Kategoriarkiv: Om mig

Munzee – perhaps the explorations game I have been looking for

So I’ve recently discovered another out in the real world walking game. It’s called a modern scavenger hunt and apparently it’s like geocaching, which I’ve never tried. But I have tried Ingress and Pokemon Go and while I have enjoyed both games one thing has frustrated me with both: they don’t encourage exploration. They are in essence grinding games. The game designs have you move in tight little routes, in a very slow pace, often repeating your steps. There’s no reward for going off the beaten path or exploring new eares.

But this game, Munzee, has had me crawling and exploring until I ran out of battery and tomorrow I’m gonna go out for a long walk and see what I find. The game is very simple, but with a few mechanics it makes the players act in a way I find really rewarding and interesting.

Like Ingress and Pokemon Go the main display is a map showing a lot of locations you want to seek out around you. But unlike the two other games when you reach the location you have to look for a QR code placed in the real world. It’s only when you scan this, that you capture the location and get your points.

There is also virtual locations, and a whole host of variations on the just find the QR code, such as puzzles you have to solve before you can capture the location and so on. But the basic game is: go to the marker on the map, look for the QR code using the clues in the title of the marker. The game does a few things I find really interesting:

No repeated visits = more exploration
I’m not sure about this, but it seems that when you have captured a point that’s it you can’t return and capture it again. I don’t know if after some time, I might be able to take it again or after someone else have captured it, but I kinda hope not. Because what this means is that you are encouraged to move away from your normal route to find new points to capture. Unlike Ingress where the best gameplay is to create a five mints rute between the same points until you have gotten all the resources you can from them.

So as I play this game I will have to find new places to go to get more points I will have to move further and further away from my home, I will have to take new routes home. And I love that. It also means that if you are on your way home, and you can’t be bothered to take that one point just over there itøs fine, becuase you can do it tomorrow, where in pokemon go you get help but go over there or just wait that little longer so the cooldown on the pokestop is over so you get the chance for one more spin and more pokeballs.

Finding a well hidden QR code is very rewarding
The pictures is of my favorite find today. It’s a well hidden Diamond spot, that gave me more points and was just hard enough to find that I really felt like a proper explore looking for it, and when I at last spotted it it was, well a rewarding moment. And it feels even better, knowing that it has been placed there by a fellow player it’s a strange kind of contact between strangers.

Players build the games themselves and are rewarded for it
So how do the QR codes get to their spots? Well they are placed there by the players. And as a player you are rewarded for doing that. You get points for placing a QR code and you get points each time someone captures it. So even here in little Hobro the place is full of places for me to seek out a QR codes to find and scan. There’s so many I’ve had to filter out all of them except the most basic so I don’t get overwhelmed which is cool because that means I’ve got more to look for in furete walks in the same areas.

As a final note the way I discovered the game was very much in the spirit of it: during a normal walk I spotted a QR code on a bench and decided to scan it. It turned out to be one of the spots for the game, and that lead me to the website and from there it was just signing up getting the app and beginning. And I can’t wait to play it more and soon starting to place my own spots.

What do you think?
Do any of you play it?

Being in Minsk

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I haven’t written about any of the things I’ve been doing since JaLL. I haven’t had the time for the long rambling posts I used to. I have long drafts for last years Larpwriter Summer School, Black Box Copenhagen and Before We Wake, but haven’t had time to get them edited and everything after them I haven’t even had time to write a draft. And it looks like that won’t change for the foreseeable future.

So I’m going to try and develop a new and quicker way for me to write about my larp experiences. This is an attempt at that format. Tell me what you think.

So this weekend I went to Belarus to participate in Minsk Larp Festival. They had invited me several times and finally I could go. This first post is about my time in Minsk. The next will be about the games I played.

The format I’m trying out is to write this on my phone on my way home. And I’ll try and make it picture based by picking some pictures I took while there and write whatever thoughts they give me.

All in all it was a great trip where I again and again thought “wow this is not something you experience every day”. Right after we were picked up at the station came one of these experiences.

We went to a flat some of the other international participants had airbnb’ed. Through a hazarded and definitely not building regulated route they showed us up on the roof of the building that sat right in the centre of Minsk to the view above the central square of Minsk.

