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+--- Thread: Flock Games: an experiment in collaborative play-by-email design (/showthread.php?tid=130816)
Flock Games: an experiment in collaborative play-by-email design - ravenzachary - 03-08-2022
I'd like to invite everyone here to join Flock Games and become a player in a new, yet-to-be-created play-by-email game that is collaboratively designed by the players.
Flock Games hosts collaboratively-created, free, play-by-email games where the rules are defined by the players. Each turn, players are allowed to submit new or revised game rules for inclusion into the rulebook. All proposed changes to the game are reviewed and voted on by the players and may or not be approved for inclusion.
A Flock Game begins with a basic set of concepts and rules around a theme. Each turn, players submit new and revised rules and the games evolve every turn, hopefully into an immersive experience that is fun to play. All Flock Games include an evolving ruleset. Each game is a journey.
The plan is to launch a series of game concepts under the Flock Games name over the course of the coming years. We host one game at a time.
How it works:
1) The players collaboratively pick a theme for the new game. All players at the start of a new game submit one noun (any noun: a person, place, or thing, this can any proper noun or common noun) via email to the gamemaster for voting. All nouns are posted in the voting channel on the Flock Games Discord. Players vote on these nouns. Any noun that has a majority of votes based on the current player count is included into the game concept.
2) The gamemaster then creates a basic outline of the game using the approved nouns and posts the initial rulebook with a single order command - the ability to name something in the game (this could be characters, units, items, whatever the game is focused on). Once posted, a majority of players need to approve the rulebook or the game won’t start until it has been revised to the majority approval of the players.
3) The gamemaster sends out the first turn results to players. This is the setup turn. At this point, all players can do is name things in the game.
4) Each turn, players submit orders via email to the gamemaster. With these orders, each player is allowed to submit one new rule or revised rule for voting with their orders. This could be a new order type, a change to an existing rule, or some other aspect of the game that they believe will improve the experience in some way. Anything goes. Players can even propose a meta-rule such as the turnaround time, game deadlines, the format of how orders are submitted, or even who is the gamemaster of the current game!
5) The gamemaster will post all revised rule changes to the Flock Games Discord for voting. By the end of voting, any rules with a majority of votes will be included into the new rulebook for use on the following turn.
6) Turns continue until a majority of players vote to end the game and start a new one. Any player is allowed to propose a vote to end the game, but the vote requires majority approval of the motion before the actual vote to end the game is approved.
Interested? Join us on our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/QWE9t42XbE
Players can still participate without Discord (email playflockgames@gmail.com), but they won't be allowed to vote on new or revised rules without the use of Discord.
RE: Flock Games: an experiment in collaborative play-by-email design - ravenzachary - 03-13-2022
We've finished the collaborative game creation phase and are preparing for Turn 1 results. New players may join the game in-progress. Interested? Join us on our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/QWE9t42XbE
The current game is called The Bridgekeeprs.
The approved nouns submitted by the players for this game included: bridgekeeper, immortal, secret societies, civilization, island, and caste.
Summary of The Bridgekeepers:
You are a Bridgekeeper: a being from another reality that guards the entrance from this world to your own. Many realities have converged here, on a mysterious island on an unknown world. In this place, you are ethereal, potent, untouchable…immortal. You can exert influence over this world and interact with it, but the inhabitants of this world and the other Bridgekeepers have no power over you here. You are safe from harm, but the same cannot be said for those who serve you.
On this island are magical beasts to be tamed, sites of power, minions brought here by the Bridgekeepers from their own realities, and a populace that secretly worships and serves the newly-arrived Bridgekeepers as gods among men. In addition, warring civilizations have sailed to this place in search of riches and the new gods. These outsiders think little of the local population of this island who have come here as exiles, outcasts of a lower caste escaping persecution. Throughout the island are those that rally to your side, members of secret societies who serve your cause and work against those who challenge your authority.
Relationships between the Bridgekeepers are dynamic and complex. While open warfare is known to take place from time to time among various factions, Bridgekeepers often work together against common threats and are known to convene a Council of the Bridgekeepers in times of need to share information and maintain their collective dominance over the island.
Your goal in The Bridgekeepers is to bend this island and its inhabitants to your will, increase your influence on the Council, and guarantee the survival of your own reality by steadfastly guarding the bridge to your home.