Cut Out & Keep

Wow... the stuff you find when you start clearing out your hard drive. I apparently wrote this game for a contest and then promptly forgot about it, but as I read back through it for the first time in four years, I realised it would make a good game to play online with a minimum number of players. This is a tweaked version of the original draft to support quarantine play (is that a new genre?) and is as unashamedly queer as the original.

Group Activity

When I was young, I kept a secret stash of pictures I had cut out of newspapers and magazines which showed images of men I liked; this was before the internet, of course. The images were photos from medical articles in the newspaper, handsome bare-chested men from comic strips and really anything which used the context to show a bit of beefcake and muscle; not purely erotic, just enough 'plausible deniability' to get semi-nude images into the mainstream press. This game is a tribute to that experience.

Before play, create a shared folder or document and fill it with googled images of people; they may be photos or artworks, but avoid anything blatantly pornographic. You will want to talk about appropriate sites and images to use before you play, to keep everyone on the same page about what to expect. You can also do this as a live activity if you happen to all be in the same place, like so:

• Get a stack of newspapers and magazines, then divide them up between all the players: everyone should now go through their stack looking for pictures of people of the same gender as some other player around the table (don’t choose pictures that match your gender, unless everyone around the table is of the same gender.)
• When you find a picture, whether it is a photograph or cartoon, from a news story, magazine feature or advertisement, carefully cut or tear it out: to tear out a picture, tear out the page first, then make sharp folds along the edges of the picture you want and rip quickly along those lines.
• When everyone is done, spread all the pictures in the centre of the table, so that they are visible and accessible to all players; you are now ready to begin.

Getting Into Role

For the duration of the game, all the players must imagine that they are a young, queer person, who is either drawn to members of the same gender, has been assigned the wrong gender or both. The exact ages of the characters, and other details about them, will come out through play, no-one needs to determine an entire history for their character at the start of the game.

The pictures in the shared folder or spread across the table represent pictures that each character may have cut out & kept hidden away during the early part of their life, as a way of holding onto to that part of themselves which isn’t fully defined yet and which they fear may be ridiculed or worse. During the game, players will collect pictures, with each one representing some threshold in their character’s life.

Question & Answer

The game is played in turns; on each player’s turn, they nominate someone else who chooses a picture from the shared collection and passes it to the current player. The current player then says whether this is a picture of someone they were attracted to or wanted to be like: after this statement, every other player around the table may ask the current player one question about that picture and the circumstances around it.

A question may be direct or indirect, open or leading, but they must always relate to the picture itself: a question may not be about the character or family of the current character, but it may be open to answers about them. Therefore, a player may not ask “Where did you live?” but they could ask “Where in your house did you hide this picture?” and get an answer that also encompasses details about the character’s home situation.

• Open Questions provide the current player with few cues, so they are free to answer it how they like, as long as they are consistent with their previous answers, e.g. “How old were you when you collected this picture?” or “Where did you put this picture?” give the current player a lot of margin to answer.
• Leading Questions suggest or establish aspects of the character’s life at around the time they collected this picture, e.g. “How did your best friend react when you showed them this picture?” or “Who stole the school book you had stuck this picture to the cover of?” Leading questions can be used for some very hard framing, establishing facts about the current character’s life and getting the current player to respond: use the character’s family, friends and events in their life to push them for harder answers, e.g. “Where did your family send you when they discovered these pictures?” or “How did this picture cause the break-up you had with your first love?”

Rounds of Play

A turn ends when every other player has asked one question of the current player, but there should always be at least 3 questions per picture, so with fewer players, some will get to ask more than one question. A round ends when each player has had one turn at answering questions about the picture they have been given. Each subsequent round should represent a later stage in the lives of the same characters, but while this might be only a week later for one, it might be five years later for another, as long as all character unveil their stories going forward, not in flashbacks to an earlier part of their life.

Let each character’s story develop organically, don’t try to push them to a predetermined conclusion: on each player’s turn, they should confine themselves to only answering the questions they are asked. The answer should focus on the question and not be used to bring in masses of extraneous data about the current character. The more supplemental data that is given, the more it shuts down future questions that the other players might want to ask.

Ending the Game

The game should be played over three rounds, or five if there are very few players, so that each player ends with the same number of pictures in front of them: to close the game, each player explains what happened to each of their pictures, with each player taking it in turn to describe the fate of one picture before passing to the next player. Continue in this fashion until each player has detailed the fate of each of their pictures.

When describing the fate of a picture, any type of answer is allowable, from “I don’t know, I lost it,” to “I found & purchased the original; now it hangs over my bed.” A picture that was important to you in your youth might have lost its significance to you as you grew up and explored your identity; on the other hand, it might have become the defining image of your life, an ideal you have chased and conquered, making it who you are. There are no wrong or right answers here and this final round is intended to reflect what each character might or might not have learned from the pictures they cut out & kept as a youth.

Courtiers

I don't know what it is about my dreams lately, but here's a game I dreamed I was being told to write content for; it's obviously inspired by Reigns but I don't know why as I've never actually played that. Unlike most of my other games, there's no real end to this one, you just play it until you reach whatever goals you set for yourselves.

Creating a Nation

This is a very simple game about a Monarch and the advisers in their Court; in order to play, you'll need a pencil, some paper, an eraser and some coins with easily identifiable heads & tails sides. The first order of business is to appoint a Monarch who rules over the fictitious nation that the game is set in. The Monarch starts by defining a number of resources which will define the nation and how successful they are in ruling it: these might be very obvious things like population, gold, food and happiness, but they could be more esoteric qualities like magic, crystals, sunbeams and  fortifications or whatever you like. Pick whatever you want to measure your nation by, so if you'd rather have a comedically dark & Gothic realm, your resources could be misery, hunger, rats and rain.  The number of resources should be the same as the number of non-Monarch players, so in a 5 player game, there will be 1 Monarch who chooses 4 resources. All the resources you start the game with have an initial score of 2, but you cam make this whatever you like if you want to hack the game for a different tone or theme.

