[Game Chef 2011] The Daughters of Verona
Wilper:
The Truths
The story is a comedy, comedies end with a feast and marriages between the hero(s)
and heroine(s).
Anachronisms are to be expected. After all, no research was done.
Everyone dress in contemporary clothing, no matter where or when the story is set.
Heroines sometimes dress like men to hide their true identities.
All the roles are played by men. Heroines disguised as men are
therefore men dressed as women dressed as men. This is hillarious.
Mistaken identities are hillarious.
Infedelity is hillarious, even if it is only implied.
Verona
The game is set in Verona. Not that it matters of course, it is the
anachronistic and unresearched Verona we're talking about. The city
may lay on the Adige like those who did some research claim.
But if you need it to it can lie on the coast or at the top of a
mountain. Say that it is a space station if it pleases you, it doesn't
matter. What matters are the Truths above.
Wilper:
Quote from: fjj on July 19, 2011, 06:14:49 AM
I like the idea of a Montsegur 1244-style comedy :)
Tips for creating the cast of characters:
Include old and young people.
Include men and women.
Include authorities (fathers, judges, captains, priests).
Include family relations.
Draw out a relationship map. Each character must have relations to at least two others.
Yes, I had something like that planned, with the relations written on the cards, like in Montsegur 1244. But considering how much better Montsegur 1244 plays when you actually have the relation map in front of you I think I'll change to relations on a shared paper instead.
I want dynamic relations, so the game will be (more) different every time you play, but the time needed to draw the map should be well spent.
Quote
The wedding at the end:
Will each main character be married? Or perhaps the game is a "fight" of whoose marriage will be celebrated at the end?
Ideas for rules for making it a comedy:
At least one main character must get married. At most one main character may choose to escape on the night before the wedding? :)
/Frederik
Yes, all "lover"-class characters will be married, since it is to be expected. This is a happy game, I can't have any sulking characters that spoil the end credits party. The escape plot falls due to the same problem.
I wonder if the game needs a scarce resource like that to be interesting. When we have played Montsegur 1244 there has never been a lack of people who throw themselves onto the pyre, so the rule that at least one must burn has not "come into play". Except as the expectation to guide play, perhaps the same holds for this game. The expectation that there will be a wedding at the end is enough, you can spend the game trying to resolve who will marry who.
What do you think?
Wilper:
Woho!
I found loads of public domain renaissance portraits on wikimedia. My game will have actual art!
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Renaissance_profile_portraits_of_men for example
Proof of concept cards, the same size as Magic cards. Print, cut and slip into card protectors and you're good to go.
fjj:
Quote from: Wilper
I want dynamic relations, so the game will be (more) different every time you play, but the time needed to draw the map should be well spent.
One of the features of Montsegur 1244 I am very happy about is that the meaning/interpretation of an early scene can be changed by a later scene ("ah - so that was why Pierre-Roger reacted like that!"). I think this can happen because there is no shared brainstorming first, where motivations and relations are agreed between the players. I find it much more rewarding to discover these in scenes. With a mix of fixed and potential relations, there is plenty of replay value as not all relations play out the same each time - and as not all relations come into play.
Quote from: Wilper
Yes, all "lover"-class characters will be married, since it is to be expected. This is a happy game, I can't have any sulking characters that spoil the end credits party. The escape plot falls due to the same problem.
I find it more interesting to allow other endings than "everybody gets married" - even though this is not entirely true to the comedy formula.
Quote from: Wilper on July 18, 2011, 11:57:04 PM
Five(ish) scenes per act, five acts following the Elizabethan five act structure. There's a wedding in Act V.
25 scenes may be a bit long for a comedy - and also you will need to create a lot of cards ;)
PS: This is your game so please do what works for you - above comments reflect my personal preferences ;)
Wilper:
Shame I won't be done in time to playtest before the deadline. :-)
I still think that the players will be rather free to explore and do as they please, even if it ends in a wedding. Everyone will play 2-3 characters each, and it is only the fates of 4 of those that are predetermined.
25 scenes, yes, it might be a bit too much. I don't think this game would give enough support for most groups to play 5-6 hours and have fun (unless they LARP everything*). But a 3 hour game should be fine. With 20-30 minutes lost in the beginning you get about 15 scenes without rushing things. I have added a bit about "It's OK to not set a scene in an Act if you don't have any cool ideas." Perhaps I should expand it a bit with "... or are in a hurry". Due to the fixed structure it is easy to judge how much time is left of the story, compare that with the time left of the time slot and start skipping scenes if needed.
* Earlier today I thought about turning the whole thing into a LARP, get some nice aprons to give to players when they play female roles, and scarves/ties/belts or something to give to the male roles. Since there are no "resolution mechanics" to worry about it would work rather well I think. But it would make the game a lot slower, as we have noticed when we have LARPed the consolamentum scenes in Montsegur 1244.
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