Obstacle and Overcome
Dec. 20th, 2019 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stdesjardinsA friend who's going through a rough patch posted about how much trouble she's having at the moment with ordinary life tasks, like arranging travel, without the benefit of ADD meds, and speculated on how she would write an RPG with herself as the protagonist. I responded in seven tweets:
Obstacle and Overcome, an RPG.
You have a deck of cards. Each card contains a goal, and a list of obstacles that must be overcome to achieve that goal.
You have a bag containing colored stones, which represent the resources you can draw on to overcome obstacles.
Place one black stone on the card for each obstacle.
Draw a stone from the bag. If you draw a white stone, then you may remove one black stone from the card. This represents your own personal ability to overcome obstacles.
If you draw a black stone from the bag, something goes wrong. There is now an additional obstacle you must overcome to achieve your goal.
There are as many black stones as white stones in the bag. It will take considerable luck to overcome all obstacles using white stones.
The bag also contains blue stones. These are your friends. When you draw a blue stone, you may overcome an obstacle.
The blue stones and the white stones, considered individually, are too few to overcome your obstacles. Combined there are enough.
When you have achieved a goal, replace the stones you have drawn in the bag. Take a moment to celebrate, then draw a new goal from the deck.
The bag contains one silver stone. When you draw this stone, add a white stone or a blue stone to the bag, or remove a black stone permanently.
Over time the game becomes easier. Continue playing until the challenges feel easily manageable.
You have a deck of cards. Each card contains a goal, and a list of obstacles that must be overcome to achieve that goal.
You have a bag containing colored stones, which represent the resources you can draw on to overcome obstacles.
Place one black stone on the card for each obstacle.
Draw a stone from the bag. If you draw a white stone, then you may remove one black stone from the card. This represents your own personal ability to overcome obstacles.
If you draw a black stone from the bag, something goes wrong. There is now an additional obstacle you must overcome to achieve your goal.
There are as many black stones as white stones in the bag. It will take considerable luck to overcome all obstacles using white stones.
The bag also contains blue stones. These are your friends. When you draw a blue stone, you may overcome an obstacle.
The blue stones and the white stones, considered individually, are too few to overcome your obstacles. Combined there are enough.
When you have achieved a goal, replace the stones you have drawn in the bag. Take a moment to celebrate, then draw a new goal from the deck.
The bag contains one silver stone. When you draw this stone, add a white stone or a blue stone to the bag, or remove a black stone permanently.
Over time the game becomes easier. Continue playing until the challenges feel easily manageable.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-23 12:06 am (UTC)I haven't played it, but I've read the game designer's writings in the past and like her at least somewhat sciency approach.
https://www.amazon.com/SuperBetter-Living-Gamefully-Jane-McGonigal/dp/0143109774