A Story-Telling Game: Until we Sink

I have played my first "story-telling game," Until We Sink.

Which begs the first question, what is a story-stelling game?

Is it a role-playing game, is it a matrix game, or is it improv acting?

Well my first response is to note that "Until We Sink" is unlike any game I have ever played before.

I suspect that is it more like a murder mystery game, except that the scenario is open ended. A story-telling game does not provide a murder and a murderer, or secrets for each player. It just starts off a scenario and asks the players to explain the occurrences in a story that they collaborate in telling.

There is a structure to these game, there were some mechanisms, but there is no method to determine the outcome of our play except through talking.

To put it crudely there was no dice rolling or coin tossing or paper, stones, scissors means to resolve conflict or outcomes.

We just talked and created a story that all could agree was consistent and then we could move on.

Game Structure

The structure of the game:

• each player has a character to role-play
• there is a story background and an environment - this is provided as a text to be read out
• the game is divided into turns, each turn being a day
• each day, a new event occurs - a card is randomly drawn from a stack of event cards
• the players can only interact at the end of each day on a verandah where we discuss the days events
• the day (turn) ends when at least two players leave the verandah
• the last day of the game starts when a particular event occurs
• the game can only end when we find an agreed explanation or story for each of the events of the previous days 

Characters

Each player takes on a character from a set of character cards provided by the game.

Each character has a basic description about the person, and we are encouraged to colour and flesh this out with, a name, age, nationality, and character traits.

An example of a character card.

Eternal Backpacker (guest) You have circled the globe, and ended up on this island You are a free thinker, independent and a little shabby You like to point out how square the other characters are

Events

And that is about it. Apart from the event cards that are played each day.

The players then have to explain the new event, in the context of the whole story.

Example of an Event Card

A theft of underwear. One of the character's underwear disappears. All the players roll dice. The one with the lower roll is one change of underwear short. If more than one player rolls low, those players should reroll.

Game Play

I will not give a blow by blow account of the game. Suffice it to say, we all had a lot of fun, laughs, funny accents and bizarre incidents, and consumed a couple of bottles of red wine.

My favourite story was how we resolved the above event card - theft of underwear. The manageress of the hotel owned up to stealing the one pair of underpants (boxers) that the South African eternal backpacker owned as she needed a flag for her healing ceremony. His boxers - only kept for best - had the South African flag printed on them.

Game Critique

My intention in running the game was to explore a game format unfamiliar to me, that was very light on rules and mechanisms, and was thus accessible to inexperienced players. I wondered if this game format could be usefully applied to a learning game for use in school rooms or other training situations.

All agreed it was fun. All agreed it was entertaining. I think the inexperienced players were a little worried about the requirements of an unscripted, loosely structured role play but they all grew into it and found it easier as the game progressed.

As for its potential as a learning game, I don't think it we could easily see an application. One person thought that children would find it difficult to "join" in and worry about "loosing their cool." I thought having one or two experienced role-players would help overcome this.

Another person thought that the learning aims of any game would have to be more tightly scripted. That each character would be given a secret or a skill that would link to an event card and that the event cards should be ordered to create a desired story.

One thought I had was that there was very little the players could do to influence events. We could not decide to act and then see the results of our actions. I had proposed a learning game scenario about a cyber warfare or cyber security. In this scenario the players would need to know if their actions, had stopped or prevented some incident. This sort of scenario would require a game director, or dungeon master or a facilitator. And then we are back to a matrix game, or a facilitated role-playing game.

We all agreed that it would be a great activity for a drama group, a English literature class exploring narrative, or an English language class.

In conclusion: I think the lightness of the game structure has a lot to commend this sort of game; quick to pick up, easy to play. I would suggest that if your teaching aim was not about acting or narration, it would have to be more tightly scripted and a facilitator added, even if they just act as prompt to nudge the play back to the learning aim objective.

Thanks

Thanks to Nicki, Polly, Seth and Stuart for making this an excellent evening's entertainment and for contributing and staying a bit longer to add their criticisms of the game. And for travelling into central London from the suburbs.