After the Monarch has recorded the nation's starting resources, they appoint all the other players as their Courtiers; the Monarch may either name a role and ask another player to fill it, or they may simple ask the other players what roles they have in mind for themselves. As with resources, select roles that reflect and support the theme of the nation; examples might be Major General of All Armies, Chief Tax Collector, Grand High Wizard, etc. Each Courtier takes a coin from the Monarch when their role is agreed; you are now ready to start play.

The Changing Seasons

Each round of play follows this format:

• The Monarch suggests a theme: this could simply be based on the season the nation is passing through, or something more specific such as "A Time of War" or "The Famine."
• Once the theme is set, the Monarch asks for news from the nation from each Courtier, in any order they please, but each Courtier should only be asked for their news once per round.
• When giving news to the Monarch, a Courtier has three options: they can ask the Monarch for Judgement, tell them of an Event or present them with an Opportunity.
• Once every Courtier has given their news, and all the results of that have been settled, the Monarch begins a new round with a new theme, incorporating whatever changes the nation has gone through into that as appropriate.

Each Courtier should present news that is fitting to their role, the theme of the round or, if possible, both, e.g. the Major General of All Armies should usually give news about border defences, conflicts with neighbouring nations, military exercises & budgets, etc. The three types of news that may be give are resolved in different ways:

Judgement

After giving their news, the Courtier presents the Monarch with two choices and asks them to pick one; as they do so, they should take their coin and conceal it in their left or right hand. As they present the Monarch with their choices, they should indicate which hand corresponds to which choice, presenting both closed fists out to the Monarch, who indicates their choice by tapping one fist.

When presenting a case for judgement, bear in mind that one of the choices you offer the Monarch will be bad and lead to a loss of resources, while the other will be good and create more resources. You don't have to be obvious about this, but nor should you attempt to be deliberately misleading. Once the Monarch has chosen, open the fist they tapped: if it has the coin, then their choice was wise and you should tell them to take +1 in one resource of your choice; if it doesn't have the coin, then the Monarch's choice was unwise and they must take -1 in one resource of your choice.

For example, the Monarch asks their Chief Tax Collector for news, who responds by saying "It is not good, your Highness; the crops have failed in many parts of the nation, so many of our farms have produced under yield this season, so they have had less to pay their taxes with... your Majesty, should I send out armed guards with the tax collectors, to force the taxes out of the farmers? Or should I give them leave to pay double next year?" The Courtier presents first their left, then their right fist as they say this; the Monarch considers and taps the right, indicating that the taxes should be left until next year, hoping for a more prosperous time; the Courtier opens their fist but reveals no coin! They narrate that the nation's coffers are running low and apply a -1 penalty to the 'Gold' resource, which the Monarch adjusts accordingly.

Event

Giving news of an event is rather like presenting the Monarch with a choice to pass judgement on, but instead of letting the Monarch choose between two outcomes, the Courtier tosses a coin instead. Events are simply random occurrences that are outside the control normally exerted by the Monarch: they can be small things with big consequences, such as a marriage cementing the bond between two neighbouring nations, or wild, natural events, such as earthquakes, floods, fires and so on.

Events don't effect resources though; instead, they tag the nation or the Monarch themself with conditions: a condition is a word or short phrase that describes the situation, such as "Engaged to be married", "At war", "Favoured by the Gods" and so on. Along with this, you may note an effect on the game, e.g. perhaps the condition "Diseased" might have a note that says "Double population losses", so that each time the nation's 'Population' resource is reduced for any reason, then it actually reduces twice as much, e.g. -2 instead of -1. The outcome of the event is decided by a toss of the Courtier's coin: if it comes up heads, the outcome is good, but if it comes up tails, the outcome is bad.

For example, the Royal Intelligence Collector (or Chief Spy, if you like) reports that the neighbouring nations of Hapsbarr and Bohemica have broken off diplomatic relations with each other over a supposed insult at a recent state dinner, then tosses a coin. It comes up heads, so the Courtier asks the Monarch to record that the nation is now "Close ally of Hapsbarr" and benefits from double 'Culture', whenever there is a gain in that resource.

Opportunity

The final type of news is where the Monarch may benefit from a situation if they act quickly; the Courtier describes the opportunity and the Monarch decides whether to take it or not. Every opportunity has a cost and the Monarch will be required to give up 5 units of one resource. erase one condition from themself or the kingdom, or both if ridding themslves of an unwanted condition.

When the Monarch agrees to spend a beneficial condition, or 5 units of a single resource, then the Courtier will tell them what they get in return, in the form of a rare resource: this is a second tier resource that cannot be gained by normal means and represents something rare and incredible. As well as recording it on their sheet, the Courtier who brought this to their attention takes an additional coin. When a Courtier has multiple coins, they effect play in two ways:

1. When the Monarch chooses an option during Judgement, the outcome is increased by 1 for every extra coin, e.g. if picking either option from a Courtier with 3 coins in total, the result will be either +3 or -3 to one resource, accordingly. This is before the gain or loss is doubled by any condition that apples to it.
2. When the Monarch is told of an Event, they may dismiss the result of a coin toss, if the Courtier who brought them the news has multiple coins. When this is done, the Courtier loses that coin and tosses one of their remaining ones; the Monarch may keep demanding retries as long as the Courtier has coins to spare, but once that Courtier is down to their single last coin, no more retries are allowed.

For example, the Monarch calls upon their Jester for their news, who reports that a circus is passing through the nation and it might stop to perform for the court, if there is suitable reimbursement. Since the Monarch currently has the condition "Cloud of Gloom" recorded for their nation, they agree to the performance, taking -5 Gold and erasing the negative condition also, while the Jester collects an additional coin.

