Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Modular Games within the Game

Continuing from my previous post I thought of various gamification of certain GM tasks.

Mind Maping Game. Basically its like a mind map version of the Sims. The Game or the GM can generate a Mind map of various characters using certain descriptors. Now there is a timeline that clicks along and the GM juggles and assigns the resources and priorities of a number of characters. The game is to try to achieve as many of the characters goals and juggling as many characters as possible. There are elements of chance and various curve ball events that can occur, so the GM has to be very strategic regarding how he or she will meet certain goals. The random events can be scaled to happen more frequently for tragedies and less frequently for more heroic stories.

You can even create a Drama System that allow players to "build up" drama through various obstacles and random events and how the characters trade or sacrifice for what gains.

At the end of a period, the Timeline can be replayable so the GM or a player can write up the elements into a story.

>> More elaboration.
What I had in mind for the Timeline Moving mind maps is that there are various events that occur over time, Seasons or Months will be changing per turn, and there would be various random events occurring directly on the Characters Juggled by the player or indirectly that affect relationship lines or status. Every turn, the player has a no. of resources to spend on various relationships and goals. 

the way imagine it is, imagining a mind map of Game of Thrones and the characters of the stories. Every Turn there is an Event, and Characters like John, Tyrion, daenerys, etc.. have elements in their Web change. Their relationships with various characters improve or get worse, and their activities toward various goals progress or falter.

GMs and the Game Developers can add various events or use elements from encyclopedia dramatica and memes as events and kinds of status for the course of play. 

Its like a Sims Game, in a way, but made of a Mind Map. GMs, Writers and Players, can Rewind and Replay various events and change the story line. The basic tool does is make an outline, and Creatives just elaborate how certain events occur. 

The random variables allow some of us GMs who tend to tell stories a certain way to avoid our weaknesses and habits

Basic Civ for Civilization building. Like Civ, except all the data is exportable to Maps and can be zoomed into various levels of detail that can fill various needs for the GM. It starts off with a simple Hex Maps version but in later Iterations these get better and better. (Maybe Taking FreeCiv into a new graphic level).

The Technology Trees are determined by the GM, and continuous alternative Technology trees will arise. There will be Magic Path Trees for fantastic settings, but they practically affect as much as technology.

The fundamental aspect of this game is that it can be exported easily to create detailed worlds for Game Masters, Film Makers, World builders, etc... It doesnt need to be very sophisticated, it just need to be modular so that the Player can customize and randomize various elements which he/she exports for their story.

Interstellar System Builder. As masters of Orion was taking Civ into the Interstellar Realm, so does this Interstellar system builder. Again, it starts in a simple 3d system but small, but gets better and better. Exports a 3d Pdf starmaps. It can be used to simulate naval actions.

Ship Builder and Combat Simulator. Comes with a repository for various ships organized by themes and genres, much like Character Repositories. The Ship builder is a 3d program based of blender where ships can be built and played with. It plugs into the Interstellar builder for GMs who want to build ships test it out.

The Combat Simulator is also allows the GM to set up combat encounters turn-based or live, and all the players can perform ship actions via Apps that tie them to the ship. Characters who are in Navigation, Comms, Sensors, Engineering all have activities and the system allows for several characters to contribute. GMs play as the master controller, setting ships against the Players if it is one vs many. Each  Player have their own minigame that are 66% player skills and 33% character ability, on an app. The Game levels can shift, from handling one ships with multiple roles to handling many ships to fleets to allow for Naval Action RPGs and the combat that comes with that (like Lost Fleet).

Technology Assumptions
Note that it takes about 2-3 years to fully implement these technologies, and by that time the cost of computing will be even cheaper. the $500 tablet being more powerful than what we have currently. Allowing GMs to do more and more of the work on the tablet, and some on the phone.

Around this time, mini-projectors and their bulbs could be more cost efficient and the game company's service extends to making everything projected. Each player able to move their pieces and perform their actions from their Smart Phone, as the GM assigns them.

The technology is Open and has a 3-4 year exit, allowing other companies to take over some fields and specialize customizing the "server/cloud based system" for various Game Systems and try to provide better services. The model brings the barrier to Play much lower, because every part of learning to is game-ified. As an Open system, other specialize developers can use it to make Learning modules for education.

The Game as a Group Social Activity becomes a Facilitated/Guided Problem Based Group learning activity. Various specialized educational design groups customize it for companies to create Simulations where the Group role-plays. Case studies are built with the Mind Maping Game where Economic and Biz situations are Built into the system. Nerds and Geeks begin to multiply uncontrollably, they begin to over the world. They seize gov't and demand technocracy, they begin to affect all manners of policy. reproductive rates crashes, the last of the worlds population dies being preoccupied finishing their campaign.

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