Once upon a time there was a writer who wrote a story game that doesn't exist. Those were strange times, and it was an act for a strange time. But nonetheless, it happened, for all things are possibly in universe as wide as the one we find ourselves within.

http://www.principiainfecta.com/talesanddreams/

Perhaps this was an act of revolution, throwing off the shackles that demand a thing to in fact exist to have value. Or perhaps it was no more than madness, just another small irrational act amidst the ruinous end of empire. From such a great distance, how are we to be sure, and why should we even care?

It's interesting, but a bit impenetrable and I'm not even sure it's really a game.

After reading through it, I'm fascinated.

It is most certainly a game, it just approaches thing from a very different direction.

It's very similar to what I've been aiming toward with my Brigaki Djili project.

I think I'll give it a play through, just to see how it works in practice.

V

Very interesting, though I'm not sure how 'play' happens once the Seed is created... I think I do, but I'm not sure... An example, mayhaps?

The part that interests me is the Seed, hence that is the part that is written.

But you are now in much the same position as the archeologists who stumbled upon game boards and fragmentary texts from ancient Persia, and decided to try and recreate plausible versions of the proto-chess played back then.

One could imagine a fairly simple form of game using a Baron Muchausen-like interrupt mechanism wherein one has to make the Tale fit all the Certainties of your hero during a game session, but other people can throw in spanners, twists, aid, suggestions, or challenges via calling on any of the other pieces of a Seed.

More complex forms of game might involve bidding, people assembling scenes by taking turns to name Place, Power, Hero, Motif, embrace creation of new Powers and Places within the rules, and outline different types of Tale that require different sorts of setup and playthrough - are you heading for a destination, is it freeform, how many scenes are there, how much control do you have, etc.

Yet more complex: a deck of fate cards such that the principle happenstance of any scene isn't decided by the players, but they have to work around it.

There's this next piece of archeology, dating from earlier thoughts on where it all would go:

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"Mammoths, of course!" exclaimed Corinthine.

"I had thought for a moment it might be 'Uth Peoples Who Follow Black Mammoth,' but you always leave a Seed just long enough that I suppose you to have lost interest," sighed Amaryth. She crumpled her pencilled guess, ready for the Siberian ivory waste basket.

Balthazar unfolded his paper to reveal 'Uth Peoples Who Follow Black Mammoth' in neat cursive script. "It seemed quite obvious to me."

"Well...drat," said Corinthine, with feeling. "Balthazar is the First Taleteller for the first Scene once again."

"It does seem be becoming a habit," Amaryth observed. "To keep an element of change in the air, why not make this Tale a Play of Scenes? It has been a while since we tried a measured pace of ups and downs."

"Why not indeed?" said Balthazar.

Whilst Corinthine poured herself a consolatory half of rueberry wine,  Balthazar pulled forth a small filing-box. He had some months previously commissioned a set of Whims of Fate as luminal imprints upon daguerreotype cards. The silvered cards in the box had faded nicely, and lent, or so Balthazar thought, a certain air of authority to the proceedings.

"I believe it is Amaryth's turn to draw?"

"Don't blame the hand that picks, but rather he who collimated!" Amaryth sang as she deftly plucked seven cards to set upon the table. "Seven Scenes and seven Whims of Fate as usual, the twice of we three and one for luck."

"Heroes before Fates, I believe. Are we not now ahead of ourselves?" asked Corinthine.

"They are face down, not yet revealed," replied Balthazar, reasonably. "I had thought an assignment of Heroes to be nigh on self-evident given our discussions whilst creating the Seed. Yat for you, Ku for Amaryth, and Ba Firemaker under my erstwhile guidance."

"Ha! Right or not, I still have to say as much!"

"But I am right, am I not?"

"That is hardly the issue—"

"We are, I hope, planning to make a start of things?" interjected Amaryth, hopefully.

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But I'm more inclined to simplicity at this time. Make of it what you will.

Reason
Principia Infecta