unWritten Continuum

I love surrealist animations like this Link

Last night Greg and I played unWritten using the quickplay con rules. Damn, it was good. Brendon, I wish you were there. You would have loved it.

I realized that the quickplay rules really gave a cinematic feel to the game. While the standard rules give a longer, more drawn out, “literary” feel to the story. So, from now I’m going to call the two types of rules: The Cinematic rule set and the Literary rule set.

The difference in the rules is that in the cinematic rules you only answer one question per chapter, which works out to 6 questions. Whereas, in the literary rules you are answering 9 questions. This doesn’t mean you can’t have cinematic, high action scenes in a game using literary rules. By changing the amount of questions that are being asked changes the pacing of the story that is being told. 

So I was listening to my girlfriend talk last night. And it hit me. I want to play a game that is like “The Matrix” meets “THX.” Yeah, that terrible Lucas movie from the early 70’s that I never saw. 

Here’s the premise.

A group of people, that know they’re in a virtual world with their “meat bodies” plugged in some where try to see what if it would be possible to leave the matrix and live out their existence in their meat bodies. They don’t know that “before” people lived in their meat bodies all of the time. So, as they try to figure this out the system sends programs to try and stop them. However, these programs function like the robot cops from THX. They’re totally inept. In the end, some of them have to come to terms with the fact they aren’t people but programs, while others are able to escape. The ones that escape, well, they die. After who know how long of just sitting in a vat of their own excrement, they can’t live unattached from the system…

Well, maybe that doesn’t sound to good.

I’ve been getting a few requests for playtesting unWritten. I’m excited about that. Soon I’ll have something ready for everybody.

So, some fellas at Story-Games, inadvertently, challenged me to see if unWritten could produce a story akin to Modernist Literature. I’m going to playtest it this weekend. That will be my goal. Let’s see how unWritten handles that. I don’t think it can do free verse or poetry, but i do think it can do strange, mundane, and pessimistic. 

Well, I’ve recently playtesed it and it went great. The design process is done. Now I need to playtest the hell out of the thing. There are some little details that need to be ironed out, but that should just take a couple more in house playtests. 

My biggest concern now is making sure the text is clear and that people can play it when I’m not there to teach it to them. I’ve got several people I can tap on the shoulder for help. However, they’ve played it. I fear that they might make assumptions based on prior knowledge that might not get caught before publishing. 

Anyway, that’s were I’m at today. Oh yeah, I took the playtest off line until I can edit it’s current version. That should take a couple of days or so… Please be patient. 

unWritten, with its major mods. This is, almost, completely a new game. but I feel like it’s really captured what i’ve been after from the very beginning. a game that could produce an authentically good story on its own right, that empowers all its players, and that allows everyone to have the experience they’re looking for, despite the play styles of others. (that last one isn’t absolute, but I think I’m pretty close.)

Vasco, I think it address the issues you’ve been having with it from the beginning.

Greg and Brendon, I think you guys will be very pleasantly surprised by the changes.

Josh, well, yeah… you haven’t seen it lately, so, I think… You’re going to love it… I think… How’s work?
As always, if you see any typo’s let me know.

oh, last thing, I’ve formatted the book for 8.5 X 7 size sheets. That way it’ll fit on 8.5 X 14, bent in half and saddle stitched. but I sent it to you in a 8.5 X 11, so you don’t waste paper if you can’t print it the way I want… cause I can’t.

So I just rewrote the latest edition of unWritten. I’ve done some major changes to it since my playtests at OrcCon. I’m really pleased with the changes, but, damn, it’s been tough. It’s ready for some more playtests. I hope to get those underway this weekend. Over the past several months I’ve almost completed it… probably, something like 5 times. Hopefully, this near completion is the final near completion I’m going to have to deal with. I think I’ll be able to get it done, art’ed up, and published for an origins release… followed by a GenCon booth. That’s my goal anyway. Well, it’s 3:30 in the morning. I better get some shut eye. 

Jeeze, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. So here I go again.the updated playtest rules for uW are now up. 

So, I’m kinda done with uW until I playtest it again… But I feel compelled to mess with something, so I’ve been thinking about rewriting TSoY, much the same way I’ve reworked Otherkind. Though, TSoY is much more complete then OK was… Perhaps I’ll make a TSoY: Vairing Tree edition.

I think that my skill list is much more interesting then the TSoY skill list.

Connections, Lore, Mental, Physical, Resources, Sensory, Social, Will
vs
Innate, Artistic, Craftsman, Warrior, Illicit, Outdoor, Priestly, Social, Cultural

The rub is that TSoY actually has 31 specific skills, with the above actually being categories. My interpretation of TSoY would have my skills also be categories, but the actual skills will be made up by the individual players…

The other thing is, could it be made GMless? unWritten is GMless, but I don’t think TSoY needs to be, I’m just thinking about it.