationships of adult life. The City is a much more complex place, unforgiving, where mis-steps and mistakes carry consequences, but this is also the phase where risk carries the greatest reward.

In this game the desert is representative of a state of mind and social connections. Its that point in life where you have few or no relationships, where your peers have passed on or parted ways with you, and those who follow don't share enough common experience to easily form relationships. Its a lonely place we all hope to avoid.

Despite the fact I'm including the desert as a possible danger I'm aiming for an up beat game. One of my design goals is to ensure it is always a worthwhile game action to try to achieve something, with the rewards of any sort of constructive action always outwaying the risks.

The final phase of the game will be the Legacy phase where the characters achievements are recounted first by a recent survivor, and then in terms of the impact their life had from a perspective some time in the future. Character achievement will be measured in tremens of Fame, Innovations, Revolution, Lives they've touched (need a better name for this) and Progeny.

Unfortunately I know I'm going to be hampered by lack of technology (I'm in Ireland on holiday with an iPad and no PC, thankfully I'll get two days at home at the end with a real PC to put all the bits together) and lack of dice (which may prove troublesome when I get round to testing game mechanics).

Cheers,

Declan

[Jason Pitre]

Intriguing, though it would be a daunting challenge for me to produce a game of that richness with those time constraints!   

If you are without dice, it might be worth your while to use that as an opportunity for a non-dice based mechanic.  Playing cards or some kind of aspect-type system might be particularly useful? 

If it is always worthwhile to attempt something, are you challenging their capability to act, or the extent of the change they create? 

Look forward to hearing more!

[Frank Tarcikowski]

Hi Declan, I've always liked "lifetime stories" in books or movies and would like to see it applied in an RPG. To be honest I thought that your applications of "city" and "desert" were a little far-fetched, but hey. Good luck!

- Frank

[R00kie]

To be honest I thought that your applications of "city" and "desert" were a little far-fetched, but hey. Good luck!

I quite agree, the way I've used the ingredients is pushing things a lot, although I don't really care. I'm using the GameChef contest to drive my efforts, but if it turns out the judges aren't happy with my use of the ingredients I'll still have a finished game and it will be a game I can feel proud of :-)

I'll include a designers notes section at the back of the book explaining the thought processes which lead to the game. The ingredients definitely served as thought fodder. In fact the first thing which came to mind when I though about deserts was Terry Pratchett's Pyramids. The route from there to the game is rather circuitous. Of course I had an extra ingredient swimming round in my mind - one that just wouldn't leave because it dominating everything I do right at the moment. I'll discus that too...

Thanks for the support. I hope you like the game when I've finish.

Declan

[R00kie]

Its interesting. Most of the entries appear to be almost entirely setting. My game stands out as being almost entirely setting agnostic.

In fact if I renamed 'The Playground', "The City" and "Legacy" to "The Clone Vats", "Alpha Complex" and "Interrogation" respectively people could play an entirely different game with almost no changes to the rules. I could do the same thing with a host of genre. I wonder if I should have included Facts & Reassurances (as used in A Penny for My Thoughts).

[R00kie]

I chose to write my game using Crown Quarto (18.91cm x 24.589cm or 7.444" x 9.681") in Landscape. I've now decided I want a personal printed copy but Lulu appear to only produce Crown Quarto in portrait.

I don't want to reformat the game to a different size - I want my printed version to be a true representation of what I submitted. Does anyone know a Print on Demand company which will produce a full colour Crown Quarto portrait.book?