My main entry: The Lady and The Tower

[Joel P. Shempert]

Here's what I've got so far:

The Lady and the Tower

lngredients:

Lantern
Doctor
Dark Ages
[Trials Distilled] Describing Credibility
From Trials Distilled Thread:
"At the top of the castle is a huge tower, with green light coming out of the windows."
"The bishop leaps up onto his horse and rides away."
"Lady Emily feels sad."

The Lady Emily, recently married to a wealthy Lord, finds herself, far from ushered into the Springtime of happiness that she and all her kin had supposed, locked instead in a gilded cage, cut off from all contact with family and trapped in the ancestral keep of her cold and mysterious husband. What is it that keeps him away from the estate all day, and consumes all his energies at night so that their marriage bed remains cold? What secret does he guard atop the castle tower to which he alone has the key? Does he brood over some personal tragedy, or is there, as the servants whisper, some sorcery or gross blasphemy afoot? And can the Lady's dear friend the Bishop of Gloucester, to whom she has sent discreet letters, guard her soul if her ills be born of Hell, or comfort her heart if they be born of Earth? Will he even dare, or ill the Lady be forced, flickering lantern in hand, to brave the night to lay the secret bare herself?

The finished game will be presented entirely on a series of cardstock placards, either letter or halfletter sized, probably bundled in an envelope. They'll consist of two layers glued together, with the top layer containing little advent calendar-style windows to tear away and revel new content in the bottom layer.

RULES CARD:

This is a storytelling game for 3-5 players. Together you'll tell a tale of gothic mystery, laced with florid romance or chilling deviltry, or perhaps both. You'll play using specially constructed Role Cards, each containing hidden information that you'll uncover bit by bit as you unravel the mysteries in the course of play.

For three players, use the Role Cards for the Lady, the Lord and the Bishop.

For four players, add the card for the Servants.

For five players, add the card for the Family.

[explanation of the different roles]

[some hippie-trippy rules for structuring interaction]

ROLE CARD: THE LADY

Is the Lady's Love...                Is the lady's Sentimentality...

Ardent   or   Aloof?                 Warm    or   Cool?

1.	1.	1.	1.
2.	2.	2.	2.
3.	3.	3.	3.

Is the Lady's sense of Duty...    Is the Lady's Curiosity...

Stalwart or Wavering?           Burning or Indifferent?

1.	1.	1.	1.
2.	2.	2.	2.
3.	3.	3.	3.

So, the Lord and the Bishop (and the Servants and Family, for larger games) all have four questions like this. Some will overlap: the Lord and Lady both have a Love question, the Lady and Bishop both have a Sentimentality question, and the Bishop and Lord both have a Piety question.

As you play, when you reach a point fictionally where the character has to decide whether, for instance, her Love for her husband is growing more Ardent or more Aloof, you tear off a window and reveal a new thing about her, such as "she looks fondly upon him, but remains silent on the matter." You can mix and match; if you act Ardent in one scene you can tear off 1. in the Ardent column, then if you're Aloof in a further scene, you tear off 1. in that column. Whenever you tear off 3. in either column, you;ll uncover something drastic and final, like "she loves him with unshakable fervor, and all her happiness is fixed upon him," or "any chance he had to win her is gone forever, and her heart is closed to him," and you close out that question.

With all the cards working together, my hope is that they'll synergize an unpredictable combination of noncontradictory but fruitfully disparate results: Lady loves Lord but he is indifferent to her, Lord is a sorcerer but genuinely cares for Lady, Bishop is fond of Lady but is compelled to destroy her Husband as a Heretic, and so on.

Whaddyall think?

[dmkdesigns]

Here's what I've got so far:

The Lady and the Tower

lngredients:

Lantern
Doctor
Dark Ages
[Trials Distilled] Describing Credibility
From Trials Distilled Thread:
"At the top of the castle is a huge tower, with green light coming out of the windows."
"The bishop leaps up onto his horse and rides away."
"Lady Emily feels sad."

The Lady Emily, recently married to a wealthy Lord, finds herself, far from ushered into the Springtime of happiness that she and all her kin had supposed, locked instead in a gilded cage, cut off from all contact with family and trapped in the ancestral keep of her cold and mysterious husband. What is it that keeps him away from the estate all day, and consumes all his energies at night so that their marriage bed remains cold? What secret does he guard atop the castle tower to which he alone has the key? Does he brood over some personal tragedy, or is there, as the servants whisper, some sorcery or gross blasphemy afoot? And can the Lady's dear friend the Bishop of Gloucester, to whom she has sent discreet letters, guard her soul if her ills be born of Hell, or comfort her heart if they be born of Earth? Will he even dare, or ill the Lady be forced, flickering lantern in hand, to brave the night to lay the secret bare herself?

The finished game will be presented entirely on a series of cardstock placards, either letter or halfletter sized, probably bundled in an envelope. They'll consist of two layers glued together, with the top layer containing little advent calendar-style windows to tear away and revel new content in the bottom layer.

RULES CARD:

This is a storytelling game for 3-5 players. Together you'll tell a tale of gothic mystery, laced with florid romance or chilling deviltry, or perhaps both. You'll play using specially constructed Role Cards, each containing hidden information that you'll uncover bit by bit as you unravel the mysteries in the course of play.

For three players, use the Role Cards for the Lady, the Lord and the Bishop.

For four players, add the card for the Servants.

For five players, add the card for the Family.

[explanation of the different roles]

[some hippie-trippy rules for structuring interaction]

ROLE CARD: THE LADY

Is the Lady's Love...                Is the lady's Sentimentality...

