Society Papers Director’s Commentary
This week I released the first of a planned series of 24XX games under the title The Midnight Editions. The idea for this first one came to me when I thought about the idea of using Lady Whistledown's Society Papers layout as the cover image for a 24XX game. I didn't know what the game would look like at that point but I had the basis for the idea and therefore the sorts of stories I wanted to be able to emulate.
In terms of the 24XX chassis I knew there were a few things that I wanted to change to make it work more for how I wanted to play these games. The first of them was that I wanted to remove the automatic progression. I'm not a fan of abstracted progression in RPGs, I don't like spending XP on things that I want my character to be able to do but I don't feel like I've earned. In this game I wanted the character creation to be flexible enough that you could start with a character able to do what you want to achieve fictionally from the start. From there the advancement should reflect character growth in the world. As soon as you think you've earned something then you can discuss it and start using it, no need to wait until after the session.
The second change I wanted to make was to specify that I don't believe the game needs a GM. I want to empower players to take control of the story and the world as they see fit. I don't think that precludes having a GM at all, it's GM agnostic not GMless. This part was something that I wanted to draw out in the themes of the first issue and I think will run through the series. I want the protagonists of the story to be a family, in the first one I took that literally but but in future issues I hope to explore other familial relationships. I chose the title Narrator as my GM stand in because it evokes oversight without implying control or impartiality. I want the narrator to have an opinion and a voice which reflects the players rather than leading them and is also able to voice information the characters don’t know. The players are the audience as well as the characters so the game has to be able to contend with dramatic irony.
The Family forms the core of these sorts of stories. To that end I wanted to make sure the family felt complete, that's why you create the entire family together and then choose who to focus on afterwards. The rest of the family then become NPCs for people to pick up as they would Kith in Wanderhome or for the Narrator to play if you have one. This creation of a larger group than the player count means that there is opportunity for more interactions between passions, obligations and imperfections and allows for situations like Lydia causing a major scandal in Pride and Prejudice even though she is not the protagonist. I wanted to highlight that there are other character in the world with their own needs and to make sure that, while the story focusses on the protagonists, the world turns on its own. The combination of passion and obligation is likely to be a staple in this series for driving dramatic tension. I hope that this helps reinforce a situation where the world isn’t necessarily interested in any one character more than another but the story and the players are.
As I go forward I hope to spend more time playing with the themes I’ve brought up in this issue. I’ve got a few more issues in various stages of development and I’m going to tinker away at them until one bubbles to the surface as the official Issue Two.