Continued Play

There's no endgame with this, you just play until you reach a satisfactory conclusion; this might mean getting every resource to 10, or getting one of them to 20, or collecting 5 rare resources: it's whatever ending you want it to have, when you want it to end. What follows are some suggestions for varying the rules for broader interest:

The Monarch is Dead, Long Live the Monarch: after every 2 or 3 rounds of play, depose the Monarch and appoint a new player to that role. Everyone else can change roles too, and the old Monarch becomes a Courtier, but the resources and conditions carry over into the reign of the new Monarch.

Councillors, Committees & Cabinets: rather than just playing in the set-up given above, why not change the premises to suit another setting? Think about playing as the crew of a generational starship, a circle of demons advising Lucifer on how to run hell, the Senior Staff and Arch-Chancellor of a magical university or any other setting your hearts desire.

Superiority: instead of a Monarch, trying having a Mayor... in a city of superheroes & villains! Not only will this create different issues to be dealt with, but some of the Courtiers (more like Councillors or Cabinet) can secretly be heroes! Every non-Monarch player can give themselves a positive condition and take an extra coin at the start of play. On their turn, their condition applies to any bonuses gained, but they can spend a coin on any other player's turn to have their condition take effect then also.

Making Magic

This is a silly little game poem you can try with players who are familiar with various fantasy, horror or sci-fi tropes.

In this game, you're all going to portray magicians, though you could be high-tech engineers, weird scientists, occultists or a variety of other artisans without much tweaking to the rules. It's a little like Charades, but verbal instead of physical, and you'll need at least three players.

In each round of play, you will have a Suggester, a Crafter and a User:

• The Suggester comes up with a basic or straightforward magic item, e.g. a dagger that glows blue in the presence of goblins or a cloak of invisibility. They write this down as a prompt and pass it to the Crafter.
• The Crafter reads the prompt and then starts to describe the process of making the magic object provided by the Suggester; while doing this, they must outline at least three procedures or processes, or talk for at least one minute, whichever takes longest.
• The Crafter starts with nothing except the most basic, commonly available tools and supplies; anything else they want, such as goblin blood, they must describe how they acquire it.
• The Crafter can never use a word that describes what the magic object is intended to do, so in the examples given above, they would not be able to say 'glow' or 'invisibility.' The Crafter is also not allowed to use synonyms for those words, e.g. 'light', 'shine', 'unseen', 'transparent' and so on for the above two examples.
• When the Crafter has finished speaking, the User gets to describe how they would use that item in the way they think is it intended to work. If they get it right, they and the Crafter win the round; if not, the Suggester wins.
• If the Suggester wins, they can add a little post-script narration to the User's guess, outlining how their misunderstanding of the magic item costs them dearly.

For example, in the first round of play, the Suggester's magic item is the dagger that glows blue in the presence of goblins; the Crafter then has to come up with at least three processes or procedures for making that item, along with the tools & ingredients used, and take at least 1 minute to describe them all.

They might say "I go to the home of the Star Elves, who are known for their amazing metal-smithing and acquire a sample of pure Mithril, which I have blessed by their High Priestess; I then travel to the camp of the Western Nomads and hunt with them for many moons, until I am skilled enough to take my first blood from a goblin bandit; returning home with the metal and the blood, I make an alloy in my furnace, beating the metal and grinding out a blade within the time that the moon is up each night, until my work is complete!" (Only longer and more colourful, because they have to speak for at least a minute!)

Finally, the User has a chance to guess at the purpose of the magic item and might do so by saying: "Taking the magical sword, I travel fearlessly through goblin-ruled lands, knowing that I need fear nothing, for my blade will poison any goblin it draws blood from!" The Suggester may add, "Days later, a group of soldiers returning from the border find your body, pierced by hundreds of goblin raider arrows, with the gentle blue glow of your sword ebbing away..."

Change it up each round, so that different players are the Suggester, Crafter and User; when everyone has had an equal number of turns in every role, the game ends and you can compare scores to see who was the overall winner.

Wrongturn

"Welcome, adventurer, to the village of Wrongturn... funny, you're the first adventurer we've had in a long time... must be because we're so far off the main roads here! Don't you worry at all, we've got everything you could ever need for your quest, right here! Potions? Uhhh... we have a local drink made of mashed worms and carrot peel... no? But you must! It's our speciality! Here, have a pint!"

Inspired by this Drawfee video, Wrongturn is a game set in a console RPG, where the Chosen One of Legend shows up in a village that is really not quite prepared for that kind of thing and really can't offer them anything they want. Make the best of it and try to come out with something useful!

Load Game

You'll need at least 3 players for this game, one to be the Adventurer and the rest to play the NPCs they meet in the village, all of whom have some kind of special service they can offer, only it's never quite what the Adventurer is looking for. Appoint one of the NPC players as Mayor: this doesn't come with any extra power, just a load of responsibilities and is mostly a ceremonial role.

To begin, the Mayor rolls on the Village Table to get a basic description for what sort of place Wrongturn is, though anyone can chip in with further suggestions to help paint the picture of a place that is not quite normal by the standards of a CRPG. The Adventurer also rolls on the Need Table once for each NPC, writing down the results they get: if they get two or more of the same result, they can either roll again, choose a different result or keep those results and make them different through the narration. For example, if you roll 'Weapon' twice and keep both results, try to think of different weapons, e.g. a sword and a bow, etc.

Next, all the NPCs take 2 or 3 strips of paper each and write a single word down on each one: any word will do, but check with the other players what sort of age rating you all want to aim for. A simple, clear word, like a colour or object, works better than something unusual and ambiguous like 'cosmology' or 'piscine.' Fold all the strips up and put them in a cup, pot, bowl or hat.

