Matthew Rasmussen's journal of journals on various topics of interest, published here, there or somewhere since 1999.
The management is not responsible for lost or stolen towel cards. Should your towel card be lost or stolen, you will no longer have access to towels.
File Under: /games
Dumped, like the browser-based kart game, so that I may free up some synapses.
The Idea:
>HP: 0
File Under: /games
You arrive in the town. You check into an inn. It's on a back street. Out of the way. You're wanted criminals, so best not to draw attention to yourselves.
You've been trying to find Tintmere since the airship crash. She should be in this town. But where?
Porcelain and little Night set off with a shopping list. You and Kell head upstairs.
There's a window. The room overlooks an equally rickety row of buildings. Fourth floor. Lots of crisscrossing clotheslines and rising steam, people milling about below. In the distance over the rooflines: the Lightning Tower. Your ultimate goal.
Concrete pebbles fall discretely into the drowned, weedy flower pot in front of you. You crane, look up.
A bounty hunter tromps silently across the rusty pipes on the roof. The shadows of two more flit between the eaves.
You lean back in, smile, head gesture to Kell. A row of shurikens materialize in his hand, and he melts into the shadows. Hazard another glance out.
There's a bamboo-like pole caught between your building and the one across the street. One floor down. It looks tenuous. But you have been working on your balance.
The next room? The walls can't be too thick.
Nah. More fun to hide in the ratan basket.
Moments later, light feet land on the windowsill. Simultaneously, the door flies off its hinges. Two bounty hunters race into the empty room. They look around, walk to the center of the room. Suddenly a basket and a shadow burst to life, and both bounty hunters are flung out the open window with hardly a cry.
The ceiling caves in. It's time for the big daddy bounty hunter. You exchange blows, and are both parried and thrown back. Not good. He hasn't even broken a sweat. You grab Kell, flip him up onto the roof and climb out. The wall explodes. You make a grab for a drain pipe, swing out across sickening open space, and -- Kell's throw line jerks the pipe up toward the roof. You land. Smile. And RUN!
Rooftop chase, as the overpowered bounty hunter hurls force blasts after you, shredding the ancient stone. Chickens squawk. Cisterns topple. An adorable little girl tends a lovely three foot square rooftop garden; you scoop her up as you run by, and apologize, as the bounty hunter smashes her four flowers.
You give the girl to Kell, saying you'd like to try something. You insult the giant. A lot. Kell breaks left, sliding down the side of a building. You break right. It worked! He's following you.
Crap.
Fight! Fighting doesn't work. Escape! He catches you in midair. The bounty hunter sneers that the fee still gets paid if all your limbs have been pulled off. This is it.
Shwunk! The bounty hunter shakes you, looks around indeterminately. He reaches back. A magic dagger wrapped in lace protrudes from between his shoulder blades. He topples, turning to wood. The wood bleaches, hollows, cracks, shatters -- poof! Nothing but dust.
You pick yourself up, squint into the sun. A lace-adorned figure steps toward you through the haze, waving. Tintmere!
-----
Now imagine that the preceeding had been generated: The overall plot. The long separation from a comrade. The clues that led you to her. The streets. The repetition of the larger goal. The foreshadowed tip-off at the flower box. The personally appropriate strategy options. The easy mini-bosses. The unstoppable mega boss. The setback getting onto the roof. The dramatic save. The comic timing. The race. The moral choice. The losing battle. The last minute save, leading into the storyline completing reunion.
As flashy as today's RPGs are, they're still not true Role Playing Games. In them, players are rewarded for figuring out how the game engine works and finding ways to best it, not -- as the name would suggest -- for immersing themselves in the role of the character.
How does a game engine implement literary devices? How do you reinforce the players' choice to have more fun with the story, rather than the choice to simply learn better chess positions? Printed paper+pencil+friends role playing games have invented some interesting story game concepts, but digital RPGs still rely largely on grinding in the final analysis.
I'm not suggesting that hard work shouldn't bring character improvement, but I sanction it only because that too is a literary device. It's not, however, the only literary device. In the early days of computer games, perhaps it was the only trope that could be realistically implemented. Are we at the end of the beginning of computer games yet?
Those looking for something a little more crunchy may enjoy my RPG Stats Comparison Chart.
>HP: 1
>Great story, that! Really makes me miss playing RPGs. I haven't played a pen & paper game in years.
File Under: /games
A comparison of the stats used to define a character across eleven popular videogame and pencil-and-paper roleplaying games. (20k PDF)
Not included on the chart are depletable scores. Each game seems to have a concept of Hit Points, a number representing the character's moment-to-moment health, with the possible exception of outlier EVE Online and it's complete lack of physical traits. Most games that invoke magic of one sort or another have a rechargeable score representing the total amount of magic which may be invested in an action at any given time. Wealth is typically also a depletable score.
All games surveyed also deal with situational bonuses. These may be weapons and armor, single-use or depletable items, or learned skills. Even games with simple stat structures like Shining Force II create highly varied play structures using such bonuses.
Being essentially combat-based, none of the games surveyed had more than one social stat, and the majority had none. For those that did, it was always "charisma" -- an ability to gain tangible favors from others. Combat-free games like Harvest Moon may deal more fully with a character's social aspects, but as a component of adventure storytelling it appears tellingly neglected.
>HP: 0
File Under: /games/original/bulletin
A game of storytelling
Rules for v0.1 (first beta)
[This document pertains to the version 0.1 rules. $file::bulletingame is the latest version.]
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Admiral Bulletin is a storytelling game set against a '30s pulp adventure backdrop. 3-6 players cooperate to tell a classic adventure in 9 chapters. There are no winners or losers, no stats, and no dispute resolution -- just rewards for bringing the awesome. Players begin by deciding what genre themes are allowed, deciding on a title, and coming up with locations. Play is a simple matter of speaking as many lines as you're allowed every round while trying to work in certain events that must take place in the chapter. As the game advances through three acts, these events change subtly, pushing the story toward its thrilling conclusion.
