Are We There Yet?

Where are We and Where are We Going?

I started this blog because I was out of ideas for Scattershot presents: The Unseen. I was also a bit intimidated by the concept of starting my very first LARP with no experience, no knowledge and an untried game concept. (On a side note, I think changing The Unseen to and ARG LARP will finally get that project going.)

The reason I chose this project was because I've done so much work on superpowers already. And I have; there is a very detailed and flexible superpowers system stored on my hard drives (one must have backups after all). I had also had my epiphany regarding the pseudo‑Freudian construction¹ of four color comic books through their storied history. I'm going to continue working towards concepts like the Fruitful Void and Complication Management, but I'm also married to the idea that Universe 6 isn't about precisely modeling extant comic books, but about escapist power fantasies. As far as metaphors and symbolism (mentioned in the first post), I'm planning to put strong guiding principals for these into the Experience Dice guidelines, simple enough!

Because of both the pseudo‑Freudian focus and the escapist fantasy, I'm positive that this game will need to tiptoe carefully around issues of dominance and personality. Play will, unknown to the players, get very close to their sense of identity. I'm going to have to deal with 'safe word' technology when speaking to the fringes of game play. I'm also going to need to carefully consider both how the game shapes the activities of each 'identity' as well as how the personal investment of escapism might cause hurtful clashes 'outside of game'.

One feature I'm proud to include is forcing players to address how out-of-place or impractical their ideals would be in the real world. This comes from addressing 'justice', 'fairness' and 'being human'. Hopefully, I can get people to 'feel out' their own personal 'weaknesses' by exploring the analogue in chara design and play. These are the various foci of the Fruitful Void.

I'm sorry to report, the selection process for wiki software has gotten bogged down. As a replacement, here are some of the parts I'll be putting in:

• Individual Universe 6 Chara Write-Ups
• Separate Given Powers with Detailed Explanations
• The Chapters of the Book in Printable Format
• A 'How-To' for Creating Super Powers
• A Chara Design Engine that 'Does the Maths' and Prints Out Adobe Files
• And...Ultimately, This Blog.

Thanks for reading! See you in 14.

F


¹ As it says below.