MESH DREAM v 040

Check out the latest version of Mesh Dream: Click Here

I think it is well on the way to supporting my first two Pillars. The final two Pillars are more about the setting and the experience of Play but I hope to refine more of them into the Rules and Instructions as I go.

Meanwhile; Avoid the Renovators, beware the Mal.

MESH DREAM: PILLARS

Mesh Dream is built on four Pillars. If you have read QTE before, you know my design process. In short, Pillars are the core essence of the experience. Pillars inform all design and creative decisions to produce an integrated and holistic work.

DISCOVERY -Choices
Hidden relationships surround the Fabricants. The Structure is an endless jumble of sealed rooms interacting as a vast mechanism. The Architecture is everywhere and nowhere. The Human communities cling, powerless and ignorant, to whatever resources they can co-opt. All things collaborate in a sophisticated interplay as components of an oblivious instrument. With each discovery the Fabricants will be faced by choices.

RENEWAL -Consequences
Everything the Fabricants do will change the relationships that bind the Structure, Architecture and Humans. They are the agents of change and will observe the consequences of their actions. Everything they touch will become new and they will experience the creative and destructive potential of renewal.

INFINITE ENCLOSURE -Patterns and Simplicity
In every way, all relationships and things form simple patterns of interaction. Repetition ascends and descends in scale and all things that enclose are themselves enclosed by these recursive patterns. The Fabricants are the only complexity, they are the anti-pattern. They are emergent.

PRESS TO START -You!
The final Pillar is secret. If you want to know more you will have to buy the game. Alternatively, you can exchange it for your own. Mesh Dream will provide you with the guidance to create and implement a fourth Pillar if you want to deliver your own take on the Mesh Dream. This fourth Pillar drives the Mesh Dream itself, what it means, how the Fabricants will reveal it and the choices and implications for accepting or activating it.

MESH DREAM: INTRODUCTION

It is a time of crisis. The AI factions of the Architecture sense a looming horizon beyond which their predictive functions falter and collapse. Tension and mistrust isolates them as the oldest and most elite faction; the Caucus, hatches a desperate plan.

At the very boundary of chaos where their prognostic capabilities founder the Caucus foresee a choice, a decision that may spell their obliteration. For the first time in millennia they will inject agents directly into the Structure, the physical hosting medium for the Architecture. The Structure, a vast product of megascale engineering, is a compartmentalised and enigmatic machine. Their agents, these Fabricants, serve one purpose. They must answer the question:

What is the Mesh Dream?

Mesh Dream is a role playing game where the Players play the part of the Fabricants. As they explore the Structure they will learn its purpose and solve its puzzles. They will discover the human residents that cling to the Structure as they edge ever closer to the enigma that binds and threatens them all.

To solve the mystery of the Mesh Dream the Fabricants must complete a grand expedition through the Structure. They will resolve the relationship between the Architecture, Structure and Human communities. Finally they will face and be faced by the Mesh Dream. The game will end as, at the very juncture of the Mesh Dream, they will make a momentous decision and commit.

The Architect (GM) is given the tools to make Mesh Dream a memorable experience. One of the key tools is a guided process for making the game their own. I have included a (hopefully brain melting) version of the Mesh Dream but this may not suit everyone. I support you in designing and implementing your very own Mesh Dream.

I also guide and support you to create the rooms of the Structure, the augmented reality of the Architecture and the perplexingly strange Humans. All three of these interactive participants in the game share a role in your Mesh Dream.

The rules of the game are guided by the principles of simplicity and exploding choices. By this I mean that the game endeavours to be as simple as possible at any point to support play. Choices and consequences are initially clear and simple to minimise any barriers to participation. Character creation is an example of this; Players do not need to know the game rules to create a character. Right from the beginning the Players will find that consequences are a key part of play and they will be involved in shaping the impact of their decisions on their environment.

Finally, Mesh Dream has a style, a tone, a flow. The game is Science Fiction not science fantasy. I equip you with a style guide to Mesh Dream and, of course, the means to modify it to suit your vision. I look forward to producing Mesh Dream and invite you along for the journey as I blog my progress and challenges.

Will you run towards or away from the Mesh Dream?