Finally, the Mayor takes a post-it note or index card for each NPC, including themselves, and writes down a number on each card, with the following guidelines:

• All the numbers should be whole, real numbers
• Each number should be positive, negative or zero
• No number should be greater than the number of players, whether positive or negative.
• The total of all the numbers should be zero.

For example, in a game with one Adventurer and four NPCs, the Mayor might write down -2, -3, +5 and 0 on the four cards. Once the numbers are written, the Mayor shuffles the cards face down and deals one to each NPC including themselves; each NPC may look at their own number but not at any one else's and the Adventurer may never see any of the numbers, even when they are first written down. The numbers are only revealed at the end of the game.

Press 'A'

The game proceeds as follows:

• The Adventurer picks an NPC they have not encountered yet.
• The Adventurer tells the NPC what Need they are trying to fulfill.
• The NPC draws a strip of paper from the hat and secretly looks at it.

The Adventurer and the NPC now play out a scene of the former trying to get their Need fulfilled by the latter, with the latter explaining that they don't really have anything like that, but they do have this thing instead, which is just as good, if not better! The NPC uses the word on the strip of paper to twist what they are offering, showcasing that word in some way: they might use it to describe everything in their shop, themselves or the one thing they are offering. The NPC should always narrate themselves and their goods or services in an eccentric way, while the Adventurer's role is mostly to act as the straight, trying to understand what the heck the NPC is doing.

For example... our Adventurer enters the first shop in the village, trying to fulfill their Need for Ability Training, specifically (they have decided) a new combat move that will stun low-level minions. The NPC draws the  word 'coal' secretly from the hat and starts to describe the black clouds of smoke that puff from the windows of the wooden shack; the conversation that follows takes place in a roiling cloud of foul-smelling coal smoke so thick that the two characters can't even see each other.

In addition to using the word in their narration, the NPC should also skew the usefulness of their goods or services according to the value on their card: if positive, then make them sound too good to be true; if negative, then try to make the bugs sound like features; and if zero, try to avoid making any promises or guarantees that what your offering is anything other than purely cosmetic.

To continue the example above, if the NPC has a positive number on their card, then they might boast of the Secret of Smoke they can teach the adventurer: "Just one deep breath and then puff it all out: cloud o' smoke blinds 'em, chokes 'em, causes memory loss, dissolves armour and sterilizes the ground for a radius of half a mile!"
On the other hand, with a negative value, the NPC might say something like "Stun 'em? Why, what good's that? They'll just get back up again soon or later! Nah, you want to learn the Secret of Smoke: kills 'em stone dead. Kills everythin'. Just keeps killin'... killin', killin', killin'... don't even know how to stop it from killin', it's that good!"

If the value was zero, however, then the 'Secret of Smoke' might be: "You jump up in the air on this, like, column o' smoke, then you come down gentle again like a leaf... mighty impressive lookin', gonna keep all eyes on you, yep, no-one else is gonna look as impressive as you, mid-skirmish!"

Game Over

At the end of each encounter between the Adventurer and an NPC, the Adventurer makes two choices:

• They can try to guess what word the NPC had: if they guess right, they take it and write '+1' on it; if they guess wrong, they write '-1' on it; if they don't want to guess, the NPC shows them what it was and writes '0' on it.
• They decide whether to accept the goods or services the NPC offers; if they accept it, they take the NPC's card and place it face down in front of themselves; if they don't, the card is placed off to one side.

Once every NPC has had an encounter with the Adventurer, the final score is revealed! The Adventurer turns all the cards they collected face-up and adds up their total, plus the total of the words they tried to guess. If the final total is greater than zero, the Adventurer goes on to succeed in their quest, using everything they gained in Wrongturn; if the total is less than zero, then they fail horribly, with the 'help' given by Wrongturn being instrumental in sealing their doom. If the Adventurer's total was exactly zero, then the world is saved... just not by this Adventurer: someone else did it while they were busy wasting their time in Wrongturn. Whatever the case, all players should participate in describing this outcome, adding their own colourful details, until everyone is satisfied that the story is done.

Tech Support II: Customer Returns

This is a spiritual successor to Tech Support, a game I created in 2014; it's thematically similar, though the structure encourages more players to participate in more ways.

There are four aspects to this game, composed of two prepatory and two performatory steps (yes, those are words now); the two prepatory steps are taken in turn, then the two performatory aspects are played at once, interacting with each other... two players talk to each other, in a conversation.

Preparation 1: The Problem

Someone suggests an issue, obstacle, complication or problem: this, as with the original Tech Support, can be Low Tech, High Tech, Non Tech, Non Human or Supernatural.

Preparation 2: The Opportunity

Someone else now suggests a product that can solve the problem and, again, this can be Low Tech, High Tech, Non Tech, Non Human or Supernatural. The Problem and the Opportunity do not have to match in this aspect, e.g. you can propose a Non Human solution to a High Tech issue, if that works for you.

Some Examples:

Problem: getting the last bit of jam from the bottom of the jar

Opportunity: hyper-mass spoon that uses gravitational attraction to suck up the jam

Problem: teleporters that split you into your good and evil side

Opportunity: 'marriage' contracts for good/evil splits

Problem: being unable to get that song out of your head

Opportunity: a Norwegian Blue parrot that sings something else, drowning out the first song

Problem: becoming the host for a parasitic fungus

Opportunity: a shrine to the Fungus God at which you can can ask for their blessing

Problem: ghosts; just ghosts

Opportunity: ghost strips that work like fly paper

An optional suggestion for these first two phases is to play them out like a particularly cheesy advert or infomercial: the first player says something like "Don't you hate it when...?", after which the second player follows this up with "Well, now you can say goodbye to that problem with new, [Product X]!"

