Mysteries

Whisperers is a game that centers around finding someone that either doesn’t know they’re being looked for or doesn’t want to be found. In the end, that’s a mystery. I know games like Gumshoe and others have systems for handling mystery but I need to figure out the system that fits exceptionally well with what Whisperers is all about.

Each player will start out with strategies that they use to find a Whisperer. Because this is likely to be the first part of every game, it has to be a fun part of the game and not just drudgery that you have to do to get to the good stuff.

One of the problems with most mystery games I’ve seen is that they center around clues. That works for novels but in a lot of games clues fail you. The problem with this approach is that you’re giving the players a fact, not an event. The clues have no depth to them and if interpreted wrong can lead to dead ends.

What I’m thinking of is defining anomalies that the clues come from. These are weak points in the secret that you’re trying to discover. They’re the bit of hair on the floor, or a chance sighting in a grocery store that the witness didn’t know was significant until later.

I’m not sure how to approach this yet. Would it make sense for a GM to define the secret and then build the defenses that obscure the secret around it or just assume that the defenses are there and define the anomalies that would allow the secret to be discovered? The latter seems easier to me but maybe there’s a hybrid that would make the structure more rich in detail and allow the GM to think on their feet about the player’s investigation.

That’s the goal though, a way to make the player experience of investigating fun. I’m also thinking about time shifting the events that are being investigated, so that the attempts to obscure are rolled for by the NPC and the PCs get to roll against that. This way there’s more of a head to head competition going on between the NPC and the PCs. The players will get a flavor of what they’re up against before they ever meet the NPC they’re looking for.  That sounds good to me because an investigator can learn a lot about the person they’re looking for by the clues they find and I think that would help encourage that feeling.

I just have to effectively communicate all that and put it in a structure that’s simple and fun. No problem, right?

Whisperers

The newest project in the works is a FUDGE based RPG called Whisperers. I’m still working on how much I want to nail the setting down and how much I want the players to fudge it. Once I work that out, I’m aiming for a lite game that should be easy to pick up by anyone who’s ever played FUDGE.

Here’s an excerpt.

“I tell ya’ I thought I was the only one that knew about them before I met you. They took my son and then my husband before I knew what they were up to. At first I just thought my son was getting moody going through puberty but then when he disappeared and Aiden started to act the same way. Well then I put it all together.

I actually found the cocoon that they put Aiden in. What was left of it anyway. “ She wiped away a tear. “I mean, he wasn’t the best husband, but.”

I found the thing that killed Josh. You know, my son? I found it. It had been using his identity for months. I mean, it looked like Josh, only it wasn’t. It even called me ‘mom’. But it wasn’t him. I wasn’t sure at first. It put on a good show but then it’s eye’s rolled up and it started whispering. It nearly got me, I could smell that sweet metallic smell. It almost put me in one of those cocoons.

I’m just glad I had brought my .357 because the last thing I remember thinking was to pull the trigger.

I’ve killed five of those things now. I track them down. I hunt them.”

In the past , I’ve made my RPGs available for free. In this case I think I’m moving away from that model. I’m anticipating something low cost but the free RPG market has the disadvantage that once a book is downloaded, it’s often forgotten. I know, I’ve done it too. I imagine that if a person has a small investment in the game, they’re more likely to actually get the game to the table, which is my main goal for publishing games.

Hello world!

For the longest time, the store32.net url and theartifact.net url have pointed to the same place. Over time, we’ve been working on projects other than The Artifact but haven’t moved the focus off The Artifact. Now that’s changing.

Although we’ll continue to work on The Artifact and Steampunkfitters, we’ve also created two board games with game crafter, Bubs The Robot children’s book about non-verbal learning disabilities and we’re looking at several more projects.

Clearly Store32 is getting bigger than just The Artifact and RPGs. In the future there will be even more diversification and that’s okay. Maybe one day it’ll be mobile games. Maybe one day it’ll be short stories. We’ll have to find out and it’ll be fun!

So check back periodically and find out where we’re headed.