Game Ideas from September - December 2010

If you follow my Twitter feed, you're subjected to a lot of random game ideas. Ranging from simple pitches to little mechanical ideas. Here's a collection from the end of last year.

Game Idea: Chargen+Worldgen in 5x5: How did you change the World / People / Yourself? Only answer one. Other questions left open for play.

Game Idea: Retheme Dixit with works of art. You BS art theory critique, other players guess which art you're talking about.

Game Idea: Actually, just a mechanic. Roll 3d6, each a different color. Choose lowest/middle/highest: short-term effects. Colors: long-term.

Why does this idea sound so familiar? Roll dice. Choose odds/evens as successes. Get the opposite in XP. (Ex: Evens = Successes, Odds = XP.)

Idea: Turn-based strat game. No board/pieces. Hands in diff positions. Open with wave? Looks like handshake, pattycake, Mridangam? *Not* RPS

Idea: Chess. You do not control your own pieces. You tell your opponent to move a piece. Hm.

Idea: Key Words. Another iteration of HBR's free words, Leftovers' power words, Do's goal words. Players use key words to unlock, um, stuff.

Ambitious Idea: Supplement for Do. Letters are real geopolitical scenarios. Post-play stories submitted as data from naïve experts.

Idea for framing a failed action in RPG: Pick one: Wrong Thing, Wrong Time, Wrong Place. Extend to more vectors? Buddhist eightfold path?

Idea: Adapt Werewolf/ShadowsOverCamelot. Replace secret traitor w/ disguised emperor. Players do good deeds for each other. May get reward.

Idea: Water glasses arranged in a grid. Gameplay involves pouring water from glass to glass.

Animal Story Game Idea: Revive "I want to learn X from Y" http://bit.ly/guBynd Each player is an animal. Goal: Teach another animal a moral.

Here are a few rapid thoughts that lead to what is now called Rulers.

Game Idea 1/2: Rulers. UA+Mortal Coil. Mod fantasy RPG setting. Based on "rule" based fantasy, like Highlander, Lost, Deathnote, Inception.

Game Idea 2/2: Game design=underground psionics. Protagonists ("Rulers") impose rules on reality for profit, etc. Opponents find loopholes.

System idea for Rulers: ORE for res+Happy Birthday Robot for Ruling: Unmatched die=1pt. Spend X pts to create a Rule X words long.

Idea for Rulers: When protagonists can on-the-spot create rules for human behavior, the Doctor Who RPG's Talk/Move/Do/Fight is juicy.

Idea for Rulers: Much X-Men fic hinges on heroes being unique in their power. I'm curious about lots of people having the same power.

Idea for Rulers: Possible endpoint of a game: Depose the GM to become GM in next game.

This one became Name Tag:

Game Idea: Each player has something written on their back. Each tries to be the first to read another player's back out loud.

This loosely inspired the Thousand Year Game Design Challenge:

Ficly idea to write later: Board game played by two groups. One move per generation. Story spans centuries.

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