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Hardcore Narrativist4 years ago(+1)

Thanks for your comment! Unfortunately I didn't have time to playtest this so I'm not completely sure how it would work with actual people, but I have the impression that the "board game" part of it is too shallow to be interesting, so it will naturally gravitate towards figuring out what happens to the explorers.

I guess the story will be a mix of vignettes with descriptions of the places they reach, how they look, and what they find in them (aided by the generation of the settlement in the past); and the more dramatic, short scenes triggered by finding treasure and by encountering problems that raise the tension between characters. The former give context and flavour, and the latter give character development, optional roleplay/conversation, and the dramatic bits.

But again, that's what I _expect_ people will gravitate towards, I'll have to play to find out! 😄

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Hardcore Narrativist4 years ago(+1)

I forgot that one of the influences for this game is The Skeletons. In it, you have a map that can change over time and you have different character archetypes with questions you can answer. The map part is not that interesting in and of itself, so the games are usually focused on answering the questions and figuring out the past lives of the skeletons, how they are related to one another, etc.

So that's similar to what I was going for, but it's hard for me to know if I have succeeded 😅

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Loris - Saddy4 - Casagrandi4 years ago(+1)

Unfortunately i don't know the game Skeletons, in need to check it out! 

In Skeletons do you frame scene for answer those questions about them? :)

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Hardcore Narrativist4 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

No, the questions are simply answered as-is, without a scene. This is the rough flow of the game:

  1. There is a scene in which someone/something enters the tomb the skeletons are guarding. Players make up the details, how it goes down, and how the skeletons fend the intruders off or kill them (the skeletons always win, except for in the last scene).
  2. Each player chooses one question (they are about who they were before becoming a skeleton) and answer it.
  3. A change in the tomb is chosen randomly (time passes and things break or whatever), and the changes are reflected in the map.
  4. There is a "break" (several seconds, one minute, etc. depending of where in the game they are) in which the players think about the implications of whatever was just revealed.
  5. Repeat.

That's pretty much it. So the questions simply flesh out who those people were before becoming cursed skeletons and it actually has little connection to the action scenes, because the skeletons are cursed and they need to guard the tomb anyway (they have no will). On paper it might sound boring or unengaging, but it's anything but! It's amazing to discover the relationships between them, and realising that some of them might have been enemies in the past, maybe even killed each other, or how they might be guarding the person who killed them all. It can get extremely dark and dramatic.

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Loris - Saddy4 - Casagrandi4 years ago(+1)

WOW! Seems very cool! 
So my hint about framing scene could be nice, but not very necessary. :) i definitely need to play skeletons and your game and see how the experience feels! :D

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Hardcore Narrativist4 years ago(+1)

It's a very free-form game, lots is left to the players' devices, but it's good! One thing I recommend is that one of the players controls/decides for the intruders, instead of doing it collaboratively. It flows a lot better and has resulted in much, much better games.

I'll add some notes in Unexplored about the scenes. Maybe nothing too formal, but a reminder of the things that the players can work with. Thanks!

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