Game Chef 2017

HERE is my submission (with the indispensable help of my creative partner) for Game Chef 2017.  The theme was Borders, with Yarn, Smoke, Cut, and Echo as the ingredients.

We thought through several ideas, and we tried to think through making an area control game about shifting borders between countries or factions with yarn for the borders, but it proved to be too wonky for the time we had in development.  We also spit-balled another game that I hope we can get written and posted before it goes cold, called Wake.  Like many of the 70 odd games submitted, it also included death as the border, and used stories for the element of yarn.  The idea was that we would be telling stories about the same character with ritual spoken responses (echo) to commemorate various events in the life of a character who'd died.  Each story would be shaped by an emotion, possibly by a randomly drawn length of yarn corresponding to that emotion.  After the story, and after the spoken ritual, the yarn would be burned.  We liked the idea as a way of building characters in reverse.

I liked that the judges sent each contestant four other games for peer review, and from those one nomination for the winning entry.  One of my reviews was for a LARP about friendship growing distant, that, while impeccably written was not a game that I would want to play.  The one I nominated was a game about characters resolving issues through the lens of hallucinations that has a Walter Mitty sort of vibe.  The other two games included two more awkward games.  The first, a competitive one that is meant to be a competitive one that would work better as a story telling game with other players adding constraining elements.  The second game was very slim, and more awkward still with mechanics and information that drove exactly nothing in the  game, while thematically being about a breakup.  All in all, not a fun game.

It was good to compete and complete a challenging creative project.  This is my second competition submission (the last being last years 200 rpg challenge).  Gotta push through and get busy!

Golden Cobra 2016

http://www.goldencobra.org/

5 September to 5 October 2016. 

The goal of the 2016 contest is to generate elegant, expansive, uplifting games. Golden Cobras will be awarded in five categories:

• Best use of somatic elements
• Most culturally responsible design
• Best use of magical realism
• Funniest
• Most Convention Ready

Optional ingredients:

• dinosaurs
• ghosts
• parasites
• stardust

In order to be considered for a Golden Cobra, your game must:

1. Consist of one or both sides of an 8 ½ by 11 inch or A4 sheet of paper. (Minimum point size accepted is 8.)
2. Games should be playable with zero to minimal prep.

Further rules:

1. Be a new, unpublished freeform larp. It is neither a tabletop roleplaying game or a video game.
2. Present your game in a readable, playable format (pdf preferred).
3. Your name can only appear on one entry but teams are welcome.
4. Submit your game by 5 October in .pdf format and in English to submissions@goldencobra.org. Parallel versions in other languages or other formats are encouraged.
5. You retain all rights to your work but grant the judges permission to print out and play the game you submit, and for it to be included in a free anthology after the contest.

Freeform LARP?...:

What we call freeform larp occupies a middle space between tabletop and full-blown live action role playing. They come in all shapes and sizes, all along the spectrum and keep incorporating new things as they come along. As a rule of thumb if there are simple, clever game mechanics but you have to stand up and move around at some point, it's probably freeform larp!