Originally shared by David Rothfeder
So I’ve decided to start what’s potentially a large rpg design project (yeah, right before game chef. I r smrt). In any case, I think this idea will either be really cool or really awful. It’s called Warboys (yeah, named after Nux and friends) and it’s basically about young people living under the expectations of emotionless violence. I took some ideas from some other projects I’ve worked on. This is a pretty rough sketch of the game so far, but I think it does a pretty decent job of laying out where the teeth will be. Let me know what you think.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B511-yaR3CdxTW52c0VCaHNmLU0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B511-yaR3CdxTW52c0VCaHNmLU0
Cross that with The Regiment for mechanics, Grey Ranks for being child soldiers, Night Witches for the ongoing slog of it all, and Monsterhearts for relying on the other players.
The funny thing is that the only of those games I’ve read before this idea was Monster Hearts (I just started getting into the meat of Night Witches today, but I had already finished the basics of the character sheet)
This looks cool. A couple of thoughts. The title made me think this was going to be a Mad Max hack (I assume that’s where it’s from). Is it exclusively about boys? If so, I think there’s some good mileage to be had in exploring masculinity and people’s expectations of it. If not, maybe a title change. Also the child-soldier bit could be a bit exploitative if not researched properly. You mention a fantasy version, why not explore those themes in an exclusively fantasy environment.
(Also good luck in Game Chef. I’m hoping to enter something too!)
I keep going back and forth on whether this should be a game exclusively about male characters. The idea of the game did come from rewatching Mad Max and noticing how Nux and the other war boys interact. I realized there are probably good stories to be told about being a war boy in the time between violence. I am also worried about the potential for the game coming off as exploitive, but it also feels like the there are a lot of emotional connections between war boys, young adventurers, teenager gang members l, and child soilders. I’m hoping that these concerns will become clearer with further development and play testing. Currently I’m try to figure out how to determine the world the characters are in.
As far as game chef, so far this year I’m stumped.
Fury Road has some great things to say about toxic masculinity and how the patriarchy damages men as well as women. I think it’s a good place to start. And ARRRRGGGHHH I didn’t realise Game Chef had already started, thanks for the pointer!
I think I’m a bit more interested in how systems of victimization through societal expectations can be self sustaining. This can be particularly prominent with toxic mascilinity, but basically I see this a game about a culture where you brutalize your peers in order to cope or minimize the brutality you face from your peers. I see interesting questions such as “do I try to break expectations that I know are unhealthy knowing I will alienate myself?”, “Do I hide the fact that I do not believe this anymore or do I rebel?”, and “I have realized that many things I used to think are wrong, but this person is breaking something I still find taboo. Do I support them or fight against them?”