Spent part of the day working on the ashcan layout for Brennan’s upcoming mythic Anasazi game, How We Came to Live Here. Here’s my first crack at a character sheet:
This game is going to rock so hard. Along with Sign in Stranger (and last year’s Blossoms Are Falling, actually), it’s going to help make a case for making “culture” central in our play, not merely superficial color. Hopefully Brennan will be happy enough with my work that we can collaborate again once HWCTLH is dubbed ready for the Big Time. I hear Thor is giving it a healthy going-over right now, but it’s pretty damn good already. Like Brennan said, “Game design is definitely a skill you can practice, since I seem to improve with each attempt. This is the best game I’ve written so far.”
Can’t wait to play it.
2008 Jun 9 at 8:43 am
Sweet. That validates one of my game design goals right there. One of the purposes of this game is an exploration of culture (although I would include Dogs in the Vineyard in your list of games that do this).
2008 Jun 9 at 9:43 am
Yeah, no, you’re totally right about Dogs. I guess I tend to unfairly overlook it when thinking about depicting cultures because it illustrates a “white” culture. Interestingly, though, it’s also a minority one that has traditionally been violently persecuted. Plus there’s something really cool about seeing a white culture modeled in roleplaying terms, because it points out many elements that are highly problematic in our own society, even if we aren’t frontier Mormons.
2008 Jun 9 at 9:43 am
Oh, yeah, also Steal Away Jordan. Like, duh.
2008 Jun 9 at 12:43 pm
I like it so far, except for the need to rotate the sheet to read about faith and strength. Also, is there any way to put the wheel symbol dead center in the sheet? Because that would rock.