Hi all,
I am working on a survival horror AW hack ala #DeadSpace or #GhostShip. The game centers around two players, similar to #MurderousGhosts, except instead of having a GM, one person plays the Watcher, and the other plays the Passenger. The Watcher is someone trapped in the monitor room, able to see and provide insight but unable to act. The Passenger is a untrained and unskilled person recently awoken from cryosleep by the Watcher. Together, the two have to figure out how to get the ship functioning and operational again before catastrophe hits and they both die. The mechanics are predominantly a hack of the Savvyhead’s workspace rules, posted in the form of questions from the passenger which are answered by the watcher.
I would like to start playtesting this very alpha project, so hit me up if you are interested, curious, etc.
sounds interesting.
Sold
It sounds like it has shades of Doomed Pilgrim and perhaps of Rafael Chandler’s Viewscream as well. Does this play out over g+, or at the table, or?
I had exactly the same questions as Maguey’s when I was going through the pitch.
I’d like to test the game.
Want!
Sounds very doable.
Meguey Baker, yes most definitely. Honestly I don’t think I will ever create anything that isn’t heavily influenced by Vincent’s games. I’ve never heard of Viewscream, but I’ll try to look it up.
Play wise, the idea is that the Watcher and the Passenger only communicate via radio (I could see G+ working fine if the image was turned off), and the fiction of the game is created by speaking in person. So, instead of saying “I go check out the room”, the passenger might say “I’m going to go check out the room now … I found __, what should I do with it?” There is also a 30 minute timer, counting down until the ship is destroyed lest the heroes save it.
I’m super stoked to hear people are interested in checking it out. I’m not super good at organizing, and am new to playtesting as a designer, so how about if you are interested in trying it out go ahead and send message me and we can figure out a time to try it. If someone wants to listen in to a G-chat session of the game and provide feedback after, that would also be awesome.
I’ll add to that if anyone has a better suggestion for how to setup playtesting please let me know : )
I’d like playtest it (and post notes on our blog?).
Sounds very interesting! I wish my calendar wouldn’t be so full. If you will need more playtesters by the end of October (and we can sync our calendars, given the time difference), I’d love to try this one.
The timer idea is very good!
So the Passenger is creating the fiction; what is the Watcher doing? Do either of them do any pre-play, thinking about what resources are available and what challenges stand between the Passenger and survival? You might also look at Action Castle and the rest of the Parsley Games by Jarod Sorensen, especially for the map and the notion of guiding a person with no information through a series of tasks.
Meguey Baker, the idea is that the Passenger asks questions “Where can I find ____“, “How can I get past ___“, and the Watcher fills in the fiction with the answers. So generally speaking, the Watcher creates the fiction, the Passenger makes decisions and takes the risks. I’ll take a look at those other games – I like the idea of a map as well!
I’ll start messaging people who have indicated interest in playtesting on this threat. Thanks for your interest everyone!
I’d be interested in testing this, the time-limit mechanism fits pretty neatly with downtime gaps in my workday where I could test this with friends.