This game was designed and written in about 24 hours for the Ronnie's contest of October, 2005. The game central motives are: Fight and Pain. This game got a second category prize.
It was somehow inspired by the story Scanners live in vain by Cordwainer Smith.
Disaster! is a game where characters face an overwhelming threat which surely will destroy their community and their world. The players play the role of special people which are both, boosted and hindered by the emotions of other significant characters. They will share their happiness and hopes, but also their pain and deception. Thus, they will need to protect others to save themselves. When pain becomes unbearable, they have the choice to go far beyond it. Getting into a trance-state where they are disconnected from their emotions, they are able to perform amazing deeds. But this may endanger both, their safety and the safety of the others. Will any one of them survive the terrible coming disaster? Probably not, but they will make a good tale fighting until their last stance.
Playtesting this game was somehow frustrating. The secondary characters were developing much more interesting situations than the player characters. The motives related to the chosen disasters were repetitive and not really gearing with the characters. I have the feeling that we were not prepared to use properly a system like this properly on those times.
I have always wanted to play-test this game again, and repair it if it is really needed. But I never find the opportunity.
This is the original submission PDF file.
Following some advise from Ron Edwards I made some little changes to the mechanics. I also corrected some maths here and there. Ron also suggested me to choose a given setting and focus for the game. I don't know yet why, but I chose a Classic-Greek setting instead of the science-fiction original idea. Thus, I changed the game name accordingly.
You may download the PDF file of the last version of The Wrath of the Gods (playtesting).
Last modfied: July 24 2008 13:59
