I've started outlining my new Fudge campaign. If it gets off the ground, I'll let you know how it goes. At this point, though, I want to write about two tools I've used at this stage in the design theory: Long Knives and Island Design Theory. I encourage you to check them both out, as well as the sites that host them. Amagi Games, which I've only just discovered, has a ton of little plug-ins and tools for planning and running RPG sessions. They're all extremely simple to implement, system-neutral, and clever. Gnome Stew, home to Island Design Theory, is a GM's blog, run by a bunch of wonderful fellows, gives general advice for running your games. It's worth your time trawling around the archives, and checking it when you get up with a cup of coffee (or whatever your morning ritual is).
I'm trying to create a campaign set in a city-state with numerous internal factions vying for control. Long Knives is absolutely perfect for designing this. At first I thought it was a bit extraneous, but forcing yourself to map out all of the relationships between factions, design a few plot hooks, and considering interests is worth the effort. On the one hand, it suggested relationships I hadn't thought of before. As I filled out the chart, I saw that some factions were diametrically opposed, whereas some had possible common interests. I know now that my campaign could take several directions. A, B, and C could ally against D and E, or A D and C, or whatever. This unstable state of affairs makes the actions of a few motivated individuals a lot more important, so the party will have a real role to play. It also helped me when I went onto the second phase of planning.
Island design theory uses individual events or encounters as its building-blocks. These are loosely linked into a story, but players can skip between them or go back and forth. The order isn't set in stone (even though actual ISLANDS are, in fact, set in stone). This allows the GM to react a lot better to player initiative, while still retaining some narrative control, and some ability to plan ahead. After filling out the Long Knives chart, I found it very easy to write out 25 possible events (one for every interrelationship on the chart) on scraps of paper. I sorted these events into three piles. Because I had been brainstorming, I found that my largest pile was events that could in and of themselves form the basis of a gaming session. A few events were totally earth-shattering (coups and assassinations and things like that), and really couldn't take place without the players first becoming immersed in the campaign and having a hand in events. And a fairly large stack were somewhat interesting, but contained no possible plot hooks for the pcs, and really didn't stand up on their own as adventures.
I knew I wanted my first adventure to be interesting, to get the party involved immediately, and to set the tone for the campaign. So I randomly picked one event from the first pile (reasonable adventures) and two from the third (slightly interesting events). I looked at the three I had selected and saw that because of the interrelationships set up with Long Knives, these events were all far more interesting in relation to each other than they would be individually. I sorted them out into a logical order (one order out of several possible orders). These will form the central events of my first adventure. I have a lot of detail to fill in, but it's obvious at this stage which characters I should prepare, what settings I should put together, and some of the encounters, combat or otherwise, I should be ready to run.
I'll probably run an island process again for this adventure, writing out linking events that lead from A to B to C, and roughly arrange them. This will give some narrative structure to my adventure, while still allowing a fair bit of player control. Rather than setting up a flowchart, I'll instead make a timeline. The timeline will be structured as such:
Event A --- Linking group A --- Event B --- Linking group B --- Event C
I'll know roughly that after event A, the players will head in one of several likely directions, and I'll be ready to engage them. Come event B, they'll have explored the world a bit, be more committed to events, and start to understand a few of the ramifications of what's happening. Similarly, the linking group B events will allow players to start situating themselves in the world (I work with These Guys, Those Guys are my enemies) so C will be able to wrap the adventure up nicely with a decent cliffhanger, leaving them wanting to know more.
I have been using these tools partly because I haven't GMd in a while, and in the interim have read a lot of ideas about it. I've been eager to try out some new tricks. Please share any experiences you have with any of these.
Regarding Education
From an educational standpoint, both of these tools would also be useful. Long Knives would make a good worksheet for students trying to understand complex political events (like the French Revolution, for instance). The first section would allow them to jot down some initial impressions about the actors, the second would allow them to decide what events leading up to the crisis seemed most important, and the third would let them explore the interrelationships in a tense situation, and see why a crisis had to occur, but also that it could have gone several ways. Comparing results between students would make for fruitful discussion.
Island Design Theory would make a perfect planning tool for teachers. Have a good look at the curriculum and figure out what the main concepts you want to explore are. Give each of these a colour code and use coloured post-its or index cards. For medieval history, you might make pink cards about society and culture, blue cards about historical change, and green cards about historiography and history skills building. Write out every lesson and activity you have on one of these cards. Sort them roughly into units of work, of 2-4 weeks. This is your semester plan. You can always grab a later lesson and move it up. You can add cards if students show a particular interest in a given topic. If you have more possible lessons and activities than you have teaching time, you can ask students to pick which ones they would most like to explore. Inform them that they need a few from every colour, and let them collaborate with you on curriculum development. Cards could carry reminders about lesson timing, resources you will need (dice, videos, construction paper, etc), and links to other topics. These cards are also re-usable from year to year, assuming you make them sturdy enough.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
A Fudge Campaign
I'm looking over my Fairy's Tale game, and it's very railroad-y. I might give it a shot as a one-off, and if the system turns out to be oodles of fun try a mini-campaign, but I'm starting to find my thoughts turning back to Fudge, aka the Freeform Universal Do-It-Yourself Gaming Engine. Go read the rules if you've never heard of it, I guarantee you'll be intrigued. I am. The DIY aspect in particular.
I've been hesitant about starting a Fudge campaign, though, for several reasons. First, the sheer amount of effort. I can be a perfectionist, so making a game from scratch invites disaster. My last attempt spun out of control and into nowhere. Second, I've got no experience with the system, so it's tempting to fall back on something I know how to use. Third, connected to the second, and perhaps the most important, Fudge could be any setting I want. It could be any game I want. The burden of coming up with a setting, and at the same time limiting myself to one, is a bit intense.
Still, I'd like to see if I could write something up by the time I get back from holidays, and run it by my local gang. I've got a week and some change, so let's see if I can commit to a reasonable project. I think I would like some sort of back-stabbing cloak-and-dagger game, with light magic and brutal violence, but with plenty of room for good characterisation. I'm leaning towards a Renaissance feel. This suggests the magic would be somewhat occult, curses and seances or something, more than fireworks. I'll figure that out later, though. The most difficult thing for me will be pacing: having enough long-term action to keep the story on track, as well as enough short-term action to keep players motivated before the story comes together. A friend of mine did a good job on one campaign in this regard, slowly revealing clues to build up a big picture. I'm bad at it, as the big picture is usually what I'm most excited to share with my players.
So, a few commitments:
1. I will map out a few main rivalries to happen at an "upper" level, that the players will begin to discover after 3-5 sessions, and have influence on in the late campaign.
2. All of the main actors will have minor bullies and thugs for the players to grapple with as they work out who's working for whom.
3. There will be a murder in the first session. It will remain unexplained for at least one adventure. That should set the tone, get the players on their toes, and keep them there.
