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Game Space
Feb. 18th, 2010 09:31 pmThis is partially a reply to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
swan_tower so if you want to read her take on it, head over there first.
I'm in the process of working on game space creation right now, preparing for a major LARP undertaking, a 3 year Changeling game set in Chicago. The primary element of this preparation is the creation of a game space. I think in a LARP or any large scale game(i.e. not a one shot) requires a good deal of game space creation, and I think that the purpose of game space creation is narrative building.
My own practice for world building is effectively to create a space in which the story that I wish to tell can take place. It's like digging trenches that water can flow through, making channels of action that can be followed. If I know that people will need to find information, I create a character that can access that information that the players have access to. If I know that players might need objects, I create a store that sells objects.
But building a world is more than that. I build a metaphysics and a meta-metaphysics. What do I mean? Well, Terry Pratchett's discworld is a great example of a world with both. For its metaphysics it has extreme symbolic effectiveness, with animistic personifications of ideas and the ablility to use symbolic acts to change the world(magic). For its meta-metaphysics it has a great rule. A million-to-one chance happens nine times out of ten. It is the world where the long chance always works. I need to have both of those things in place for the world.
Next, I create a pretense, a way in which the characters will be introduced to each other and to the world. It needs to make sense for them to stay together, making cooperation profitable. Also, I want to build the knowledge base for the players, allowing them to know there is an information collector, a store for objects, etc. One thing this often involves is allowing their creative efforts to help build the world.
Then finally, I put together a device. There is something that will happen if the players do not interfere, but their method of interference is their own. Often, there will be obvious consequences for non-interference, but I try not to give them the deus ex machina stick(the cell phone number of the King of the Eagles say).
A lot of these things come in through genre. As elegantly displayed in the CBuffy game run by the Kitsune Alyc, in the world of Cthulu the heroes lose on ties, in the world of Buffy, they win on ties. In fantasy adventure, the destruction of the hometown is a normal impetus, in contemporary detective, it's an astonishingly brutal event. Fixers exist in cyberpunk, the victorian age and even ancient Rome, but are rare in nomadic adventuring tribes or starfleet academy.
So for me, building worlds and building plots are one and the same. I know this is slightly rambly, but the process is so entwined that it's hard to pull strings out separately.
swan_tower so if you want to read her take on it, head over there first.I'm in the process of working on game space creation right now, preparing for a major LARP undertaking, a 3 year Changeling game set in Chicago. The primary element of this preparation is the creation of a game space. I think in a LARP or any large scale game(i.e. not a one shot) requires a good deal of game space creation, and I think that the purpose of game space creation is narrative building.
My own practice for world building is effectively to create a space in which the story that I wish to tell can take place. It's like digging trenches that water can flow through, making channels of action that can be followed. If I know that people will need to find information, I create a character that can access that information that the players have access to. If I know that players might need objects, I create a store that sells objects.
But building a world is more than that. I build a metaphysics and a meta-metaphysics. What do I mean? Well, Terry Pratchett's discworld is a great example of a world with both. For its metaphysics it has extreme symbolic effectiveness, with animistic personifications of ideas and the ablility to use symbolic acts to change the world(magic). For its meta-metaphysics it has a great rule. A million-to-one chance happens nine times out of ten. It is the world where the long chance always works. I need to have both of those things in place for the world.
Next, I create a pretense, a way in which the characters will be introduced to each other and to the world. It needs to make sense for them to stay together, making cooperation profitable. Also, I want to build the knowledge base for the players, allowing them to know there is an information collector, a store for objects, etc. One thing this often involves is allowing their creative efforts to help build the world.
Then finally, I put together a device. There is something that will happen if the players do not interfere, but their method of interference is their own. Often, there will be obvious consequences for non-interference, but I try not to give them the deus ex machina stick(the cell phone number of the King of the Eagles say).
A lot of these things come in through genre. As elegantly displayed in the CBuffy game run by the Kitsune Alyc, in the world of Cthulu the heroes lose on ties, in the world of Buffy, they win on ties. In fantasy adventure, the destruction of the hometown is a normal impetus, in contemporary detective, it's an astonishingly brutal event. Fixers exist in cyberpunk, the victorian age and even ancient Rome, but are rare in nomadic adventuring tribes or starfleet academy.
So for me, building worlds and building plots are one and the same. I know this is slightly rambly, but the process is so entwined that it's hard to pull strings out separately.
