I'm Back!

Hi all!

I know it's been a while, but I'm finally organizing my life. (Thanks to GTD and RtM.) I now seem to have enough time to keep up with this blog and the others. So, here we go!

News: Rather than create another blog-which-is-a-game-book, I'm going to give superheroes the justice they deserve; I will start a Universe 6 Wiki!

In this wiki I can slowly build up all the information you could want to play the game. Every power will receive a well-written explanation (that you, my dear readers are welcome to clarify). The 'How to Create a New Power' section can be re-edited many times over to make sure that it makes sense to everyone interested. I can also post the members of the Universe 6...universe. (Who are consequently the members of the Costumentality universe as well.) Someday I hope for a lively forum of would-be-super-heroes, -heroines, -villains and -villainesses. But there's plenty of time for that.

Now on to Universe 6 business....

Remember when I was going to rearrange Scattershot around stakes and complications? Well, someone nice showed me how terribly chauvinistic that was. It makes the play sound like a constant war with the other participants at the 'table.' So I'm reconsidering the whole way the game is pitched.

Sure we'll still be addressing complications, but not between each other. The process will be based on how we can set them up to be dealt with together.

Unlike your average comic book, Universe 6 is something where all the chara (and therefore their players) share the spotlight most of the time. This goes beyond teamwork for the chara; the players must also work together. This is why I like the idea of one player holding up a conflict and inviting the others to elaborate on it. Somehow Experience Dice will change hands for a 'really neat' elaboration of the complication; it has players work 'towards' each other.

One thing we need to keep 'on the radar' is the underlying structure or essence of the game. It hinges on the pseudo-Freudian idea that it is a story about the chara's secret identity. The powers-action will build upon what happens there, but in the theatre of ideals: the superego. On that same stage enter the villains, representing the hero's darker side: the id. Now to support this, the game will need to 'get into the head' of the players' chara. I don't think this would be served well by personality mechanics or anything that might distract from 'getting into chara.'

What this suggests is that people will be playing on the edges of their 'safe zones.' The game will have to take that into account and instruct how to do that. This is ultimately the danger of 'playing deep' in a game heavy on the indulgent escapism as I plan superhero games. That's where I'll be looking to create a fruitful void.


But that's enough for today; see you in eleven.

Fang

Preliminary Notes

Here's the product plan from my notes:

Title: Universe 6
Subtitle: The World of the Modern Fantastic
Handout: Base Powers List
Feature: Powers rules
Augmentary feature: Weird Science
Card Game Notes: Powers
Card Game Notes: NPC catalog
Card Game Notes: Membership Card Motif
Universe: U6 - Minneapolis
Dynamic background: Super-Heroes vs. Super-Villains
Notes: Interleaved with my Costumentality Webcomic

• In play, the game can address 'might makes right,' or 'be careful what you wish for.'
• The Metaphor is superficially Freudian: Secret ID = Ego, Villain = Id, Hero = Superego.
• The message can delve into justice or fairness.

Starting Over

Here we are again. Starting another game book.

I guess, ultimately, I couldn't do The Unseen without making it a LARP. And unfortunately, I don't have the resources to playtest a huge monster like that right now.

Since I don't have the huge amounts of time it takes to cook up 'feature mechanix' for a lesser-worked-on core book, it looks like we're doin' superheroes!

Let's lay down some base rules

1. Much as I'd like to host this on my site, again, I haven't the time.
2. I liked the way The Unseen blog was set up in chapters, but it looked goofy moving parts around, so I'll just expand as I go.
3. Each section will evolve however it wants to.
4. I'm re-architecting the core assumptions of the mechanix: fruitful void and complication focus.

Next, I'll try to vaguely lay out a complication-based, fruitful-void structure. Soon, I'll go into what the metaphors and symbolisms.