Monday 7 February 2011

Fundamental laws of a fictional universe (5)

A new fictional universe card, inspired by the continuing discussion at the D1 post, where it seems we've defined the D0, D1 and fractional dice, but not yet negatives.

As before, naming the movie quoted in the card title is the extra challenge.

If you missed the earlier cards (two here, two more here, one here and four here), the idea is to allow the big events of fiction into your games, to break down the barriers in how we define game types, to identify recurring tropes as the first step to moving beyond them, possibly by making them so familiar we've had all we can take, and even to recognise both us in the game and the scope of fiction.

The aim is to have them useable in both wargames and roleplaying games, and ideally any game type. They're unlikely to be anywhere close to balanced, and could have effects dramatically different across systems, but that's part of the fun. Dare you risk it? Definitions are in the first instalment. I'm claiming no copyright on any of the cards.



6 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

I like this, its got skirmish gaming possibilities by playing it on a character and see how it affects him after that, definite possibilities especially with shooting (increased skill) or melee (fights like a little girl or gorilla depending on dice).

??? said...

The Matrix. At leats that's the quote I hear in my mind when I read it.
That's a card that fits well with Cthulhu and the sanity rolls that are required.

Paul´s Bods said...

Interesting. If I understand it rightly ( and knowing me i probably don´t) then this will give the "character" a mind of it´s own??
If that´s the case this was one of the "problems" that made me draw away from wargaming which wasn´t "one player one figure"...in real life, even in a squad or group of people/creatures they would react differently to the whole, creating a sort of chaos/ harmony effect and altering any actions taken by the group.
I´m blithering now so I´ll shut up :-D
Cheers
paul

Porky said...

@ The Angry Lurker - That's the point. It plays on the scope of fiction idea, mixing up all the fictional worlds. What changes the character? Where does he or she go, or what visits? I went with one idea in particular, and Jedediah is on the button.

@ Jedediah - More evidence of your expertise when it comes to other realities! The sanity idea is another nudge in a good direction - I'd like to do more of these with psychological effects. Wargames can be limited in the ways in which models can act or be affected other than physically.

@ Paul's Bods - Don't shut up! If I blither, you can, but I'm not sure you were there. The idea is not to give the model a mind of its own, but to recognise that what it represents has a mind in the game world. This particular card is just one of several in the series that builds on this. Remember it's also designed to work with one player per character RPGs, but could easily work on a whole squad if that definition of playing piece is preferred. If you want more wackiness, take a look at the earlier ones, especially the last batch, and the last of that batch most of all. It's based on The Neverending Story.

Game Master Rob Adams said...

This would be a great place to talk about the aether as a concept in VSF games.

Porky said...

Almost anywhere's a great place to talk about the aether! I'd be interested in how WtNW approaches it. Do you have a post on the subject? If you put one up, I'd be there.

There's a starting point for wider discussion here.