I've been hesitant about starting a Fudge campaign, though, for several reasons. First, the sheer amount of effort. I can be a perfectionist, so making a game from scratch invites disaster. My last attempt spun out of control and into nowhere. Second, I've got no experience with the system, so it's tempting to fall back on something I know how to use. Third, connected to the second, and perhaps the most important, Fudge could be any setting I want. It could be any game I want. The burden of coming up with a setting, and at the same time limiting myself to one, is a bit intense.
Still, I'd like to see if I could write something up by the time I get back from holidays, and run it by my local gang. I've got a week and some change, so let's see if I can commit to a reasonable project. I think I would like some sort of back-stabbing cloak-and-dagger game, with light magic and brutal violence, but with plenty of room for good characterisation. I'm leaning towards a Renaissance feel. This suggests the magic would be somewhat occult, curses and seances or something, more than fireworks. I'll figure that out later, though. The most difficult thing for me will be pacing: having enough long-term action to keep the story on track, as well as enough short-term action to keep players motivated before the story comes together. A friend of mine did a good job on one campaign in this regard, slowly revealing clues to build up a big picture. I'm bad at it, as the big picture is usually what I'm most excited to share with my players.
So, a few commitments:
1. I will map out a few main rivalries to happen at an "upper" level, that the players will begin to discover after 3-5 sessions, and have influence on in the late campaign.
2. All of the main actors will have minor bullies and thugs for the players to grapple with as they work out who's working for whom.
3. There will be a murder in the first session. It will remain unexplained for at least one adventure. That should set the tone, get the players on their toes, and keep them there.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Recent gaming action
I've got two things going right now. The first is an adventure I'm designing, the second is a computer game I'm playing.
Fairy's Tale
It's a cute game, I must say. I explain the nuts and bolts a bit more in this post. I started writing an adventure based on a Russian folk tale. Since I don't think any of my prospective players read this blog, I'll summarize my efforts.
The story
The story starts with a brother and sister, prince and princess of now-deceased monarchs, wandering through the wilderness. They pass a series of water sources, each with a herd of animals (pigs at a lake, cows at a river, and finally goats at a well). Each time the sister warns the brother not to drink, and in true fairy-tale repetition he does not, until he finally drinks from a well in extreme thirst, and turns into a goat.
The pair travel through the land, and word of her beauty spreads through the usual rumour mill. A king sends his emissaries to fetch her, and they are promptly married. All is well for some time, until the king goes on a hunting trip. Now it gets good.
While the king is out hunting, the princess is visited by a witch, who puts a spell on her that makes her ill. The king is concerned when he returns, but naturally goes hunting the next day. The witch returns to the castle, and promises to cure the princess. The princess follows her to the sea shore, where the witch ties a stone around her neck and throws her into the water. She promptly sinks. The witch makes herself look like the princess, and goes back to the castle to take her place.
The king is pleased that his wife has not only recovered, but seems more jovial than ever, though strangely she now has an extreme aversion to her brother, and refuses to spend time with him as in the past. In time, she encourages the king to prepare a feast. She lets him know that she would like nothing more to eat than... the goat that is her brother (awesome). The king is slightly shocked, but agrees.
The feast is to be in the evening. In the morning, the goat asks leave to go out for a walk. The king feels sorry for him, so he allows it. The goat goes to the seaside and says "Oh my sister!" The sister calls out from the water that the witch has trapped her. In the afternoon, the goat again asks to go for a walk. The king agrees, and again the goat calls out to his sister, who again informs him of her predicament. In the evening, shortly before it is time to be slaughtered, the goat persuades the king to come out with him for a final walk. They go down to the water and the goat calls "Oh my sister!" The princess again relates her story. The king dives in and releases her. They chase the evil sorceress away and life happily ever after.
Making a game of it
The first changes are cosmetic. The king's court becomes a fairy court. The king becomes a supernatural being himself. This much was obvious to me.
Beyond that, I needed to insert the players. Obviously, they can't be any of the main characters. Main characters have to follow too structured a path for gaming, and the players should have choice (within reason). So I'll make them servants of the king. This has three advantages. First, I get to assign them tasks to carry the tale forward quite easily. Second, I get to show a side of the story not represented in the version I read in my book of fairy tales: that of the servants. They are vaguely referred to: they bring word to the king of the princess' beauty, they fetch her for him, and they must be helping him with his wedding, feast, and hunts. I think I will make their lives suitably miserable. Think of Puck compared to Titania and Oberon. Every telling of a fairy tale ought to be a re-telling... Third, their position sets up a nice reward structure. As mentioned in my earlier glance at the game, it has very little detail about magic weapons, gold, and other trinkets, but lots of detail about getting rewarded with rank, prestige, and other social gains. Thus the early phases of the campaign can be about the rise of menial servants to prominence in the court.
With the players' roles settled, I now have to modify the structure of the fairy tale somewhat. I need to make the main cast of such calibre that they carry out their parts faithfully, with nudges from the party. I have made the king a drunken partying idiot. This fits well with a man being taken in by a rather stupid ruse. To expand on it, I have made him a satyr: instead of hunting, he goes out partying in the glades, and does not take his mortal wife with him, lest she escape. This means that the players will have to uncover the witches' schemes, and convince the king to see what is going on.
I have made the princess a reluctant bride of the fat, ugly king, meaning the players will have to use their magic to convince her to marry him. Fairy magics are pretty powerful in this game (only a tiny in-game sacrifice is needed for major effects) so this is a nice warm-up task for the party. I've scrapped the bit about the brother turning into a goat, though that can be backstory that the players can reveal in their investigations.
The sorceress has changed little. She's an awful hag with the power to beguile others and transform her appearance. Most of the considerations about her are tactical. Her banishment of the goat becomes an effort to keep the king in the dark, giving the players a chance to talk to him in secret. I've also made her the ruler of an evil realm, so sporadic attacks by goblins and trolls as she draws closer to taking over her rival will tip the players off that something isn't right (because, after all, the queen recovering from an illness doesn't seem like a bad thing at first). I'll make her disguise somewhat imperfect as well. Perhaps the princess had brown eyes, the glamoured sorceress has green ones... She's using her magic to keep the king fooled (he's drunk, so it's easy), but again the lowly servants notice what's going on.
The goat/prince/brother is the hardest one. I have to make him a little bit pathetic, so he doesn't just assert himself and say it's a trick. But if he's too subtle, the players may not figure out that anything's amiss until he's turned into stew. If they don't seek him out, I suspect I will:
1. Have them overhear some goblins talking about the queen's plan.
2. Emphasise at first how the new queen was good to the servants, but after her recovery she's cruel (an incentive to depose her!)
3. If all else fails, arrange a meeting and have the goat beg for help.
Of course, if they're really switched on, I'll throw up obstacles. The queen will try to prevent them from meeting with the king, goblins will waylay them, the king won't believe their story when they reveal the truth...
