I’ve been thinking about the intersection of the extravagant and the mundane in AW. One the one hand, players are crazy powerful, force-of-nature individuals who can singlehandedly change the entire social and political landscape around them. On the other hand, questions of food, space, bullets, and human ambitions are still the primary motivators for play.
Dogs does a similar thing here, where mundane conflicts within a community can escalate to demons, gunfights, and killing stewards in the streets.
Anyone have any thoughts on this from a design perspective, and on how these two (seemly disparate) feels can coexist within a single game?
Btw, Jack K
I’ve given the intersection of extravagant and mundane a little more thought.
I’ve identified Mundane as “stuff” and extravagant as “storyline power.”
I’m going to feel really silly if i got that part wrong.
Much like Planet hunting, this is fundamentally a Goldielocks problem.
From a design perspective, I want to highlight two games that don’t have a good intersection between extravagant and mundane on different extremes.
1. Dungeons and Dragons. If that 100 feet of rope is not written down, you don’t have it. This is the “too cold zone” in the Goldielocks story, because the game offers high levels of mundane and slows down the action. You have to shop for the rope, you have to write all that stuff into a box. Very object focused, mixed with a storyline that feels scripted so the extravagant is largely lacking.
2. Apocolypse World. Stuff: It’s either a plot device or a numbered package. This is the “too hot zone” in the Goldielocks story, because the game doesn’t offer appreciable levels of things; there’s not even an inventory section on the character sheet. This is really too bad, because ‘things’ would enrich the world. On the whole, it is a very extravagant world where characters say what it is and thus it is before you.
Looking at a game that offers a ‘just right’ type of mix between the feels of a crazy and mundane world, lets look at White Wolf. In Mage or Vampire, feet of rope is not specifically tracked. Money is a floated concept that relies on “levels” and if its within your level, you’re good to go. Thus the only things you have to track are things in which are IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO WRITE DOWN. These objects are interesting and so enrich the story without slowing it down.
Bottom line; I recommend something in the middle and that you steal (conceptually) from games that work with the feel you’re going for.
Important Question: what feel do you want? What feel works best for your concept? Which one makes your game better?
In Apoc World and Dogs, I see less “mundane” and more “personal.” And I see less “power forces of nature” and more “primary protagonists.”