The next day our local hosts (all my fellow LWSS alumni) showed us parts of Minsk. Me and Yauhenia (Who I stayed at during the festival and who was a great host and guide) started out by visiting the national library that is housed in the space station you see above. It’s just one example of the size of Minsk. Everything is built big and with lots of space between.

We went to the top of that building and got a great view of Minsk including these soviet era buildings still with the original murals.

Inside the top floor was a small art gallery. This picture is from that. The artist painted these landscapes littered with these strange ghost ladies. Very moody.

We then meet up with Jamie and Mark, some of the other international participants and lwss alumni, and went to a museum for sculptures. As you can see most of them prominent communists.

They were all by by the same artist apparently known for his ability to show emotions and personality in is works. (can’t remember his name). This picture is of one of the first female officers in Belarus, I really like the strong expression.

The artist was very fond of sculpting Lenin.

As you can see…

We were told that during the soviet an artist could make a living just making Lenins because every city, no matter how small, always had to have at least one Lenin. This artist was known for making some of the best Lenin’s.

After that we went to the area where the festival would be. It was in the middle of the hippest part of town.

It was an old factory area were the old factories were being turned it to studios, cafes, workspaces, galleries and so on. A very strange mix of old rundown buildings and incredible hip and modern activities.

In one of the galleries was a showcase called “21” it was a group of 21 year olds who each had been given a disposable camera (with 21 pictures) and asked to show their life and identity through the pictures. It was really interesting and they had really but some thought into the pictures.

It kinda connects to “…And that’s it” a game I’m designing where I want the players to create the characters through mood boards.

We talked about that it could be interesting to give players of a long larp a disposable camera as preparation and take pictures to represent how they will play their character. Then you could put them on wall before game start and that way everybody could get a visual idea of the other characters. That could be cool.

In connection to the gallery was an independent publisher and its bookstore. They had not been outright banned but their permit to print kept getting delayed by small “mistakes”. So they had been fined for printing books without a permit. This created an outrage and people donated money to help pay the fine. All these stars are names of the people who helped.

In the evening I had the most special experience of the trip. We went to see The Belarusian Free Theatre. A well known theatre group where the writers and directors have had to flee because of their critical plays. Now they continue to work in London and the actors still perform the plays but in hidden locations.

The play was called Being Harold Pinter and was a mash up of parts of his plays and his Nobel speech. It was very intense and I both felt like an outsider and like I was being included in something special. I understood the play on an intellectual level. But looking at the local audience I could see this struck them much much deeper. One of them said afterwards: “it was like they kept poking us with the things we know about our country but don’t want to think about.” It was a very powerful experience.

There’s many many things I haven’t mentioned now that I’m trying out a shorter format. Many cool talks and you know all the social stuff. But you might later hear about it from the ideas and thoughts that they gave me.

Humm that became longer than expected. Next time is all about the larping. What do you think about the format?

Fastaval 2015 – Rest of Saturday and Sunday

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After “Things that happen to other people” I had to run to the author and judge sparring session. A new thing we tried this year where the writers of the scenario competition, (where people are challenged to write a scenario during Fastaval) could meet with us judges and get some feedback and advice from us. Very interesting, very cool.

After that I had a brief pause with Jeanette, before I had a Black Box Horsens meet up with some of the organizers, that I want to be part of our Black Box Horsens team. A very cool and potential talk. Black Box Horsens can become something really interesting and ambitious.

We agreed to meet again in May and make some tough choices and then went to see a very funny burlesk show. After that more talking, more listening, among many things a long talk with Lizzy about the game she was doing for the competition before I threw her out of the bar with orders to bloody finish that game (it’s a great game and I think it was important for her to finish it during Fastaval.)

Sunday
Up after getting 3,5 hours sleep, meeting with the other judges, reading the games, laughing, arguing. Then talking with the authors about the games, then talking some more, then finding a winner, then to the otto party.

