benlehman

I am writing a game for Game Chef 2009. It's the sort of game which has spoilers, so if you don't want the game spoiled for you, don't read these posts.

In particular, Andy, don't read this post. Or, if you do, tell me, because then I won't play the game with you.



YOU

You are a star. Back before history, when the city shattered and the world was divided between sea and sky, you left a part of your heart behind with a human that you loved. You have aged through your own bloodline, not mixed, not spread, but purely and simply a star in the body of a human, on the wrong side of the empyreal divide.

And this is and is and has always been. But now you are hunted for it, and now you are imprisoned for it. Why?

SEABIRD

In January 2009, as his third act in office, President Obama commissioned Project SEABIRD, a top secret organization with unlimited funding, reporting only to the president, headed up by former VP Al Gore. SEABIRD's mission is simple: to stop global warming at any cost, with any method.

To this end, they have discovered you, captured you, and are performing painful and invasive tests on you to find a way to tap your nearly-infinite energy and replace all earthly power generation. If they succeed, mankind will have free energy forever, and for all that time you will be trapped in a sub-basement near Washington, starving and thrashing in agony.

YOUR FRIEND

But you have resources which SEABIRD does not expect. The exact capacities I don't know, you'll have to figure it out. But you have a way of reaching the outside world, probably via the internet, but the exact medium doesn't matter as long as it is text only. You have used this to contact a specific person and ask for their help.

You don't fully trust them to start. Work into it slowly.

Your friend is your only connection to the outside world. Don't waste them.

THE AGENT

Sometime after first contact, SEABIRD will realize that you have made a connection to your friend. They will either recruit someone close to them as an agent, or someone close to them is already an agent. This agent will try to get information out of them about you, and pursue the goals of the organization (which are, in order: Keep you imprisoned, learn more about you, learn more about the connection between your and your friend.)

The Agent will mark things with m-birds to tip their hand, when they want to.

HOW TO START PLAY

You, the first player, are you. Think of a friend of yours, anywhere in the world. They are Your Friend. Don't tell them you're playing the game.

Decide on the medium of communication (one or more of: SMS, blogs, twitter, e-mail, chat, social networking site). Create a new identity in this medium. You will use this identity throughout. Never tip them off that this is a game, or that you (the player) are you (the character.)

Contact them. Repeat it if necessary. Work your way in slowly, but within a short time begin to hint at your desperate situation.

After a few weeks, recruit another player, someone who knows them and lives close to them, to the agent. Show them the rules. Don't communicate with them further, until the climax.