Notes on This Game as a Final Project

This game is still definitely a work in progress, and the summaries and sheets reflect that. Specifically, though the plots, goals, groups, and characters are all in place, the mechanics which help them to fit together are still sketchy, described only in generalities rather than specifics. This level of development represents most of the interesting creative work which is relevant to a class project, while leaving the grunge of numbers and mechanics balancing to be handled at a later date before the game is run.

In order to efficiently use the limited time available to this project, and also to aid in separating the original creative work of this game from the background borrowed from Douglas Adams, many sheets contain entries for Background Info which serve as placeholders for larger amounts of information which would be taken relatively directly from the books or radio series. When the game is run, this information will either be fleshed out to full descriptive information, or the players of various parts will have to be chosen from those who are familiar with the books or radio series. Sheets are also currently more terse and factual than usual, giving emphasis more to getting the important information on a character's personality, motivation, and goals across than on being works of literature. This is simply as a result of the desire to concentrate on the plot and character structure in limited time, rather than spending that time carefully crafting each sheet.

As of the final project 2 checkpoint, all plots, characters, and game information exists in the form of the summaries found here on the web. Bluesheets exist in final written-sheet format, and should provide a relatively complete feel for the things going on in the game. Some of the bluesheets are for small groups of characters (two, for instance) and thus they contain much information which might traditionally be reserved for character sheets. Still, the character sheets themselves will contain a great deal of individualized information. However, generating the text of the sheets involved turned out to be too time-consuming a task, and not worth the effort. Instead, the sample character provides a demonstration of the format of the information that players will receive, while all other characters exist in the form of HTML summaries.

Bluesheets are not available online due to the difficulty of viewing LaTeX output in a web browser. They have been provided in hardcopy format. Additionally, a full set of namebadges for the game has been provided in hardcopy format to demonstrate the badge format and the workings of the information encoded in the badge numbers.


Andrew Twyman, kurgan@mit.edu
Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative, Spring 1998