State of the Justin

[jducoeur]

Haven't done any diary entries recently. This is because diary entries are mainly about one's life, and I haven't really *had* one of those for the past month.

Suffice it to say, anyone who tells you that adaptation games are easy, because the creative stuff is already done, are totally full of it. Writing this game has really given me a new appreciation for how much is *not* in a typical story. For most of the characters in Girl Genius, interesting though they are, we really know remarkably little about their backgrounds. So I'm winding up writing quite a bit of biography -- typically 1-2 pages of largely invented background per character.

Anyway, the state of my life can be summed up as "13 characters written, 14 to go". Progress, but definitely not as fast as I'd like. So I'm going to be mainly cocooned with a keyboard for the remainder of February, trying not to give myself permanent RSI as I go. Someday, I really must learn to write shorter character sheets.

BTW, may I just say how pleased I am that this particular experiment seems to be succeeding? The dark secret of Girl Genius: Agatha Heterodyne and the Perfect Construct is that it was written backwards. That is, I first agreed to run the game; then I came up with the title; then I wrote the game blurb; then I wrote the shameless plug for Intercon F. Note that nowhere in this chain of events had I even remotely figured out what the game was about -- I was simply making stuff up off the top of my head. I didn't figure out what the title of the game *meant* until a good four months later. So I am quite pleased that I seem to have taken at least most of those random statements I had been making, and pulled them together into what's looking to be a pretty good game. Nice to know that I can do that, although it's probably not an experiment to be repeated...

Comments

[jimpage363.livejournal.com]

Sounds perfectly fascinating, really. I love the title... how do you come up with a set of characters and a plot for something like that?

[jducoeur]

Well, in this particular case the characters are easier -- the game is an adaptation from my favorite comic book, so it's mainly a matter of choosing which characters I want than inventing them out of whole cloth.

In most games, it's a matter of looking at the scenario and seeing what sort of "types" would fit in it. I'm always looking for character archetypes -- indeed, one of the main classes in my game-development wiki is "Archetype". I usually make these one to three paragraphs long (somewhat longer if I know which game they're going into, and how they might fit the plot), and they get inspired by all sorts of things: literature, media, often the news. For example, reports of brutal African dictators and their various cronies often leave me dashing to the keyboard, to write down the archetypes for my next political game.

Actual characters are then built from these archetypes. I'll typically combine 1-3 character archetypes to make a decently rounded character: for instance, I might combine "Overly Efficient Businessman", "Secret Love Affair", and "Dead Childhood Friend" to give me the framework to write a biography on. I spend a little while speculating wildly about how those factors combine to make a three-dimensional person. (At least, complex enough for a four-hour game.)

As for plots, I always follow the dictum I picked up from JMS (of Babylon 5 fame). Paraphrased, it was, "Don't worry about plot, worry about character. What does this person want? What will they do to get it? What will others do to stop them from getting it? There's your plot." Works remarkably well in my experience, and automatically causes a tight plot web if applied properly...

[jimpage363.livejournal.com]

Intriguing!
That's basically how I go about plotting out stories, so it makes sense to me. I like the idea of combining the archetypes to get your character - it reminds me of those children's games where you have three sets of cards attached to one cardboard body and you mix and match the bottoms, middles and faces to get odd or interesting combinations.

I love JMS' storytelling ability. And yes, it's usually about: what will this person do if THIS happens to them? Why do they react that way? etc.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

When and where is this game going to take place?
And are all the characters spoken for?
-- Dagonell

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Intercon-G, the first weekend of March in Chelmsford MA. Both runs of the game are full, but are accepting waitlist.

[jducoeur]

In the interests of honesty: even the waitlist isn't short at this point. So I think these runs (I'm doing two the same day) should be considered full.

If it's reasonably successful, I'm fairly likely to rerun it at some point -- I'll try to remember to post an announcement if and when I do.

[tpau]

dude. that is how i write all my games. and the y tend to not suck...