Performance 1: The Customer

The next player (which could also be the first one again if there are only two of you) now takes on the role of a dissatisfied customer who is returning the above-mentioned product due to a fault or it just performing inadequately and failing to act as advertised.

Performance 2: The Retailer

The last aspect of play is someone taking on the role of a representative of the commercial retailer that the customer bought the product from.

The interaction between Customer and Retailer may take place over the phone, in a service chatroom or face-to-face at a retail outlet. Whatever the case, remember to follow these guidelines:

• Both sides are polite and respectful: don't turn it into an insane screaming match or blame-apportioning exercise.
• Keep the conversation on topic: the Customer is seeking a refund or replacement from the Retailer.
• The Retailer may try to troubleshoot the problem, or explain that it is a feature, not a bug, but the Customer may counter that with the "I know, I tried that, but it still didn't work, because..." strategy.
• The game ends (quite quickly) when the Retailer successfully fixes the issue with the product to the Customer's satisfaction or offers to refund/replace the product.

Unwritten Lore

Another short game, this time inspired by the introductory exposition in a number of computer RPGs: they drop you into the game with a big info dump to explain the setting, but some of them do it better than others...

Two Words

You'll need 3-6 players for this game, plus a number of index cards or other note papers: start  by discussing two words that you want to use as a group to underpin the game. These should be chosen to inform the setting, tone and theme, so you might choose 'Venetian' and 'Enchantment', 'Wilderness' and 'Haunting', 'Cyberpunk' and 'Aztec' or whatever combination your group likes. Everyone should suggest a word to be a Foundation of play, then vote on the two you want to use and discuss very briefly the outline of the setting they suggest.

Foundation: one of the two terms used to underpin the setting of the game and summarise it; write each one boldly so that it fills a whole index card and place them centrally so that all players can see them.

Terms of Play

Next, everyone names a term that will be important in that setting but does not define it; take it in turns to do this, naming the term you want to feature in the game and writing it down at the top of an index card. A term may describe either an Identity or an Intangible, but other than that you can use any word you like except proper names. Singular, collective and compound nouns make great Identities, while adjectives and abstract nouns make better Intangibles.

Identity: a singular person, place or organisation that is important to the setting; write it with a capital letter and always refer to it as 'The', e.g. 'The Convocation', 'The Tiger', 'The Blade', etc.

Intangible: a philosophy, movement, force or power that is important to the setting; write it in italics and always refer to it in the abstract, e.g. 'thaumaturgy', 'grandeur', 'sibilance', etc.

At this stage, only write down the term itself, don't try to define, expand or explain it; also, anyone whose suggested Foundation did not get chosen gets a second term, so some players will start with more than others.

Cut Scenes

Imagine the game taking place as a series of cut scenes, the sort of expository scene inserted into the narrative of a computer or console game to provide the player with goals or resolve them once reached. Collaborate as a group in creating each scene, but take it in turns to Author the scenes; the Author records or remembers the suggestions for elements of the scene and makes sure they are adhered to whilst the scene is played out.

Author: the player currently responsible for taking suggestions from all players for elements of a scene and making sure those elements then feature in the scene.

When creating a scene, the Author should ask the other players to each contribute one element or more that should appear: an element can be a place, a theme, a character or an event, but not an Identity or Intangible. As Author, you can also suggest elements, but you should not fill the current scene with your own suggestions: work with the other players to incorporate their suggestions, then add your own flavour to the result.

For example, Camila, Valeria, Mateo and Lucas are playing the first scene in a game whose Foundations are 'Pastoral' and 'Fairytale', with Camila being the first Author. Valeria suggests a romantic tryst as an element for the scene and Lucas would like the character of a soldier recently returned from a distant war as a character. Mateo doesn't have an immediate suggestion for an element, but Camila proposes that one of the village farmboys should make an appearance, with the undertone that the romance might exist between the soldier and the farmboy, even if not explicit in the scene. Mateo asks if their might also be some fairy mischief present, playing with the fates and emotions of the two potential lovers, to which Valeria adds that perhaps another character could be a witch who is meddling for her own reasons. With no further suggestions forthcoming, Camila can announce the start of the scene.

To start a scene, each player chooses a character they want to portray during it or opts to provide colour & flavour commentary. Any characters added as elements must be played during the scene, unless it was clearly established that they only exist as an influence and are not directly present, e.g. if an element was a Queen's decree that she was seeking a champion, then the Queen herself does not necessarily have to appear.

If you opt to play a character, then you get the final say on their appearance, profession, motivation, etc, though you should remain open to suggestions from other players, especially the current Author, to make sure that everything gels. At least two players must play characters in the scene.

If you opt to provide commentary, then you are free to add details to the scene, through describing the location in more detail or narrating the actions or words of minor characters who also happen to be present, individually or en masse, e.g. the Queen's Royal Guard.

Definite Articles

Play out each scene incorporating the elements suggested for it, acting out the roles of characters and providing colourful commentary, until the Author chooses to make something decisive happen, which they can choose to do in two ways:

1. Define a term: the Author chooses an undefined term from one of the index cards and writes a definition for it. This can be whatever they want, but it must be relevant to the scene and fit what has already been established; after doing this, they describe how that Identity or Intangible resolves the scene in such a way that at least one of the characters present clearly gets what they wanted from this scene by using the Identity or Intangible defined.
2. Add a term: the Author writes a new term on a new index card and then narrates how at least one of the characters present is clearly thwarted from getting what they want (for now, anyway.) This narration should incorporate the new term but still without defining it any clear way.

For example, at the end of the scene suggested in the example above, Camila gets to end it in one of two possible ways:

1. She might unite the two lovers, or describe how the witch tricks one of them into signing the fairy contract that will undo her own obligations; to do so, she can pick up the 'The Tiger' and define this as 'a bold general who has been richly honoured for his brave and unconventional tactics in the recent conflict,' then have that character suddenly arrive on the scene to create the conclusion she desires.
2. She might keep the two lovers apart, or thwart the witch's current subterfuge by exposing her disguise, adding a new term like 'shadow' to a new index card and narrating how one of the characters fears the shadow (which remains undefined) and thus acts over-cautiously.

