Games I'd Run part I
Mar. 13th, 2006 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeregenestHaven't done this in a while, and no one should take this as indication of a disinterest in tantanea. But ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
peaseblossom has mentioned Nobilis and this game concept a few times so I figured I'd repost it.
The University
Title: The University
Description: The Chancel as university. Open and known to the outside world in some ways, a major nexus to the strange and arcane forces that truly govern the world. Probably sits atop something very important, perhaps metaphysical. This game would be equal doses school-tale, coming of Age, and [Instauration].
Genre: Political Fantasy. The study of politics (the force-human or divine-that moves and shapes a society) in a fabricated world – that is the world of Nobilis.
Style: Symbolist. This game shall be an attempt to clothe the idea in sensuous form and shall stress the subjective, symbolical, and the decorative aspects of the world.
Mode: This game shall explore the confessional and epistolary modes, and ideally the narrative of love/seduction.
Theme: The cosmos as labyrinth, almost everything at all can be transmuted into this emblem: houses, cities, landscapes, rivers, and above all else time and ideas. Creation is one vast poem and story composed by man hands through the ages. And this poem is best represented by the Society of Flowers. This is a game about instauration, this will be a Fantasy about the Matter of the world.
Scale: Epic, from day one. This is game about the story of creation.
Scope: From the Cosmic to the dinner-party. The game shall be heavily set in the realm of the social.
Austerity: this game will be austere in moral, cosmological and psychological consequences. Each and every action will matter and will reverberate. The Symbolic is Real. Spectacular coincidence and split-second timing will matter.
Boundaries: The Chancel (and university) is polder, a demarcated boundary of reality that must be maintained.
Sources: The inspiration for a game is often to many to list succinctly. Instead I’ll give a few of the most inspirational.
The orgiastic romanticism of Elizabeth Hand’s two major novels concerning the centuries-long supernatural intrigues of the secret order of the Benandanti, Waking the Moon (1994) and Black Light (1999) is an excellent place to start to explore the quiet vagarities of this setting.
China Miéville’ Perdido Street Station and Scar are mesmerizingly complex creations of an intricate imagination. They are seductive and perverse, beautiful and menacing. And offer a glimpse of the type of world I think this game would be.
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake: Somehow this manages to be both rich and austere at the same time - the sense is of vastness, but of unbearable claustrophobia, too.
The Dark Domain by Stefan Grabinski: Early in the last century, this shockingly underrated Polish writer saw the horror that haunted modernity. His ghosts and demons don't inhabit graveyard or ruins, but steam trains, electricity cables, and the rapidly growing cities. The antithesis of nostalgic fantasy.
peaseblossom has mentioned Nobilis and this game concept a few times so I figured I'd repost it.The University
Title: The University
Description: The Chancel as university. Open and known to the outside world in some ways, a major nexus to the strange and arcane forces that truly govern the world. Probably sits atop something very important, perhaps metaphysical. This game would be equal doses school-tale, coming of Age, and [Instauration].
Genre: Political Fantasy. The study of politics (the force-human or divine-that moves and shapes a society) in a fabricated world – that is the world of Nobilis.
Style: Symbolist. This game shall be an attempt to clothe the idea in sensuous form and shall stress the subjective, symbolical, and the decorative aspects of the world.
Mode: This game shall explore the confessional and epistolary modes, and ideally the narrative of love/seduction.
Theme: The cosmos as labyrinth, almost everything at all can be transmuted into this emblem: houses, cities, landscapes, rivers, and above all else time and ideas. Creation is one vast poem and story composed by man hands through the ages. And this poem is best represented by the Society of Flowers. This is a game about instauration, this will be a Fantasy about the Matter of the world.
Scale: Epic, from day one. This is game about the story of creation.
Scope: From the Cosmic to the dinner-party. The game shall be heavily set in the realm of the social.
Austerity: this game will be austere in moral, cosmological and psychological consequences. Each and every action will matter and will reverberate. The Symbolic is Real. Spectacular coincidence and split-second timing will matter.
Boundaries: The Chancel (and university) is polder, a demarcated boundary of reality that must be maintained.
Sources: The inspiration for a game is often to many to list succinctly. Instead I’ll give a few of the most inspirational.
The orgiastic romanticism of Elizabeth Hand’s two major novels concerning the centuries-long supernatural intrigues of the secret order of the Benandanti, Waking the Moon (1994) and Black Light (1999) is an excellent place to start to explore the quiet vagarities of this setting.
China Miéville’ Perdido Street Station and Scar are mesmerizingly complex creations of an intricate imagination. They are seductive and perverse, beautiful and menacing. And offer a glimpse of the type of world I think this game would be.
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake: Somehow this manages to be both rich and austere at the same time - the sense is of vastness, but of unbearable claustrophobia, too.
The Dark Domain by Stefan Grabinski: Early in the last century, this shockingly underrated Polish writer saw the horror that haunted modernity. His ghosts and demons don't inhabit graveyard or ruins, but steam trains, electricity cables, and the rapidly growing cities. The antithesis of nostalgic fantasy.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 05:22 pm (UTC)Trying desperately to not be too excited
Date: 2006-03-13 05:58 pm (UTC)I will have to read up though. Novels will be a big help, last time (with Brilliance and such) I used reference material and that bogged down. If you have a book or two to lend I would appreciate it (maybe Thursday?). I am happy to go out and buy too, though.
I'm thinking Imortality as a concept and ambition that drives action and knowledge. Philosopher's stone, fountain of youth, genetics. That way the character could be more Indian Jonesey, Dumbledore-like, or Illario-ish, depending on the feel of the game.
I've been itching to play Nobilis again for over two years now. Not that I'm overegar or anything...really, I'm not...