[Game Chef 2011] The Marriage of the Oak King's Daughter

[The Magus]

This is my first time in Game Chef and only my second design so be gentle.  My entry for Game Chef is going to be based on a Midsummer's Night Dream.  One of the nobles of Theseus' court has been crowned Oak King at the yearly celebrations at the sacred oak grove in Dodona. 

As is his right he can insist that his daughter marries a suitor of his choice this very evening.  She wishes to marry based upon her own choice and not her father's.  Apollo and Dionysus watch on and wager as to who will fall in love with whom.  They send all manner of spirits to interfere with the proceedings based on their own views of love.

Mechanically I was initially attracted to the the ideas of humours being used but I like the ideas of values based on the 4 kinds of love described in ancient Greece.  Obviously the themes are a bit of a mash-up between ancient Greek, pagan and Christian ideas, much as I experience some of Shakespeare.

I'm going to divide the action into 5 specific acts with every player getting a scene (a bit like Shab al-Hiri Roach).  Each character has values that tie in with the ideals of Apollo or Dionysus.  I see borrowing a few ideas from Smallville and the love of my life, Apocalypse World.

I've been looking at dice rolling mechanisms and like the ideas of introducing elements such as NPCs and fairy magic via cards played by non-active players.

Hmm - I've got a lot of work to do.  My blog can be found here - it's pretty minimal but will hopefully fill up. 

Good Luck and Have Fun to all of the entrants.

[Nathan P.]

Hey Piers,

I have a serious love/hate relationship with Midsummer, so I'm pretty excited to see that as your inspiration! Your writeup here also reminds me of The Dance and the Dawn, another good thing in my book. So, just a note to say this sounds exciting, and good luck!

[The Magus]

Hi Nathan

Thank you for your kind words of support.  I'd like to claim the non-existent prize of being the designer who plays closest to the site of Shakespeare's old stomping ground, Southwark.  Parts of the pub that London Indie RPG meets up in date back to the 16th century.  The toilets certainly smell that way.

I've updated my game blog.  Please drop by and make comments there.

Thanks
Piers

[The Magus]

Scaling back my ambitions

[Jason Petrasko]

I like what I see on the blog so far, though I assume the vague nature of the mechanics is because they are still being defined?

Ah, I see you learned about the scope of Game Chef games already from your last post about scaling back. Its a lesson I still need to learn myself, my introduction is currently 600 words.

Good luck, and I hope to see what shakes loose from this!

[The Magus]

I like what I see on the blog so far, though I assume the vague nature of the mechanics is because they are still being defined?

Ah, I see you learned about the scope of Game Chef games already from your last post about scaling back. Its a lesson I still need to learn myself, my introduction is currently 600 words.

Good luck, and I hope to see what shakes loose from this!

Thanks for your interest and supportive comments, Jason.  I was feeling overwhelmed at the amount of work I had to do yesterday morning and had a good think.  I am meeting a couple of friends tomorrow to playtest something else but I'm hoping to get a truncated playtest in.

I have now hammered out the mechanics now.  I've been reading Vincent Baker's articles on tying the fiction to the real world and am trying to tie the mechanics closely to the narrative.  I'll have something up by tonight.

[The Magus]

Sadly I am going to miss the submission date.  I have just had rather too much on personally and I am also concerned that my entry will be very weak as a result - sort of, "Just do some stuff and it will be cool"

Maybe next year...