Originally shared by David Rothfeder
Warboys Post
Stay-cations mean that I have more chances to do chores and write games (or maybe just play pokemon go until my legs turn to jelly). In any case, I wrote an overview of what the game should look like from gathering the requirements to the end of game. I think this makes the game play-testable by people who aren’t me, but I’m not sure if there needs to be more mechanics to link the setting elements to the rest of the game play. What do people think? (also twin cities crew, who might want to try a campaign?)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B511-yaR3Cdxb25rVGsxZ3RCdm8
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B511-yaR3Cdxb25rVGsxZ3RCdm8
Have you done much playtesting yet? I’m curious if there’s enough motivation or benefit for the players reading out passages from their book (I think that has cool narrative potential). Might be cool with a mention that maybe the passages are ones that the character just thinks is relevant.
Also, are pages torn out in order starting from the beginning? Reading a passage mentions a ‘current page’. I might have missed it; admittedly I only skimmed some parts. Would be useful to put it on the character sheet (or a statement saying tear out pages in any order if that’s the case).
There also doesn’t seem to be a spot to record injuries. There’s blank space on the character sheets, but no dedicated/labeled area.
I have not had a chance to playtest, but I think it’s close for an attempt. I was hoping that the passage rule would be a randomly meaningful moment once or twice a campaign, but I haven’t seen it in action as written (it is similiar to a mechanic I used for a different game and tried that out, but that only used a single word). My intention was for pages to be ripped out in order, but it might have a different but equally cool effect if they weren’t. How would the feel change if injuries ripped from back to front? It’s a cool thought. I do think you are correct, I never made a place to record injuies. I’ll review the character sheet for that.
Ooo, having injuries ripped out from the back could be a cool little thematic thing; they shorten your time vs you moving toward it. There’s some really nice potential in the page tearing I think.
I’ve used tearing pages out as a healthish mechanic before and it felt super impactful in a playtest, so when I had an idea for a heavier game I thought it would fit very well. My concern about having diffeent pull locations is that it might be too much of a bog down for something that has no mechanical effect. I won’t know until I play test the current form and see if there’s more room complexity.
This is absolutely amazing. I need to play this in the near future.
A thought I had while reading: what if there was another way the book changed during play? Like writing in notes on the pages as the character develops, and as those pages are ripped out the warboy slowly comes to face their own futility.
Jon Stewart Could be cool. I’m not sure how that would work mechanicaly, maybe ripping out a note triggers a narrative, but I’d like to see how this plays first so I know the clunkiness of my mechanics. I’m not sure when I can get a test group together especially because I just don’t see the game working as a one shot. While the game is very depressing, I’m hoping it will also be about those brief moments of joy and humanity despite the futility of the situation.