The game continues in this fashion, with players taking turns to be Author, defining terms or adding new ones, until a scene is resolved by defining the last available undefined term; if there is ever only one undefined term remaining at any time, all players should discuss whether they want this to be the final scene before they start suggesting elements for it.

The Fourth Wall

Here we go again with another little thought-experiment style game, this time marrying some popular card & board game mechanics with a free-form narrative framework. You'll need to do a little bit of preparation to make some components for the game and then a little bit more each time you sit down to play it: it might go heavy on the index cards or post-it notes, so make sure you have plenty of those to spare.

The Theatre

This game is a tribute to the theatre and all the players take on roles both behind-the-scenes and on-stage over the course of play, but the precise roles change from round to round of the game. Your advance preparation consists of making a set of behind-the-scenes role cards as outlined here:

• The Producer: When selecting behind-the-scenes roles for a new act, you choose first; if you have this role in the last act, swap it for any unused behind-the-scenes role of your choice.
• The Playwright: You choose the setting & theme for this act from those agreed by all the players at the start of the game; give it a title as well.
• The Director: You choose a mood for this act, an emotional response that it must elicit from the audience, e.g. tears, laughter, excitement, etc.
• The Scene Shifter: You choose a specific location for this act, working within the setting & theme selected by the Playwright.
• The Costumer: You choose the on-stage roles for this act from those agreed by all the players at the start of the game; choose one per player, not forgetting to include yourself.
• The Lead: You choose first when selecting on-stage roles for this act; you may even choose a role the Costumer has not selected.
• The Casting Director: You hand out the on-stage roles selected by the Costumer to the other players for this act, except the Lead who always gets to choose their own role first.
• The Stage Hand: Once per act, you may dictate one special effect that occurs on stage, ranging from changing an aspect of the scenery to any special lighting or sound effects.
• The Prompt: Once per act, you may dictate what line is spoken by an actor on stage or correct something they have just said and give them a new line to speak.

With these cards prepared, get a group of players together and pitch the game to them: the concept is that all the players are part of a theatrical troupe staging a season of one-act plays. There will be as many one-act plays as there are players in the game and everyone will change both their behind-the-scenes and on-stage roles with every act, but they will each portray a consistent character who has their own traits that colours how they perform these roles.

The Season

One session of The Fourth Wall encompasses an entire season of one-act plays, so before you can begin playing, you first need to agree on what plays you are going to put on this season. Everyone takes three index cards and writes down a setting on one, a theme on the other and either a setting or a theme on the third. Settings are the broad geographic & historic locations of the plays, while themes are the types of stories being told.

Example Settings: Medieval Europe, Victorian England, Pre-Colombian America, Futuristic Moon Colony, Ancient China, Modern Japan, etc.

Example Themes: Crime & Punishment, Romance, Melodrama, Murder Mystery, Feelgood Musical, Pantomime, Slapstick Comedy, Experimental Prose, etc.

Keep the settings and themes in their own stacks: each act is composed of one setting and one theme, as chosen by the Playwright or selected at random if there is no Playwright taking part in this act.

Next up, the whole company needs to agree some on-stage roles: these are the archetypal parts that will feature across the season of performances, but their exact portrayal will depend on the setting & theme of that play and the actor who is playing them. You need to have at least 50% more on-stage roles than there are players in the game, e.g. if you have 5 players, then you need at least 8 on-stage roles. An on-stage role is just a capsule description, enough to loosely determine how they should be portrayed and to suggest what they might be doing in that play. Discuss ideas, throw them out there, but don't be afraid to veto anything that really turns you off and that would spoil the game for you if you were made to play it. Keep these on-stage role descriptions short and to the point, refining them down to two words if you are able, but certainly no more than five words at the upper limit.

Example On-Stage Roles: Honourable Leader, Troubled Heir, Courageous Youth, Scheming Business Owner, Confused Servant, Cheerful but Nosy Neighbour, etc.

Put the on-stage roles in their own pile: the Costumer will need to select one card per player from this pile for each act, or simply shuffle them and deal out as many as the number of players if there is no Costumer taking part in this act.

Finally, in the grand old-tradition, have a little ice-breaker activity where each player introduces their character for the game: keep this very simple and archetypal, something with a very clear, strong quirk that will be easily recognisable no matter what on-stage role you have. This is also a bit meta and can get very confusing, so the simplest solution might be to pick a well-known actor with their own particular quirks and do your best to portray them, e.g. pretty much everyone knows what to expect from Nicholas Cage, Dwayne Johnson, Whoopi Goldberg or Maggie Smith.

Super-Meta Sub-Game: If you like, you can actually play a theatre game as a warm-up/ice-breaker, if you know any; if you want to go beyond the Event Horizon of meta, then instead of actually playing that game, you could each simply narrate what happens, in a short montage that illustrates your own particular quirk alongside everyone else's. This is a deep rabbit-hole of meta that you may never emerge from though, so proceed with caution.

The Play

For the first round of play, just shuffle all the behind-the-scenes roles together and deal one at random to each player; in subsequent rounds however, the Producer chooses a role currently held by another player and takes it for the new act. The player they chose from then chooses from someone else and so on until there is only one player left to make their choice; they can choose any remaining role, including those not currently in play. After everyone has a behind-the-scenes role for this act, the unused cards are put to one side.

• If the Producer is ever not in play when choosing new behind-the-scenes roles, then everyone gets a random role as at the beginning of play, but if you get dealt a role you have already played, you may either ask to trade it with another player or trade it with one of the unused cards.
• If this is the last act of the game and you have the Producer role, immediately swap it with any unused behind-the-scenes role.

