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2006-08-22
: Finding our games by Meguey
1001 Nights is for sale through my game company, Night Sky Games.
Breaking the Ice and Shooting the Moon are for sale through Emily's game company, Black and Green Games.
2006-02-05
: Initials and Handshake by Emily
Hi there,
Welcome to Fair Game! What's your name and what initials do you use for marginalia comments? Anything else you might like to share?
2006-05-13
: Movie list by Meguey
Here's where I want to jot down movies I want to see. Comments and *short* reviews, no spoliers please, are welcome. Feel free to reccomend movies, too, with your review.
2011-03-20
: Getting with the Times
posted by Emily
Just FYI, we should be migrating to a new format soon. Spammers have been too diligent in hitting us lately. We'll have more secure commenting, and pick a new look but will keep all the past posts.
We'll miss our lumpley original site here though! Ah, marginalia, we remember you with fondness...
2011-02-26
: Psi-Run should have a count-down by now
posted by Meguey
On one hand, the writing is going well. On the other, it sure is work. And I really want to get it done! So yeah, this is a time when quiet=good.
2011-02-11
: Pete reviews 1001 Nights
posted by Meguey
Which, yay! I love it when people totally 'get' my game :)
Check it out
2011-02-04
: Psi-Run play-testing is CLOSED!!
posted by Meguey
If you have playtested Psi-Run, get me your feedback NOW!
Thank you to all those who have sent theirs in, it's been great.
2011-01-17
: 1001 Nights: new art!
posted by Meguey
I've seen it, it's fantastic, and as soon as I get a chance to link a picture here, I will.
2011-01-09
: Caravan Solitaire - a draft
posted by Emily
Working way too late last night, I've written a first draft of the game. It's mainly working backwards to describe what I did in a sample site. Hard to describe some of these procedures, and communicate what the intended actions are. I'd love to be able to have the principles be the main thing, as in Lexicon, and let people interpret and implement them as they see fit.
This has been a wonderful process!
Caravan: an rpg for one or many
Wandering from place to place, oasis to oasis, you are a traveler who visits many ports of call. Mysteries and delights await you. Your actions change what you have seen. Great changes occur: people die, fall in love, idols are stolen, taboos are crossed. And gentle too: stories are told, flowers bloom, and the stars shine on the desert.
These things are recorded in an entry in a wiki. Then the traveller moves on. The next time you play it takes place at a different city or village, perhaps in a distant land.
More is discovered about each waypoint with each time it is encountered. And since the information is recorded, others can interact with the place. They will change it from how it was from when you were there last, so returning will find new mysteries, new challenges, new beauties to be revealed.
The travellers change over time. The things left by others become part of your outfit. Held for a time, then passed along, changed and weathered or newly adorned to be discovered to grace the days of someone else.
Caravan is a solitary role playing game, where you create and play out adventures in a fictional world. In the tradition of Neel Krishniswami's Lexicon game, is a computer assisted game taking place on a wiki. The entries constitute the world. They are updated and changed as travelers have adventures there. The adventures are recorded for others who are playing, as well as those who are not, to read and observe what the characters have done and experienced.
The game may be played by more than one person, who interact with the wiki and create adventures for their characters in parallel. The players never interact directly with one another, but encounter the changes the others have made in the world and have new adventures spun off of them.
How to Play
There are three basic entries: Realms, Waypoints, and Pathways. Realms neighbor other Realms, and are dotted with Waypoints. Pathways lead from one Waypoints to another. Create a standard template for each entry type and connect them by links.
Each Realm has Powers, Rulers, types of Places, Peoples and other Realms listed in it.
In each Waypoint, there are People to meet, Places to Visit and Questions to Answer. There are also Objects, Beings and People that may join you on your way. Or you may leave one at a site for other travelers.
The Waypoint template includes an invitation to change something on the page after Adventuring there:
Before you leave do at least one of the following:
Create a new Place or Destination you have seen
Change one of the Questions you have answered
Add a new Person you have met
Change what People here need, do or want, as their lives have been changed by you.
Entries for Pathways are freeform, but answer the following questions:
What does this path look like?
What will travelers find there?
What may block their way?
They form a link between two Waypoints.
To create a traveller, answer these three Questions:
Who are you?
What do you carry with you?
What did you leave behind?