The party was great, I ended up at the international table and later had a long talk with Kat Jones, she invited me to the US and I invited her to run a game at the prison for the next Black Box Horsens. (I just can’t remember which game it was)

More talking, so much talking, laughing, listening, smiling. Uh and also a bit of dancing. and then home at 9 in the morning.

And that was this years Fastaval, I didn’t have much to say about the otto party, it was great, I had fun, it was, as everything else, over too soon.

This was a great and very inspiring year, it was cool to be at Fastaval just as a participant. As long as I have Black Box Horsens and other projects, it will properly stay that way.

The great thing this year is, I won’t have to wait long before the next big thing, with Just a Little Loving, the summer school and other things coming up soon.

Thank you all for reading along.
And thank you all for an epic Fastaval 2015.

Beings – Creatingers / Skabninger – Væringer

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Have you ever noticed the little difference between the danish word “skabninger?” (literally: creatingers) and the english word: “beings.” They are both a very neutral word for something that exists and is alive. But in danish the emphasis in on the ability to create, or that they are created, whereas in english the focus is on being, as in being present in the world.

I’m just home from the big Danish role play convention Fastaval. As I always do, I’ll write how it was and write about each game. But I won’t go into the amount of detail that I usually do, I don’t have time for that. Other more profitable projects needs that energy. And before I even can get started on that, I just have to present this game I made in sleepless mania last night.

The idea started when Danny Wilson and me debated the game masterless scenarios and him being always uncompromising said: very rarely is it true GM’less, a briefing player for example is still a kind of GM. He then said: “A true GM’less scenario is one where the players enter the room, and then plays the game without any beforehand instructions from anyone.” You can’t say that and not having me try that. And I failed, as you will see, but the game that came from it is ehm… interesting.

The players enter a starting room, as they enter a GM bids them welcome at the door, tells them not to speak from now on until the game is done and hand them the preview text (which is the same as the text people could read when signing up.) That is this text:
______

Beings – Creatingers

The beings awaken
They know nothing
What are they?
Who are they?
Where are they?
What are the others here?
Who are the others here?
Why are they?
They explore themselves, their surroundings, the others
Maybe they find answers

You now have the opportunity to take on the role as one of these beings and be there, as it discovers its self, its surroundings, the other beings and ponder the meaning. The other participants around you will do the same, and together you will have an experience of being and creating.

Rules:
Rules must be followed
You may not express words in speech, writing or any other form
Your experience starts when the door closes, then you are your being
Your experience ends when you leave the room, then you are yourself again
Text is invisible for the begins
Instructions in text must be followed by the participants

Safety Rules:
Hiss: you disagree, you want less of that
Hum: you agree, you want more of that

An experience for participants that are curious, open, can support each other, read the room, wants to try something different, that want to have an experience of exploring existence as something different than yourself.

Place yourself in the circle if you want to play
______

Anyone who goes into the circle will be taken by a GM to the room that has been set up for this, and is shown a sign by a GM that reads: “Lie down here, breathe slowly and deep.” When all that want to play is placed a GM leaves the room and closes the door. As the players exit they a given a piece of paper by a GM with debrief instructions, when those are done the game is over.

I will not say anything about what the room contains, in case I at any point actually run this game. But I think and hope that you get some hints from the preview text.

Will I run this game? I think so, just for fun, but there’s a great risk in it being completely unplayable, but it was an experience designing it. If you want to be part of a test of this game feel free to contact me.

And that’s it, I hope I can sleep to night, please?

What did I sign up for then?

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So before the madness of Knudepunkt and Black Box Horsens I did a series of post about each game at Fastaval and how tempted I was to play them from the teaser text. Basically my sign up thoughts for you all to see. Read the first one of them here.

So of course I have to do a post about what I actually ended up signing up for and what I ended up getting. And it’s fitting to write this just a few days before Fastaval.

