Tell me how you feel.

The premise is rather simple. I want to talk about games in such a way that highlights the emotional, visceral impact they make. Not so much the mechanics, not so much what works and doesn't work in how we roll, but the lasting impression we take away from the table that makes us decide "Yes, more please" or "No, never again".

I am attempting to create audio mixtape reviews, collecting snippets of responses from you all, the general, game playing public, and then intersplicing them with music, comments from the game creators, and an over riding narration from one source. Sometimes, that source will be me. Hopefully, sometimes, it will be someone else.

Want to be a part of it?

I'm not asking for an essay. In fact, a sentence or two would be just fine. And! I've tried to make it even easier to make this happening by setting up a special google voice mail account that people can call and leave me messages stating, in fact, how exactly they feel!

Simply call 657-FEEL-007 and leave me a message with a few words or phrases on how playing a certain game makes you feel... or feel free to leave a short story on a memory from your own life game play might have provoked. State the name of the game first. You don't need to leave your name, but I would appreciate an email sent my way (rianbean@gmail.com) with your name and any project you'd like mention, if you'd like to be credited on the review.

The final destination for these audio reviews will be on this new, lovely site: http://wearelostinplay.com/

Questions? Send em my way or leave them in the comments.

-Tori

GPNW: House Guest Haikus

By Daniel Wood:

a screen door
and a porch to smoke on --
the better part of home

two hours in the car
my navigator agrees --
that cloud looks like a dragon.

crooked night streets
voices from the backseat
every name a direction

if I could only
perch a bird so carefully
on her shoulder, then

red wine in white cups --
the glasses were already full
with gods

eyes closed
around the table, listening
to the panic of love

half asleep in
the cool basement --
giggles from the curtained room

silver & light --
my sister has a knife, but I've
got her back

the machine waits,
surrounded
by photographs of our escape

back in the 90s again --
skater punks, Nirvana hoodies,
that old horniness

standing at the window
admiring the calves
of your red-headed neighbour

Go Play Northwest

I am still decompressing a lot from this weekend. A ton of good, and some troubling and murky not-so-great.

Soon, after more thought and dialogue, I'll post reflections, AP, feelings, you name it.

For now? Still happily exhausted. Thanks to all who helped make this weekend fantastic.

The Quiet Year

The Quiet Year is a fantastic game by the fantastic Joe Mcdaldno that I had a chance to play at Fabricated Realities recently.

Joe's Game Description:

"The Quiet Year is a map game. You define the struggles of a post-apocalyptic community, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern.

The game is played using a deck of cards – each of the 52 cards corresponds to a week during the quiet year. Each card triggers certain events – bringing bad news, good omens, project delays and sudden changes in luck. At the end of the quiet year, the Frost Shepherds will come, ending the game."

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Even though the game is still living in Play Testing Land, and despite the fact that the text is guaranteed to change, I was inspired to make my own custom deck of cards for play.

Why was I so inspired?

Because Joe writes (some of my favorite) lovely games, with lovely text.

Because I have been looking for a post apocalyptic game that has the potential to create an emotional pull, to carry the weight of the reality of what the end of days could be like, and I think this may just be the one.

Because I love me some arts n crafts projects!

So. I established a handful of artificial constraints at the outset.

1) I could only use old copies of National Geographic to find images

2) Each Suite represents a Season, and as such, I tried to find images that would, in different ways, provoke a feeling of those Seasons.

3) I could not reference the game text when choosing images- the goal in this was to hope that some of the images would *magically* correspond to the text once the deck was finished. The only exception was the King of Winter: that image, I chose specifically for the game-ending card

4) Limited images of people

5) I tried to select images that wouldn't influence game-play choices other than by being evocative of the seasonal shift, and the concept that this game takes place post-civilization. I haven't had a chance to play with this deck yet, so we will see how well I did at accomplishing that ideal.

Okay! Photos- I only took photos of the images that seemed to align themselves really well with the text. If you'd like to see the whole deck, we'll just have to play together someday!

Cover: This image is for the box I keep the cards in

This was text from an article in a National Geographic about the Andes. How kismet!

Spring:

Summer:

Autumn:

Winter:

Thoughts? Comments? Questions?