GAME AT ME BRO!

Last year, after Con of the North, I'd had this dumb idea to bring a big, shabby tagboard hobo sign that says GAME AT ME BRO! and set up shop at empty table. I'd egg on passers by to sit with me and craft an RPG on the spot. Had things not gotten so busy with Saturday Night Space Opera, I might have still done it. Anyway, here were my thoughts:

GAME DESIGN
Total development time cannot exceed 60 minutes. Tasks to be completed include:

1. MECHANICS - Game must have a basic mechanic for resolving conflicts/problems/combat, etc. Doesn't matter if it's dice, cards, hand signals, staring contest, etc.--but there needs to be some sort of action in play, other than storytelling. This can be an existing ruleset, if both GMs agree.
2. SETTING - No more than 10 minutes permitted to brainstorm on genre and setting using the infallible Jeff Reints alchemical game creation proposal (omitting part 1, but using parts 2 and 3). Difficulty = using only resources available at the Con (any books on hand or immediately available via electronic device or memory)
3. CHARACTERS - Game must include at least 3 player-character types. (I don't want to say "classes" or "races" that's up to the GMs to figure out).
4. DETAILS - Once setting is established, GMs divide up duties of fleshing out as many foes/monsters, locations/maps, treasure/gear, what-have-you as the remaining time allows. Using existing resources from step 2 is totally acceptable, as long as some cross-pollination of sources was accomplished in that step. 

MARKETING
After one hour, the sign gets flipped around on the table. The GMs write the name of the new game on the tagboard with the added note of "WE JUST MADE THIS GAME. SEEKING PLAYERS TO PLAY NOW." Once at least three people show up to fill out the party, GMs can flip a coin to see who runs it. Anything not created ahead of time (e.g., rules, setting, etc.) is made up on the spot.

GAME ON
The game is played right then and there, for better or worse. It might suck, but everyone has a story to tell about that one time they played an insane game that was invented minutes before they sat down at the table. This could be a fun activity at a smaller con too--make it into sort of tournament style game design. Maybe something like this has been tried (I have no idea).

Even if none of this actually ends up being finished or made usable in 60 minutes, you'll end up having an awesome conversation with total strangers about games and what you love about them. Maybe your tastes will be totally incompatible. Or maybe you'll strike creative gold.

Either way, you're not stuck reading the same books, having the same boring debates about rules, or trudging along your same, overly-trod gamer paths.

In the time it usually takes you to sit down with a stack of RPG books and try and come up with next week's adventure, you've completely given yourself over to gamer ADHD and made something half-baked, but spontaneous. Ugly, but beautiful. Uneven, but exhilarating. Isn't that worth 100 real-life XP?

Obi Wan Kenobi: Idiot!

Warning: following is a rant by an unabashed Star Wars fanboy.

Okay, so I'm working on a few projects with the tube on in the background--Star Wars Attack of the Clones is on Spike (Surprise!). The film is fine, it's not my favorite of the series, but it's passable while I'm working.

In truth I've seen it many times (we own both trilogies) but tonight I came to a realization--Obi Wan Kenobi is the galaxy's worst investigative jedi.

"I don't know why I'm still watching--the prequels don't even get interesting 'till half-way through the last one!"

He spends the better part of the film tracking Jango Fett--a mysterious and obvious miscreant-- from Coruscant, to Kamino, and finally to Geonosis. On Kamino (rainy planet) he learns that Fett is used as the template for an army of clones that the Republic will be footing the bill for. He witnesses them being trained by the thousands, firsthand. He even HAS A CONVERSATION WITH HIM and Fett tells asks him "Do you like your army?" You know--the same army that HE'LL BE FIGHTING LATER ON.

Shortly after their odd staring competition, they fight. Fett escapes, but Kenobi pursues him to the rocky planet Geonosis where the enemies of the Republic are building a droid army. Again, he sees firsthand, the enemy droids being assembled by the thousands. You'd think it might occur to him that, "Oh that's weird, we just left one army-building facility...look, here's another!" All without asking why the human template for the clones is working for the bad guys. Jedi are apparently oblivious when it comes to corporate conflict of interest on a galactic level.

"Yeah we've got matching pajamas/bath robes too, but full dental? I knew we were getting screwed!"

Let me repeat that: HE FOLLOWS THE SAME GUY FROM ONE TOP SECRET MILITARY FACILITY TO THE ENEMY'S TOP SECRET MILITARY FACILITY AND SEES NO PROBLEM WITH THAT.

It would be like following Dogg the Bounty Hunter from the marine base at Quantico and trailing him straight to an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan where he happens to stroll right in without incident--and the whole time never raising one iota of suspicion.

Later, Fett confirms he's working for the separatists when he STANDS NEXT TO DOOKU (Osama Bin Laden?) AS THEY FIGHT THE JEDI. This pretty much cements the connection between the two facilities. Hundreds of Jedi witness this, including members of the Jedi Council. Nobody in the Jedi Order seems to care because they collect on the pre-ordered clones (hello? Human trafficking!) and think nothing of it. Naturally, all are completely surprised when their troops turn out to be duds and start killing good guys in the sequel.

All the while--no one wonders if both sides might actually be working for the bad guys.

More proof that the Republic skimps on dental coverage.

So, a few questions:

1. Aren't jedis, like, the wisest, most perceptive people in the galaxy?
2. Wouldn't any of this raise a red flag with the Jedi Council--Obi wan keeps them up to date via holo-phone after all?
3. IS EVERYONE IN THE GALAXY STUPID?

It all starts with Obi Wan Kenobi, the densest, least perceptive person in the universe.

Again, I don't expect much from AotC, but seriously.

SERIOUSLY.

/end rant