This is what I signed up for:
This Miracle – 1. and 2. priority
Teddy Says Hide – 1. and 2. priority
Hope Was the Last Thing: A Canadian Grail Quest – 2. and 3. priority
Room – 1. and 1. priority
Distance – Game master
Model Protectorates – 2. and 3. priority
Isabelle – 3. and 4. priority
And I lost my fangs … – 1.prioritet
Tales from Five Fallen Realms – 2., 2. and 3. priority
Things that happen to other people – 1. og 1. priority
Deranged – 1. og 2. priority
Demons – 2. og 3. priority
Children of Dunsain – 4. priority
Prunes and Prejudice – 1. and 2. priority
Lethal Wings – 3. and 4. priority
Augusta’s Shadow – 3. priority

This is what I got:
Wednesday: This Miracle
Thursday: Distance
Thursday: And I lost my fangs…
Friday: Deranged
Friday: Prunes and Prejudice
Saturday: Things that happen to other people

This is a great pick, but I still wish I gotten Room and Teddy says hide. Oh well maybe I get a chance at Fastaval or later. And this amount of plays is properly a good amount and still a lot more than i usually do.

And I also have a few other things during this Fastaval, there’s the scenario writing competition (where the challenge is to write a scenario during Fastaval) which I’m a judge for, and this year we also have a short meet up for all the participants of it, where they can talk to us judges and get some inspiration and feedback from us and each other. It will be interesting to see how many takes advantage of this.

And on saturday at eight o’clock we the people behind Black Box Horsens have a meetup to talk about Black Box Horsens 2016 which we have just have the pleasure of announcing, more on this later.

In short:
I can’t wait for a great Fastaval to begin.

Black Box Horsens – First impressions

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I will (hopefully) write more about this, but wanted to get the first reactions and thoughts out of the way before returning to the two missing Black Box CPH posts.

So Black Box Horsens 2015 is officially over, and I’m still sorting out all the emotions in my tired body while listening to the soundtrack from The Boy and the Milk.

I’m really overwhelmed right now. It went well, No it went beyond all my expectations and wildest hopes. The participants were great, they went to the games with all they got. The game runners ran some really cool games, and that program just kept on giving. And my many organizers help keep it all running often with out tired and confused me having to do anything.

And the venue Komediehuset was just a perfect location. Not only is the place awesome, with four black boxes and the rest of the place just emitting crazy creativity, but the people there was just so amazingly accommodating. From the leader Jan who let us hold our mad little festival to the ever helpful Trandur who put up with all our strange demands and just kept on helping with all the technical. And that with very little sleep. The poor man had to be up until we send the last participants to bed.

Few mistakes…
Which is why the few mistakes that did happen bothers me so. Because they caused the venue more harm than us. First off they had asked us not to drink outside the venue, because they are mostly a place for children and young people. And if rumours went around the town that people were hanging around the place drinking that could cause severe damaged.

Sadly a few participants arrived early and were just finishing a smoke and beer outside before we had a chance to give this message. This caused a bit of panic from the leader of the place. But as soon as the massaged was given at the opening everyone was cool and kept to this rule. At least to my experience, so thank you for that.

The only other mishap (that I know of) was that some or the game runners fiddled with parts of the technical equipment that they shouldn’t (it was stuff you normally would handle, if you have some technical expertise, so no real blame game here.) But the people at the venue don’t use that, and therefore had it on a permanent preprogrammed setting that we were not allowed to move it from.

Think we got it all back in working order, and I managed to get the word around about this (after a friendly slap on the wrist from Jan) I don’t think it happened again. Next year I’m just gonna put big signs on all the off limits equipment saying: “DO NOT TOUCH!” 🙂

… a lot of lessons
And that brings me to: lessons learnt, of them there were many, I’ll only mention a few things here: A few other things could have been better, but I don’t think they diminished the experience that much. But I’m gonna mention them any way.

Saturday evening start
Because I wanted people to have time to socialize after the games but still not go overwhelmingly late to bed, (as the sunday runs started at 09.00 – more about that in a moment.) I set the start on saturday at 18.00. That was a mistake as it was in the middle of the time that people wanted to eat dinner. So next time start at 19.00 one hour would have meant a lot less stress.

Sunday start
So I sat the starting point on Sunday at 9.00 which is early for a role play festival. (people stayed up until 3 in the morning, some even more.) I did that so that people using the copenhagen bus could still play games and be at the station in time for the bus at 15.20.

