a game to make a game

I was thinking of making a little twine game, to work out the game logic without needing to get the database to 100 percent. My PA suggested I also think about a paper prototype.

Then: I just watched some streamers play one of my RPGs! Which was invigorating. And gave myself an idea - what if I MADE a very lite RPG to brainstorm my game fiction? Just cards (made from the lists I've already written) and prompts (not all need be filled for every object.)

Cards:

• draw card: artifact idea

• If needed, roll for contexts:

  • 1-3 community, 4 pair, 5-6 individual
  • 1 fear and revulsion, 2-3 worship 4-6 scientific curiosity

• draw card researcher who comments - write their comment, date of discovery.

• draw another researcher to comment on their comment (it might be okay to break chronology!)

• If this turn established anything about the world, add it to the appropriate list: (maybe move this up - choose one, then choose which to apply it to. Check the sheet to see if there are gaps to fill.)

  • Did this establish a truth about the flatland?
  • What does this imply about the entities abilities?
  • What does it imply about the NPCs?

• Write out the answers to the prompts that apply:

  • What stories might this trigger/ unlock?
  • What broken entries might this lead to? Big entries? Child entries?
  • What feeling should this entry generate in the player?
  • Does this entry prompt agency from the player?
  • Does this entry show relationships between the player or NPCs?
  • When in the game timeline should this event be unlocked?

• **Rolls for interactivity 2D6:

  • <6 move on.
  • 7-10 Breif interactivity. What is it? Wrong timeline? NPCs talk back to you?
  • 11-12: Haunted as all get out. These are the juicy things! Was this a forged object or someone who made actual contact?
  • **If you have rolled **11-12 for a third time:
    • Really blow the lid off. Make it scary. Don't constrain yourself to what's technologically possible.

Don't force a linear timeline too hard at this point, though you may want to arrange your cards into a rough timeline.. however, since many timelines are possible, this could be difficult.

Dump this info in twine maybe, or a yarn file to pull into twine.

Maybe you can play this with someone else?

Once finished gathering info, you can always go back and hack it to bits and tag things onto different entries where they fit better. It's just a first draft.

Write this game again but from the perspective of the creatures.

What would cause it to be from the perspective of the creatures?

• Write down some facts about the entities.
• What are they trying to accomplish?
• Make a list of their powers. What are their powers, for sure, so far?
  • Manipulate non-physical data
  • Take identities - what does this mean? They can identify enough about humanity that they've been fed to masquerade as it.
• draw a card. If the entities were presented with this media, how would they effect it?
  • If it is not a data entry point in and of itself, what was the entry point?
  • What did they change?
  • Who were they speaking to directly?