The hardest parts will be individual encounters and pacing. But there are enough events in the story (the king fetches the princess, marries her, she gets sick, she gets well, she banishes the goat, she decides to eat the goat, the goat makes his escape, the sorceress is driven away) for decent encounters. Early ones will focus on menial servile tasks (collect food for the feast, run errands) of various danger levels, the latter ones will lead to an outright confrontation. I'll give them a shot at killing the sorceress. If they succeed, her second-in-command will become a campaign villain. If not, she's perfectly established to do so.
A game
I've been playing Dominions 3. It reminds me of Warhammer, in that you spend most of the game crafting your own army, deciding on your strategy, deploying your troops, then watching the fights play out. It also has a wealth of races to play, which is great. I spent a Christmas gift certificate for it, and it was well worth it.
Fairy's Tale
It's a cute game, I must say. I explain the nuts and bolts a bit more in this post. I started writing an adventure based on a Russian folk tale. Since I don't think any of my prospective players read this blog, I'll summarize my efforts.
The story
The story starts with a brother and sister, prince and princess of now-deceased monarchs, wandering through the wilderness. They pass a series of water sources, each with a herd of animals (pigs at a lake, cows at a river, and finally goats at a well). Each time the sister warns the brother not to drink, and in true fairy-tale repetition he does not, until he finally drinks from a well in extreme thirst, and turns into a goat.
The pair travel through the land, and word of her beauty spreads through the usual rumour mill. A king sends his emissaries to fetch her, and they are promptly married. All is well for some time, until the king goes on a hunting trip. Now it gets good.
While the king is out hunting, the princess is visited by a witch, who puts a spell on her that makes her ill. The king is concerned when he returns, but naturally goes hunting the next day. The witch returns to the castle, and promises to cure the princess. The princess follows her to the sea shore, where the witch ties a stone around her neck and throws her into the water. She promptly sinks. The witch makes herself look like the princess, and goes back to the castle to take her place.
The king is pleased that his wife has not only recovered, but seems more jovial than ever, though strangely she now has an extreme aversion to her brother, and refuses to spend time with him as in the past. In time, she encourages the king to prepare a feast. She lets him know that she would like nothing more to eat than... the goat that is her brother (awesome). The king is slightly shocked, but agrees.
The feast is to be in the evening. In the morning, the goat asks leave to go out for a walk. The king feels sorry for him, so he allows it. The goat goes to the seaside and says "Oh my sister!" The sister calls out from the water that the witch has trapped her. In the afternoon, the goat again asks to go for a walk. The king agrees, and again the goat calls out to his sister, who again informs him of her predicament. In the evening, shortly before it is time to be slaughtered, the goat persuades the king to come out with him for a final walk. They go down to the water and the goat calls "Oh my sister!" The princess again relates her story. The king dives in and releases her. They chase the evil sorceress away and life happily ever after.
Making a game of it
The first changes are cosmetic. The king's court becomes a fairy court. The king becomes a supernatural being himself. This much was obvious to me.
Beyond that, I needed to insert the players. Obviously, they can't be any of the main characters. Main characters have to follow too structured a path for gaming, and the players should have choice (within reason). So I'll make them servants of the king. This has three advantages. First, I get to assign them tasks to carry the tale forward quite easily. Second, I get to show a side of the story not represented in the version I read in my book of fairy tales: that of the servants. They are vaguely referred to: they bring word to the king of the princess' beauty, they fetch her for him, and they must be helping him with his wedding, feast, and hunts. I think I will make their lives suitably miserable. Think of Puck compared to Titania and Oberon. Every telling of a fairy tale ought to be a re-telling... Third, their position sets up a nice reward structure. As mentioned in my earlier glance at the game, it has very little detail about magic weapons, gold, and other trinkets, but lots of detail about getting rewarded with rank, prestige, and other social gains. Thus the early phases of the campaign can be about the rise of menial servants to prominence in the court.
With the players' roles settled, I now have to modify the structure of the fairy tale somewhat. I need to make the main cast of such calibre that they carry out their parts faithfully, with nudges from the party. I have made the king a drunken partying idiot. This fits well with a man being taken in by a rather stupid ruse. To expand on it, I have made him a satyr: instead of hunting, he goes out partying in the glades, and does not take his mortal wife with him, lest she escape. This means that the players will have to uncover the witches' schemes, and convince the king to see what is going on.
I have made the princess a reluctant bride of the fat, ugly king, meaning the players will have to use their magic to convince her to marry him. Fairy magics are pretty powerful in this game (only a tiny in-game sacrifice is needed for major effects) so this is a nice warm-up task for the party. I've scrapped the bit about the brother turning into a goat, though that can be backstory that the players can reveal in their investigations.
The sorceress has changed little. She's an awful hag with the power to beguile others and transform her appearance. Most of the considerations about her are tactical. Her banishment of the goat becomes an effort to keep the king in the dark, giving the players a chance to talk to him in secret. I've also made her the ruler of an evil realm, so sporadic attacks by goblins and trolls as she draws closer to taking over her rival will tip the players off that something isn't right (because, after all, the queen recovering from an illness doesn't seem like a bad thing at first). I'll make her disguise somewhat imperfect as well. Perhaps the princess had brown eyes, the glamoured sorceress has green ones... She's using her magic to keep the king fooled (he's drunk, so it's easy), but again the lowly servants notice what's going on.
The goat/prince/brother is the hardest one. I have to make him a little bit pathetic, so he doesn't just assert himself and say it's a trick. But if he's too subtle, the players may not figure out that anything's amiss until he's turned into stew. If they don't seek him out, I suspect I will:
1. Have them overhear some goblins talking about the queen's plan.
2. Emphasise at first how the new queen was good to the servants, but after her recovery she's cruel (an incentive to depose her!)
3. If all else fails, arrange a meeting and have the goat beg for help.
Of course, if they're really switched on, I'll throw up obstacles. The queen will try to prevent them from meeting with the king, goblins will waylay them, the king won't believe their story when they reveal the truth...
The hardest parts will be individual encounters and pacing. But there are enough events in the story (the king fetches the princess, marries her, she gets sick, she gets well, she banishes the goat, she decides to eat the goat, the goat makes his escape, the sorceress is driven away) for decent encounters. Early ones will focus on menial servile tasks (collect food for the feast, run errands) of various danger levels, the latter ones will lead to an outright confrontation. I'll give them a shot at killing the sorceress. If they succeed, her second-in-command will become a campaign villain. If not, she's perfectly established to do so.
A game
I've been playing Dominions 3. It reminds me of Warhammer, in that you spend most of the game crafting your own army, deciding on your strategy, deploying your troops, then watching the fights play out. It also has a wealth of races to play, which is great. I spent a Christmas gift certificate for it, and it was well worth it.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
What to do?
