Mechaphor
noun. A game mechanic acting as a metaphor for a concept in your game's setting, philosophy or general theme.

Example:

In Space: 1889, the system uses cards instead of dice because cards are a sign of more civilized culture than the thuggish brutes who roll dice in alleys. This is a mechaphor for the aloof Victorian attitude.

In Agon, you roll attack dice in your right hand and defense dice in your left hand, just as you would a sword and shield. This is a visceral mechaphor for brutal ancient combat.

In Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, a bag with black and white stones allows each player's decisions in the short-term to have long-term consequences for the whole group. This is a mechaphor for karma.

And sometimes you just gotta do this kinda stuff by hand first. I was struggling with how to handle a square layout. Turns out I just went to the computer too quickly. I did some research into other square layouts (Megan's cookbooks and knitting books were a godsend) and sketched several page templates in my notebook. Being able to flip a page of an actual book with a mocked up grid is very, very helpful.



Protip: Typographic grids with 12 columns are your friend. They can be split up into traditional 2-column layouts and 3-column layouts, but where they really shine is when you can add images or other objects of differing widths into an otherwise basic layout. The 12-column grid is a neat and tidy baseline from which to diverge.

Inspired by the Genre-Fiction Generator, I made a pilgrim origin generator.

Wanna help me come up with new bits for it? I need more ideas for the origins of young heroes in coming-of-age adventure stories.

Can the collaborative storytelling from Happy Birthday, Robot! be used in traditional gameplay like dungeon crawls, character creation or task resolution? Here are some loose thoughts:

• Character Creation: Each species and class gives you free words you may use in your sentences. Elves might give you the words "graceful" "leap" "arrow" and "tall." Wizards' words might refer to their magic, so "magic missile" "flaming sphere" and "study." Each combo only gives you about seven free words though, so you don't get analysis paralysis.
• Dungeon Crawls: Each dungeon is a list of sentences like "A dragon lurks in the center of the labyrinth, holding the village's children hostage." and "Lava flows throughout the caverns, sometimes breaking through the walls unexpectedly." and "Goblins patrol the halls regularly. Your task is to change as many words in a sentence as you can on your turn, based on some kind of die roll, I guess. When the sentence is completely changed, you can move on to the next one.
• Leveling Up: When you use each of your seven words, you level up after the current dungeon is complete. When you get a new level, you can replace any of your words with new ones offered by the new level. So if you're an elf wizard who just leveled up to Level 2, you can replace any of your words with "hypnotic disc" or "lightning bolt" or something like that. (Can you tell I haven't played D&D a lot lately?)

Here's another idea, if you want to get really hippie with it. What if you want to keep the same feeling from Happy Birthday, Robot! where no one claims ownership of any one character, but you still want to tell a story with an ensemble cast? Here's one idea, if you were going to make pilgrim characters in Do. (This is totally stolen from the planet creation in Emily Care Boss' Sign-In Stranger.)

Get a sheet of paper for each player.
Now add one more sheet so that there are more sheets than players.
Write down an adjective.
Fold the sheet over so you can't see the word you just wrote.
Pass the sheet to the left.
Without unfolding the sheet, write down a noun.
Pass the sheet to the left.
Unfold the sheet.
Taking inspiration from the two words on the sheet in front of you, write down an emotion.
Pass the sheet to the left.
Taking inspiration from all the words listed on the sheet so far, write down a verb.
Pass the sheet to the left.
Taking inspiration from all the words listed on the sheet so far, write down another verb.

So the first two words are the pilgrim's name: Billowy Horse, for example. The other three words are free words that you can incorporate into a sentence wherein this character is the star, like "Loyalty" "Stampede" and "Leap."

I was tinkering with this a few weeks ago and I think I forgot to post it. It's a Random Pilgrim Group Generator. It creates a random group of 3, 4 or 5 pilgrims. It randomly generates pilgrim names, worldly name meanings, origins, departures and bonds. What it can't do is flesh out the creative details so it asks questions instead. It's a work in progress. :P

The First Inkwells

(1) Pilgrim Manya, the Shiny Cloud

Her worldly name means "Ribbon-like cloud formations."

Origin: Outsider - What formative events shape her early childhood? How do people make you feel like an outsider? When do you feel most out of your element?

Departure: Exile - How did you leave home? How is your banishment enforced? Who opposes your banishment?

Bond of Rivalry to (2).

