Here is, roughly, how my game will work. I've only got another day or two to work on it anyway and this seems alright to me. I think I personally would enjoy playing this.
First of all, you set up.
SETUP
1. Draw a map of the area in which you live. It can be a spaceship or it can be a station, the difference is negligible but you should consider it. Either way, you are alone but you are able to have a rather large space if you wish. Add a few notes if you like, make it personal.
2. Write a bio of your astronaut. This doesn't have to be an epic life story, but simply enough to give you some flesh to get some hooks into, enough to give you a person that you can inhabit. You can write it like your astronaut wrote it themself, like it's a personnel file, like it's some sort of wikipedia entry or (and this is my favourite idea) like a class project about their dad that your astronaut's kid wrote. Make sure to give them a name you like! Think about why your character is alone out here and took this job.
3. Find somewhere to post multiple documents, videos and possibly audio recordings online. Somewhere people will be able to view, comment and reply. They don't necessarily have to be in the same place but you could perhaps create a blog to keep all of the varied links together. People will (hopefully, if they enjoy this game and enjoy participating with people playing it) send you videos and messages, but don't read or view them before the end of the game. After all, it's only a single player thing so you shouldn't engage with the outside world. It breaks character!
4. Note down, somewhere (publicly or privately, your choice) the levels of your three gauges, which are Sanity, Health and Happiness. They all start at Level 10 but will fluctuate throughout the game.
And that's all the setup for now. Oh and you'll need a deck of cards that you can keep to yourself and not have disturbed.
The Game Proper
G is a simple enough game to play. It's divided up into 52 turns, each of which represents one week of time passing for your astronaut. Most of the turns will be relatively uneventful. They should not take you long either, although that depends on how long you take to write a journal entry or record a video or something like that. After all, you'll be doing it each turn. Each turn is divided into two parts. The first part is Stuff Happens and the second is Create Something.
Stuff Happens
In this phase, you flip over the top card of the deck. When you do, you're looking at two things. First is the colour, second is the value of the card.
Red Cards represent an overall good week for your astronaut whereas Black Cards represent a negative and bad one.
The value of the card is how much it has effected the mood and disposition of your astronaut. Face cards have a value of 10, except under certain circumstances that I will explain.
Aces are Incidents and are also different.
If the card is neither an Ace nor a face card that meets certain conditions, you get a number of shifts based on the value of it. A shift is changing the value of one of your Gauges by 1. Whether this is up or down depends on the colour of the card. This means that if the card is red, you have Up-Shifts equal to the value of the card. If the card is Red and has a value of 8, for example, you may distribute 8 Up-Shifts among your gauges in any way you wish, each Up-Shift increasing the value of that particular gauge by 1. If the card is black, you have Down-Shifts and have to reduce your gauges equal to the value of the card.
The maximum value of each gauge is 10. If all of them are at 10 and you have Up-Shifts left, any extras are lost. If you have Up-Shifts and any of your gauges are below 10, you must use them on those gauges. You cannot deliberately assign them to a gauge that's at maximum.
The minimum value of each gauge is 0. If all of them are at 0 and you have any Down-Shifts left, any extras are lost. If all of them are at 0 and you have Down-Shifts left, any extras are lost. If you have Down-Shifts and any of your gauges are above 0, you must use them on those gauges. You cannot deliberately assign them to a gauge that's at minimum.
So that's what happens if you draw a non-face card. You spread the shifts amongst your gauges.
If you draw an Ace, you suffer an Incident. I'll go into some more detail about that in a moment.
If you draw a Jack and one of your gauges is below 5, you suffer an Incident. Otherwise it simply has a value of 10 and applies shifts as normal.
If you draw a Queen and two of your gauges are below 5, you suffer an Incident. Otherwise it simply has a value of 10 and applies shifts as normal.
If you draw a King and all three of your gauges are below 5, you suffer an Incident. Otherwise it simply has a value of 10.
When you suffer an Incident, you choose one of your gauges that has a value above 0 and you reduce it to 0 immediately. No other shifts happen this turn. When you Create Something, you must discuss and describe the Incident instead of or as well as whatever else.
Just to make it clear, the colour of an Ace makes no difference and if you meet the conditions for a Face Card causing an Incident, their colour doesn't matter anymore either.
Create Something
This part of the game is simple enough. You 'Create Something' and put it in a place that others can see it. You are creating the public record of your astronaut's one year mission. You may create what you wish, but here are some suggestions. Always remember to keep in mind the events of the turn, how your gauges have changed and how that has changed your astronaut. 10 is flying high, 0 is rock bottom, everything else is variable.
A Video: Record a video that's either some kind of 'video journal' or a message to someone back home. It doesn't have to be particularly long, just long enough for you to say what you want to say that day.
Designer's Intent Challenge: Record no fewer than 5 videos through the course of this game. It's a unique and interesting medium.
A Journal Entry: Write a journal entry in your astronaut's journal. Describe feelings, events that have happened, memories, thoughts. All sorts of things.
A Dream: Write about a dream you had (which of course you invent wholesale). Feel free to include outlandish elements, people from the astronaut's history, that kind of thing. Be creative with this one. It's a chance to step outside the normal logic of the game and to give some sort of insight into the concerns of the astronaut.
And uh, that's it. That's my game. That's how you play it.
Some questions for specific feedback:
- Would you enjoy playing this game?
- Is there enough 'management' or 'manipulation' of the gauges?
- Is it too arbitrary?
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