Know Thyself, by Ryan Macklin

Design Agenda & Goals Document – Power 19

June 17, 2007

Focus on “Ships Passing In The Night” mode: GM-less play with separated PCs

1.) What is your game about?

Know Thyself has people waking up with nothing more than a single motivation and four items they have when they wake up that feel somehow connected to them. It’s about how these five elements and a surreal journal build a character.

2.) What do the characters do?

They wander from room to room in a strange, dream-like palace, trying to resolve the only issue they remember from the beginning (such as “Where is my sister?”). The conflicts they get involved in trigger new memories while leading them closer or farther away from their initial goal or motivation.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?

The players either play the role of their character in separate stories, or play elements of another PC’s story during their turn – as the scene framer, adversity, or incidental NPC.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

The setting is, if anything, loose & random, keeping the game from imprinting a solid theme on top of the character.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?

Characters define the seed of their goal & four things that their memories will be attached to. In this way, character creation is entirely about defining things that’ll be fleshed out in play.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?

This I’m not sure.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?

This I’m not sure.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?

Each player plays his character in a separate storyline, one room/scene at a time, in a round-robin fashion. When it’s not a player’s turn to play their PC, they’re playing elements of another PC’s story:

Scene Framer – when a new room/scene card is drawn, the Scene Framer begins describing the scene for the active player.

Adversity – when there’s an emerging conflict, this player takes the role of that adversity & conflict.

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)

Every conflict is centered around that one initial issue/question/goal the character wakes up with (i.e. Where is my sister?)

The other players have roles to play in other player’s scenes, as described above. In addition, the active player gets to either describe how they succeed or fail, or they describe their memories. Another player takes the other element and narrates that.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?

Cards are drawn and rank is compared. The highest result wins the conflict, with ties going to the player. The player has options to draw replacement cards, but the Adversity just draws one card – this is to keep the focus on mechanical choice (and consequence) on the player.

The suit of the cards drawn determines the sort of memory regained and on which of the four items taken at character creation that memory relates to.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?

The mechanics have nothing to do with skill or the like, so there’s no emphasis on “I’m a good shot” or anything like that. In lieu of that, the focus should shift to “This is what I want” and “This is who I am,” since there’s no “This is what I can do.”

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?

Constantly, in that they gain new memories with each scene and move closer or farther away from their goal.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

As the game continues on, the characters learn more about who they are and what they want to do.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?

I want the characters to surprise the players. I want everyone at the table to revel in the joys of telling an uncertain, unfinished story.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?

In the Game Chef 2007 edition, the palace rooms do. This will likely continue to get people ideas if they’re stuck, though I think I’ll also make sure to put a lot more information in the memories & conflicts part of the game.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?

The decision between defining your memory and defining your success/failure. The constant choice between the two feels like some really interesting & exciting tension for the player.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t?

Most games start with the definition of character, whereas this game is about that. At the same time, there is also a present-day element in order to give the character a place to continue from, perhaps in some other RPG.  I want it to fit in a space like "A board game for roleplayers" or "A roleplaying game for board gamers" -- "board game" not because it has a board but because of the relatively-short amount of time spend playing board games, the pick-up aspect of board games and the compartmentalization form one instance of a board game to the next is the ideal.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?

I’m unsure. There will be production issues dealing with the cards, so the logistics of that would need to be figured out before I know how far I want to go with Know Thyself. Hopefully, publishing an ashcan for GenCon will give me an idea of what this will entail.

19.) Who is your target audience?

People are want their fun contianed in a single night & enjoy coming up with interesting characters.  They need not be interested in regular RPGs to like this game -- that's the hope.