Bond of Trust to (3)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(2) Pilgrim Pranit, the Sly Portal

His worldly name means "An albino hawk's grandmother."

Origin: Dreamer - Where was your character born? What do you take for granted that astonishes other people? What's holding you back from your dreams?

Departure: Hero - How did you find your way to the Temple? How does becoming a pilgrim factor into her quest? What will happen if you're captured by the law?

Bond of the Protector to (1).

Bond of the Mentor to (3)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(3) Pilgrim Alkira, the Elder Whisper

His worldly name means "Cities hidden in the clouds."

Origin: Dreamer - Did she have brothers or siblings? What do you take for granted that astonishes other people? What's your dream?

Departure: Castaway - Does anyone realize you're not home anymore? Who may still be searching for you? What did you bring to the Temple?

Bond of Suspicion to (1).

Bond of the Crush to (2)

Just a little idea I had over lunch.

In February, I wrote about Examples of Examples of Play and hinted at what examples of play would look like in Do.

A pinch of scrapbook. A tablespoon of CRPG dialog. A dash of yearbook. A cup of chat log.

Here's an early blueprint for what I'm thinking about.

Click here to see a bunch of notes on this image.

Here are some doodles Megan and I were working on over coffee yesterday.

Click this one too if you want to see the notes.

And I've gone so far as to pick out photos for the example players. These are all CC-Att2.0 Licensed on Flickr. I wanted a variety of expressions that fit different play styles and an example age range for the players.

Allie is an aspiring science fiction writer. (I had Katara in mind.)

Bebe is a free-spirited young artist. (Aang here.)

Cass is a tough cookie with a soft spot for anime. (Totally Toph.)

Dev is a strategist who loves board games. (Sokka much?)

Just came across this NYT article, "Peru Guards its Guano as Demand Soars Again," and immediately thought of the possibilities for Do. There are already some bizarre worlds described in the setting – asteroids connected via rope bridges being the most immediate example – and there was already a brief mention of a "bird storm" in a Gunnwalh's back story.

Seems fairly reasonable that there'd be a guano planet somewhere out there. Now, what problems could possibly happen to that sort of world? What letter would be written to the temple from a resident of the guano planet?

Surely someone has some ideas for this one. :P

In Do, you're constantly making a decision to use the black or white stones in your draw. The larger the set you use, the less trouble you get into, but there are other long-term endgame variables that would compel you to choose the more troublesome option in the short-term.

I've intentionally avoided "light side/dark side" references. I wanted the players to define what concepts the black and white stones represented, thus was born the "crisis" element of the game.

It did just occur to me how well this models the Jedi light/dark internal struggle though. Jedi are kinda "meh" to me though. Telekinesis is cool and all, but I've never really felt the connection. Probably because I didn't grow up with Star Wars like the rest of my nerdly friends.

There is a similar temptation to the dark side in another group of heroes, though... Luchadors, masked mexican wrestlers.


Lucha-Do
-------------------------
Here are some loose ideas about how to drift the Do system into luchadoric awesome.

What it's about: The struggle to maintain a family reputation and legacy even when – especially when – it's not the pragmatic thing to do.

What Characters Do: A family of técnico luchadors fighting monsters, the Devil's Robot*, and protecting the people. Or, conversely, a gang of rudo luchadors ransacking towns and striking fear in the people. Each member of the family is individually trying to uphold their family's técnico/rudo legacy.

What Players Do: Each turn, the spotlight player draws three stones from a bag and keeps only the black or white stones, just like in Do. Choosing to keep the black stones means you're becoming more of a bad guy. Keeping the white stones means you're a good guy. Whichever color is dominant in your bowl determines whether the People consider you técnico or rudo. The dominant color of the entire family's collected bowls determines if the family has a rudo or técnico reputation among the People.

Other random thoughts: This might resurrect the ooooold karmic superhero idea I was tinkering with years ago.

The character sheet should just be a coloring book page with the outline of a basic luchador mask. You draw your luchador mask with crayons. The color, location and style of your mask motif determines the types of powers you have. (Red-ringed eyes mean you have optic blasts!)

Yup. This is what happens when I don't get enough sleep.

*

Over here Ryan Macklin and I are talkin' about our experiences with the idea of "success, but" as it relates to story, his new game Mythender, and Do. What happens when success is not in question, just the complications that can arise from that success? Discussion has just started, but it should be interesting.