Strangers: The relationship map as story machine.

In a recent post, I mentioned the two games that will (I hope) be accompanying me to GenCon: Strangers and After.  I’ve mentioned the former, but not the latter, so I thought I’d post about it.

The core idea that I’m exploring with Strangers is using a relationship map (a physical representation of the relationships between the characters laid out on the playing table) as a means for creating story: both for eliciting player involvement, and also player coercion - pushing the players to play out consequences to their actions.

The game itself is an emulator for ensemble dramas: ER, Dawson’s Creek, Grey’s Anatomy, and Smallville.  Characters are defined by two sets of conflicts that they are involved in: a personal conflict and an arc conflict that all of the characters share.  For example, in the first season of Grey’s Anatomy, the characters are all trying to balance their careers and their personal lives.  These are placed onto the character’s play card, and the cards are laid on the table with their sides touching, like so:

 

Here are three characters, with Character 1 having relationships with Characters 2 & 3.  The basis for Character 1′s relationship is Aspect A – conversely, Character 2 uses Aspect D.  During the course of the game, the characters’ relationships will ebb and flow, affecting (and being affected by) the underlying aspects.  At some turning point, Player 1 decides to change the aspect used in the relationship, and turns the card, like so:

Character 1′s relationship with Character 2 becomes based on Aspect C, and Character 1′s relationship with Character 3 is now Aspect A.  Not only does this affect the current scene between Characters 1 & 2, but it also forces the player to have a scene with Character 3 to establish the new dynamic there as well.

These sorts of changes cause an ebb and flow – between relationships and aspects within a character, and between the characters (and players) as well.  This emulates the give and take between the characters and how they let other aspects of the show weave themselves into the story.

* * * 

Before you think that this is all sugar and light, I’m having real difficulties with articulating how the game plays.  I know, on an intellectual level, how I want the game to play out – but during the course of writing the playtest docs, I’ve had a really hard time codifying it.

This is a break from how I usually work – working from the top down is usually not this difficult.  So Strangers is pushing me to use playstorming to work out the kinks.  Playstorming is basically the same as playtesting, but instead of setting all the rules at the outset, you start with the basic idea-shape of play, then add rules as you go.  

So this is very nebulous, but the idea seems very … fertile.  I think that I can push it a long way uphill in a short period of time – hence my interest in putting it ahead of other ideas for the Big Day.