Was wondering if there has been any discussion on having extensive "examples" for "Shock:Human Contact" (HC ?).  One of the struggles in sharing the original Shock game w/ others was difficulty in 'getting-started' for the less-creative players (or at least those whose confidence in their creativity is diminished, particularly on a Mon. night after a long day).  Like many narrative games, it seems that having viable samples to choose from to get things rolling in HC could really help.  For years, i've had stacks of index cards with archetypes for character backgrounds, overall psychology, internal-struggles, quirky-traits, backstory events, etc. to help kickstart players into likeable/gameplay-appealing choices.  Having a standard format ( a set of initially agreed-upon categories…an ontology of HC if you will) might help exchange between the community?

In the case of HC, perhaps this could really help widen the audience base?

An example of an "example-card" for the backstory category might be 

"{} Description: farm boy on desert planet, feels like life is going nowhere, 

{} Struggles: autonomy/sense-of-purpose, uncomfortable with sophisticated cultures

{} Quirks: prone to impulsive decisions, distracted if not center of attention

The idea seed, taken above from the annoyances of a Luke Skywalker template, isn't a good one as its too specific, (but i'm workin, so can't put crazy thought/time in right now =)

i really like your idea of "booklet-packs" that will give those ideas.  Again, its not that gamers or non-gamers-being-introduced can't all be creative, but that situations-of-the-play-session and personal-ego/confidence may inhibit the creative flow.  Drawing on archetypes/templates, particularly those from commonly known or personally beloved precedents, seems to help the construction of a narrative.  i wonder if its related to how folks build easily w/ Legos or other highly-constrained building toys…as if the constraints limit the possible choices and make it easier to get started ( instead of picking a color as a percent Red/Green/Blue, pick from the Rainbow's 7 or Crayola 64, etc. )

Am very interested to see what you do w/ Human Contact.  I really dug Shock (bought it for folks who will probably never get to play or choose to play, but wanted them to read the ideas in it…especially Praxis & Ngonists ).  I really think you've helped the 'story-centered' cluster of our community to think with new tools.

It'd be cool to distill speculative-fiction narratives into a DNA of possibilities….at least to begin doing that for character motivations/psychology…beyond the traditional neurosis/psychosis, D&D Alignment, or World of Darkness/Pendragon 7 Deadly-Sins/ Virtue/Vices…

Post edited 2:14 pm – November 10, 2010 by Mahjai

Well said man…am much agreed w/ the disinterest/implausibility of Dualism.  And, if i'm reading you right, i definitely concur on the implied dangers/cardboard-sterility of selecting 'archetypes'.  The examples to populate categories-of-interest are merely those building-blocks to get folks rolling and provide a 'kickstart' when needed—

Love the 'ME GO TO FAR' caveman strips…and the Biodiversity one on Dresden Codak even more::  Irony is good feature to encourage/reward/indentify in games as well…not enforce unnaturally, but to detect narrative-flow/event-structure opportunities for it-

Evil Ironic Apes-

Felt it unecessary to create a new topic, but was wondering what those who've readin this think about a standardized Event Log to ease the recording of adventures for later community sharing?   (resulting in a nice database of past events).  

Something that has been great with the original Shock was how folks shared their sessions and for the most part it was easy to follow, but it could be great with a singular format to read each (perhaps a digital upload to have web browseable records?…i think some folks might read more about other's sessions than they do spending time playing…and it might fuel everyone's gameplay to a higher level in studying or being inspired by others?)