Headcanon: The Game of the Eternal Show
Mar. 12th, 2022 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radiantfractureToday I sense intuitively that you would like a tabletop role-playing game that lets you use a collaborative poker hand to create a fix-it final episode of a beloved semi-eternal TV show. I can feel it.
(This one is dear to my heart.)
May I introduce you to Headcanon?
As always, it can be had for free or for the price of a cup of coffee, which I will use to buy a cup of coffee.
* * * * *
I'm pretty pleased with this particular storytelling machine.
This is the "biggest" game I've made in the sense that I developed not just the content but the mechanics. So far I've only used existing mechanics -- mostly card prompts.
And there are still card prompts, LOL, but now the cards represent moves, so that the players have more latitude.
The core mechanic is the development of a collaborative poker hand. Each card is a move for the character (fight, betray, monologue, etc.) and also contributes to the hand; the quality of the hand determines the outcome of the scene.
Something I like a lot is that it also has what I call the Establishing Hand (hmm, that could be catchier). At the beginning of play, each player develops their own starting hand of cards. This hand establishes their character's starting condition at the beginning of the episode.
I am particularly proud that if you start with a garbage hand, your character starts out dead and needs to be resurrected.
The more I think about it, the more I like this collaborative poker hand mechanic -- making a competitive process into a collaborative one.
Even the psychological aspect of poker is maintained, but now you're trying to communicate rather than deceive. You can't say what cards you have, but you can signal them using in-narrative-appropriate language.
I didn't think about that while I was developing it, and now it seems like a pleasingly subversive little intervention.
And there's something in there about the way watching a show works when you love the characters but don't like the writing choices (which will always happen sometimes) -- the way your own story is kind of pushing against the rules of someone else's storytelling. Not fully articulated, but the slight resistance seems right.
* * * * * *
This is the game I've worked the longest on -- about two months, all told, I think? I didn't work on it the whole time, but I kept fiddling with it.
I'll probably still be adding to and revising Headcanon for a while, so this is a little more like a beta test than a full release, but I got it to a done-like place last night and thought, what the hell -- I kind of want to see it out living in the world.
But that means if you play it or even read it and have suggestions, they're a good thing, and welcome.
K. pointed out that the mechanic isn't inherently a two-person one. I think one could make a fun, sillier, more fast-paced game for five players. Might do that next.
Anyway, cheers.
{rf}
(This one is dear to my heart.)
May I introduce you to Headcanon?
As always, it can be had for free or for the price of a cup of coffee, which I will use to buy a cup of coffee.
* * * * *
I'm pretty pleased with this particular storytelling machine.
This is the "biggest" game I've made in the sense that I developed not just the content but the mechanics. So far I've only used existing mechanics -- mostly card prompts.
And there are still card prompts, LOL, but now the cards represent moves, so that the players have more latitude.
The core mechanic is the development of a collaborative poker hand. Each card is a move for the character (fight, betray, monologue, etc.) and also contributes to the hand; the quality of the hand determines the outcome of the scene.
Something I like a lot is that it also has what I call the Establishing Hand (hmm, that could be catchier). At the beginning of play, each player develops their own starting hand of cards. This hand establishes their character's starting condition at the beginning of the episode.
I am particularly proud that if you start with a garbage hand, your character starts out dead and needs to be resurrected.
The more I think about it, the more I like this collaborative poker hand mechanic -- making a competitive process into a collaborative one.
Even the psychological aspect of poker is maintained, but now you're trying to communicate rather than deceive. You can't say what cards you have, but you can signal them using in-narrative-appropriate language.
I didn't think about that while I was developing it, and now it seems like a pleasingly subversive little intervention.
And there's something in there about the way watching a show works when you love the characters but don't like the writing choices (which will always happen sometimes) -- the way your own story is kind of pushing against the rules of someone else's storytelling. Not fully articulated, but the slight resistance seems right.
* * * * * *
This is the game I've worked the longest on -- about two months, all told, I think? I didn't work on it the whole time, but I kept fiddling with it.
I'll probably still be adding to and revising Headcanon for a while, so this is a little more like a beta test than a full release, but I got it to a done-like place last night and thought, what the hell -- I kind of want to see it out living in the world.
But that means if you play it or even read it and have suggestions, they're a good thing, and welcome.
K. pointed out that the mechanic isn't inherently a two-person one. I think one could make a fun, sillier, more fast-paced game for five players. Might do that next.
Anyway, cheers.
{rf}
no subject
Date: 2022-03-13 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-13 04:36 am (UTC)I did add some wholly untested multi-player variants, but/and they're sort of insane.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-13 12:39 pm (UTC)