It was hard, but most people did come and play their game. We only had to close one game, and that was the only game in the entire run that we had to close. And it was a five person game that was missing two players, (still I’m sorry about that Tore, but it sounded like you had fun with “Lets FACE it”.) So I’m not sure I would change this, as it seemed to work, and it is just a good thing that all participants can still play on Sunday.

Cold at prison
Apparently the room we rented at the prison was very cold. If we do that again we will have to get a heater or two.

Food?
We decided not to give people any food, except for breakfast and a huge amount of fruit, (last minute decision but a great one.) Charles and I talked about the risk of people forgetting to eat well and lacking energy for the games. We didn’t change anything this year (except for the fruit) but talked about doing like Black Box Copenhagen next year, where each scenario ticket includes a sandwich.

In the end it seemed to work fine, people made sure to eat and seemed to have enough energy. With the exception about Saturday evening that I have covered. So I’m not sure I’m gonna do the sandwich thing. But lets see what the participants say.

Praise
The event got a lot of praise, both the program, the venue and the organizers which is great. I can rave endlessly about that but I wont. But I want to mention two things we did, that I’m especially pround of and that i haven’t seen anywhere else.

Tickets
We made actual tickets that people got for their games when they arrived. It gave you some kind of physical proof, that you could play this game, and it also had all the information you needed. But we also had a little wall where we put any unsold tickets and where people could but thickets they didn’t need for any reason. Anyone looking to play that game could then claim that ticket for free. It worked really well and received a lot of praise. It was also a way for us to keep an eye on any games starting to miss too many players.

Tell me about your t-shirt
The opening event used this little game that I came up with at the Larp Write Summer School. Bring a t-shirt or any shirt that is cool, geeky or have an interesting story. Then move around the room and you have to ask strangers about their t-shirts. It’s a fun and simple way to get to know each other. I’m very proud of this one, and it worked well and got everybody talking to each other at a very early stage.

Next year?
Yes hopefully you never know with these things, but I now have a lot of experience, some very cool people have expressed interest in arrange it with me and people seemed to want it. So yes we hope that there will be a Black Box Horsens 2016. If you want it to happen then consider signing up as an organizer, offering to run a game or just shout out and spread the word.

Black Box Horsens it’s tomorrow

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Well tomorrows the day, the fucking big day! Tomorrow Black Box Horsens starts. One years planning is culminating tomorrow. What started as a simple blog post with a humble question (would we want a black box con in Jutland) is now what over 50 people will hopefully be enjoying tomorrow.

The rest of the Black Box CPH post will wait for the week between Black Box Horsens and Knudepunkt. I’m sure that will get it’s own amount of blog posts, but there will be time for that later.

Wish me – us luck.
And if you are going: I’m looking forward to seeing you soon.
– Simon

Black Box CPH – overall

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Blogposts about Black Box CPH not weeks but months late, eh better late than never. And a good warm up for Black Box Horsens this friday hopefully I will get all the posts out before that.

Until recently I thought that black box was defined by two main attributes: the facilities, that is: playing in a stage room and using stage techniques like light and sound, and the workshops before hand. Now another equally important aspect is clear to me: experimentation. That the designers use this new format to experiment wildly, but also as important: that the players also expect this and goes to the games with this knowledge and therefore, well maybe not an more open mindset, but with a different mindset. I’m not saying that this is better, it’s just different. (The high demand Fastaval puts on you makes you perform your best, the openness to experimentation at Black Box CPH makes you dare new and at times very strange things.

Like last year I took part in three scenarios, that is apparently what I can handle during a weekend. And like last year I was only a participant in two of them. But unlike last year, where I was audience in one this year I was the organizer in my own and very first black box scenario, Waiting for Flight GO901, but that will get it’s own post.

This years most powerful insight is that black box cph is a place for experimentation, as I have written about above. The organisers proudly claim this, but this year I felt it myself when I ran my own game. I lost all faith in the game the night before for many reasons, one being that I had four players for a game designed with 10 or more in mind.

But my players took this and the two, for me big, experiments in the game in stride. They went at it with remarkable open minds. It was a great feeling and I can’t wait to design for Black Box CPH again. Since this is written after the Larporatory I already have another game ready, and it’s not even the game I designed for the Larporatory. More about that later.

