So… the weekend was a lot unique. Brand’s paperwork finally came through, so we took an overnight run down to Niagara Falls to land him at the border and to celebrate. Very fun, very exciting, such a latent load of stress off for us both! – all of which might have contributed to what happened next. On Saturday, our second (and last) day out, we were supposed to be going to lunch and then heading to the Aviary. We never made it. Over lunch I told Brand (again) that I wanted to make games with him, like, soon. We’ve been batting around cool ideas and what if?’s and how do we do…?’s for a long while now.

So we did.

I mean, we’re by no means done, but in the three hours in the restaurant, the three hours at the train station, the two hours on the train and the two hours over dinner we’d sketched out what we wanted the game to accomplish, how we wanted to accomplish it, came up with an in-progress mechanics model, a chargen system, a system of social support and engagement based on a game idea I dreamed up a couple of months ago.

Yesterday I spent the day creating characters, to “try on” what the game’s dimensions were from the inside. In the next couple of days we’re going to theoretically model the system works (Hey! I guess this means my Process & System Analyst training comes in useful in my regular life for once, eh?) This weekend we’re mapping it out and trying to flesh out enough text that other people will be able to try it out. I’m hyped about moving towards a playtest because I want to see how people will react to it, what they will create with it.

I’m not sure how much I want to go into details yet, because things are still ruminating in my head, and are changing on an hour to hour basis. Suffice to say I’m extremely excited because if we can do what we’re setting out to do, we will be offering support for types of play not necessarily supported by existing games – hard hitting, strong emotionally connective stories that are modular, evolutionary , are designed to accomodate both immersive and non-immersive players and that have strong ritual support that both underline and encourage social responsibility in play.

Tall order? Hell yes! Can we do it? I guess you’ll have to tell us when we’re done!

For now, we’re referring to it as 1000 Stories. Not sure what it will be called down the line… Can you tell I’m hyped?