This is a bare-bones draft of a beer and pretzels game that I had the idea for after thinking about social contracts and RPGs. I think I described it to Ross as a "fast paced game based on sociopathy and storytelling."
I would love to know what you guys think. Please post all your comments in the thread.
I'm also interested if anyone wants to play test this crazy thing. If you do, please record the games or get comments from the players.
Finally, if you guys want, it'd be really easy to set the game up as a PbP, although I think it will work better around a table where you can speed through actions.
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Wasponia
Premise: Wasponia is a beer and pretzels game where the players find themselves in a perfect society with the overwhelming urge of destroying it or, perhaps better, getting it to destroy itself.
About Wasponia: Wasponia is a perfect, self-contained society of fifty-thousand people. It has a suburban like feel with all of today's conveniences and all of the nostalgia of the 1950s.
Residential neighborhoods have manicured lawns and bleach white picket fences. Children play on the sidewalks while their mothers hang clothes on the clothesline.
In the commercial districts, businessmen walk about in neatly pressed suits, carrying leather briefcases, and always say “hi” to one another when they pass on the street.
The counter man at the malt shop knows all the favorite drinks of his customers.
Wasponia Police: The only thing that is not-so-perfect in perfect Wasponia is the police. The police are zealous in their mission to keep Wasponia perfect. To that end, the police are inherently suspicious of any non-Wasponians that enter into the society.
Game Master (GM): The Game Master controls the narrative by describing the end results of the players' narrated actions, determines whether players' actions raise Social Agitation, and determines whether the players' actions raise Police Suspicion.
Players: Players are dropped into Wasponia with the clothes on their back and $50 cash in their pockets. They clearly appear to residents of Wasponia as non-Wasponians. The players are not sure where they are, but they have an overwhelming urge to destroy the perfect society they have found themselves in. All of the players' actions must take into account their starting equipment and their position in the society.
Each player should come up with a Concept and an Edge. The Concept should describe the type of person the player is playing (i.e. Evangelist) and the Edge should describe the type of action the player should be able to perform better than any other player (i.e. Proselytize). Every time the player successfully uses their Edge in a situation, the player gains a point.
All Concepts must be normal occupations and all Edges must conform to normal human abilities. A player could have the Concept Psychic with the Edge Dupe Customer, but not have the Concept Psychic with the Edge Kill Others with Mind Alone. A player could have the Concept Military Commander with the Edge Tactics, but not the Concept Military Commander and the Edge Call in Special Paratroopers. Furthermore, there are no necromancers, no superhumans, no zombie-mutant-ninja-pirates, etc.
Finally, players cannot narrate actions that exceed their social position of outsider in Wasponia or exceed normal human capabilities such as “call an air strike” or “raise the dead.” Well, I guess they could attempt these actions, if they want to end up looking silly in front of the Wasponians.
Game Play: The only item needed for game play is a coin, although players should probably have paper and pens or pencils to keep track of their scores.
Players begin by introducing their character, their character's Concept, and character's Edge. Players should go around the table going either clockwise or counterclockwise, the direction doesn't matter so long as it remains consistent throughout the game. Identical Concepts and Edges are house-ruled at the table.
After introductions, game play commences with the first player narrating what action his or her character is going to do. The GM determines whether or not the player's proposed action is appropriate and whether or not the action could raise either the level of Social Agitation or Police Suspicion.
Example:
Player: My Evangelist walks to the middle of city park and uses his Edge – Proselytize to convince everyone he sees that the world is coming to an end.
GM: I'll say that if your action succeeds there is a chance Social Agitation will increase, but if you fail there is a chance Police Suspicion will increase.To determine the success of an action, the player than flips a coin. If the coin turns up heads, then the player's action succeeds. If the coin turns up tails, the players action fails. (Since the player used his Edge in performing the action, the player gets a point if he succeeds.)
Depending on the outcome of the player's coin flip, the GM flips a coin to determine whether or not Social Agitation or Police Suspicion is raised. If the coin turns up heads, then the level is raised. If the coin turns up tails, then the level is not. The Social Agitation or Police Suspicion level can only be raised by one for any action.
Social Agitation and Police Suspicion do not have to be either/or categories. Instead, the GM in the example above could have said that if the player's actions succeeds both levels would be raised. The GM has a lot of leeway in determining how actions will affect the level of either the Social Agitation or Police Suspicion.
Game play continues in clockwise or counterclockwise manner until the Social Agitation or Police Suspicion level reaches 10 at which point the game ends. If the players manage to get the Social Agitation level to 10 without raising the Police Suspicion level to 10, they accomplish their overwhelming urge of destroying Wasponian society. However, if the Police Suspicion level reaches 10 first, the players get to experience first hand why Wasponian stays a perfect society.
Player Challenges: During game play, each player has one challenge that they can use to challenge another player's action. After the player narrates the action her character will perform, another player can call “challenge.” The challenge temporarily pauses game play.
The challenging and the challenged player then have a “flip off” to determine the outcome of the challenge. Each player flips a coin until the coins turn up one heads and one tails. The player whose coin turns up the heads wins the challenge.
If the challenging player wins the challenge, then he can re-narrate the action that the challenged player will perform within reason. For instance, he could say that instead of going to the city park to proselytize, the player decided to go to the malt shop instead for a nice chocolate malt. What a player cannot do is narrate that the challenged player's character is going to go kill herself, etc.
Winning the Game: When the game ends, the player with the most points gained from using their Edge wins. The winning player becomes the new GM and the game starts all over.
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