Editing Scum: Game Fu Ingredients
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I'm being a bit liberal here with the interpretation, and going for a piratical feel rather than directly lifting window dressing from piratical trappings. My interpretation of the piratical genre is necessarily a bit darker and grittier than the standard Disney Pirates-of-the-Carribean take. | I'm being a bit liberal here with the interpretation, and going for a piratical feel rather than directly lifting window dressing from piratical trappings. My interpretation of the piratical genre is necessarily a bit darker and grittier than the standard Disney Pirates-of-the-Carribean take. | ||
| − | * '''"Immoral anti-heroes"''' - Like pirates, the protagonists don't live within society's codes of conduct, and don't subscribe to conventional morality. They're cruel, they're capricious, they're violent and they're all boozehounds. Nonetheless, they are our protagonists, and we root for them. Just like pirates, they are hounded by civilised authority, yet somehow | + | * '''"Immoral anti-heroes"''' - Like pirates, the protagonists don't live within society's codes of conduct, and don't subscribe to conventional morality. They're cruel, they're capricious, they're violent and they're all boozehounds. Nonetheless, they are our protagonists, and we root for them. Just like pirates, they are hounded by civilised authority, yet somehow fromt he story's point of view we are able to paint civilisation as the hated opposition. This, to me, is the core of what makes Scum a piratical game. |
* '''"Buried treasure"''' - The stories will often revolve around hidden stashes of loot, though generally not actually chests of gold. | * '''"Buried treasure"''' - The stories will often revolve around hidden stashes of loot, though generally not actually chests of gold. | ||
* '''"The Black Spot"''' - Every scenario has some way of a character being "marked for death", which should give them a real sense of fear and foreboding, just like the Black Spot in treasure island! | * '''"The Black Spot"''' - Every scenario has some way of a character being "marked for death", which should give them a real sense of fear and foreboding, just like the Black Spot in treasure island! | ||
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=='''Images'''== | =='''Images'''== | ||
| − | http:// | + | http://flickr.com/photos/8077261@N08...7611108521927/ |
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/118083.jpg | http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/118083.jpg | ||
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The first picture to me says two things - first of all, its run down, but secondly it looks like a place where people can feel like they belong. It has a sense of home to it. In a way, this reflects the setting of the ''Council Estate'', which is suffering wear and tear, but which the protagonists see as their home. | The first picture to me says two things - first of all, its run down, but secondly it looks like a place where people can feel like they belong. It has a sense of home to it. In a way, this reflects the setting of the ''Council Estate'', which is suffering wear and tear, but which the protagonists see as their home. | ||
| − | The barbed wire and the prison camp, however, gave me the idea that the game should be contained within a small space, where the Scum can run rampant, but that they are closed into it, both metaphorically from lack of social mobility, and literally, by the fact that outside of the estate the police will arrest them. Hence the Estate becomes the prison camp, the police the prison guards, and the law is the barbed wire fence. | + | The barbed wire and the prison camp, however, gave me the idea that the game should be contained within a small space, where the Scum can run rampant, but that they are closed into it, both metaphorically from lack of social mobility, and literally, by the fact that outside of the estate the police will arrest them. Hence the Estate becomes the prison camp, the police the prison guards, and the law is the barbed wire fence. In fact, I figured why not go the whole hog, and have actual barbed wire around the estate? |
=='''Other'''== | =='''Other'''== | ||
| − | * Board game. (I moved this out of rules, because put here it could | + | * Board game. (I moved this out of rules, because put here it could be a setting element instead.) |
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Not using the rules of board games, but rather used them as inspiration points for the various stories. The idea of Cluedo with Chavs was actually my starting point, but I decided to move beyond this into a bigger picture, to make the game less of a scenario and more of a complete setting. I've kept the original Cluedo scenario in there as a sample story, of course. | Not using the rules of board games, but rather used them as inspiration points for the various stories. The idea of Cluedo with Chavs was actually my starting point, but I decided to move beyond this into a bigger picture, to make the game less of a scenario and more of a complete setting. I've kept the original Cluedo scenario in there as a sample story, of course. | ||
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* Family. | * Family. | ||
| − | This is | + | This is a strong theme. |
On the one hand, we have the real families of the Scum, who represent their link back to normal society. | On the one hand, we have the real families of the Scum, who represent their link back to normal society. | ||
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Hopefully this theme will be obvious from reading the game itself, though possibly in a very heavy handed way! | Hopefully this theme will be obvious from reading the game itself, though possibly in a very heavy handed way! | ||
| − | * Hope, as a physical element that is as essential for existence as water, oxygen, and fire. | + | * Hope, as a physical element that is as essential for existence as water, oxygen, and fire. (Yup, this was in the last challenge, but no-one used it. It will recur until someone steps up to the challenge ) |
This is an interesting one. | This is an interesting one. | ||
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This plays with the idea that the protagonist's primary motivation is to get out of the estate, and to make it in the world beyond. The main obstacle to this is poverty, and this makes money something that is symbolic in game - something that you acquire in order to reach the dream of leaving the estate. | This plays with the idea that the protagonist's primary motivation is to get out of the estate, and to make it in the world beyond. The main obstacle to this is poverty, and this makes money something that is symbolic in game - something that you acquire in order to reach the dream of leaving the estate. | ||
| − | Money then | + | Money then isn't something you spend in this game, and has no part in the in-game economy. It just represents the way out - the physical manifestation of hope. |
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<br><br><br> | <br><br><br> | ||