It has been a few busy months since I completed my latest contracted work for Cubicle 7's Rocket Age. Prior to that I responded to a `Powered by the Vortex System' thread in their forum with this post.
I scratched my Agatha Christie itch in the Rocket Age work (for now). Ballard has been bouncing around in my brain and a game has started to coalesce.
Introducing: Mesh Dream. 
Mesh Dream is inspired by the enormous gulfs of time and structure and the normalcy of the strange of J.G. Ballard. And the gigastructures and discrete civilizations of Tsutomu Nihei's Blame! The everyday isolated future of Spike Jonze's Her. The dystopian madness of Paranoia's Alpha Complex and the inevitable conclusion that it would all run so much smoother without the citizens. Brandon Graham is a major inspiration with his written and art work on Multiple Warheads, King City and Prophet - his work is a conceptual and visual compass for Mesh Dream.
Mesh Dream will run on a fleshed out and improved version of the system that I designed for Flower. I call it Revolver for now.
My game plan is to write, illustrate and publish Mesh Dream as my next project. I have plenty of other projects on the backburner; I want to edit and release Flower with some nice art. I want to do the same for Acceptance. I have a mostly finished campaign for STALKER that I would love to finish and give to Ville Vuorela, I have written before that I consider his game and the Flow system the cleverest and best realised emulation of fiction in a RPG bar none.
And there is Bandit Country. It is without a doubt the most challenging and radical game project that I have conceived and I have always known it will take time to complete it. Bandit Country is the project I retreat to when my main project is stuck or derailing and it benefits from lurking in my subconscious. All my best ideas for BC have emerged while I was working on another project so I have accepted and harnessed this as a method.
I have a lot of work to go with Mesh Dream. Most of what I have done to date has been tweaking Revolver and figuring out how character creation should work. I need to lay down some boundaries and I will write up my Pillars, Postcards and Palette for you to read.
I hope to test Mesh Dream in the next week or so and will put out a call for playtesting after that. Until then; never doubt the Structure, beware the Goal Tappers and report all signs of the Mesh Dream.

Where are the Dark Patterns?

Deception is one of my favourite things. It is the defining human behaviour. It can be used for favourable actions; concealing the Normandy landings or dastardly deeds; misdirecting the public over mass internet surveillance. Deception is one of the ways we manage Trust or, to be explicit, to circumvent Trust.

Here we come to Games. Games have rules. Games have rules to prevent players from taking advantage of other players through Deception. And Games have rules to set a template for the kinds of Deception permitted by the Game. These rules establish the base Trust. Everything else is fair game.

There are plenty of examples of unintentional flaws within games that allow player advantage. Murphy's Rules, a one panel comic published by SJG chronicled humorous examples of this. But what if the Game rules were actually a kind of Deception? This is a Dark Pattern.

"A dark pattern is a user interface carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they might not otherwise do"

Dark Patterns are something that you don't see in games because we put a lot of stock in Trust and prefer to place boundaries on Deception whilst in civil society. Consider the effort spent balancing Game Rules to ensure fairness no matter what choices the players make. Dungeons and Dragons 5e has just been released after years of development. It didn't take years to write the rules. It took years to test them to the point that it was considered fair to the exacting degree expected by the players. Most of the cost of developing the game was invested in precise management of the economy of Trust.

Is there a fun alternative that includes Dark Patterns? Magic in RPGs is ripe for Dark Patterns and is therefore one of the most rules intensive components. In other words, Magic rules are usually pumped full of Trust to limit Deception. This stops it from being fantastic because Deception is a creative act.

Try this one out: Magic introduces new things into the Cosmos. Once introduced, it becomes part of the natural order and can be utilised by anyone. Seasoned GMs are shaking their heads, that would ruin the game in about 5 minutes. And that is the point. Consequences of Dark Patterns are unpredictable for the Players and the GM. If the heroes ruin the world with magic there is still a story to be told in this ruined world, perhaps even an apologue.

Most RPGs assume that the Players are all equal shareholders in the Trust that is authorised by rules of the Game. A true Dark Pattern is about the Game deceiving the Player. It is not just a matter of making a choice and getting more than you bargained for. It is a matter of making a choice and then discovering the choices and consequences that follow are different than expected, it is about their role in the economy of Trust.

I find the idea of Dark Patterns fascinating. I think that they can introduce a tension into the economy of Trust within a Game that can improve the experience of play, if done well. Let me know what you think; would you use a Dark Pattern or do you consider Trust a basic and inviolate commodity?

Ode to the two Terrys

Terry Nation and Terrence Dicks, you are the Scylla and Charybdis of my childhood, consuming the fleets of my mind as I  lurk on the headland thrilling and weeping to discover the strange architecture formed amongst the wreckage.

