Untitled DrWho Project
Dan Maruschak:
My four threads are:
[Kissanil] Answers to Power 19
Character Creation placement
Chrono Master?
[BSU] "Blowing Stuff Up" - Basic Draft
I was already leaning towards something Doctor Who-related once I saw the ingredients Doctor and Chrono Master?. In the [Kissanil] thread, there's this quote: It’s about strong dilemas like “If I could drain the sun’s energy to save my lover’s soul, should I do it?” That could easily be the theme of a Doctor Who story. And of course there's plenty of mimicry going on in the show: from the obvious, like the TARDIS's chameleon circuit, to the way that the sci-fi elements of the stories will often mimic folklore or history (e.g. aliens that have similarities to vampires, alien cultures that mimic medieval europe). I'm a fan of the show (in both the classic and modern incarnations -- I'm most drawn to the Tom Baker era, which was my first exposure, and I feel like the Matt Smith episodes have been a return to "proper" Doctor Who where there's a sense of fun and whimsy mixed in with the sci-fi and adventure). I've been thinking that I should try my hand at creating a good Doctor Who game since I was disappointed by the recent officially licensed Cubicle 7 product (it's basically the traditional "skill rolls vs. GM-set target numbers" chassis with a layer of "only fail when you want to" points poured over it), and it seems like this Game Chef is my opportunity to do that.
Since I don't have an official license, I'm going to do a "serial numbers filed off" game. I think this also potentially introduces a fun creative constraint into play (I was never interested in Harry Potter gaming until my imagination was sparked by the "Harry Potter with the serial numbers filed off" game Boarsdraft -- the "similar, but different" effect got my creative juices flowing). Since I'm trying to avoid direct references to the source material I haven't settled on a good title yet (plus I'm pretty bad with titles in general). I'm probably inclined to make story structure pretty heavily involved in the mechanics -- I don't want to just slap Doctor Who color on something generic, I want to figure out what makes Doctor Who stories special to me and figure out how to get that to happen in a game. That may be too ambitious for a Game Chef game, but I need to follow the idea that's getting me excited (I explored a few alternative ingredient combinations but I didn't feel the fire in my belly to attack them like I do this one). Most Doctor Who stories are generally structured like mysteries where a lot of the story involves just uncovering what's going on, so I'll need to figure out how to wrap the game around that. The concept of "plot as background detail" is something I've been thinking about since I playtested Boarsdraft, so I may try to develop some of my thoughts on that concept in this game, but I'm not sure yet since I haven't figured out what the foreground (i.e. what the players mechanically interact with) would be if I embrace that metaphor.
mrteapot:
"Plot as background detail" is a very Doctor Who sort of thing. Lots of Doctor Who stories have this sort of thing going on where they have utterly rejected traditional ideas of what makes a good story. They'll not explain things until the moment that they are relevant rather than foreshadowing it. Or when there is foreshadowing, it is very heavy handed and weird and probably pointing at stuff that won't happen for several more episodes. The stories are mysteries, but not really fair ones. You couldn't really solve the mysteries with the clues provided. These and other aspects are problems according to traditional ideas of a good story, but Doctor Who keeps being engaging because of (not despite) these things.
Which all makes for great RPG fodder. All of those things are true of lots of roleplaying game plots, too, especially those made up on the fly. It suggests that the players should be doing something else and "solving the problem" could be done at any time given enough technobabble, provided the players already sorted out the emotional core of the story or whatever the players are doing.
It took a fairly large amount of self-control to not make a Doctor who knockoff game for me as well. I already wrote my Doctor Who knockoff last year.
Matthew Sullivan-Barrett:
Right on, Dan, I'm glad someone is stepping up to the plate. It had to be done, man, and I'm super excited to see how it comes out.
I always like the Psych 101 episodes, where it's all just a thin metaphor for the human experience, which I recall seeing a lot of in the Tenant era.
Alons-y!
PeterBB:
This game sounds relevant to my interests!
I completely agree that "plot as background detail" is true, but I would be careful not to lose the "exploring a fascinating universe" element. The monsters aren't the core of the stories, but they are definitely part of the draw anyway.
Troy_Costisick:
I love mystery games, Dan. Dr. Who is a classic, so I hipe it goes well for you. I'll just plug one of my favorite games real fast: Inspectres. It is Ghostbusters with the serial numbers filed off. Maybe that can provide some inspiration.
Peace,
Troy
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