I'm in a stretch of unemployment at the moment that I suspect will last for a while. I'm doing a bit of community work on the side, but I'd like to get back into game design. The more interesting ideas I've had so far are:
1. Resurrect the Arthurian RPG
This one has been around and around. This was its last incarnation, involving a deck of cards with quotes from Malory to stimulate story-telling, with every player playing a knight on a quest of some sort. I'm thinking of doing something similar, but different. The setting is a knight and his retinue on a quest. The knight will achieve some sort of resolution (success or some sort of revelation about himself). The players of the game play the knight's hangers-on. (A sage, a rogue, a dwarf, a damsel, whatever). They players compete, somewhat, to decide the fate of their "extras." Who will turn out to be an evil villain? Who will turn out to be a hero(ine) in their own right? Etc. Character creation will be based on the use of adjectives. I'm sure the more I think about this concept that I want to avoid numbers as much as possible. Still, it's a bit like "London Pleasures" from Keep the Aspidistra Flying: the work that the young would-be poet continues adding to, editing, and carrying around, trying to convince himself that he'll finish it, trying to convince himself that he really is an artist...
2. PeasantKwest
Or something similar. I'd like an rpg in which the players are peasants, rather than heroes. Wat Tyler meets the IRA?
3. Just a regular old adventure
I've got my hands on a few new manuals that I'd like to try out: Fairy Tale, Kobolds Ate My Baby, and Burning Wheel. All look vaguely interesting, and maybe it would be nice to just try one of them for a laugh, and do a bit of GMing, rather than trying to make an entirely new system.
4. Some sort of educational games
I'd like to design a unit of medieval history based entirely on the use of games. Hmm.
I miss gaming. I haven't had any time for it in months.
1. Resurrect the Arthurian RPG
This one has been around and around. This was its last incarnation, involving a deck of cards with quotes from Malory to stimulate story-telling, with every player playing a knight on a quest of some sort. I'm thinking of doing something similar, but different. The setting is a knight and his retinue on a quest. The knight will achieve some sort of resolution (success or some sort of revelation about himself). The players of the game play the knight's hangers-on. (A sage, a rogue, a dwarf, a damsel, whatever). They players compete, somewhat, to decide the fate of their "extras." Who will turn out to be an evil villain? Who will turn out to be a hero(ine) in their own right? Etc. Character creation will be based on the use of adjectives. I'm sure the more I think about this concept that I want to avoid numbers as much as possible. Still, it's a bit like "London Pleasures" from Keep the Aspidistra Flying: the work that the young would-be poet continues adding to, editing, and carrying around, trying to convince himself that he'll finish it, trying to convince himself that he really is an artist...
2. PeasantKwest
Or something similar. I'd like an rpg in which the players are peasants, rather than heroes. Wat Tyler meets the IRA?
3. Just a regular old adventure
I've got my hands on a few new manuals that I'd like to try out: Fairy Tale, Kobolds Ate My Baby, and Burning Wheel. All look vaguely interesting, and maybe it would be nice to just try one of them for a laugh, and do a bit of GMing, rather than trying to make an entirely new system.
4. Some sort of educational games
I'd like to design a unit of medieval history based entirely on the use of games. Hmm.
I miss gaming. I haven't had any time for it in months.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Shared Reality
Huizinga said that the spoilsport is more reviled than the cheat, because while the cheat at least preserves the sense of importance of the game, the spoilsport destroys the magical circle in which it occurs.
Years ago I went on holiday with a friend of mine back to his home town. We did the usual laddish things with his mates that have no place on this blog. We also played D&D.
I had been quite eager to have a hand at the game. I'd been DMing back at university, but hadn't been on the other side of the table for a while. His mates had had a campaign going on for several years, off and on, so I prepared my character. Gareth was a bard in the old sense of the word: an adviser, diplomat, and occasional spy. He was imperious, proud of his position, and relied on a +20 Diplomacy bonus (don't ask) to get his way.
The party had been acting as a mercenary gang in the employ of a powerful warlord, sorting out his business in the provinces, extending his influence, shaving off a generous portion of the profits for themselves (including the entire output of a silver mine they captured from, who else, kobolds). Gareth was introduced into this scenario as an agent from the warlord sent to check up on his gangsters. During the introductions phase, Gareth made his disdain quite clear to the party, insinuating that a shake-down was intended at that no nonsense would be tolerated. A member of the party, an ogre monk (ogre monk! honestly!), promptly punched Gareth in the face. Healing potions were applied.
I was furious (read: your author, not your author's character, though he was not too pleased either). I don't know how they play D&D in the sticks, but where I'm from people can define their characters without having the rest of the party beat them down (note: this is a lie). My hangover (see "laddish activities") didn't help the situation. As we drove out to get breakfast, the monk's player apologised, but assured me that is, indeed, how they play in the sticks. I rethought my position.
The thing is, the campaign had been run up until then on the basis of the party as a private army, barely held in check by their superiors. They did not so much "take orders" as "quest hooks." As high-level combat-focussed romper-stompers, (see ogre monk and his companion, half-dragon fighter), they were not accustomed to taking orders from anyone: least of all a weedy little human bard.
That afternoon, after we had indulged in coffee and fried food, I returned to Gareth. As he recovered from his "introduction," I decided to play him differently. He was NO LONGER an inspector sent to check on the mercenaries. Now the party consisted of a brutish mercenary gang... with a very persuasive agent. He negotiated higher pay, he negotiated past troublesome garrisons(towards the people we REALLY wanted to smash), and he gambled incessantly. In return, he used the party's muscle to set himself up as mayor (we deposed the old regime) of a small logging town, where he settled down to set up his own bardic college. (Translations: settled down means I wasn't going to get another chance to play, and a bardic college is a guild of spies).
In game, the whole situation was mildly hilarious. Gareth had the pomposity literally knocked out of him and became a sniveling hanger-on of very violent people, which was the career path he had suited himself for. Out of game, it involved a serious argument, the liberal application of breakfast, and a compromise. What was the problem and how was it resolved?
The problem was that I had very different expectations about the game to anyone else at the table. This isn't surprising: they were old mates who had been playing the same game for years. With only a few hints to go on, in my mind I decided the game would be about my great and amazing bard leading the party through intrigues. I wasn't quite sure what the rest of them would be good for, but I was pretty sure my character was going to rock. They, of course, thought of the game as being about them going around the world beating up whomever they pleased with little or no oversight of any kind. Those two realities literally collided in the game. Being in the minority, of course, it was obvious my reality had to go.
We solved the problem by building a shared vision of the game, one that incorporated both their traditional playing style and my vision of my character's role (who the hell plays a bard?). The DM was happy to accommodate me, strewing our path with dupes to be duped, and fools and money soon to be parted. The party was pleased to let me scheme and plot, and even pull the odd one over on other party members from time to time, as long as they got to play their parts too.