Ardent   or   Aloof?                 Warm    or   Cool?

1.	1.	1.	1.
2.	2.	2.	2.
3.	3.	3.	3.

Is the Lady's sense of Duty...    Is the Lady's Curiosity...

Stalwart or Wavering?           Burning or Indifferent?

1.	1.	1.	1.
2.	2.	2.	2.
3.	3.	3.	3.

So, the Lord and the Bishop (and the Servants and Family, for larger games) all have four questions like this. Some will overlap: the Lord and Lady both have a Love question, the Lady and Bishop both have a Sentimentality question, and the Bishop and Lord both have a Piety question.

As you play, when you reach a point fictionally where the character has to decide whether, for instance, her Love for her husband is growing more Ardent or more Aloof, you tear off a window and reveal a new thing about her, such as "she looks fondly upon him, but remains silent on the matter." You can mix and match; if you act Ardent in one scene you can tear off 1. in the Ardent column, then if you're Aloof in a further scene, you tear off 1. in that column. Whenever you tear off 3. in either column, you;ll uncover something drastic and final, like "she loves him with unshakable fervor, and all her happiness is fixed upon him," or "any chance he had to win her is gone forever, and her heart is closed to him," and you close out that question.

With all the cards working together, my hope is that they'll synergize an unpredictable combination of noncontradictory but fruitfully disparate results: Lady loves Lord but he is indifferent to her, Lord is a sorcerer but genuinely cares for Lady, Bishop is fond of Lady but is compelled to destroy her Husband as a Heretic, and so on.

Whaddyall think?

I think this sounds like a fun party game. It reminds me of both a choose your own adventure and Kagematsu.

Do you have anything more to share regarding the "[some hippie-trippy rules for structuring interaction]"?

For instance, I'm curious to know when you _know_ when to answer a question during play? If that will be structured mechanically or just decided by the group?

-David-

[Joel P. Shempert]

"hippy-trippy rules" is a placeholder for something I haven't developed yet.

I think "answer the question in play" will be triggered fictionally. Does the Lady act more Ardent in a scene? Then open the first entry under Ardent. Does she act more Aloof? Then open the first entry under "Aloof."

I may need to figure out a way to phrase it so it's clear that it's "consequentially Ardent," that is, so you don't have a sitch like "It's a delight to see you this fine morning, my husband" at the breakfast table, and BAM scene over.

[Mathalus]

This sounds awesome. It would be so much fun to rip stuff open.

I think the thing I'm most concerned about is how I'm going to show the difference between love and sentimentality. Those seem really close to each other. Do you need both? Is there something you could replace sentimentality with, like physicality or coyness? Maybe three is enough? If you have three categories, with two sets of three, that's already 18 options.

I like the revealed facts.

[dmkdesigns]

"hippy-trippy rules" is a placeholder for something I haven't developed yet.

I think "answer the question in play" will be triggered fictionally. Does the Lady act more Ardent in a scene? Then open the first entry under Ardent. Does she act more Aloof? Then open the first entry under "Aloof."

I may need to figure out a way to phrase it so it's clear that it's "consequentially Ardent," that is, so you don't have a sitch like "It's a delight to see you this fine morning, my husband" at the breakfast table, and BAM scene over.

Right. It seems like there needs a little clarification/guideline to help this, perhaps with group consensus so that things progress naturally rather than in a psychotic manner?

-David-

[Joel P. Shempert]

David:

What do you mean by "psychotic?"

Morgs:

Already fixed! I've changed "Sentimentality" to Temperament, and the question reads "Does her Temperament run more Sentimental or Practical? Sono matter whether she loves the Lord or not, she can be a blushing, melodramatic lass or a no-nonsense get-er-done gal.

And also: I've pared it down to three! Eerie, huh? I realized the Curiosity question has one answer that's dead boring, so I made Curiosity a fixed trait. Of COURSE she's curious. We've got no story if she's not curious. So now Curiosity is her special trait that gives her a special ability.

Which is what I'm wrestling with right now: what do the special powers do?

My current thinking is:

The Lady is Curious: she may spend a point of [evocative word] to provoke another Role to reveal the next answer to a Question of her choosing.
The Lord is Respectable: he may spend a point of [evocative word] to cancel the revealing of one of his Answers.
The Bishop is Pious: I have no idea what this one would do.

And just HOW do you earn [evocative word] points, you ask? My thinking is that you can gain one per scene by acting according to an Answer already revealed, just like hitting a Key.

Furthermore, I'm thinking that each player chooses one Answer at the 1. tier to reveal at the start of the game, both so you can have a key to hit, and so you can start pushing in your desired character direction right away.

You know, I may be designing this game entirely backwards.

So working my way back even farther, here's a working model of a hippy-trippy rules system:

One player sets a scene and declares who's in it: their own Role and one other Role. All three Roles can't be present at the same time...yet. The extra player will play the environment, plus servants and other supporting characters.

Scenes are played in turns: either around the table clockwise, or in any order you like, just so everyone gets a turn each round. On your turn, you say just a couple of sentences (usually), and you have a list of things you can say.

Everyone can:
Describe what their character says and does
Describe minor atmospheric detail
Invent an object or small detail of their surroundings provided their character interacts with it.

The Lady can:
deliver internal monologue

The Lord can:
describe the surroundings of his keep and its grounds in broad detail
summon servants at a whim

The Bishop can:
?

The extra player can:
have servants and other minor characters appear, and describe their actions
describe major environmental detail
describe the surroundings of the keep and its grounds in broad detail

So, hey, this is starting to take shape, eh?