Amusing game anecdote

[thebitterguy]

At the finale of the Thrusday game, during Pre-Game BS Session, one of the players (the youngest of the bunch), mentioned a game concept he thought would be cool.

"Wouldn't it be neat", he said "if you were presented with random images, and then had to base the events in the narrative around them?"

Well, he got as far as "base" when, around the room, like falling dominoes, each and every players nodded and said "Everway". I think the GM stayed silent because he is wise.

Actually, three of the players, YHB included, simply said "Everway", while the fourth said "have you ever seen a game called Everway? No? Now you know why that's not a good idea."

Comments

[eviltofu.livejournal.com]

I've not heard of this game. Care to elaborate?

[thebitterguy]

Basically, it was a blend between CCG & RPG, where you had decks of picture cards, and the narrative of the story was affected by the pictures. I never got a copy, which I kind of regret.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I have one!

One day, I might even play it.

[eviltofu.livejournal.com]

Have you tried playing "once upon a time (http://www.atlas-games.com/onceuponatime/index.php)"?

[thebitterguy]

No. Is it similar?

[eviltofu.livejournal.com]

Each person is dealt a certain number of cards. These cards are parts of a story, like character ("Queen"), place("Kitchen"), item("Sword"), etc. There is also an ending card ("And the king fufilled his promise and everyone lived happily ever after"). When the story starts, the story teller starts telling a story. When ever someone has a card that reflects part of the story, they can play it and take over the role of story teller. So you would want to tell the story that has the elements of your card. "Once upon a time, there was a queen who loved to bake pies in her royal kitchen...". At this point, you can play the queen and kitchen card but if someone has a baking or pie card, they can hijack the story. Quite fun if you have people who can spin tales.

[sambear.livejournal.com]

They just recently came out with the "Dark Tales" supplement, for more horror-oriented Once Upon a Time games...

[anidada.livejournal.com]

We have that game! At least, I think it's ours (it's on the shelf, I keep looking at it going "what IS that, anyway?", so now I know!).

[noondaypaisley.livejournal.com]

A great game. Have we never played it? Brin and I have a copy too. It's best when played to get a great tale out, not just to win or finish.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

No, we've played Once Upon A Time, though. :)

[xiombarg.livejournal.com]

It's not exactly like that. The images are only in chargen, and the only fortune-type system it has is a sort of custom Tarot deck. But there's way more to it than that.

It's a pretty good game... Your "fourth's" prejudice is odd. Did (s)he actually play it? My understanding what the reason Everyway tanked wasn't because it wasn't good, but because it was overpriced, didn't fit on shelves very well, and came out right before WoTC decided it wasn't going to do RPGs anymore (before the Wizards buyout), so it got the prejudice gamers bring to a "dead game".

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of Everway, and also picked up an unwrapped box of "companion collector cards" I picked up at the last Milwaukee GenCon, but I've never read through the complete rules, nor played a game.

I picked it up primarily on the strength of the game's creator, Jonathan Tweet (author of 'Over the Edge', D&D 3.0, Ars Magica), who had been brilliant with other game designs. He also happened to be contributing to A&E at one point. Other than the odd format of the game (off-size box, little booklets), I'm uncertain why Everway tanked for WOTC, other than the typical conservatism of many gamers.

I'd be interesting in playing it, though, should anyone care to run a one off.

::B::

[thebitterguy]

Well, if one gets put together, lemme know.

BTW: Game Sale this weekend, right?

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

So... Tarot: the Interpreting?

Actually... i don't recall if this is what i meant at the time, but i was thinking about the resemblance between HoL and an indy game comic, and the example of play in Wraith 2nd ed (I know some gaming history! : P). I wonder if there could be different ways of presenting information in game books–modular layering of sidebars, mood-setting layout/splat designs, i dunno.

[thebitterguy]

Well, considering how the entire room's reaction to what you were talking about was "Everway", we can assume your description was close to it, at least.

I wonder if there could be different ways of presenting information in game books–modular layering of sidebars, mood-setting layout/splat designs, i dunno.

Interesting. Expand on this.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

Hm. Aside from pure aesthetic difference, i'm not sure where i'm getting at. I happen to be a highly visual thinker–if i was writing a game book, the manuscript would have several pages which would just be [here's a panorama shot of the city for mood]. I love knowing how things really look in a setting–I'm a sucker for highly descriptive vignettes in game fiction, too. A weapons list which has text centred around pictures would be another kind of thing i'd do, instead of trying to match up guns with names (same with monster books–the text for Swan-belcher ends up next to the Illo for Fey Dainty Princess a lot, much to my confusion). Such a book might be a bit too similar to Everway's predicable problem – how do you interpret the pictures for everyone? On the other hand, having constant visual/textual pseudo-narratives gives concrete examples of everything in play, and is muchly cool – the info presented from in-setting sources in Orpheus is an excellent example of this. I'm essentially imagining a thick comic book with rules texts, and very experiemental panel designs. Pulled off well, it would force the readers to construct the setting and game in their own minds as much as literally presented in the book – but making all of those constructs mesh with everyone in the group would be hard. It's... rules-lite fluff.

Modularity in PDFs could be increased, though–i like the option of a white wolf ST being able to save parts IIa, III and IVb/c of a book and giving them to a player as a handout or file, which has information on chosen splat, the power lists of that splat, basic rules and maybe some extra pertinent setting infos. Aside from having a box set filled with tiny books, though, i can't imagine how to do this in a strictly paper way. Splat Tarot cards would be really cool, though (and make nifty metaprops in LARPS).

[sambear.livejournal.com]

Hey! I *like* Everway.

Have I ever played it?

Um, no.