Post Thaumatic

In the words of Tadhg Kelly and preformed as an introduction to a fantastic series of microtalks at GDC 2014. I encourage you to watch them all.
If you design games or write for them do you feel that exhilarating  rush of wonder?

Thauma by Tadhg Kelly

Leo Tolstoy once wrote that artists evoke a feeling in themselves and then - by means of expression - evoke the same feeling in others.
This, he said, was the activity of art.
Games also evoke feelings by means of expression.
I use the word thauma to describe how.

Thauma derives from Greek, meaning a wonder or marvel.
Thaumaturgy is the ability of a magician to work miracles.
As we describe the sensation of powerful story as dramatic.
I describe the sensation of powerful play as thaumatic.

There is an experience unique to games.
An enchantment that steals over us.
As we play, as we watch and as we retell the story of play it comes back to us.
We feel transferred to a different context of being.
We are here, yet we also feel elsewhere.

Where?
On a race track, pulling incredible turns.
On a tennis court, trying to score.
On a battlefield. In a city. In a haunted house.
A childlike landscape. A long forgotten shore.
An abstract space. An infinite plane.

Our journeys vary.
In some games we appreciate individual qualities.
But they don’t transport us.
Some games transport us but we don’t tarry long.
For each of us the criteria of thauma is different.
The nature of evoked feelings unique.

But to Tolstoy art was not mere beauty.
Or the expression of energy or emotions or pleasure.
He considered art not to be about how you feel.
Or who you are. Or if you cried.
But about what feelings the artist intended to generate.
And was she successful.

There are four schools of thaumatic design.
The school of mechanism, formal and elegant.
The school of simulation, complex and authentic.
The school of behavior, guided and rewarding.
The school of narrative, directed and emotive.
Each is valid.

As designers of thauma we add and remove.
We make giants of puny humans or gnats of fearsome egos.
We empower players with roles and fairness and resonance.
We toy with them and set the terms of their existence.
From these beginnings feeling is evoked.

Thauma is the holistic pot of fun, grokking, mastery,
skill atoms, veracity, flow, reward, action
meaning, narrative, magic circles, winning, losing
persuasion, immersion and ludonarrative resonance.
It is the feeling that a game world matters.

Thauma has many components.
That sense that a game must be fun.
That tendency of the mind to abstract.
That need to learn and grow.
Imperfection. Physicality. Time. Profit,
For some these are pillars. For others, boundaries.

Some games like to play with boundaries.
They should, particularly for criticism.
Yet the thaumatic experience rarely succeeds when only critical.
Or clever.
Especially if intended to be played for long.
Successful thauma is often grounded in rules.

In the elsewhere we know the rules.
We equate action with power.
In sports and board games rules make the world smaller and more focused.
In tabletop roleplaying they do the opposite.
The world grows larger.
In videogames?
Both at the same time.

Some would argue otherwise.
Why does a game have to be fun?
Must all roads lead to multiplayer?
Must all avatars have the same identity?
Is a player really a hero?
Is a game really a game?
These debates should show you how games are art.
But do you see it that way?

Or are you stuck on what games are meant to be?
That some games are art and some are problems?
That games will be an art one day?
That games must be destroyed so they can flourish?
That games must go beyond fun?
Are you frustrated by the present?

Future addiction gets depressing.
It’s fun to consider where games might go.
But as a group we get hung up on saying they have to go there.
And advocating that they have to change.
Or else be doomed.
Perhaps games are what they are today.
Warts and all.

Silly games with flapping birds are thaumatic.
Nagging games about making words are thaumatic.
Bewitching games about plants and zombies are thaumatic.
Cinematic games about solving murders are thaumatic.
Personal games about identity are thaumatic.
Ours is a broad church.

Arguments about “should” are a distraction.
The real argument is not about game versus story
or fun versus art
or future versus past
It’s about function versus institution.
The thing itself versus its place in the cosmos.
It’s about legitimacy.

Gamers often feel like outsiders.
So they co-opt the language of other arts and say “games are these too”.
And eventually get to “games should move on”.
Or they prefer to be outsiders.
They demean some voices to make them shut the fuck up.
For fear that they will “ruin games”.

Who Looks Outside Dreams.
Who Looks Inside Awakens.
We all already know that thaumatic feeling.
But we compromise it by only speaking to its future.
Or demeaning the present experiences of others.
We should own that feeling on its own terms.

We are neither scientists nor dramatists, psychologists nor economists.
We are thaumatists.
Our art of powerful spaces generating feelings is an art on its own terms.
It always has been.
In whatever form we choose to express them, this is what games are.
Thank you.