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.
