The Last Word - Game idea
OrionCanning:
Hmm, just for you jackson I'm going to throw in my original list of separate prompts for each Role, and then contrast it with my simplified list. The original list here was just a rough draft of quick brainstorming. Each prompt is something to put into the story, with the exception of doctor's disagree/agree things (which actually should probably be scrapped. This also fit more with my original concept that each character would be pushing one of their prompts into the story each round, and depending on whether it meshed well with The Lantern's story or completely sidetracked from it they would give points to lantern or coyote. Naturally coyote would just sidetrack the story every chance he got and his prompts were an attempt to reflect that. He's a troll.
Another cool idea, Anyone could easily hack the game by writing a new list of prompts, no?
Lantern: 13 Prophecies of Doom and gloom! Plague. An environmental disaster. War. Death. The 7 deadly sins. Famine. When animals attack. Betrayal. Tyranny and Despotism. A False Prophet. The sins of the Fathers. The Vanishing. A dark sign.
Doctor: Players to support or disagree with (6 cards, 3 support, 3 disagree, one of each for each player. THe idea is she's an editor so she's critiquing your good or bad ideas). Turn the story into an allegory to give it deeper meaning. Add character development. Fix a plot hole. Reveal something incredible through a flashback. Reveal something through a flash forward. Introduce a new character. Remove a character.
Mimic: Needs a sex scene, Needs a fight scene, Remove or change something that will offend the tweens, teens, republicans, or other target market. Add something to appeal to a target market. Think of a recent movie or book or other story and add something you liked/hated from it. Introduce a cliche (sexy vampires, scooby doo ending, last day of retirement, etc). Introduce explosions. Add a chase scene. Jump the Shark. Reinvent a classic. Emphasize masculinity or Femininity. Add comic relief. Survey says:
Coyote: Dark Comedy. Battle of the sexes. Self-Insertion. Time Travel. Period Piece. Aliens Invade. Shakespeare. Hard Sci-Fi. Fantasy. Art House. Fairy Tales. Satire.
And the new list.
13 Prompts: War. Death. Sickness or Plague. Hunger. Betrayal. Love. Justice. Forces of Nature. The Machine. The Self. The Supernatural. Society. Destiny.
The reason I scrapped the separate lists for the new version is because I figured if everyone had separate prompts it would make it too easy to figure out who was who. Instead I tried to make the prompts more open ended so each player could put their own spin on the prompts to create the story and that would also play somewhat into the bluffing game.
I put a lot more thought into this list as well. I used the 7 Basic types of conflict http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_(narrative)#Seven_Basic_Conflicts Because they seem like good basic building blocks of story.
To go with the apocalypse theme I took the four horsemen of the apocalypse, substituting the white horse with hunger because it's a more basic drive with open interpretation, yet it could still be a hunger for conquest. Or sex, money, power, food, whatever. Last I added Betrayal, Love, and Justice, First of all they are all drawn from Major arcana of tarot cards (more on that in a second), but they also are sort of a cycle of human conflict. You love something. It betrays you! You seek justice. Or maybe that's just me.
Another part of my selection process was I wanted to apply everything to the numeralogical significance of tarot cards. Which is more than I care to go into right now, but 1-10 is sort of a progression from beginning to end and from 1 to many. 1 is the self and the beginning, 2 is union, pairing, love, and so on until 10 is death and the end and new beginnings. Then I had to do something with 11 12 and 13. In numeralogy you add multiple digit numbers together so the numerological equivalent of 11 is 2. So I decided those would be the dark side of their equivalents. Love (2) becomes betrayal (11), Society (3) becomes justice (12), and the machine (4) becomes sickness (13), I could have stuck closer and made jack prince, and kept queen and king just queen and king, but ... Well maybe I should have, I don't know. ANYWAYS.
Ace: The Self.
2: Love
3: Society
4: The Machine
5: War
6: Forces of Nature
7: The Supernatural
8: Hunger
9: Destiny
10: Death
(11) J: Betrayal
(12) Q: Justice
(13) K: Sickness
Sucks to be the king. Maybe I'll end up making both rules variants cause I'm indecisive.
I put Mimic on coyotes team because I was worried it might be too hard otherwise for coyote to win, but maybe it's already balanced. I should playtest. Also I wanted it to appeal to bridge players so they would adopt it easier. They'll call it NuBridge.
So the whole end of the world thing isn't enough for the theme? How about I put a suicide pact in the rules? Or maybe I'll just track you down with a tenderizing hammer if you play twice.