Games are based around a shared premise. You can't play magnetic golf according to the rules of electric bumble-puppy (a can of tuna to whoever gets that reference). Often in play the players have to renegotiate the premise, but it has to be agreed or else there is no game. If you call out the premise as ridiculous, you're a spoilsport. And that's worse that loading the dice.
Years ago I went on holiday with a friend of mine back to his home town. We did the usual laddish things with his mates that have no place on this blog. We also played D&D.
I had been quite eager to have a hand at the game. I'd been DMing back at university, but hadn't been on the other side of the table for a while. His mates had had a campaign going on for several years, off and on, so I prepared my character. Gareth was a bard in the old sense of the word: an adviser, diplomat, and occasional spy. He was imperious, proud of his position, and relied on a +20 Diplomacy bonus (don't ask) to get his way.
The party had been acting as a mercenary gang in the employ of a powerful warlord, sorting out his business in the provinces, extending his influence, shaving off a generous portion of the profits for themselves (including the entire output of a silver mine they captured from, who else, kobolds). Gareth was introduced into this scenario as an agent from the warlord sent to check up on his gangsters. During the introductions phase, Gareth made his disdain quite clear to the party, insinuating that a shake-down was intended at that no nonsense would be tolerated. A member of the party, an ogre monk (ogre monk! honestly!), promptly punched Gareth in the face. Healing potions were applied.
I was furious (read: your author, not your author's character, though he was not too pleased either). I don't know how they play D&D in the sticks, but where I'm from people can define their characters without having the rest of the party beat them down (note: this is a lie). My hangover (see "laddish activities") didn't help the situation. As we drove out to get breakfast, the monk's player apologised, but assured me that is, indeed, how they play in the sticks. I rethought my position.
The thing is, the campaign had been run up until then on the basis of the party as a private army, barely held in check by their superiors. They did not so much "take orders" as "quest hooks." As high-level combat-focussed romper-stompers, (see ogre monk and his companion, half-dragon fighter), they were not accustomed to taking orders from anyone: least of all a weedy little human bard.
That afternoon, after we had indulged in coffee and fried food, I returned to Gareth. As he recovered from his "introduction," I decided to play him differently. He was NO LONGER an inspector sent to check on the mercenaries. Now the party consisted of a brutish mercenary gang... with a very persuasive agent. He negotiated higher pay, he negotiated past troublesome garrisons(towards the people we REALLY wanted to smash), and he gambled incessantly. In return, he used the party's muscle to set himself up as mayor (we deposed the old regime) of a small logging town, where he settled down to set up his own bardic college. (Translations: settled down means I wasn't going to get another chance to play, and a bardic college is a guild of spies).
In game, the whole situation was mildly hilarious. Gareth had the pomposity literally knocked out of him and became a sniveling hanger-on of very violent people, which was the career path he had suited himself for. Out of game, it involved a serious argument, the liberal application of breakfast, and a compromise. What was the problem and how was it resolved?
The problem was that I had very different expectations about the game to anyone else at the table. This isn't surprising: they were old mates who had been playing the same game for years. With only a few hints to go on, in my mind I decided the game would be about my great and amazing bard leading the party through intrigues. I wasn't quite sure what the rest of them would be good for, but I was pretty sure my character was going to rock. They, of course, thought of the game as being about them going around the world beating up whomever they pleased with little or no oversight of any kind. Those two realities literally collided in the game. Being in the minority, of course, it was obvious my reality had to go.
We solved the problem by building a shared vision of the game, one that incorporated both their traditional playing style and my vision of my character's role (who the hell plays a bard?). The DM was happy to accommodate me, strewing our path with dupes to be duped, and fools and money soon to be parted. The party was pleased to let me scheme and plot, and even pull the odd one over on other party members from time to time, as long as they got to play their parts too.
Games are based around a shared premise. You can't play magnetic golf according to the rules of electric bumble-puppy (a can of tuna to whoever gets that reference). Often in play the players have to renegotiate the premise, but it has to be agreed or else there is no game. If you call out the premise as ridiculous, you're a spoilsport. And that's worse that loading the dice.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Designing games for education
(this is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to a friend)
I've started thinking whether one couldn't make a textbook of games. Rather than reading two pages in a text and answering set questions for each lesson (which is what happens in most classrooms I've seen), students would play a short game then reflect on the experience, or a component of a game designed for 4-5 lessons. It would still appeal to teachers who lean on textbooks as the entirety of their course (truly inexcusable, but it's a market). It would appeal to schools worried about kids getting disengaged and dropping out. And if it were well-designed it could have all of the learning merit of a textbook, combined with the merits of games.
In my experience, there are a few restrictions on designing games for educational settings, which actually make them easier to design as they set convenient boundaries on the project. Note that most of these apply to games to be played in a single period, I'd have nothing against a game designed to take 5 periods.
1. The rules have to be simple enough to explain in ten minutes or less. If your rules fill more than an A4 sheet of paper, they're too complicated.
2. The game needs to be playable within a confined time space. Either design it so that it ends when certain objectives are achieved, which one can expect to be achieved reasonably soon (sometimes with teacher coaching), or it can be cut off partway through with no real consequences (i.e. a trading game where students are trying to make a profit, so you cut it off after X minutes and ask who's the richest).
3. The game needs to achieve certain clearly defined learning goals. A good educational game will introduce two or three concepts (supply and demand, the floating value of money) and open up some questions for discussion.
4. The game should fit into a program of teaching. What do students need to understand to play? What will they learn and be able to use after they play?
The fun thing about being a teacher is that you can make a game designed for twenty players and be guaranteed enough people to play. You can watch, or design a role for yourself (banker, journalist, whatever). Keep in mind that games vary. Educational games tend to sit on a spectrum between Simulation and Role-play. A pure simulation, like a card game or board game, creates rules and structures for players to work in. They have clearly defined goals and chase them. Then they can reflect on how the rules and constraints of the game reflect the real world, or not. Role-plays are much more about discovering the motivations of actors in the real world, and examining how they interact. A lot of games can incorporate elements of both.
I've started thinking whether one couldn't make a textbook of games. Rather than reading two pages in a text and answering set questions for each lesson (which is what happens in most classrooms I've seen), students would play a short game then reflect on the experience, or a component of a game designed for 4-5 lessons. It would still appeal to teachers who lean on textbooks as the entirety of their course (truly inexcusable, but it's a market). It would appeal to schools worried about kids getting disengaged and dropping out. And if it were well-designed it could have all of the learning merit of a textbook, combined with the merits of games.
In my experience, there are a few restrictions on designing games for educational settings, which actually make them easier to design as they set convenient boundaries on the project. Note that most of these apply to games to be played in a single period, I'd have nothing against a game designed to take 5 periods.
