Entry: Play Right!

[Michael S. Miller]

Well, the Revolutionary War game was too much in far too little time. So, I wrote a 27 hour RPG called Play Right! The PDF is Here's the details:

Play Right!
© 2006 by Michael S. Miller

An entry for the 2006 Game Chef contest.
Time Constraint: 10 sessions of 1 hour each
Ingredients: glass, emotion, committee
11 pages long

Blurb: You’ve got tired, worn-out stories. You’re surronded with them. The same-old, same-old. But, you and your fellow committee members will learn how to Play Right! with those old ideas and make them as new, vibrant and cool as a newly-minted game!


I look forward to reviewing the fine dishes of my fellow chefs!

[Linnaeus]

[Joshua BishopRoby]

This looks like a really solid game, Michael. Obviously the rules can use some work (as a number of rules are introduced willy-nilly in examples of play), but the structure seems sound.

The one thing that I'm not seeing is an element of the game that really sells it as superior to some other option. I can see the precise balance and guided collaboration, but I can get that -- especially customized for specific genres -- with a lot of other games. What sets Play Right! apart from all of them?

[Michael S. Miller]

Gerald: Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you liked the game. I haven't had a chance to playtest it yet, so its potential future is way up in the air. It might be revised into a $5 booklet game, or it might form the nucleus of something bigger. Only time will tell.

Joshua: What sets it apart? Well, let me tell you a little about myself. I've got a number of movies that I like to watch over and over again. Every December I watch It's a Wonderful Life. Now, I already know what's about to happen. I know George is going to beg for his life back in the end. I'm counting on it. I'm rooting for it. Because, sometimes, knowing what's going to happen only makes it better.

The way I see Play Right! working is that the piles of beads on the various elements will create that kind of expectation and excitement. We know that element's going to come into play because it's in the source story AND because as the pile of beads grow larger, the temptation to use them grows larger as well. Plus, I anticipate that many people will be invested in multiple story elements, leading to group focus akin to PTA.

As for some of the rules being in the example but not the text, you're right. I jotted down some quick ideas, then wrote the entire the example of play, then extracted the rules hastily from that. But, damn, that example was fun to write!

Thanks for checking out the game, guys!