Oh no wait, after the first time you play the game changes so now it's about lazer goblins. Problem solved.
"Is this your first time playing Last Word? If so, turn to page 1. If not, turn to the section, "Lazer Goblins".
OrionCanning:
Robert! Good to see you here buddy. So I need a little clarification on your idea. Do you score just by getting your role's prompts into the story? Does each role play with their own suit, or do you shuffle the suits together and deal em out to everyone, and score points no matter who puts your suit into the story?
As far as each role getting their way, Lantern writes a bestseller that saves the world (Maybe not in that order), Doctor fixes EVERYTHING (umm, I guess she saves the world too), Mimic films Arnold Schwarzenegger saving the world with a machine gun or something, makes millions, Coyote laughs his ass off as the world burns.
Robert Bruce:
Quote from: OrionCanning on April 07, 2012, 08:36:13 PM
Robert! Good to see you here buddy. So I need a little clarification on your idea. Do you score just by getting your role's prompts into the story? Does each role play with their own suit, or do you shuffle the suits together and deal em out to everyone, and score points no matter who puts your suit into the story?
As far as each role getting their way, Lantern writes a bestseller that saves the world (Maybe not in that order), Doctor fixes EVERYTHING (umm, I guess she saves the world too), Mimic films Arnold Schwarzenegger saving the world with a machine gun or something, makes millions, Coyote laughs his ass off as the world burns.
I was thinking you score points with sheer volume of your suit incorporated into the story, combined with the different interactions with others' cards. But I have a different idea now which interests me more.
So here's a more developed concept:
Suits represent broad themes. Numbers and face cards represent specific story elements, which are defined as they are revealed. Write these down on the chart as they are defined.
A round of play:
The prophecy gets flipped over 1 card at a time into the canon, once per round. Lantern interprets the card using its suit as theme, and its rank as specific story element. Lantern defines the rank if not yet defined. Cards are worth a certain value, 2-10, face cards ?? Hit the magic number and it's apocalypse time.
Each person gets dealt three cards face-down. Each picks a card from that and sets it aside, still face-down. They take turns describing their contribution to the prompt of the prophecy using the theme and element (if yet defined, if not define it) of the card they picked. Lantern then picks who will contribute their chosen card to the story. The card is revealed and added to the canon. If it's a rank which hasn't been defined, whoever contributed it defines that rank in a way that makes sense considering their contribution. The apocalypse clock advances according to the value of the card.
Repeat this process.
If the Doctor achieves a flush or straight within the canon, they reveal their role and win.
If the Mimic makes four of a kind or full house, they reveal their role and win.
If the Coyote hits or busts midnight on the apocalypse clock, they reveal their role and win.
If the Lantern achieves a certain number of cards in the canon without hitting or busting midnight on the apocalypse clock, they win.
jackson_tegu:
It's late (what, it is), so i'm just gonna say a) i'm totally gonna troll as Coyote using hard sci fi like every time, shoehorning it in.
b) robert, those win conditions seem rad, but i'm worried that i wouldn't understand them during the game.
I guess i'd only need to know one of the end conditions to play kinda well, but i'd need to understand them all to play competitively.
Wait... am i LAZY?
YES.
So i guess that's actually my complaint. Make me less lazy please. And more lazery.
Robert Bruce:
Quote from: jackson_tegu on April 07, 2012, 10:24:33 PM
It's late (what, it is), so i'm just gonna say a) i'm totally gonna troll as Coyote using hard sci fi like every time, shoehorning it in.
b) robert, those win conditions seem rad, but i'm worried that i wouldn't understand them during the game.
I guess i'd only need to know one of the end conditions to play kinda well, but i'd need to understand them all to play competitively.
Wait... am i LAZY?
YES.
So i guess that's actually my complaint. Make me less lazy please. And more lazery.
Legitimate grousing...it's more difficult to play optimally if you're Lantern. The other roles mostly just require you to know your own goals. Lantern must be aware of the other roles. There should be a warning to this effect in the game rules. If you're full of lazy, totally don't be Lantern.
There's some cool strategic depth to the game as the ranks get figured out. Also when you realize that you can camouflage your choice by implementing two or more specific story elements as primary parts of your contribution. Example: Space Commando driven insane by Old God. Then the Lantern must figure out whether you're on 7-"Space Commando" or K-"Old God". Keeping in mind what other people have pitched and what is in the canon already is also part of optimal play.
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