Hey Man, well this is Babylon

Following up on the ideas from my last post on this project, I’ve been musing a lot more on both Play Focus and Player Roles. Until now, I’ve been operating under the idea of the players filling the roles of adventurers or wanderers of some sort, going out into the world under the guidance of a GM. I don’t really feel comfortable with that one, though.

So to get myself focused on the proper design mindset, I took some time out to write a first-draft of the back-of-the-book blurb this morning:

“You live in Shroud, a world completely forgotten by its own inhabitants, your pasts lost to the great Unknowing. Every year there are three months of Night, during which you stay inside, because that’s when the Horrible Things come out. But this year, their coming will be the worst ever, and you must push them back, or all is lost. The only way you can overcome them is to tell your stories and, by doing so, remember the Forevergotten.”

This is a game about uncovering the secrets of the forgotten past to defeat a great approaching darkness that can destroy everything you know – which isn’t much to begin with.

That at least gets me going in the right direction. So now I want to figure out what roles the players will have within this new framework. First, the basic requirements:

• All major opposition in the game will come from other characters, The Many, or The Darkness.
• The Many and The Darkness are both external forces with agendas and escalating power levels.
• The Darkness is a force of utter conflict, which will feature most prominently in the second and third phases of play (Survive the Night, Push Back the Night)
• The Many should be an uncertain element in the game, who can oppose the main heroes, assist them, or remain completely neutral. Calling upon their favor should be risky but tempting, and should assistance be gained, it should be notable indeed.
• The Many and The Darkness are both connected directly to the Unknowing somehow, to be revealed during play.

My current prevailing idea is to have them all play characters in the story, except for one guy who is called the Odd Man. The Odd Man is NOT a Gamemaster, but merely a player of a different sort, controlling the actions and intentions of The Many and The Darkness – both being forces of potential long-term conflict and strife in the story. The Odd Man could even be a rotating role at the table, switching between players with each session. Everyone else is one of The People.

Using this setup, every player has equal narrative authority over the story, which is told by establishing and uncovering Memories (that will be the subject of a completely different upcoming post). The People will control the actions and intentions of their characters, while the Odd Man will do the same for The Many and The Darkness.

The players in control of the People have the following primary responsibilities:

• Engage all of the other players in discussion and questions about the game, the story, and the direction of play. Ask questions about these things, and answer them when asked.
• Act as audience to the other players, and respect their spotlight time.
• Develop scene ideas with the other players.
• Develop and then Push the agendas of your character.
• Insert conflicts involving your character (both directly and indirectly) and other characters and/or the Many and the Darkness.
• Manage your character’s mechanical information, and keep track of their histories and Memories.

The Odd Man’s primary responsibilities are:

• Engage all of the other players in discussion and questions about the game, the story, and the direction of play. Ask questions about these things, and answer them when asked.
• Act as audience to the other players, and respect their spotlight time.
• Develop scene ideas with the other players.
• Insert player-character conflicts that involve the Many and the Darkness.
• Develop and then Push the agendas of The Many and The Darkness
• Tempt the People with assistance from The Many and The Darkness
• Keep track of the power levels of The Many and The Darkness

More will likely be added to these lists as I more definitively hammer out the rules for narrative control and Memories.

The way I’m seeing it, as certain (currently undefined) things happen in the game, The Many and The Darkness might gain escalating power. I’m envisioning each of them having a meter or track of some kind. Initial placement might start at zero (or some other point determined by game setup options), and different in-game outcomes will affect them. So if the meter on The Many rises positive, the Many will be more helpful, and more likely to assist in the second and third stage. If the meter is lower, the opposite might become true. Likewise, the meter for the Darkness will determine the power level of the Horrible Things of the Night.

I like this more the more I think about it.