I was approached by a local theater working on its #sustainability / future-thinking course for the youth (15-23 or so).
They would like me to design a narrative card game which could help the kids imagine a better, sustainable future, making them feel agency over their lives.
It needs to be easy to learn, use and have lesson plans.
I'm currently thinking along the lines of "For the Queen", "The Story Engine", "The Quiet Year", "Dialect"...
@alxd I would like to tag in @armadajosh, because I know that's close to his interests, and he's made worldbuilding games like Polis, that takes inspiration from @benrobbins's #MicroscopeRPG and builds a city, complete with its story.
I need to look into Polis, but at the same time I want to go over the requirements and possible lesson plans again.
I put a lot of work into the @SolarpunkPrompts and finding the right narratives to unlock young people's visions of the future and I wonder what's the best angle to use the same lessons in a form of a game.
I don't want to give them a great ruleset to populate with bad prompts / ideas.
In my view, For the Queen and its engine is extremely accessible, but doesn't build a world so much as a story. If you could post a bit more about your design goals, it could be easier to point to relevant material if that's welcome.
I already started working on a FtQ-based Solarpunk game, but I'm not sure if it will align with what the theater wants to commission.
My biggest argument for making it more of a story-based game than worldubilding game is the sense of agency in the players - probably teenagers with little previous RPG / storytelling experience. I don't want to give them static materials, I want them to feel the power of creating something.
@alxd@armadajosh@benrobbins This sounds great, I'm curious to hear what you will build. Let me know if you'd like more material or a bit of conversation/playstorming/testing at any point.
Edit: If you haven't seen In This World, you should definitely give it a look. For my money, it's the most world for the least effort I know of. https://www.lamemage.com/inthisworld/
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