[A Hatful of Rabbits] rough sketch of some game mechanics
I was recently lamenting the fact that, though my 2008 Game Chef entry won an award, I had never played it. (A group of Italians did, but that's a different matter.) The game as written required exactly six players to function, and social logistics are not my strong suit, so I never had the right number of people on hand.
Following said lament, Ross said that I should rewrite the game to work with fewer so that we could playtest it sometime. So I think that I will wrench out the "Cut the Pie" conflict system from that game and use it here, at least until I see some good reason not to do so. That will increase the chances of playtesting the game.
Other thoughts on the game: The game should focus on one, elderly protagonist, and be a character study in that one character. This is different from your usual RPG party of varying characters and personalities. And so that one player doesn't get the juiciest role, play of the main character will rotate around the table from scene to scene. Variances in how the character is played are because of growing amounts of senility.
Other roles rotate around the room as well. I think that the game consists of a series of scenes as the main magician PC encounters his friends and loved ones, and each scene is probing into the the magician's personality and motivations. At the start of one scene, one other player might decide to play the magician's ex-wife, and the player would ask the question "did you ever really love me?". Play continues in the scene until we know whether the magician did or did not love her, then we go on to another scene. Perhaps in the next scene, a different player is playing the magician's old booking agent, and the player asks "who are you trying to impress with this show?". Or the magician's doctor is in the scene, and his player asks "when did you know you were going to die?". Or a retirement home attendant asks "when did you first get the idea for this crazy scheme, to put on one last big show?".
I gotta get back to work now, so I guess I'll have to explain how those two bits integrate in a different post.
Following said lament, Ross said that I should rewrite the game to work with fewer so that we could playtest it sometime. So I think that I will wrench out the "Cut the Pie" conflict system from that game and use it here, at least until I see some good reason not to do so. That will increase the chances of playtesting the game.
Other thoughts on the game: The game should focus on one, elderly protagonist, and be a character study in that one character. This is different from your usual RPG party of varying characters and personalities. And so that one player doesn't get the juiciest role, play of the main character will rotate around the table from scene to scene. Variances in how the character is played are because of growing amounts of senility.
Other roles rotate around the room as well. I think that the game consists of a series of scenes as the main magician PC encounters his friends and loved ones, and each scene is probing into the the magician's personality and motivations. At the start of one scene, one other player might decide to play the magician's ex-wife, and the player would ask the question "did you ever really love me?". Play continues in the scene until we know whether the magician did or did not love her, then we go on to another scene. Perhaps in the next scene, a different player is playing the magician's old booking agent, and the player asks "who are you trying to impress with this show?". Or the magician's doctor is in the scene, and his player asks "when did you know you were going to die?". Or a retirement home attendant asks "when did you first get the idea for this crazy scheme, to put on one last big show?".
I gotta get back to work now, so I guess I'll have to explain how those two bits integrate in a different post.