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May 19, 2006
Dolphin game thoughts
Here are some random thoughts about Jonathan's dolphin game.
One difference between dolphins and people is that (as far as we know) dolphins don't use language. So a dolphin rpg should not require the use of language. This is not an insurmountable barrier, though, since intentionality -- being able to imagine the responses of others -- has been observed in plenty of animals besides humans, and I think that act of sympathetic imagination is the essential feature in roleplaying. So, one design constraint is to make it playable without words. This shouldn't be too hard, though, because improv-ers do it all the time (eg, making the actors use nonsense syllables in the improv).
Another difference is that dolphins have this cool sonar thing, and we don't. Somehow I'd like the game to require the players to locate stuff using aural cues rather than (say) visual cues, just to get that feature of dolphin-ness across.
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Comments
Dolphins may not use language, but they do have names, and repeating their names is apparently a significant chunk of what the dolphins say. So perhaps for the game, the player is restricted to saying their character's name, and conveying meaning through inflection and gesturing.
At Origins one year, I played Kool Aid Man in a Tick inspired superhero game. He was restricted to only saying "Oh" and "Yeah", as in the Kool Aid commercials (an idea stolen from an Hitherby Dragons entry I can no longer find), and I was nonetheless able to convey a fair amount of information.
Posted by: Nick wedig at May 19, 2006 10:22:14 PM
I think something could be done with sonar shadows - one dolphin can passively "read" the objects another dolphin is pinging if they are positioned properly. Since our hearing is omnidirectional and conveys, relative to dophins, almost no information, sight would be a better substitute.
Posted by: Jasonm at May 20, 2006 9:36:58 AM
Oh, and the first resolution mechanic that occurred to me was sexual - the first dolphin to reach orgasm loses the conflict.
Posted by: Jasonm at May 20, 2006 9:38:08 AM
Orgasm == defeat!?
Posted by: Neel Krishnaswami at May 24, 2006 4:08:38 PM
Sounds like the XXXenophile card game...
Posted by: Space Parasite at May 25, 2006 1:20:35 PM
Hey Neel. Vincent and Thomas' recent comments on the difference between systems and texts have made me want to create a dolphin game that is non-textual. I'm still not sure how I'm going to communicate the game system and how to play without writing it down, but we'll see...
Posted by: Jonathan Walton at May 25, 2006 10:23:06 PM