To get started, players will need:
Optionally, players can print off from this site:
One player elects to keep the game sheet. His or her job will be to keep track of Chapters and Locations.
Put a pile of counters into the middle of the table and give each player 4. These are the Awesome. Every piece of the Awesome is equal to one natural speaking breath.
Prepare three columns for Character cards somewhere on the table. These columns will track Protagonists (Pro), Neutral (Neu) Characters, and Villains (Vil). Characters are represented by a name on a piece paper. Two Characters are required in the Protagonist column at the start of play: Admiral Bulletin and Miranda. (See APPENDIX A. - CHARACTERS)
Themes give a rough sanity to the game by deciding its boundaries. Themes must be chosen unanimously. Players may select as many or as few Themes as they'd like -- none at all is often a good place to start. (For available themes, see APPENDIX B. - THEMES)
Players now choose a title for the Bulletin book they're creating. (Classic examples include Admiral Bulletin and the Snows of Tan Ana, Admiral Bulletin and the Lost Fleet, Admiral Bulletin and the Eudoxian Delay and Admiral Bulletin and the Foreign Star.) Record the Title on the game sheet.
Each player now secretly writes down four locations.
Every chapter takes place in one location. Locations can be as specific (The British Museum, The H.M.S. Reliant) or as general (France, The Pacific) as a player likes, as straightforward (Shanghai, The South Pole) or as intangible (Among the Ruins, At Tea) as need be.
The first player writes down "Eppings on High St." as the location for Chapter 1 and initials it. A Bulletin book always starts here, at Bulletin's headquarters.
Play proceeds to the right. The next player selects one of his or her Locations, and announces it as the Location for Chapter 2. This is recorded on the game sheet, along with the player's initials. The next player to the right may now choose one of his or her Locations, or return to one which has been used previously. Continue choosing locations in this manner until Chapters 1-9 have all been filled.
Before Chapter 1 can begin, the Events that take place within it must be decided. Roll 5 dice, and place the 5 Event cards corresponding to the dice rolls into a pile in the middle. (Printable Event cards are available on this site.) Add one additional, special Event card: The Hook. This is the Event that allows the player to end the Chapter. A Hook may not be played until all other Event cards have been used.
The player who rolled the location of the Chapter chooses one Event from the pile. Continue to the right. The next player may select any of the remaining events. Continue until all are gone, including the Hook.
Events behave differently depending on the Act of the Chapter in which they happen. (For all Events, listed by Act, see APPENDIX C. - EVENTS)
We're about ready to begin Chapter 1. The person who selected the Location (check the initials on the game sheet) starts. He or she announces the Chapter number and Location. All dialogue hereafter during the Chapter should be story content.
As previously stated, each of the 4 pieces of the Awesome a player begins with equal one natural speaking breath.
To begin, the first player slides one piece back toward the pile and speaks the first line. He or she continues until all four pieces have been used, and then recovers the 4 pieces for his or her next turn.
Example:
Lets say another player liked the bit about the fire in this example. He or she may award the speaker more of the Awesome from the pile in the middle -- completely on a whim. Use the Awesome to reward what you enjoy. The next time it is the first player's turn, he or she will be able to use the additional Awesome to speak more, or hang onto it for later.
Each player also has one or more Events which must be worked into the story. To play an Event card, he or she narrates its payload into the storyline and discards the card to the center of the table.
Example:
The cast is tracked with Character cards (which need only be scraps of paper with a name on them) in the Protagonist, Neutral and Villain columns. CAST Event cards allow addition and subtraction of Characters in these columns. SWITCH cards allow the movement of Characters from column to column.
Example:
When all Events for a given Chapter have been achieved, the player holding the Hook card is free to conclude the Chapter on any of his or her subsequent turns.
The procedure for beginning a Chapter repeats. Players roll the 5 Events for the next Chapter, add the Hook, and divide them up. The player who initially chose the Location for the Chapter announces the Chapter number and Location, and begins speaking.
Chapters 1-3 make up Act I. This is the Act for introductions, both of characters and the overall contents of the story.
At the beginning of Chapter 4, Events change slightly. Act II -- Chapters 4-6 -- is the Act of switching. SWITCH Events can go in either direction, pushing the secondary cast regularly between columns. Your MISC. Event becomes a change of overall objective for the team.
Act III -- Chapters 7-9 -- are about danger and, ultimately, resolution. Characters can no longer be introduced with CAST Events. SWITCH will only resolve Neutral Characters into Protagonists or Villains. MISC. Events trigger dire snap decisions or the catastrophically unexpected.
Some classic Bulletin characters are provided below to get you started. Printable Character cards are available on this site. Note that some Characters are restricted to certain columns, unless playing with the "Literary" or "Countercannon" themes.
The currently available Themes are as follows. A game may include as many or as few as the players wish.
Printable Event cards are available on this site.
Act I (Chapters 1-3)
Act II (Chapters 4-6)
Act III (Chapters 7-9)
This is the first beta release.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.
>HP: 0
File Under: /games/original/bulletin
The following are (optional) printable materials for use with the Admiral Bulletin version 0.1 (beta 1) game rules.
Game Sheet
Print 1 copy per game. The Game Sheet tracks the Title, Locations and Themes for a game.
Action Cards (sheet 1)
Print 1 copy and cut out the 8 individual cards. This sheet contains:
Action Cards (sheet 2)
Print 2 copies and cut out both sets of 8 cards. This sheet contains:
Character Cards
Print 1 copy and cut out the 10 cards. This sheet contains sample Character Cards for:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.
>HP: 0
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