The new Bastard Cafe

The two other games I played was also strange and experimental in their own way and even though they had their flaws, the players went with it with full energy. It’s truly a great culture that they have built here.

This year was also marked by the opening of the Bastard Cafe, Denmarks first board game cafe. It was cool to finally visit the place and served as a nice hang out between games, although it was a bit strange to have it be full of other people that was not attending Black Box CPH, strange, but not necessarily in a bad way.

The party at the end was good and really hammered in how many new people I have gotten to know in the last year. Where last year I didn’t have that many to talk to, this year I had plenty in large thanks to my trip to Lithuania.

It is really a good community to hang out in and I do it all to little. But soon I get to do it again when we launch Black Box Horsens.

My thoughts on the Fastaval 2015 games – Bonus stuff!

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So I saved the best for last! Or rather I screwed up and forgot to write about three games. So they get a special edition bonus round! But I glad I did discover these games because they are good and theres another number one priority among them, which will it be? uhh exciting. Now how is it I do this again?:

I won’t write much on what the game is about, just my thoughts, you can read about the games themselves on the webpage, I’ll link to each game.

When we sign up for Fastaval, we have to give the games we want to play a priority from one (I really, really, really wanna play this game) to four (if there’s nothing else, I want to play this game) or just nothing.

In this write up I’ll give each game a “Do I want to play this?” priority from 1 (a lot) to 5 (ah properly not, not that it’s a bad game, it’s just not for me.)

Lethal Wings

This game sounds epic! eighties action movie but with storks! I can’t begin to describe how absolutely silly that sound and how cool they manage to make it sound on such little space. Really go read it.

And it has some board game mechanics, but in such a way that fits the game, you have to throw dice, but they have to land at certain marks, and: “you are equipped with the most lethal weapon of any eighties action hero: Your wit, and your famous catchphrase!”

I think this could be very fun.

Only concern is: it’s only two hours including explaining rules, I hope that is enough.

I’m definitely putting it down as one of those light hearted fun games to put in between two hard ones.

Do I want to play this?: 2
If I have the time for it yes, I think with the grim games on my list, this will be a nice break.

Reshaped

Bioshock meets the Stanford Prison Experiment… waow, it’s sounds really cool game and kind of scary. And it’s an idea I have played around with once upon a time: That the memories of the characters move around during the game.

As interesting as it sounds it doesn’t feel like a game for me though. I don’t feel like this: “You like extreme characters, and are ready to challenge any system, be it society or role-playing game. That is why you want to play the Prisoner.”

Or this: “You have always thought that mad scientists are cool, so you want to control the experiment and take the role of the Manager.”

I don’t feel like being mind fucked or mind fcuking some one else.
But other than that I think the premise is very cool.

You are not only losing your self you are getting mixed up with the other players.

Do I want to play this?: 4
No but some will have a really good experience with this.

Room

I love the sound of this game, it’s very black boxy, I would actually love to see it in a black box some day. It’s physical, it’s childish but still horribly tragic and a love that kind of games.

And I just love the flavor text you kind of get into the mood of the game already then. I hope it’s as symbolic as it sounds, were like in the text the horrible reality is kind of hinted to through this childish narration.

I would normally never play a game with the theme like this, but because of the way it’s done it jumps straight to a priority number one. I can’t wait to play characters like: Table, Plant, and Carpet with the brown spot.

Do I want to play this?: 1
Yes you guessed it, this is the bonus game that became an instant number one.

Next time I will show you what games I did sign up for in the end.

My thoughts on the Fastaval 2015 games – part 5

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With the Fastaval sign up open, I better get the last part of this out there:

I won’t write much on what the game is about, just my thoughts, you can read about the games themselves on the webpage, I’ll link to each game.

In this write up I’ll give each game a “Do I want to play this?” priority from 1 (a lot) to 5 (ah properly not, not that it’s a bad game, it’s just not for me.)

Stories from the Sanatorium

The genre pretty much sums it up: Escalating horror with a focus on epic damnation. And the text supports this the whole way thru, a good example of a game that knows what it is and sells it as such.

