theACTAPART
indie analog games by tayler stokes
as well as thoughts and musings on play
Games
WHAT ARE THESE?
A story game, as I use the term, is a narrative producing game in which the players speak for various story elements, such as characters, themes, concepts or environments, and employ meta-fiction techniques in order to produce a specific kind of experience. You usually play these while sitting around a table with the other players, and often require you to make some notes as you play. These are in dialog with role-playing games.
A freeform game, as I use the term, is an improvisational theater game that produces a guided and highly potent play experience. While similar to story games in terms of techniques used, usually takes place in a much larger environment where the players move about and potentially make use of props, but rarely involve much note taking. These are in dialog with LARP.
These are analog games in a variety of formats (discussed below). You play them with other people in an agreed upon time at an agreed upon place. The game texts outline the procedure of play. In most cases you won't need much else besides a few office supplies, but each game is very clear about what you will need to play.
Many of these games have the potential to be rather intense, or to address challenging subject matter. Be sure that you and your fellow players know what you are getting into before play begins.
If you'd like to obtain a copy of any of these, all you have to do is ask! Just send me an email and write me a game and I'll be glad to hook you up.
Below what the various game type terminology means to me. These are by no means universal definitions, and many games mix features from various styles.
A pervasive game, as I use the term, a game where play "goes through" the lives of non-players. These non-players are knowingly or unknowingly a part of the play environment and may even interact with parts of the game without actually playing. By this definition alternate and mixed reality games are both kinds of pervasive games.
This perilous night is the future of this world. Only a Brujo has the means to escape death itself. You will need to find the Brujo. Only they can help you find your freedom and escape into the unknowable. Any one of you may be the Brujo.
A true Brujo is hard to find. Often, the Brujo himself doesn’t even know. But right now you need to find a Brujo or you need to be a Brujo. You must walk the edge of the abyss, and as you do you have to believe that your actions will be true.
Only your light keeps the terrible secret beings away. If you do not find and befriend the Brujo then there is no hope of escape. Vile as the Brujo may be at times, only they harness the energy needed to cheat death itself.
BRUJO was written for the GameChef 2012 "Last Chance" competition, and draws inspiration from the writings of Carlos Castaneda. BRUJO employes memory and empathy based mechanics, and is bleed-heavy.
con.cen is a science fiction story game about exploring a universe smaller than our own, and what we find there. By contrast, it's also about what we find here, too, once we look. It's about how we look at the world, and the world changes. It's about how we look at the world, and the world changes us. It is about the fluid currency of meaning and non-meaning.
It's been said that con.cen took "No, but..." and built an entire game around it.
She has drawn her last breath, and her lungs have filled with cold, bitter water. The surface is a distant shimmer to which air escapes. She is drowning.
In this final moment, as her brain perishes from lack, she has a strange dream. Maybe it is no more than erratic brain activity, but perhaps there are greater secrets within these images.
The Dark and the Deep is a story game set in the final brain activity of a drowning woman. Each player portrays different versions of the self in this dreamscape. Once death releases all of you from the burden of awareness, maybe some details of this person’s life can be gleaned.
The Dark and the Deep makes use of tarot cards for inspiration and the drinking of water to further symbolize play.
Touch is a game about people changing and growing, be it together or apart, as they come into contact with each other. Each player is responsible for one fictional character who will run parallel to the player’s own life and who require a small amount of notes to be recorded as play progresses. A game of Touch may involve a network of players of any number.
I've been calling Touch a mixed-reality pervasive story game because though the scene framing and the role playing are familiar, the format of play is very different from other story games, and it builds upon the player's real life details.
WITHOUT is a game about the worlds of Liv, the protagonist of this game. Liv is faced with a difficult life filled with the challenges of poverty issues. But Liv knows just how good things could be. In Liv’s imagination dwells a world that will never be, where there are no problems, no inequality, no suffering, and every want is satisfied. Is the dissonance between actual world and imaginary world to great? What will Liv do about that?
WITHOUT is a freeform theater game in the in style of jeepform about the worlds we make. It is intensely personal to me. It is both demanding and bleed-heavy.
BRUJO
con.cen
the Dark and the Deep
Touch
WITHOUT