1. The rules have to be simple enough to explain in ten minutes or less. If your rules fill more than an A4 sheet of paper, they're too complicated.
2. The game needs to be playable within a confined time space. Either design it so that it ends when certain objectives are achieved, which one can expect to be achieved reasonably soon (sometimes with teacher coaching), or it can be cut off partway through with no real consequences (i.e. a trading game where students are trying to make a profit, so you cut it off after X minutes and ask who's the richest).
3. The game needs to achieve certain clearly defined learning goals. A good educational game will introduce two or three concepts (supply and demand, the floating value of money) and open up some questions for discussion.
4. The game should fit into a program of teaching. What do students need to understand to play? What will they learn and be able to use after they play?
The fun thing about being a teacher is that you can make a game designed for twenty players and be guaranteed enough people to play. You can watch, or design a role for yourself (banker, journalist, whatever). Keep in mind that games vary. Educational games tend to sit on a spectrum between Simulation and Role-play. A pure simulation, like a card game or board game, creates rules and structures for players to work in. They have clearly defined goals and chase them. Then they can reflect on how the rules and constraints of the game reflect the real world, or not. Role-plays are much more about discovering the motivations of actors in the real world, and examining how they interact. A lot of games can incorporate elements of both.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
South Africa Simulation
(discussion of this game available on the Story Games for All forums).
TOWNSHIP REBELLION SIMULATION RULES
HOUSING: Unemployed workers must return to their Bantustans. There they may suffer from disease or starvation. The best solution is to find work in Johannesburg. If you can afford the rent, stay in Soweto. If you can't, stay at Crossroads. But remember: Crossroads is an illegal squatter settlement. The police may disperse it at any time.
FACTORIES AND MINES: Workers enter, sit at a chair, spend 1 energy token, and produce either 2 machinery or 1 diamond. No chair, no work. Chairs count as machinery, which must be replaced each year. Workers waiting for work should form a line leading to the factory or mine. After they work, they must return to their place of residence before getting back in line.
SABOTAGE: Some subversives are attempting to sabotage workplaces. To do this, they deposit a sabotage counter where their energy counter for work would go. That immediately destroys all machinery in the mine or factory, which must now be replaced by the owner. Needless to say, sabotage is illegal.
LAWS: As long as the government is in power, it may add or remove any laws it deems necessary. If the government is seen to be too soft on terrorism, or the economy starts to fail, other parties may start winning more seats in parliament. The government may ban any individual or organisation for subversive activities.
ROBBEN ISLAND: The police may throw people in jail, up to five at a time. They can be kept there for a few minutes (90 day law) or the government may make a good case (or new laws), in which they can be kept there as long as needed.
GUNS: Several parties in the game have access to guns. To use a gun, give it to the target. Tear the ticket in half. The target is now dead. They re-incarnate the following year. Roll a die. 1-2, Zulu. 3-4, Xhosa. 5, Tswana. 6, White (may be hired by police, government, or factory owners).
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT: Every time the government commits an obvious injustice, international support falls. Significant reforms may make it rise (but irritate South African conservatives). If support falls too far, there may be some form of sanctions. Maintaining law and order is not in and of itself considered an injustice.
IMPORTS: Factory and mine owners have to import new machine parts each year. The store owner as to import foodstuffs (energy tokens). The costs are the following:
Machinery - 120 rand per chair, divided by the current strength of the rand. (So 24, 30, 40, 60, 120).
Food - 7 rand per token - current strength of the rand. (2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
If there is large-scale rioting or strikes, the rand will fall in value.
TIME: Each year lasts 5 minutes. The teacher will announce year changes.
For questions about the rules ask the teacher during the game.
Scenario: It is 1983. The National Party, under Prime Minister Botha, is desperately trying to hold the country together. The government must avert economic crisis, electoral defeat, and the revolution that is brewing in the townships and the countryside.
Timing:
Before class, arrange classroom with 3 Bantustans, Zimbabwe (no SA police allowed), Soweto, Crossroads, a mine, a factory, a store, a jail, and Johannesburg. Draw up all current variables on board.
Government support: 75% (lose 5% for every reform, 10% for every year in which businesses lose money)
International support: 7 (1-year boycott of SA goods at 5, investments withdrawn at 3, sanctions and a total shutdown of intl. trade at 1).
Strength of the rand: 5
Current legislation
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949)
Suppression of Communism Act (1950, bans subversive organisations)
Group Areas Act and Pass Laws (1950)
Immorality Amendment Act (1950)
Bantu Education Act (1953)
The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)
Internal security act (1976, bans public meetings)
Black Trade Unions are legal
10 minutes to explain rules.
-Everyone plays a role. Try to act in character. If you have any questions, ask the teacher.
-Please follow the rules on the first page. You may also refer to your textbooks at any time (unless the government bans them as subversive literature).
-The teacher may alter the rules at any point in the game due to unforeseen circumstances.
-NO actual violence, needless to say.
-I will act as moderator, international trader, and timekeeper. For the most part, the game is in students' hands.
30 minutes to play
-5 minutes per year. Spend your time ad-libbing mine shaft collapses and natural disasters.
-If game-play stalls, try a UN resolution, get harsh about international approval, start an economic crisis, or egg on the political organisers. If all else fails, have the Conservative party pick up 20% of parliament in 1987, or hand the SACP a huge arms cache (drop it off in Zimbabwe). The country should be in crisis by 85 or 86, and meltdown by 88. Stop the game in 1990.
-When in doubt, rule on the side of the apartheid regime. Enforce jailing and massacres (at a price in international support).
10 minutes to reflect
-How hard was it to govern the country?
-How hard was it to organise resistance?
-What did this simulation leave out?
Prime Minister Botha
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Avoid electoral defeat, a collapse of the economy, and revolution. Preserve apartheid as long as possible.
Special powers: May ban any organisation. Controls the police. May introduce or revoke any law, as long as parliamentary majority holds out.
Agent for Anglo-American Diamond Company
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Sell diamonds abroad as profitably as possible. Tackle strikes and demonstrations. If international support drops too far, however, the parent company will pull out its investments (80%).
Special powers: Runs the mine. May hire a worker to spend 1 energy token to mine 1 diamond. Every year, mine machinery will need to be maintained, requiring imports from abroad.
Agent for British Tractor Manufacturers
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Hire workers to create farming equipment, which can be sold to other African states and western countries. If international support drops too far, however, the parent company will pull out its investments (80% rand).
Special powers: Runs the factory. May hire a worker to spend 1 energy token to produce 2 units for export. Every year, factory machinery will need to be maintained, requiring imports from abroad.
Landlord
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Collect rent from the residents of Soweto. Sit back. Be rich. Mwa ha ha.
Special powers: Collect rent. Suggested start is 5 rand per year in Soweto (blacks only), and 50 rand per year in Johannesburg (whites only).
Minister of Police
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Root out the communist, the agitator, the terrorist. The state must be secure.
