Anyone familiar with my designs knows that I prefer dark, deep, resonate game-play. I’ve been tinkering with the idea of this game for sometime and I finally just sat down, made some character sheets, and started playing with some friends. And I’ll be the first to admit, this first playtest sucked, because I had too many stats on the sheet and no idea what they were going to do, or what I wanted them to do.
After Julie left the playtest out of disgust (or some phone call she pretended to get), the rest of us sat and worked out what a scene should be about and who should be in it. For some reason I failed to even address that since every scene in this game is indoors, quarantined from the world around them, obviously everyone would be in every scene.
Idiot.
After that, I realized that what was at stake for someone in a scene did not need to be the same across the board. Everyone could be in a scene, but be having a completely different experience within the scene. And that the strategic part of the game could be taking place between scenes.
I also failed to tell the players the goal of the game. Wasn’t it obvious? Ha.
Lastly, when I got home, I fixed the character sheet, started working on charts for a GM-less version (which I always knew it would be), and made the cover above. I intend to add interludes between scenes, so players can have some personal time to reflect on the events of play. I also added a concept of “foils” triggering other players to action in tense situations.
More updates as playtests continue.
post world games 