Hello from high above the Rockies, as I make my way back to Chicago from Big Bad Con 2023. This was my first con in five years, and only my second ever. I had a better time at it than I did at GenCon, which I understand derives largely from this being an industry con vs a consumer show. I made a modest number of purchases but it was easy to stick to the constraints of my limited luggage space, which was fine; shopping and new releases were not the attraction here. Gaming, panels, and (as I soon learned) networking were.
This con was certainly less overwhelming and I think my expectations were clearer and my FOMO much lighter, but I’ll readily admit that I had a lot to learn. I misunderstood or made mistakes regarding almost every event I signed up for, including happy accidents like sitting in on the wrong panel only to learn a ton, or expecting a mending workshop to be about fixing one’s writing when the application was rather more literal, which was a fascinating surprise.
I also was balancing the experience of the con with obligations to my family, whom I was happy to see but which meant I commuted in, which in turn certainly changed my capacity for socializing; as did a pervasive feeling of self-consciousness and frequent imposter syndrome.
One key surprise for me was just how much of the con was focused on the performance, production, and promotion of actual plays, and how much that coloured the programming. I’ve been aware of that side of the industry of course but haven’t engaged much with it and did not expect for it to loom so large, though the surprise evaporated quickly; this was after all a professional event for many people, and the majority of people’s interests and skills in this space lie in playing games, not making them. And, there are certainly more paths toward turning this into a living via the performance side than there are on the design side.
Hand in hand with that, I really was not prepared to present myself in a professional capacity. That’s not entirely a bad thing, as my life is and has been very full of demands on my time and I have little desire to grow my work beyond the hobby level, and certainly not to tie my financial wellbeing to something that gives me joy. I wish the best to those who do but that ain’t me. I did feel foolish though, for being so disorganized in certain spaces where people were invested and hustling, and I had no business card or portfolio of my work or clear ambitions to bring to the table.
Still, those embarrassments were slight and fleeting, and I connected with people in the ways I wanted to, and got out of it the modest things I had hoped for and more. J would be interested in attending again, with clearer expectations and aims, and perhaps do other cons as well.
But who cares about any of all that stuff, we’re here today to talk game design shit! Today I want to discuss something that has percolating and which has manifested in a couple of different WIPs lately: the concept of Beliefs/Philosophies as Roles/Classes/Jobs.
I started to explore this a little while back with Channelers: the idea there being that each individual’s beliefs about magic are, without contradiction, true, and their relationship to magic (and the entities it flows through) is asymmetrically shaped by those beliefs. This results in mechanical differences, so that the Faithful has abilities that the Itinerant does not and never will, unless their beliefs should change. Conversely the hatred that an Antipath holds toward entities is powerful enough to harm them and their adherents; each of these cases demonstrating that what your character believes about reality determines how they affect it.
Now whereas Channelers has a very mechanical implementation, I have also been considering how beliefs could form the basis for roles in more abstract systems. I’ve been watching an isekai that’s mildly less forgettable than most of the genre as it follows a cleric, and it got me to thinking about the kind of narrative that would focus on the healer types. The rock tumbler of my mind ground that into a game about a party that is traveling the countryside when peace has come to the land, and what those travels would be like.
I’m kicking around names but for now it’s called We Won, Didn’t We? and is focused around identity in the aftermath. When I pick a class in a combat-based RPG, it’s because of the style of moves I want to execute. The appeals of a set of mechanics have always informed the role, and I don’t think I’m alone in this. Divorced from combat, as this game is, the beliefs are all there is, and asking why someone has a profession speaks to their place in the world. If you still carry a sword on a mission of peace, is it because you don’t believe that peace will last? Is it because you can’t let go? Or have you shed too much blood to ever change now?
So, two very different approaches here. With the former, belief affects reality; for the latter, belief is all there is. I should flesh these out further but that’s a comparative introduction to start with, and I think I’ll end with it as I still have an hour and a half of this wretched flight and I’m so exhausted. Will post when I land; til next time!
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