The Astronaut and the Aliens - first rough thoughts
mrteapot:
I think that my game is going to be a game about a human astronaut who has crashed on an alien planet. There's a native culture, which most of the players play while one player is the astronaut. The astronaut is trying to fix his/her ship while each native has their own goals and desires for the astronaut and for the native people.
An important part is that language is a barrier. The astronaut can't speak the native language. The native can't speak english (or whatever the astronaut speaks).
mrteapot:
Inspirations:
Pikmin
Galaxy Quest
Return of the Jedi
Stargate (just the initial movie)
Fish out of water comedies
Pandemic and Forbidden Island
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, especially the bit about the Sandwich Maker.
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
Alien 3 (? Ripley is an astronaut stranded on a planet with weird rituals and a problem to solve).
Lost and other stories about castaways. Probably I should read Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson and rewatch Lost in Space. Some of the more scifi-y episodes of The Twilight Zone go here too. Probably a few Star Trek episodes while we're at it.
Language as a barrier.
BlazmoIntoWowee:
Very interesting ideas. I like the concept a lot.
I think I'm also looking at something where there is one protagonist. I'm not sure if I want the protagonist played by multiple players (and then on top of that how I would work it mechanically/narratively) or if I want one player to be the protagonist and the others to have specific roles in playing the world around him. I'll probably start my own thread today.
mrteapot:
It kind of feels like I'm designing two separate games that intersect. I want the rules for the native people to be very different from the rules for the crashed astronaut. Consequently, there will probably be two booklets written in entirely voices explaining portions of the game. The two sides will both use the same deck of cards, but in different ways.
UserClone:
For some thoughts on how one game can be two games (which can still turn out to be one game after all), see http://jeepen.org/games/fatmandown/.
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