Memento Mori Theatricks

Imagining a kids adventure game where they play toys (natch). Each toy has access to a list of stock phrases.

There’s a snake in my boot!
To infinity and beyond!
Hi, I’m Ken!

Each phrase tells you something about the character. Buzz Lightyear is bold and brave, Woody is prone to getting into trouble. Ken is effusively friendly.

They’re kind of like beliefs for the toys. You’re not limited to these phrases but there’s an incentive to use them during the game (not unlike the Dying Earth RPG). These phrases are determined by the toys’ players.

A pre-game activity for 3-5 players.

Bullpen is a game you play before you play the game to help suss out character ideas. It’s especially suited to creating superhero characters.

Each player needs a laptop computer and three six-sided dice. Open a word processing program and create a new document. Name the document “bullpen_yourname.” Create a heading containing your name, followed by the names of the other players. Save the document. If you have access to Google Wave you can share a document.

For example, I create the document “bullpen_jared” and list player’s names:

Jared
Luke
Thor
Drozdal

The first player is the first person to set up their laptop and this document.

On the first player’s turn, he should reveal a fact about his character’s history using the first person and write it down on the first line of the document. The other players should also write down this fact under the first player’s name.

Jared
I was created by a scientist to protect mankind against an alien threat.

The first player may then roll a six-sided die or pass.

If he rolls the die and it turns up 6, he may introduce another fact about his character’s history or pass. If he didn’t pass, he rolls again.

If he ever rolls a 1, then that fact is up for debate – the next player may change one part of the first player’s fact. His turn ends and play proceeds to the next player’s turn.

If the first player passed or didn’t roll a 6, the second player now reveals a fact about his own character and the game continues.

If a player incorporates another player’s fact, then he gets to roll an additional die (max. of three dice). If any of these turn up 6, he may reveal another fact. If all the dice turn up 1, his fact is up for debate and his turn ends.

When writing down historical facts about your character, you can insert facts anywhere in the document under your name. This helps in establishing and maintaining the chronology when writing down a fact that occurred before something you already wrote.

At the end of the last player’s turn, that player gets to ask the first player one question:

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

This question should pertain to a fact already established by the first player. The first player must then answer this question by revealing another fact about his character (usually writing it beneath the previous fact).

The game continues until each character has 12 facts in his history. If a player finishes early, he gets to continue to ask questions and debate facts but not add any more of his own.

Designing an RPG (and I’m talking tabletop, not computer) is like designing an uncomfortable chair. And right after you finish building this uncomfortable chair, you have to convince someone to sit in it. And not just that, you need to teach that person to get other people to sit in the chair as well.

If you do it right, everyone gets something out of the experience. It’s worth the bruising.

If you don’t do it right, nobody will sit in the chair for long, if at all.

The game’s player, if he’s conscious of his own decision making, is going to at some point ask himself, “Is this worth the pain?” If yes, he will keep on keeping on. If not, he’s going to call it quits.

Now, the game’s designer can make the chair less-painful but he can never make it comfortable. I think the best RPG designers are experts in not making less-painful chairs but are adept at distracting the person sitting in that chair from realizing how awkward and painful it is.

Now how’s that for a tortured metaphor?

Just created a new game experiment and played it over IM with four unsuspecting friends.

It needs context and I need to suss out the details re: the buttons and their functions but here’s how it works:

I pinged four friends who were online with the message: “You there?” and once they all replied, I sent them this message:

You are standing in a square chamber with three other people. They are strangers.

On each wall of the room there is a button.

If you press BUTTON 1, you will earn 5 points.

If you press BUTTON 2, you will earn 3 points.

If you press BUTTON 3, nobody earns any points.

If you press BUTTON 4, the game ends.

If you pass, you earn 1 point.

If two or more people press the same button, that button will not function.

What do you do?

When they chose, I repeated their choice (ie: “You picked button 3″) and made a note to myself what they chose. When all four had made a choice, I announced what happened. In the first round, nothing happened. Two people wanted to end the game, the other two opted to prevent anyone from scoring points. We played two more rounds, each time I altered the functions of the buttons.

Round 2

The buttons have changed.

If you press BUTTON 1, you will earn 3 points.

If you press BUTTON 2, you will earn 3 points.

If you press BUTTON 3, everyone gains 1 point.

If you press BUTTON 4, the game ends.

If you pass, you earn 1 point.

If two or more people press the same button, that button will not function.

What do you do?

Round 3

The buttons have changed.

If you press BUTTON 1, you will earn 10 points.

If you press BUTTON 2, the highest score will lose 2 points.

If you press BUTTON 3, everyone loses 1 point.

If you press BUTTON 4, the game ends.

If you pass, you earn 1 point.

If two or more people press the same button, that button will not function.

What do you do?

At the end (which was prompted by one player pressing button 4, which always ends the game), I announced the final scores. I noticed nobody ever passed their turn to score the 1 point and most often people chose to try and end the game or screw the other players.

You should try this out with your own four random friends and see what happens.

Had a dream last night.

I remember wearing a red leather jacket and a mask. I was called either Skunk or the The Skunk and I was some kind of low-tier street vigilante type. I was quick and strong and tough in that generic superhero way but my abilities didn’t really approach superhuman levels.

I was in a warehouse/scientific lab controlled by the Mob. After pilfering a plastic bag filled with white powder (NOT drugs, something to do with the ingredients for a stink spray gun I was working on?), I tried to escape but was intercepted by goons. One of the hilarious bits was when I avoided the goons and while running through the lab’s machine shop, rummaging through all the tools strewn about to get a serviceable weapon. I think I ended up with a big-ass screwdriver and a bolt-cutter but not before I cut myself grabbing a butcher knife that was on a workbench.

I don’t remember much after the subsequent fight scene, save for the ubiquitous hot female villain in the leather outfit who showed up at the end. And scene.

* * * * *

Woke up pondering a character creation system where two players had to collab (Lee & Kirby style) on a superhero character. One does the backstory and the other designs the character’s look.

* * * * *

Which brings me to a current idea. You write your character’s personality traits down in secret and you get experience points at the end of the game if the other players can guess what those traits are. Was thinking about that long review of Phantom Menace and how interviewees could easily describe Han Solo and C-3P0 but were stumped when trying to sum up Qui-Gon Jinn as a character.

* * * * *

I have a cold.

The moment you start talking about power levels, you’ve already lost.