Special powers: Controls the police. Has a giant supply of guns. To use a gun, present it to a target and tear the counter in half. Now they're dead. You may also arrest people and take them to jail. If need be, recruit spies among the Bantu, and distribute arms to factions in the movement to cause infighting. Remember to keep the blacks scared, in their place. Have police harass them, demand to see their papers constantly.
Policeman
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Root out the communist, the agitator, the terrorist. The state must be secure.
Special powers: Supplied with guns. To use a gun, present it to a target and tear the counter in half. Now they're dead. You may also arrest people and take them to jail.
Policeman
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Root out the communist, the agitator, the terrorist. The state must be secure.
Special powers: Supplied with guns. To use a gun, present it to a target and tear the counter in half. Now they're dead. You may also arrest people and take them to jail.
Bantu Nelson Mandela (Xhosa)
Locale: Robben Island
Objectives: Stay strong. Try to communicate with your supporters on the outside. If more of your comrades are thrown in jail, do your best to keep their spirits up. Be ready to negotiate with the Botha government, but not unless they agree to end apartheid!
Special powers: They wouldn't dare kill you.
ANZAPO Organiser
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Organise black workers into the Azanian People's Organisation. Organise a rent strike! Ally with the trade unions and support a general strike in all industries. Overthrow the imperialist capitalist pig-dogs. Create a worker's state.
Special powers: Your identity is SECRET as you are a member of a BANNED organisation. Use these false papers to avoid attention from the police.
+
Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Xhosa), COSATU Organiser
Locale: In every mine and mill.
Objectives: Organise all workers in the mines and factories into Congress of South African Trade Unions. "To hell with politics, the strike is our weapon!"
Special powers: Strike! Strike! Strike! You are lucky that you can carry out your work openly, since black trade unions were legalised in 1980. The government wouldn't dare reverse that law... would they?
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Chief Buthelezi
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Organise Zulus into the Inkatha Freedom Party. These ANC commie nutcases are going to ruin the country. You don't care about this "Black Consciousness" nonsense either. You are proud to be Zulu, and want the government to grant rights to the Zulu homeland. See if you can make a deal with the government. If they grant you a few concessions, it might be worth forming an agreement with them. Particularly if that agreement gets you the guns you need to raise up the Zulu Empire again. Remember Shaka!
Special powers: You are the Prime Minister of KwaZulu, under the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act. Your party is perfectly legal, as is your power.
ANC Organiser
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Organise people into the ANC. Sabotage the racist apartheid regime. Bring forth a new democracy that provides for all its citizens. Use acts of civil disobedience (demonstrations and riots) and the sabotage of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) to make the country ungovernable, as Comrade Tambo has called for. ...Good luck.
Special powers: You have three sabotage counters. Distribute them to operatives who you can convince to join Umkhonto we Sizwe. To activate sabotage, alert the teacher (to enforce the rules), and then bring the sabotage counter to either the mine or factory. See if you can co-ordinate a mass attack on industry, perhaps followed by or just after a strike. In addition, your organisation is BANNED. Use these papers to fool the police:
+
Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
SACP Organiser
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Organise the working class into the South African Communist Party. Obtain arms from your Soviet allies and overthrow the capitalist imperialist government of South Africa. Create a Marxist-Leninist workers' state. Workers of the World Unite!
Special powers: You have a small cache of arms from the USSR. To use a gun, approach your target, present them with the ticket, and tear it in half. They are now dead. You may be able to get more guns. If you get well-organised, distribute these to the workers and prepare for the revolution... But beware! The SACP was the very first banned organisation. Keep your work a secret. Use these papers to fool the police.
+
Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Shop Owner [This was actually played by my supervising teacher]
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Buy energy tokens from abroad, sell them to black workers.
Special powers: Being white, you have the right to operate a store. You can hire shop assistants if you please.
TOWNSHIP REBELLION SIMULATION RULES
HOUSING: Unemployed workers must return to their Bantustans. There they may suffer from disease or starvation. The best solution is to find work in Johannesburg. If you can afford the rent, stay in Soweto. If you can't, stay at Crossroads. But remember: Crossroads is an illegal squatter settlement. The police may disperse it at any time.
FACTORIES AND MINES: Workers enter, sit at a chair, spend 1 energy token, and produce either 2 machinery or 1 diamond. No chair, no work. Chairs count as machinery, which must be replaced each year. Workers waiting for work should form a line leading to the factory or mine. After they work, they must return to their place of residence before getting back in line.
SABOTAGE: Some subversives are attempting to sabotage workplaces. To do this, they deposit a sabotage counter where their energy counter for work would go. That immediately destroys all machinery in the mine or factory, which must now be replaced by the owner. Needless to say, sabotage is illegal.
LAWS: As long as the government is in power, it may add or remove any laws it deems necessary. If the government is seen to be too soft on terrorism, or the economy starts to fail, other parties may start winning more seats in parliament. The government may ban any individual or organisation for subversive activities.
ROBBEN ISLAND: The police may throw people in jail, up to five at a time. They can be kept there for a few minutes (90 day law) or the government may make a good case (or new laws), in which they can be kept there as long as needed.
GUNS: Several parties in the game have access to guns. To use a gun, give it to the target. Tear the ticket in half. The target is now dead. They re-incarnate the following year. Roll a die. 1-2, Zulu. 3-4, Xhosa. 5, Tswana. 6, White (may be hired by police, government, or factory owners).
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT: Every time the government commits an obvious injustice, international support falls. Significant reforms may make it rise (but irritate South African conservatives). If support falls too far, there may be some form of sanctions. Maintaining law and order is not in and of itself considered an injustice.
IMPORTS: Factory and mine owners have to import new machine parts each year. The store owner as to import foodstuffs (energy tokens). The costs are the following:
Machinery - 120 rand per chair, divided by the current strength of the rand. (So 24, 30, 40, 60, 120).
Food - 7 rand per token - current strength of the rand. (2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
If there is large-scale rioting or strikes, the rand will fall in value.
TIME: Each year lasts 5 minutes. The teacher will announce year changes.
For questions about the rules ask the teacher during the game.
Scenario: It is 1983. The National Party, under Prime Minister Botha, is desperately trying to hold the country together. The government must avert economic crisis, electoral defeat, and the revolution that is brewing in the townships and the countryside.
Timing:
Before class, arrange classroom with 3 Bantustans, Zimbabwe (no SA police allowed), Soweto, Crossroads, a mine, a factory, a store, a jail, and Johannesburg. Draw up all current variables on board.
Government support: 75% (lose 5% for every reform, 10% for every year in which businesses lose money)
International support: 7 (1-year boycott of SA goods at 5, investments withdrawn at 3, sanctions and a total shutdown of intl. trade at 1).
