Design Concept Fusion

I was thinking yesterday about one of the real draws of Roleplaying games, both of the in-person at a table and guided by computer types... for me, Exploration is a huge hook. it's not solely RPGs that I enjoy it in, however - Any game can grab me with the slow introduction of new intriguing maps, or a change of the visual palette tying a new region together.

From there, I wondered about what it would take to create a game about exploration. Some already have, but these are niche titles in many ways. A hell of a lot more people know abotu the existence of Modern Warfare 2 than, say, Journey. But the step beyond that... There is a strange place where Little Big Planet, Journey, and Dragon Age find a confluence, and that sort of shared creative world for role playing games has really existed since the beginning, with multiple authors contributing novels and modules to worlds like The Forgotten Realms.

An exploration game with a shared universe of user-created content sounds like just what would scratch this particular itch, and I began to think about the tools and my own creative process for RPGs. Even with tools like Neverwinter Night's GM's tools, creating worlds that stand up in a modern game system is hard, as many many maps and mods from Counterstrike to the tens of thousands of not-quite-popular Little Big Planet maps attest. The success and failure of such a game then, would probably rely on the usability and power of the toolsets that all of those common creative minds building new places to explore have to use.

And then, I wondered, what if this creation of new terrain was pitched as a game in itself, just abstracted? Imagine a tool that creates worlds for Third-Person explorers which begins with a tower-defense style map, where instead of enemies like toughs, hordes and flyers, you have abstracted player types that you need to place features to entertain. Different 'minigames' could handle different levels of detail for newly explored places, latching onto the sort of interest in terrain and design which lead many of us to turn backyard mud-pits into hotwheels racetracks, or an unconnected pile of backyard refuse into a potential gravity-driven marble track. I'm not sure what the details would look like, but using open-ended minigames to create content for fellow explorers seems like a fascinating way to continually expand a world to explore through the guise of a game.

Changeling character concepts.

I've decided that next weekend, I'll likely be running a Changeling: The Lost oneshot for some friends. You can find out more about Changeling on Wikipedia or White-Wolf.com, but suffice to say it is a supernatural game of personal horror, or as the book itself tries to explain, A Storytelling Game of Beautiful Madness.

Changelings are people who, somehow, were lured, abducted, escaped or wandered into the alien realm of Faerie, ruled by beings of unassailable power over their own pockets of causality, with inhuman, unknowable emotions and motivations that rarely turn out well for humans who end up before them. A Changeling player character has 'Escaped', or at least returned to the human world via cunning, accidents... or, perhaps scariest of all, being allowed back by their 'keeper'. On returning to the world however, they realize two things. They have been indelibly changed in ways both visible and not, and for one of many reasons, they can never truly go back to the life they once lived.

These write-ups of Player Character backgrounds are kept short, sweet, and ambiguous in order to give the player who picks them up a solid grounding in the game's themes, without pinning down their specific details.

As a storytelling game, all of these are told in a very formulaic, symmetric form to each other, befitting Changeling's fairytale-gone-wrong themes.

Once upon a time you risked your life every day, saving carefree beachgoers from the danger of deceptively calm Miami waters. Then, one stormy, summer night, you fell from your boat at the marina and were carried out through the harbor’s arch-covered mouth by wild rip-currents. Torn at by coral and rocky shoals, you washed up on the deck of a galleon, run by an alluring gentleman known only as the Generous Captain. The Captain never quite understood how a lifeguard sacrificed themselves to save others – instead of swimming out and helping the ‘people’ seen daily in the waters, you’d be thrown to the waves, swimming futiley after them until drowning yourself – An act which would suddenly leave you both rescued, barely alive, on the deck. You don’t know how long passed, but one day, you ignored the burbling cries of a drowning woman to swim away from the boat, and found yourself ashore in a swamp with other scared, confused people intent on running as far from here as they could…

Once upon a time you were a gifted, but destitute artist, selling your sculptures to wealthy tourists on sunny Miami boardwalks. Then, one crisp, spring night, barhopping took you to a woman who convinced you to stick a needle in your arm, before leading you beneath a barbed-wire archway. Torn at by rusty, twisted steel, you awoke in a prison yard-like pen, overseen by a cruel slave-driver known only as the Warden of Rusted Nettles. The Warden never quite understood lasting artworks – Instead of tough sculptures of stone or bronze, your artistic talent made lasting marks in the flesh of your fellow inmates with henna and ink, lest your own be marked by scorching brands. You don’t know how long passed, but one day you found the artistic filigree of the ‘8’ tattoo you had just finished contained an intricate number and a map, showing you the key-code and route to escape the chainlink forest. Running past steel trunks and rusting barbed leaves, you found yourself emerging in a swamp with other scared, confused people intent on running as far from here as they could…

Once upon a time you paid tuition delivering for gangs, taking messages and packages anywhere in the dark underworld of Miami streets. Then, one chilly, winter night, a rival gang put a bullet in your leg for the bag of cash you carried, hunting you through parking lots and forgotten garden arbors. Torn at by broken trellises and rusty tomato cages, you stumbled out onto a cold plain, chased by the shapeless Tireless Terror of Tundra. The Terror never quite understood that pursuits needed a reason – Instead of chasing you out of a prized garden or for sustenance, it simply chased you from garden to garden, exhausting, then shooting or savaging you, before the juices of the trampled fruits would slowly heal your wounds for the next day of the hunt. You don’t know how long passed, but one day you just stopped running and let it catch you. The Terror left you battered, bruised, but alive, before leaving you to die… or maybe just lack of interest. You limped into a cramped, wet warren between gardens, and when you crawled out, you found yourself mired in a swamp with other scared, confused people intent on running as far from here as they could…

Once upon a time you fought for your country and came back lost, until your benefactor hired you as a bouncer, guarding lairs of Miami glitterati. Then, one windy autumn night, they invited you to their office, texting IM SORRY as you passed through the revolving door. Torn at by long-tail office ferns and proactive silk flowers in the stairwell, the rooftop door revealed an old stone aerie, lorded over by a majestic, predatory count known only as Baron Raptor, who explained anything that came to the Aerie became His. The Baron never understood hospitality – Instead of greeting his guests and settling them in, you distracted them with gregarious niceties, and then betrayed them to ensure their stays became permanent. Over time, you grew to be a regal monster, just like the Count. You don’t know how long passed, but one day there came to the aerie a guest of such beauty, you could hardly lift your gaze to their face. Overcome by their comeliness, you broke down and warned them of the Baron’s plans, to which they simply smiled and turned to walk away. Furious with your failure to keep this guest, Baron Raptor struck you, banishing you down the mountainside. Climbing past shrubs and broken cliff faces, you descended to a swamp with other scared, confused people intent on running as far from here as they could…