It’s yet another GM’less scenario, quite a few of those this year, and by Tim who even being new have made some very different and award winning things.

It sounds really cool but I’m not sure I’m in the mood for a self destructive story, but that might change.

Do I want to play this?: 3
But it could easily move up as we get closer

The girl beneath the hen house (Canceled)

This is the text in its entirety:
“When the family honor must be preserved, sometime killing is the only thing solution left. Even if you have to kill your own flesh and blood.”

Brave, and both the title and text are strong and creepy, and you get some idea of what this could be about. But this is not a preview text, this is a teaser.

I kinda get what Julie wants to do, she wants us to know very little, and I also know that she likes the create horry games, so this is properly that.

But in the end I thinks this style exercise is not worth what we lose in understanding. This could both be a tragedy about murder in the family or a supernatural horror story or even something about honor murders in immigrant families, I just dont know, and therefore I won’t be playing it.

I hope this short text will work for others, but for me it’s a brave gamble but it fails, sorry.

Do I want to play this?: 4
I don’t know, so I won’t try, to much else I know I want to try.

The Long Orbit

It kinda sounds a bit like Sargasso: The Daughters of Clio but it says that it’s a hack of Monsterhearts and I know that Oliver and other people love that game.

But again it sounds like the kind of tense thriller intrigue game that’s not really my taste. But I like the idea that following your heart will lead to downfall and that love is an central part of a sci-fi thriller, it’s an interesting twist.

It also sounds like one of those “playing to win and therefore you lose” games, that sounds really cool, but again not my cup of tea.

Do I want to play this?: 5
Not really but I think some people will have a blast with it.

Things that happen to other people

So this is the game that sounded most like my idea, and when the man behind have made “I say a little prayer” and been part of the group the made “Just a little lovin” (which “I say a little prayer” was the Fastaval version of) You know that you don’t stand a chance.

I also think it’s a very interesting format, people caught in a war zone telling stories about other people in similar situations.

I like it, story telling is a now thing I’m into, and this sounds like something I would like. I also like how the GM is there to help the players tell the stories, and if that element is done half as well as it was in “I say a little prayer” then it will be good.

Do I want to play this?: 1
Yes oh my yes!

This Miracle

So I’m a bit of a Lizzy fan, I love her work, both with introducing nordic larp to the USA scene and also her work with gender issues, for a very privileged person like me, she has been good at describing the other side in a way, that I can understand. But I have never played one of her games, and I’m still sad that I didn’t have the guts to try out her touching game about breast cancer. And Nick whom I don’t know just sounds awesome.

I also like games where you as the player start out by creating the framework you are going to be playing in, and finely I’m also interested in rituals and how they can be used in storytelling.

So all in all I think this is a must for me.

Do I want to play this?: 1
Looking forward to it

Where are all the dreams we dreamt?

I got the feeling that we’ve seen this story before (not that thats a bad thing, or a reason not to tell it) but it just feels like whenever we tell a story about a collective in the sixties it’s about it’s downfall.

Of course that is a great narrative and the collective is just a good setting for it, because it starts out so idealistic and ends up breaking down.

But there’s a few twists here that makes it more interesting:
first of all it’s about a collective in the late seventies not sixties
Also the game is not just about rise and fall but also returns to the story many years later to see what have happened
And finally the writer have a background in a collective of the same kind, which can add more deapth to the story.

Do I want to play this?: 4
It sounds good but not my kind of thing

Du drømmer (Your dreaming) (not in english)

Another trend this year seems to be two player games about love but that kind of does make sense, love is often a two player game (ba-dum-thsssss).

This one sounds beautiful and is based on a danish singer songwriter. It’s only on the danish page, so it looks like this is a game only in danish, which is always sad.

It sounds like you play through a love story and that pretty much it, and thats good, a good concentrated story, oh and it’s feel good I see now, so this could be more about the experience than about the story.

But all two player games especially those about love share the same problem: it’s very much dependent on the two players being even a little bit attracted to each other, but thats for another post to speculate about.

Do I want to play this?: 4
I’ve kinda done this, been there done that, having both designed a similar game and run a similar game last year.