Dream Hacker: Tiny Freeform Solo LARP -- Cyberpunk/Occult

vorvox's picture
Forum: 

Dream Hacker

A story game to be played alone. Please try and let me know what you think!

DeReel's picture

I know there's a difference between reading a game and playing it, but I also know I don't have to taste some things to know they taste like bulldong. You'll excuse the analogy but look at it this way :
When you design a game, you're crafting an experience, using an amount of mental bandwidth and trust from players. Rules and prescriptions are not equal to power and domination. The power fantasy in your game is unappealing to say the least for 2 reasons : your phantasm is poor ; there's no room for a player. That's a lot of negativity, I know, but also an honest feedback.
I trust you can do better than that as a designer.

Tod's picture

To me this seems more like a guided meditation or a lucid dreaming exercise than a "game" per se. I can see value in such exercises, but for me they'd need to have more pushback, more of a non-imagined and non-deniable structure. Otherwise it's really more like a writing prompt than a game. That's a problem for people whose minds do whatever they're told: there's no drama in it.

This sort of visualization has always been problematic for me for a different reason: if I attach meaning to an imaginary event - say I want to imagine a baseball flying into my glove - something in my devious mind will force it to bounce out. I will never be able to kill the demon, because part of me will always be sure it's not really completely dead. This is the problem for people whose minds do NOT do what they're told.

This is what we use dice and tables for (among other things): to represent the parts of Reality(TM) that push back and cannot be changed by simply wishing. It's a corollary of the Czege Principle, really.

With the addition of some random elements and suggestive texts, perhaps these problems could be avoided for people of both types. Enough text to indicate a result unequivocally, but compound (perhaps two tables conjoined, etc), and vague enough to prompt unique visions on different playthroughs.

vorvox's picture

Hello DeReel, thank you for your honest feedback. I appreciate you taking the time. I think the game needs to be described in more detail to convey what I was intending. I'll be doing some more work on this one.

Tod's picture

Yeah, I should be more clear.
I like the general idea of it, I like the solo-play of it, and I like the experimentalism of it. I just don't think it would work for me, and because I'm a narrative engineery-kinda guy, I began considering mechanics.

vorvox's picture

Thank you, I appreciate everyone's feedback. It seems that the "dream combat" concept is crucial to this game, and since this is something that I can intuitively grasp but can't necessarily describe (or be sure that it makes sense or works with everyone, as Tod mentioned), I may need to put this one on hold for the time being. I tried revamping it with some more game-like elements but that didn't have the same feeling.

DeReel's picture

When I envision combat, my first thought is : "I can make this take forever" then I one-punch blast the demon. So, I think a combat needs some kind of structure. Either a fixed one or a multiple pathways one. This structure could come with written or mental prompts (check list, action cards drawing, algorithm).
I still don't see the need for tasting paper. It's unhealthy.