thread: 2006-01-10 : Pulling Coplayers In
On 2006-01-12, Mo wrote:
Vincent,
Push: "I contribute [this] to your character. You can't say no!"
Pull: "You, contribute something to [this part] of my character. You can't say no!"
OK, so the YES! EXACTLY! was a little premature. I absolutely did assume voluntary co-ownership.
This whole co-ownership thing gives me the wiggies a little, but I've been trying to get my head around it before going "Barg!". This is not to say I'd go "Barg!" here, just at Brand, but anyway....
Then after considering this correction, I realized one of the games in my design folder, temporarily called Asylum has conceptual mechanics that do just this kind of thing. In it, characters have multiple identities, one that is created and maintained by the character's "owner" one as interpreted and modified by another character's psychosis. Neither of the character's personas (at this point in the design phase) are more important than any other. Play will likely be cyclical so that you are the main character in the psychodrama of your own life, but supporting cast in that of the other members. At different points in time, players will pull to say exactly that statement: "Tell me what my character does/who my character is". Hard Pull co-ownership, no?