Next up, the Playwright, Director, Scene Shifter and Costumer perform their actions as dictated by their behind-the-scenes role cards, e.g. the Playwright chooses a setting & theme, the Director chooses a mood and so on.

• If the Playwright and/or Costumer are not in play, then resolve their actions by shuffling and drawing cards at random until the requirements are met.
• If the Director and/or Scene Shifter are not in play, then resolve their actions by having each player make one suggestion for the mood and/or location, as appropriate. If the Producer is in play, then they don't make a suggestion but instead choose one from those presented by the other players; if the Producer is also not in play, then the Playwright does this instead; if not the Playwright, then the Lead does and if not them, then the Casting Director does.

Once all those actions have been performed, the Lead and the Casting Director determine the on-stage roles for each player, with the Lead choosing any role at all (including choosing one not selected by the Casting Director or the random draw) and then the Casting Director handing out the remaining roles to everyone else (including themselves.)

• If the Casting Director is not in play, then the available roles are shuffled and dealt out at random until each player has one.

Performing

Once everyone has their on-stage role, the play can begin, but remember that it only consists of one act, so it is little more than a scene. As such, keep it pacey and punchy, hitting the tone set by the Director as early and as hard as possible: don't dawdle with backstory and laying foundations, just cut straight to the meat of the performance.

• One technique you can use to speed things up is best called 'Bad Exposition': just have your character walk on stage and announce their business to the audience as if revealing their inner thoughts to their diary. If you can insert some good exposition, that's even better, but don't feel pressured to do so: you're playing the game to have a good time, not to try to become the next Pinter.

Characters walk onto the set described by the Scene Shifter in any order they like: you might even agree that certain roles are already on stage when the curtain rises or are waiting in the dark for a spotlight to illuminate them. However you do it, be pushy when you're acting: have an agenda in mind for your role in this scene and try to make it happen. Equally, don't let other roles walk all over yours: push back and present them with demands, obstacles and other adversity they must overcome to achieve their goals.

During the performance, the on-stage roles push and pull against each other, using their dialogue and actions to portray this dynamic, but when you act, you have the option to exit the stage, turning your on-stage role face down when you do so. When you exit, your role's part in the play is over, so use this to wrap up their story in some significant way, e.g. they leave with their bags packed, they are arrested, murdered, their proposal is accepted, they break down weeping after their confession, etc.Whatever your exit action is, it can't be undone by anyone still on stage, e.g. if you are arrested, then no-one else gets to free you from custody; if you're killed, then no-one gets to resurrect you and so on. Your exit action only dictates what happens to your role however, not anyone else's: if they are still on stage, then they can still act, so even if you use your exit to dictate that they also get arrested alongside you, they are still free to argue for their own release from custody or just escape the police and go on the run, etc.

Everyone who exits becomes part of the Audience; once at least half the roles have exited the stage, the play is nearly over. It ends either when the next role exits the stage or when the whole Audience  applauds simultaneously; as an Audience member, you can applaud at any time and try to encourage others in the Audience to applaud with you, but the play isn't over unless everyone in the Audience applauds at the same time.

When an act ends, whether with applause from the Audience or because more than half the roles have exited the stage, set-up the next act as described above. When you complete the last act of the season, the game is over and you can all give your reviews of the plays and/or the actors who appeared in them, or any other roles which you thought were especially noteworthy.

Make It So

This is a micro-hack for A Penny for My Thoughts: you will need a copy of that game in order to play this. You'll also need a familiarity with the tropes of Star Trek and similar space operas.

The distant future. A galaxy lying open, inviting exploration. You are are part of the bridge crew of an interstellar craft, seeking out new worlds and new life-forms, to expand your civilization's knowledge of their place in the universe. In this game, you all take on the roles of the executive officers on-board your star ship, but you also take turns playing the Captain, directing the ship onward and choosing from the best options presented by the crew. In order to play, you'll need to change many of the assumptions & set-up procedures of A Penny for My Thoughts, but the heart of the mechanics stays the same.

Why Don't You Use Magic?

This is a pretty straight forward story game, with elements of party card games such as Apples to Apples, You've Got Problems and the one that shall remain nameless. There's a little bit of set-up before you can begin to play, but there's some help with that in the guidelines below.

All I Do is Magic

This is going to be one of those games where you can play pretty much any kind of character you want, but not absolutely any kind, because you need a little bit of consensus around the table. You all have to agree to play in a particular setting and then to create characters who are not considered extraordinary in that setting; so, if you go modern day, then play taxi-drivers, retail clerks, police officers and so on, but don't be the President, the Queen, a movie star, etc. On the other hand, if you all agree to play that type of game, maybe something set at an exclusive resort or international event, then those characters would be perfectly acceptable. The same goes for other assumptions, such as playing in a fantasy world with elves & dragons, a comic-book world with aliens & robots, and so on.

On The Way Up

Inspired by this article by Elina Gouliou, and drawing on my own recent positive experiences which I would like to thank all my friends & family for, this game is a short exercise for 3 to 6 players in playing to support each other and lift your characters.

Once upon a time, you all swore a pact together: now the time has come to make good on it. It is your duty, as a group, to make your way through the rough country to the very crest of the old hill and light the beacon as you promised you would. The way is not easy and the reward is little, but something inside you drives you onward.

Start by naming your character and describing them in loose terms: something as simple as "John, a chartered accountant" will do, but you could provide something like,"Lady Miranda du Pré, divorced neurosurgeon with a gambling addiction," if you want to. Everyone takes a a sheet of paper and folds it in half to make a tent, then writes their character name big & bold so that, when the tent stands on the table, your character name can easily be seen by everyone else.