Funeral Games II - Whoops! A Palace Coup!

In part 1 of my review of the megagame Funeral Games, my character, Perdiccas had been assasinated.

After a break, I was given a new role for the second half of the game. I was to be the youngest, and very wayward, son of Antipater, Alexarchus.

Alexarchus was a very different role, more appealing to the role player in me. Although in the end I did something that influenced the game. I was effective, by accident!

I had only two game objectives in my brief. 

1. My big brother, Cassander, was always and utterly right and I would follow and do whatever he said.
2. I wanted to found a New Thebes, in Greece, so my new religion of sun worship could thrive.

In the historical background to the brief I was told that I liked Diogenes the Cynic. In fact I was told he was my hero and if I wasn't Alexarchus, I would have wanted to be Diogenes. I liked new religions, building cities, chatting and hanging out with my mates. I thought Queen Olympias and her daughter Cleopatra made a lovely couple. I though most people in the world were squares and not cool. I wanted to found a new age elite colony of like minded sun worshipers. I must have spent a fortune on hair cuts and clothes.

So I was a Macedonian hippy, with some power and prestige and a very determined and aggressive big brother, Cassander.

It was a very different role from being the authoritarian and ineffective Perdiccas. I could just role play. My first game act was to refuse to go on the Macedonian hunt - I wasn't into killing animals. At any opportunity I could I mentioned the power of the sun, and praised him, sometimes in song. I then took to sidling upto players hanging around quiet tables and asking them if they wanted to be immortalised in stone. I would build them a city, and name it after them, all they had to do was give me 2,500 talents, I could get the Tyche cards and 2 units of Hoplites. To my surprise a tired looking Seleuchus said yes. He had money and liked the idea. I am not sure why, perhaps he thought he would ingratiate himself with my nasty big brother, Cassander.

Anyways. The conversation went a bit like this:

Hey Cassander big bro dude, how's it hanging. (I think I was getting all Bill and Ted on him, at this point.) 

Watcha our kid. Whaddyaupto? 

Dude bro, how's about building the New Thebes and getting all our cool mates to come along. We can smoke and drink and party like the sun ain't never coming back. I got this shaved head soldier bloke, mate of our old Dad, who says he's got enough bread to spread to make us the city, Daddyo.

Well that get's a bit tiresome, but you get the idea.

Anyway, it all worked a treat and we got the new Thebes-Seleuchus built somewhere in the back-olive groves of Greece. The only thing I had forgot was Cassander and his brief. He had been talking with my other brother and they had decided that they were going to capture Queen Olympias and Cleopatra. Well I knew they were the hot couple, always at the best parties, so I approved. Only thing was, he got me and my hoplites to go to the palace when everyone was busy on campaign or partying at the new city. We then killed the guards and our men ran amuck through the palace, capturing and killing the Queen, though Cleopatra escaped. I was mortified. It really was a downer. All that blood on my new party clothes and just when my new city was going to be the hoopiest place in Greece and the rest of the known world. We were going to have the party of the universe. And now we had a dead old Queen looking like a Dutch cheese. 

So I ran off to my new city and chilled out. 

And then I had an idea, I was going to build a protest statue. I was going to build a colossus, of Diogenes, with a miniature Alexander the Great, who would rotate and always be in Diogenes' shade. Yeah, they would be so overcome with shame and guilt, all those turnip headed squares. That would tell 'em. I tried to get, Arrhidaeus, the architect who built Alexander's funeral cortege, to build my colossus, but he got all timid and square on me and said the bad dudes with spears would spit him. I gave him a withering look and went back to my sunlight city.

That was a real bummer.

Then the game ended.

...

This was the complete antithesis to Perdiccas' role. I had a little bit of money, some prestige, and some dynastic points. And I just got in a role-played and a lot of fun. 

Perhaps a great illustration of why megagames are such addictive fun. You bring yourself to the game and make the game you want - within some limitations.