Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The FATE of Being Human?

I've been thinking about Being Human a lot on the subway.

I do a lot of my thinking on my train ride to work. It's a good set of time to sit back and and think about what else I could use for the game. I really want to tell this type of story, I really want to push the idea of fighting between being that monster you are and the human you were and want to be.

However, I'm having a problem coming up with a system that works for me. It's coming along with CyberPark, but the "Being Human" one I'm drawing up a blank. That usually makes me start to look at other systems and maybe I should make it a FATE game. That said, part of me hates that because now I feel like some kind of giant band wagoner who is like "Oh, everybody is doing FATE games."

The other part of me, the designer part of me, goes "Fuck no! I can make it on my own!"

But that second one is a lie. It really wasn't working.

The first question is, is FATE even a good idea? It's designed to be pulpy and full of action, and that's fine. I don't think that having action in this game is a bad thing because there are people are groups and enemies that are certainly going to want to make sure that you don't achieve your goal, or are out for revenge or other things like that. I want to know if it's a good idea to use for the emotional drama that I'm hoping the game allows for.

Is it possible? The folks at Machine Age Productions do because that's a big part of their Apotheosis Drive X kickstarter. It's not just an action mecha game, it's a game of high drama. White Picket Witches is all about the relationships of five witching families ... so I guess it's possible. The question comes down to how would I do that because it's still not going to be a standard RPG because the goal is to be as human as you can while bad stuff happens around you.

Maybe finding a way to do that GMless while still providing opportunities for Compelling and Invoking Aspects. Anyway, that's more thoughts for another time. 

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