For this game you need 4-6 adult players, sunglasses, a nice park to play in, and sunshine. The game plays in 10-20 minutes.
One player is the stranger. The others are a group of friends.
The friends must find some nice and normal names for themselves before the game start. You will all wear sunglasses, throughout the whole game. Try to be social and kind under your chosen name. You have been friends since childhood, and know eachother intimately. If any player say something about your past, then it is true. He/she will know, so trust them. You start the game by reminiscencing about your past, building characters as you go. Have fun making up relationships and mutual memories!
The stranger will use his/her real name, and try to be him/herself in the game (maybe a special version, but do not invent things about yourself). You have no sunglasses! You will sit down within sight of the friends, but not together with them. Move closer during the initial stages of the game (within the first 3-6 minutes), so you come within listening distance. If you hear something interesting, you may go over and talk to them. That is when the conflict of the game begins. Your goal is to make friends with some or all of these strangers, so be nice and positive. And be persistent! You need friends!
The conflict will surface when the stranger impose him/herself on the nice outing of the friends. The goal of the friends is to make this stranger go away, or to shut the f*** up, so they can continue reminiscencing. And they will be quite rude about it. No violence is allowed, of course, but you may poke the stranger in any verbal way you will. And you may be both loud and licentious! That stranger is no friend of yours!
The end comes in one of two ways:
- The stranger may end it by starting to cry (real tears, nothing less). Then the game ends immidiately. The stranger may also end the game by walking off. If the stranger walk off the game ends the very second he/she steps out of the park. Either way: the game ends with the friends as winners!
- A friend may end the game by removing his/her sunglasses, and giving the stranger his/her name (the invented one). If this occur the friend may invite the stranger to sit down with the group, or leave the group and sit down with the stranger another place in the park. Either way: the game ends with the stranger as the sole winner.
Afterhug is mandatory! This is only a game, but the stranger may still feel a bit sore afterwards, so give him/her a nice, long group-hug after the game.
Go game! ___________________________________
This game was brought to you by the Norwegian gamesmith Tomas HV Mørkrid. It is posted here for you to peruse and play. Any comments will be welcome! Actual play reports even more so!
The game has been posted and discussed on the RPGnet, here: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=397151 It felt like I managed to clarify some of the intent with my game in this discussion.
If you have any thoughts about how this may be published and sold in the US, please tell. Or if you think it inconceivable that games such as this may be bought by Americans, please tell me.
By the way: the reason I wrote this game is simple: I sat in the park wednesday, and thought: this is great, and would'n it be even greater if I could play a roleplaying game here, with my friends?
And then I ended up writing this horrendous little game, for a sunny day in the park ... (oh, evil, evil me).
I promise to write a nicer game too, for parkplay, a real sunshine roleparkplaying game (RPPG). Wow! That seems like a new genre!!!
Santtu: Nice of you to say so much nice about my game! Thanks! Hugs and huzzas coming your way!
I myself like posting on RPGnet, from time to time. The response I get there is often most useful, when diving in behind the oogling and dispelling. And there no beating the feeling that some lost soul out there really get the WOW-feeling when reading your game ... ;-)
Wow, the rpg.net discussion is crazy. I mean, I'm not convinced I'd actually want to try this game... but I don't buy the argument that it's cruel and evil. It seems pretty self-controlling. I don't imagine the super-competitive people what would be willing to hurt their friends would be into a game like this. Similarly, assuming they have a moderate level of self-awareness, anyone that takes games so seriously they might be truly hurt by this kind of roleplay should know better than to play it, or at least know better than to play the role of the stranger.
Tristan: yes, it may remind you and others of improvisation drama. It is, of course, but at the same time this is a game, a set of particular tools for amateurs to make use of in an interaction for fun.
Fnord: nice to hear that grown ups in the US may still be clear and brave in their heads, and able to play such a game as it is intended.