Say Something Nice

Another short game created in the space of one morning, inspired by a friend's recent experience with booking a restaurant and by the trend for some businesses to complain about their negative reviews.

In the near future, a conglomeration of businesses have made it virtually illegal to post a negative review about any commercial service: in this game, for 2 or 3 players, you’ll have to create a glowingly positive review for a business that has provided shockingly bad service.

We Only Want What's Best For You

I ventured out into role-playing again last night for the first time in months; among other things, we found time for a game of The Vicar is Coming for Tea, which made me think about Game Poems once again, so here's a new one I've had a go at this morning.

This short game takes place in a Multi-Agency Meeting, where those present will decide what’s best for a troubled young person with a challenging life. Imagine the kind of issues that might lead to a meeting like this, but don’t specify them: given the subject matter that is likely to come up, be prepared to tackle sensitive issues.

Sole

An Exploration Game for One Player

You have left the world behind on an almost-fully automated, one-person spacecraft, with the mission to scout the galaxy and see what's out there. Your craft will navigate you to places of interest and record everything it can via its sensors: your job is to provide the human touch by means of a commentary on how each discovery makes you feel.

Situation: Comedy!

If comedy is tragedy plus time, then you should probably read this later, but if you will insist on reading it right now, then here are some rules for a light and simple comedy story game for around four players.

Situation

First things first: what is your story going to be about? You can pretty much pick any premise you like, as long as everyone who is going to play feels confident they know enough about the subject matter to participate in telling a story about it. You could skip over that confident amount of knowledge requirement if you prefer, but recognise that what you are playing is a pastiche or absurdist take on the premise, not a realistic portrayal. For example, a story taking place on an oil rig might be cool, but what do I know about oil rigs except what I've seen in films and TV series? Nothing really, so any story I set on an oil rig is going to be divorced from reality, which is fine so long as I don't fool myself into thinking I've understood oil rigs by telling that story.

The Leviathan Manifesto (Redux)

The title above might sound like one of those thick-as-a-brick Len Deighton novels, but in reality this post puts together a number of ideas that have been fermenting in my head for a while. Ingredients in this heady stew are the TV programme Person of Interest, current events relating to security and personal liberty, and many years of online discussions about the best way to conduct investigative RPG sessions. There's also some reference to classic social theory, whose origin I hope should be obvious from the title. What follows is a both a nano story game and a statement of my personal philosophy about certain types of game, where the players have to investigate a mystery and put together the clues they find to come up with a solution.

Since posting this game, I've been fortunate enough to get feedback from Story-Games forum user Rafu, who playtested it across several sessions: their suggestions for some changes to the game to highlight the player-characters are now included below.

Conspiripedia

First of all, a big thank you to all of you who backed The Imposters on Kickstarter, an anthology of conspiracy themed games that I contributed to. It set off a chain of thought about conspiracy theories, which leads me here: a short game you can play online, via text, or in person. You will need access to Wikipedia, a pocket encyclopedia or a fact finder.

The Elephant in the Room

This is a short game originating from a throwaway comment about killer whales and Agatha Christie mysteries... yes, the mind is a mysterious thing indeed.

The Room

You'll need 4 or more players for this game: the more of you there are, the longer the game will take though, so 6 is probably the optimum number, but as many as 8 could work. If there are more of you, split into two groups to keep things manageable.

As with many other short games on this blog, the first thing you need is a situation, but pick something unusual rather than mundane, such as:

• A board meeting for a company in dire straits.
• A parlour where the detective has gathered all the suspects in a murder.
• A team changing room at half-time.
• A family therapy session.
• A dorm in a prisoner-of-war camp.
• A political leader's office at a time of crisis.

It's best to pitch one of these examples when you suggest playing this game, along with suggested characters that the players might want to portray, e.g. in the last example, you would want a President or Prime Minister, Head of the Armed Forces, Chief Treasurer, a spin doctor, leader's spouse, etc. Get everyone to choose roles and make themselves comfortable.

Mouthpiece

This is a short freeform ideally suited for 3 or 4 players in a comfortable location: some prep is required, but this can also serve as an excuse to bust out the art & craft skills of your group. If you use this as a lunchtime or teatime game, you can add culinary skills to the mix too.

Meet & Greet

Before you can play, you need to agree upon a situation the game will explore: something simple and domestic works best, but you can add genre elements to this in order to spice things up.

• Meeting the significant other's parents... and you're all vampires.
• A neighbourhood watch meeting... in a post-apocalyptic world.
• Tea after the weekly church service... for the Cult of Dagon.
• A baby shower... for the mother of The Foretold One.
• A monthly book group meeting... for superheroes and their sidekicks.

Saving Throw Down

Explicit Content Warning! This post is NSFW and contains explicit sexual references and profanities; it is not suitable for anyone under the legal age of consent and probably not anyone over the legal age either. Do not attempt to play this game with strangers or friends, or at all, really.

...

I think it might work with someone you were fucking, though.

Whores on the Orient Express

This game does for published scenarios what the porn industry does for Hollywood: it turns them into porn. That's the whole premise of the game, which is intended to satirize... something or other, I don't know; look, they can't all be deep, socially relevant metaphors because sometimes all you want is a good shag.

Diagnostic Ward

This is a short game that could make a great ice-breaker or filler for 4-6 players; it's partly inspired by the mechanics of Bring It but rather than being a high-octane action-adventures, this is a game of pseudo-medical mysteries taking place in a very unusual hospital.

The Ward

This is a storygame taking place in a realm of myth, fantasy and legend, where all our fairy tales are true: in this realm, there is a place that treats those who are sorely afflicted by magic and cannot turn to any mundane healer or physician for the help they need. In this story, you the players will take on the role of the patients and doctors confronted with hexes, curses and bad mojo, seeking a cure within the magically-protected environs of The Ward.