Travelers Adventure at Waypoints and Pathways by interacting with what is described there. In Waypoints, at least one of the Questions is answered, taking into account the People and Places. The entry is updated, and a short entry may be made recording those events. Update your original traveler description as you change over time.
Pathways offer choices, and spin off adventures. If the answers to one of the basic Pathway questions changes based on events, that may be added to the page.
New Waypoints and Pathways are created by making a page based on a Destination entry from a Waypoint or Pathway. Fill out templates and use existing pages as examples.
Create pages that explain the templates and other rules of interaction with the game.
Play continues as desired. Players can create and change entries, affecting what others interact with. Lone players also will criss-cross across their own trails. Their traveler having changed will have different interactions with People in the Waypoints than when first they passed that way. New Realms can be explored. Multiple Wikis my overlap. If different groups set up individual wikis, they could each be Realms that border on each other. Players could cross over via linkages made.
2011-01-03
: Caravan Solitaire
posted by Emily
I'm tapping in for the RPG Solitaire Challenge. I can't enter my own challenge (obviously), and I'm disqualified from the overall Favorite, and maybe should also for the Category ones too since I'm hosting the game--but I love the Scheherazade Challenge so much that it inspired me to work on a game anyway.
So my entry is Caravan. The challenges it will speak to are the Scheherazade or Campaigner's Challenge, and the Unlonely Your Fun challenge. It will also incorporate the Living in the Future challenge, since I think it will be wiki based.
The game is based around travelling from place to place, oasis to oasis. The player will visit a port of call and find mysteries and delights awaiting them. Their actions at the stop will change the balance of things. People die, fall in love, idols are stolen, taboos are crossed. These things will be recorded in an entry for that place in a wiki. Then the traveller moves on, and the next time you play it takes place at a different city or village or land.
More is discovered about each waypoint with each time it is encountered. And since the information is recorded, others can interact with the place. They will change it from how it was from when you were there last, so returning will find new mysteries, new challenges, new beauties to be revealed.
The travellers will change over time. Hopefully, the things left by others can become part of your outfit. Held for a time, then passed along, changed and weathered or newly adorned to be discovered to grace the days of someone else.
The challenges I see right now are: how do I make a simple set of information to be recorded at each place, that can easily be interacted with? What structure will be used. Narrative form only? With quantifiers? And how do things change or are introduced. Perhaps I can take a leaf from Neel K.'s lexicon game, and require that so many new things be created, so many existing be explained, and so many elsewhere be referred to? Yes to all those, I think.
And what if someone is playing alone? Are there ways change can be introduced so that the waypoints are always different, even without the interaction of others? And what will the setting be? Arabian, medieval, wide ranging fantasy, or determined by the player and players? How do you create a coherent world? Should there be a common theme chosen for a given Caravan route? Or do all roads lead to all places?
The games I'm feeling influence my thinking are Adventures in the Land of 1000 Kings, by Ben Lehman, the Lexicon Game by Neel Krishnaswami, 1001 Nights by Meg Baker, Before the Flood by Vincent Baker and narratives like the Rihla (titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities).
2010-12-20
: Three Quick Games for Epimas
posted by Emily
In honor of the holiday cheer of Epimas, I'm offering a special deal on my Three Quick Games about the Human Heart.
If you've bought one of the Epimas bundles for a friend, you can get pdfs of all three of the romance themed games: Breaking the Ice, Shooting the Moon and Under my Skin for $3.33. A set of them will also be sent to your Epimas giftee on Dec 24.
Find the link for this special sale here in the comments. It will be removed after Epimas.
Here's hoping you have a cozy holiday indeed!
2010-12-13
: Twelve Games of Epimas
posted by Emily
Happy Holidays! It's Epimas season again. Twelve game designer elves have put their heads together and crafted a way for gamers to give each other holiday cheer.
Happy Epimas!!
Here are the games:
1,001 Nights
Annalise
Apocalypse World
Bliss Stage
Blowback
Dogs in the Vineyard
Dread House
Mist-Robed Gate
My Life with Master
Shock: (with Human Contact Preview)
Steal Away Jordan
Time & Temp
Get a stocking stuffer of three games, or put a bow on six, or get the whole shebang. A copy of all the pdfs go to you, and then on Epimas (December 24th) a copy of the games will go to a friend of your choice.
Wishing you fun & delight!
2010-12-06
: New 1001 art!
posted by Meguey
Just saw the new sketches for the re-issue of 1001 Nights - those are some stories I want to know!