Hiding in the Mosque: a micro RPG experiment
randomeric:
I have just uploaded on drivethrurpg a free to download espionage mini game/mission. This is a work in progress so please excuse the imperfections.
I am hoping for some feedback and stories of what your group did with it.
The link to the download is below:
Deniable Asset: Hiding in the Mosque
Hope you enjoy and I am looking forward to sharing in the discussion!
Random Eric.
Ron Edwards:
Hi Eric,
I'm extremely interested, but I'm having a little trouble with the download. Can you make it available any other way? Reply here, or contact me by private message if you'd prefer.
Best, Ron
randomeric:
I sent it to you via e-mail.
it is just under 20mb so hopefully your service will allow that. I know hotmail's limit is 10mb.
If you have any questions after you receive it, feel free to discuss them here (or start a thread in the appropriate place on the forums).
If you start a new thread, send me an e-mail.
I have been keeping an eye but that would make sure I don't miss it!
Random Eric.
Ron Edwards:
Hi Eric,
At last, I'm getting to this, and I apologize for the late posting. I should explain as well that I'm currently quite focused on anything to do with modern Islam and/or politics concerning Arab nations and communities, so the title is a grab for me. But regardless of my own priorities, I'll give feedback that's aimed at your goals for the game as far as I can perceive them from the work.
My sole text criticism
There is, I think, a disproportionate amount of text dedicated to the possibility that the players will simply reject the basic expectation of play: to carry out their mission. I'm basing this judgment on the observation that the only means to deal with the possibility is to hit the characters hard with punishing, final consequences. That says to me that going on the mission is in fact what the players should be willing to do, or not play. I mean, the essential point of your design is that it's fun, and we've sat down together to have fun, so presenting the option to say "no" at that moment becomes, in practice, a mixed message about your own game. My recommendation is to remove this entire issue by (1) saying up-front in the text that going on the mission is what the whole game is about, so do it; and (2) not having any "what do you do" step between the initial wake-up and the briefing.
I do understand that trying to escape from the Bureau itself may turn out to be a feature of play for later, but I really think it has no place in the initial, pre-mission stage of play.
Politics
Although the initial presentation and some of the mechanical details seem mainly to be about Hollywood Jihadists as straight-up foes, I found that once I looked over the entire design, it revealed a more interesting ambiguity. The characters are definitely thrown into a truly unfathomable situation, and therefore will make choices based on internal narratives rather then external evidence. I think you might consider whether you want that to be brought forward or not. Some of my points about the mechanics will depend on that decision.
The game
So, I think it's a given that the game is very, very staged, almost in fact written for the GM and players except for key decision moments. The question is whether the lack of available information simply makes the crucial decision a toss-up with no content, like a context-free left-right turn decision in a dungeon. And I do mean that it's a question I have, as a reader, not a fixed judgment. I see two ways to go.
1. Bring forward forward the "Rorschach test" aspects of the decision, i.e., it has to be based on the players' inherent willingness to trust the Bureau or lack thereof, and on the players' inherent judgment about whether a jihadist cell is flatly evil or not.
2. Or instead, bring out the investigative or search-for-morality aspects of the decision by including some means of discovering crucial decision-tipping information.
I was only able to figure out that the players can learn there are two different mosques corresponding to the two possibilities through reading the later material. I recommend making this possibility clearer in the initial explanation of the situation.
I'm not sure why you've left it up to the GM to decide whether the Bureau wants the team to protect the mosque from the military attack or to get it to surrender prior to that attack. That seems to me to be presenting two different games in one, for no particular reason. Why not simply state (for GM's eyes only) which is the Bureau-desired mission?
I hope this was a useful or at least interesting set of feedback. Let me know.
Best, Ron
Callan S.:
Quote
That says to me that going on the mission is in fact what the players should be willing to do, or not play. I mean, the essential point of your design is that it's fun
I think with a cardgame or boardgame, one can simply go in taking the other persons assertion of it being fun or good somehow, and that works out.
I think a game where the fictional context is important, you can't - you either like the fiction already, or you don't - you can't just humour liking fiction. At the very least, you wont work with the fiction if you don't genuinely like it to some degree. I think potential players need to be able to read the set up in advance of play and the procedure is that at that point they figure if they both like the premise of the game and could think of a character who would go the mission, then they are set to play. If they can't, then they are lacking the component needed to play and can't. That's the procedure I'd suggest writing in, as dirctions to a GM on recruiting players. Where as just trying to sit people down with no prior knowledge then bundle them through the fiction - well, if you get lucky they all will be the type excited by the fiction. But it seems pot luck to me and far more likely to fall dead flat or crash and burn. Which isn't fair, when there are probably a large number of people out there who'd be excited to play this fiction - and those are the ones who should be taking up the seats at sessions of this game.
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