Villains

There are three monsters in Wobegon Inbetween: the authorities that threaten to take the kids away, the possibility of not getting enough to survive through scavenging and begging, and the possibility of random death. Yes, random.

Actually, the last two are largely random. There are things beyond the kids’ control, things they don’t understand and cannot hope to control, problems they cannot hope to solve. The kids do not earn their fate, they do not deserve tragedy, they do not fall into it. Nothing in a game feels more out-of-control, more horrifically uncaring than pure chance, and so I leave these things to chance and not to gamemaster fiat. Let the game itself be the villain.

But it’s worse than that. Who do the players (and the gamemaster) most identify with? Is it the characters? Perhaps, but the players are not likely kids. They’re likely older, and also likely to think of themselves as caring people. They may find themselves identifying most with the kindly people who offer handouts to the kids, those same kindly people who may randomly have to offer lame excuses or silence when they have nothing to give, who never go that step further and offer the kids a home. The kindly people aren’t heroes, they’re anti-villains.

Altogether this creates a troublesome relationship between the game and its players, but it also presents a new possible ending for the game, to transform one NPC into a hero who steps up to responsibility. Lots to think about.

 

Altruism

I’ve been thinking about the game’s altruistic element. In a lot of games, when a NPC has a problem, the PCs take over the task and complete it for them. In Woebegon Inbetween, the NPCs each have a goal, but something keeps getting in the way.  These obstacles are peripheral to the NPC’s goal, life’s interruptions that must be dealt with. The PCs deal with one or more of them, giving the NPC the break to pursue his or her goal.

I’m also thinking that some NPCs might have several obstacles. To make an NPC easier to help, have several obstacles and have the removal of any one obstacle bring success. Alternatively, have only one obstacle, so that the course of action is clear. To make a NPC tougher, require multiple obstacles (some or all of them) be dealt with, and possibly even make the order matter (if obstacles are dealt with out of order, older obstacles return).

Should these obstacles be rules, or just something noted? Aside from that, I don’t think much in the way of special rules are needed. I might include some system to aid brainstorming NPCs and their obstacles.

There is one special NPC, the star, whose goal is to return to the sky, but whose obstacles are the need to help others. How explicitly this is presented will establish the game’s story formula.

 

Sneak Actions or Sneaky Actions

Unlike just about every game I’ve made before, Woebegon Inbetween might have different mechanics for different parts of play. Tonight I’ve been redesigning the sneaky bits, discarding my original idea of using a blackjack mechanic for something just a little different. I figured I’d write it out here and see if that shakes loose any more ideas.

I’m working with playing cards , and I’ve split the deck, using the numbered cards for actions and saving the aces and faces for something else. Players have hands of three cards for now, and each card played gets redrawn immediately.

Anyways, the pattern of playing hide-and-go-seek within the game provides an interesting challenge. Sneaking isn’t what they’re doing, it’s how they’re doing things. Meanwhile, the NPCs are just going about their business, maybe stumbling across the kids, meaning it’s not really a contested skill check. So instead I’m going to pull out an old favourite of mine, the guessing game.

Both NPCs and kids play cards, which are then revealed and added to the previous card played by the same person. If the totals match, then the kid is caught. But at that point it’s still missing something.

The choice of card needs to matter, so, in addition to the chance of getting caught, there are also target numbers for actions to encourage the playrs to use higher cards to accomplish things, or lower cards to just hide. That adds a bit of tactics to the game, but it still needs to go one step further.

Cooperation is something I really want in the game. It should make accomplishing things easier, but also make getting caught more likely. So, anyone can add their most recently played card to another’s to try to beat a target number to accomplish an action. When an NPC comes around, though, everyone involved will each have to be checked to see if anyone is caught.

Finally, kids just aren’t very good at things, except maybe sneaking, so I decided to handle the chances of accomplishing things differently for them. Kids only use their most recent cards for accomplishing things, while adults use the 2 most recent cards they played. There’s a lot more fiddly bits to these rules, but they’re starting to look workable.

I’m definitely playing the tortoise in this race, but I know from past contests that I can produce a lot of work fast. This time it’s about persistence.

 

A Measure of Vulnerabilty

There’s a second side to Woebegon Inbetween. These kids, the player characters, are just kids, and homeless ones at that. No matter how much fun and laughter you cover it with, they’re just one misstep from tragedy.

First there must be joy. The game must allow a large measure of fun, to be able to sneak around and accomplish whatever tasks of kindness they set their minds to. There can be no hit points, no constant threat of death, the possibility of tragedy must be hidden, and there should be a possibility that it may never arise.

Should it be a choice made by the gamemaster? If the rise and fall of emotional struggle was all that mattered, I would do that, but there seems to be something wrong about choosing when to bring tragedy down upon an innocent. Personally, I’d have a hard time choosing who and when.

There’s something more. Tragedy, particularly death, has a curious character. It is both the most fair thing, for everyone suffers it eventually, and yet feels the most unfair, for we usually have no say in when it happens. So I am thinking of going with a semi-random method, something that will take the decisions of who and when away.

There is, of course, the second tragedy, that the characters may find people who will help them, but that they never have parents, they are never taken in, and therefore never have that protection, that support. It raises the question of apathy, even amongst those who care. I have no answer to it and will not expect one to be found within the game, but it sits there as a subtext, nonetheless.

 

Breaking the Block

Every time I’e tried to build Woebegon Inbetween before I came to the same realization, that my game design skills aren’t quite good enough to pull it off. I’m still not good enough, but the week isn’t over yet.

I’ve been thinking about the fruitful void and about one suggestion made in a discussion regarding that theory, to build for relationships, rather than focus on the void itself. With that in mind I started looking at some of the relationships within the concept I had.

- Why do the characters hang together? Because they need one another’s support (no one can do everything).

- Why might other people need the characters’ help? Because they are unable to do everything themselves and lack a group to support them (or cannot accept help from their social group, etc.).

- Why is the star important to the characters? Because the star is the final piece of the group. (I’m thinking that the star gets taken away by the authorities, and the characters’ search for him/her is the main plot.)

- Why do the characters hide from the authorities? To avoid being taken away from the group and lose access to one anothers’ support.

- Why might the characters hide from those who need their help? Because they’re unsure if those people might call the authorities.

- Why might the characters secretly help others? This is the tough one that I’m still working on.

So, there are some parallels in there that could lead to something. The characters are bonded together by their limitations and are in a position to help others with their limitations, but also made vulnerable in the process.

That balance of ability and vulnerability means that whatever mechanic I use will have to focus on finesse, rather than power. For example, a blackjack-style mechanic might work well.

 

From the Backburner

I’m late, I know. I should have started days ago, but I was stuck for ideas, so I’ve decided to revive an old idea, a concept that I’d taken a crack at a few times, but had never managed to turn into a game.

Woebegon Inbetween

Are you strong enough to lift a spirit?

A star has fallen to earth and is found by some street kids, but it can’t get back to the heavens until it helps some people to lighten the sadness in its heart. Meanwhile, the kids keep their existence a secret, for fear of their group being broken apart.

The concept only connects to two of the Game Chef 2009 elements, intrigue and star, but hopefully I’ll find a way to work in more. For now that’s enough. It’s time to get working.