[Verge] Reward System -- Dignities

[adamdray]

The biggest problem Verge has is that it's a collection of tools for play without a reward system that drives its Creative Agenda. It's sorta treading water where it ought to be swimming powerfully up waterfalls to spawn. I first identified this during a discussion that I talked about hereTo get to the point where I could have a Creative Agenda, I

Comments

[adamdray]

In scattershot order:

I've seen Ghost in the Shell and I remember some of the music being quite haunting. I love those lyrics and would like to crib a line or two for chapters. I wonder what Fair Use law says about that. (People: Please don't give me legal advice or opinions unless you're a copyright lawyer.)

Regarding what cyberpunk is or isn't, who knows. Bethke would tell you it's about punk kids on computers and how the world will look when the punk youth of today grow up a bit. I think there's plenty of "sticking it to The Man" in that. There are lots of definitions of cyberpunk on the net and they vary widely. I think the punk aspect and the violence that we see in cyberpunk gaming is prevalent in a lot of cyberpunk literature, too. The literature is about more than that though.

I've never heard "humanshock" or "existential SF" as literary terms. I assume you just made them up? I consider what I'm doing to be, technically, postcyberpunk stuff. I should start saying that when I talk about Verge. I'm just afraid that too few people know what the fuck postcyberpunk is, or that they'll think I'm getting all post-modern deconstructionist bullshitty on them.

The Verge cover can be found on the front page of verge.legendary.org. Your comments are welcome, even if I don't agree. Or maybe I agree but can't do much about it now. ;)

Now, the meat of what you said is in the first paragraph.

I don't think a game needs to beat players over the head with the overriding question. Toss it out once or twice and that's it. It doesn't have to be central to the mechanic in that the players don't have to ask the question before they can play. I think a game should help a player realize, during play, that there is a question - maybe one they invented halfway through the game - and that they have strong feelings about the answer.

If the only way to get at those kinds of questions and answers in Verge is to make the players formulate the question up front, in the open, then so be it. But I think it's more powerful as a gaming experience when the question surfaces subconsciously around the procedures of play.

[semioticity]

Remind me to loan you the DVDs for the first season when you visit in November, or I can at least screen the first handful of eps for you. The music for the series is very different from the movie's.

Yes, I just made up the terms on the stop, although I suspect you might find them somewhere; I make no claim to originality.

I have many issues with the cover, which I would be more than happy to share, if you're open to the idea of changing/scrapping your cover. If not, then it's not a discussion worth having. No sense in unnecessary pain. :)

I don't think you have to bludgeon the players with the question(s). Since you have mechanics for add question-like material to the network and later (in)validating, I think you're covered there. However, I do think language is important - sometimes the right phrasing is tremendously more evocative than concise but boring wording. I suspect this varies a great deal, though, so this may be a play style/group issue rather than something mechanical. It may be something worth mentioning in the rules, as such. I love seeing eyes pop when the right words go down, and I've seen awesome ideas die before they're born because of the inability to properly articulate them.

[adamdray]

Scrapping the cover is not an option at this point. Small changes are an option.

I'm with you on finding the right phrasing.