Liminál
Robert Bruce:
Genre: Border Horror
Border-crossers known as 'coyotaje' bring hundreds of migrants into the United States every day. It's a risky business, but a business nonetheless, and necessarily dull in its own way. However, one of these 'coyotes' is not what he seems. The people he brings across seem strange, even in the Mexican center of California's Santa Mira. Their Spanish is not quite right, they look at things too long, and their bodies seem to present a new and unfamiliar paradigm. In the mirror they make faces which have never meant anything to any human. Their families are quiet, but watchful. The new arrivals bring an unidentifiable dread to the city.
So, a coyote who switches his charges with mimic bodysnatchers. How does this work?
In game, you play a mimic, who is imitating a human migrant. You also play humans who are constantly in danger of discovering strangeness. Characters are developed and then quickly swapped. The previous owner of the character then plays the humans, discerning, unveiling, on the lookout for miscues. The essential tension of the game is that the person with fictional authority over a character is not the same as the person playing the character. Or rather if you're playing Az (a mimic) playing Marina, I get to say what Marina is like, and you get to say what Az does as Marina. There are secret character sheets. Predictably, the mimics will not do a very good job. Shit will go down. This is the game.
jackson_tegu:
Wow!
So, stranger whom i have no personal contact with and who did not help myself and family arrange a passable facade in this fine city in which i dwell, do you imagine that there'll be actual deceit between the players, or is that deceit only within the fiction, & we players watch it at a remove?
I mean to ask, is the tension a fine spice for the fiction, or is it a question of tactics?
Robert Bruce:
Quote from: jackson_tegu on April 07, 2012, 04:10:34 PM
Wow!
So, stranger whom i have no personal contact with and who did not help myself and family arrange a passable facade in this fine city in which i dwell, do you imagine that there'll be actual deceit between the players, or is that deceit only within the fiction, & we players watch it at a remove?
I mean to ask, is the tension a fine spice for the fiction, or is it a question of tactics?
So, let's say you have authority over Marina, and I'm playing Marina in a scene.
Marina is being treated for some new illness by the family doctor. However, I'm playing Marina strangely (according to the details on your secret character sheet). So you ask me (the player) "It looks like you're trying to Pass." I say, yeah, sure. I roll dice, you modify it with the info on your sheet, things happen and a bit of Marina's true character is revealed to me and the mimic I'm playing. There is non-public information in the game, for sure.
jackson_tegu:
Ah, but if, in another scene, you play Marina more closely to what's hidden on my sheet, then the mechanics give me less teeth against you?
AWESOME!
Also, totally great name.
Robert Bruce:
Sometimes when you do things in Liminál, you roll dice. The dice mean different things depending on what you're trying to do.
Pass: When you're trying to fit in, when you're doing something and it's important to look normal doing it, when you're trying to do anything when you're under Under Suspicion - Roll Dice.
Alienate: When you're trying to stand out, set yourself apart, appear Other - Roll Dice.
Illuminate: When you're trying to learn about yourself, discover the person you were/are, get a question answered about who/how you are - Roll dice.
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