Strength of the rand: 5
Current legislation
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949)
Suppression of Communism Act (1950, bans subversive organisations)
Group Areas Act and Pass Laws (1950)
Immorality Amendment Act (1950)
Bantu Education Act (1953)
The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)
Internal security act (1976, bans public meetings)
Black Trade Unions are legal
10 minutes to explain rules.
-Everyone plays a role. Try to act in character. If you have any questions, ask the teacher.
-Please follow the rules on the first page. You may also refer to your textbooks at any time (unless the government bans them as subversive literature).
-The teacher may alter the rules at any point in the game due to unforeseen circumstances.
-NO actual violence, needless to say.
-I will act as moderator, international trader, and timekeeper. For the most part, the game is in students' hands.
30 minutes to play
-5 minutes per year. Spend your time ad-libbing mine shaft collapses and natural disasters.
-If game-play stalls, try a UN resolution, get harsh about international approval, start an economic crisis, or egg on the political organisers. If all else fails, have the Conservative party pick up 20% of parliament in 1987, or hand the SACP a huge arms cache (drop it off in Zimbabwe). The country should be in crisis by 85 or 86, and meltdown by 88. Stop the game in 1990.
-When in doubt, rule on the side of the apartheid regime. Enforce jailing and massacres (at a price in international support).
10 minutes to reflect
-How hard was it to govern the country?
-How hard was it to organise resistance?
-What did this simulation leave out?
Prime Minister Botha
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Avoid electoral defeat, a collapse of the economy, and revolution. Preserve apartheid as long as possible.
Special powers: May ban any organisation. Controls the police. May introduce or revoke any law, as long as parliamentary majority holds out.
Agent for Anglo-American Diamond Company
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Sell diamonds abroad as profitably as possible. Tackle strikes and demonstrations. If international support drops too far, however, the parent company will pull out its investments (80%).
Special powers: Runs the mine. May hire a worker to spend 1 energy token to mine 1 diamond. Every year, mine machinery will need to be maintained, requiring imports from abroad.
Agent for British Tractor Manufacturers
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Hire workers to create farming equipment, which can be sold to other African states and western countries. If international support drops too far, however, the parent company will pull out its investments (80% rand).
Special powers: Runs the factory. May hire a worker to spend 1 energy token to produce 2 units for export. Every year, factory machinery will need to be maintained, requiring imports from abroad.
Landlord
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Collect rent from the residents of Soweto. Sit back. Be rich. Mwa ha ha.
Special powers: Collect rent. Suggested start is 5 rand per year in Soweto (blacks only), and 50 rand per year in Johannesburg (whites only).
Minister of Police
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Root out the communist, the agitator, the terrorist. The state must be secure.
Special powers: Controls the police. Has a giant supply of guns. To use a gun, present it to a target and tear the counter in half. Now they're dead. You may also arrest people and take them to jail. If need be, recruit spies among the Bantu, and distribute arms to factions in the movement to cause infighting. Remember to keep the blacks scared, in their place. Have police harass them, demand to see their papers constantly.
Policeman
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Root out the communist, the agitator, the terrorist. The state must be secure.
Special powers: Supplied with guns. To use a gun, present it to a target and tear the counter in half. Now they're dead. You may also arrest people and take them to jail.
Policeman
Locale: Johannesburg
Objectives: Root out the communist, the agitator, the terrorist. The state must be secure.
Special powers: Supplied with guns. To use a gun, present it to a target and tear the counter in half. Now they're dead. You may also arrest people and take them to jail.
Bantu Nelson Mandela (Xhosa)
Locale: Robben Island
Objectives: Stay strong. Try to communicate with your supporters on the outside. If more of your comrades are thrown in jail, do your best to keep their spirits up. Be ready to negotiate with the Botha government, but not unless they agree to end apartheid!
Special powers: They wouldn't dare kill you.
ANZAPO Organiser
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Organise black workers into the Azanian People's Organisation. Organise a rent strike! Ally with the trade unions and support a general strike in all industries. Overthrow the imperialist capitalist pig-dogs. Create a worker's state.
Special powers: Your identity is SECRET as you are a member of a BANNED organisation. Use these false papers to avoid attention from the police.
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Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Xhosa), COSATU Organiser
Locale: In every mine and mill.
Objectives: Organise all workers in the mines and factories into Congress of South African Trade Unions. "To hell with politics, the strike is our weapon!"
Special powers: Strike! Strike! Strike! You are lucky that you can carry out your work openly, since black trade unions were legalised in 1980. The government wouldn't dare reverse that law... would they?
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Chief Buthelezi
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Organise Zulus into the Inkatha Freedom Party. These ANC commie nutcases are going to ruin the country. You don't care about this "Black Consciousness" nonsense either. You are proud to be Zulu, and want the government to grant rights to the Zulu homeland. See if you can make a deal with the government. If they grant you a few concessions, it might be worth forming an agreement with them. Particularly if that agreement gets you the guns you need to raise up the Zulu Empire again. Remember Shaka!
Special powers: You are the Prime Minister of KwaZulu, under the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act. Your party is perfectly legal, as is your power.
ANC Organiser
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Organise people into the ANC. Sabotage the racist apartheid regime. Bring forth a new democracy that provides for all its citizens. Use acts of civil disobedience (demonstrations and riots) and the sabotage of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) to make the country ungovernable, as Comrade Tambo has called for. ...Good luck.
Special powers: You have three sabotage counters. Distribute them to operatives who you can convince to join Umkhonto we Sizwe. To activate sabotage, alert the teacher (to enforce the rules), and then bring the sabotage counter to either the mine or factory. See if you can co-ordinate a mass attack on industry, perhaps followed by or just after a strike. In addition, your organisation is BANNED. Use these papers to fool the police:
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Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
SACP Organiser
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Organise the working class into the South African Communist Party. Obtain arms from your Soviet allies and overthrow the capitalist imperialist government of South Africa. Create a Marxist-Leninist workers' state. Workers of the World Unite!
Special powers: You have a small cache of arms from the USSR. To use a gun, approach your target, present them with the ticket, and tear it in half. They are now dead. You may be able to get more guns. If you get well-organised, distribute these to the workers and prepare for the revolution... But beware! The SACP was the very first banned organisation. Keep your work a secret. Use these papers to fool the police.
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Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Zulu)
Locale: KwaZulu Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short. Unless, of course, Chief Buthelezi figures out how to change things.
Special powers: You have the right to join the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Xhosa)
Locale: Transkei Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Bantu (Tswana)
Locale: Bophuthatswana Bantustan
Objectives: Try to find work in Johannesburg. Soweto is miserable, but life in the Bantustans is brutal, miserable, and short.
Special powers: None. No rights either.
Shop Owner [This was actually played by my supervising teacher]
Locale: Soweto
Objectives: Buy energy tokens from abroad, sell them to black workers.
Special powers: Being white, you have the right to operate a store. You can hire shop assistants if you please.
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