Thoughts and processes


Jam

Initially I did not want to attend this jam, because, well, 36 words are far below the amount of usable product (for me). However I was waiting at work for tests to complete so I decided to open few jam entries.

This is no space for reviewing other contestant’s designs, but let’s say in company like this I thought my entry might be at average as of quality. Therefore I opened Google Docs and started writing.

Initial Idea

I like to align my designs to more traditional ones. Those where there are roles predefined, there are mechanics to use and setting is intertwined directly to the text. As I saw the limit fo words I thought, well, there will be 2×12 words for two tables, leaving me 24 words for the rest of the… game. I wanted to make a simple generator that would spark at least some imagination, but I needed to settle on the theme, find the setting. An idea sparked. A village might work.

Perils in village

Situating the game directly into village is quite good as it allows me to unzoom the focus from specific characters and aim to the groups instead. I made few generators like this before, but they were rather larger, so I had to use more abstract approach. I dedicated one table to the subjects that will be key points in events to happen and then used the other table to list events themselves.

Kids perish. Adults fight. Nature loves.

For limitation like this the results were… appropriate. I know there is a village, there are people and they resolve some events that happen to them. Okay. Although there is still a TON of ideas I have to come up with all by myself, I think its quite okay push for a 36-word content generator.

I added few words to let the user specify the location and purspose why the village was founded here in the first place. It was working rather well, but I missed some element to make it more… influental. I needed time.

Time and place

I rewrote initial mechanic that generated the subject and event to include passing of time as well. Player rolls a d6 and advances in time in decades equal to the result. This alone has a HUGE impact to the story the village is trying to tell. People are born and die, events are rather significant as they are the most memorable happenings for decades that come and pass. There was nothing more I would change and nothing more I could add (because of the limit).

Still I thought the game is rather generic. I had very little space left to add some more theme or setting and having dwarven village, or sentient village did not seem to be enough for me.

Caravan

Then my friend suggested that I could switch the focus from rather static village to ever-traveling tribe. The theme of watching over a caravan brought that needed change I needed. The caravan is alway moving, changing places, visiting wondrous or frightening places, offering player’s mind enough space to bring anything they come upon. It was set. I immediately started to rewrite the rules to match the rules to caravan.

The time span was reduced from decades to days. I also added another roll determining the target of the actions and reused the table dedicated to the subjects. Suddenly idea-sparking results occured.

Adults fight nature. Elders lose travelers. Youglings perish youglings.

Invoking and horrendous ideas that are situated to the player-driven location. Few days pass and another event happens. Will the tribe even survive their journey? I really began wondering.

More hope

After completing the design of the sheet and leaving it to rest for the night I found out the list of events is rather negative. There were six events that might happen: perish, break, lose, clash, aid, bond. Four out of six events bring something nasty or straight negative which does not bring many positive ideas. I felt the list needs to bring more positive thoughts so it might be playable with a broader audience and so I decided to replace “break” event with “find”. Breaking something generally does not help anything to improve, but people can find both positive and negative things in life.

I need to give this game a run or two, but for now I am quite confident that Passage provides enough inputs to create meaningful stories. At least as a 36-word game.

Files

Passage.pdf 217 kB
10 hours ago

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