Fair Play
Posted by Jason on February 25th, 2010 — in Conventions, Cowboys With Big Hearts, Medical Hospital
Dreamation 2010 was frickin’ awesome.
Cowboys With Big Hearts needs some GM advice and structure. I’m thinking: To “unlock” your Keepsake, at any time you have a flashback tying you to the orphans. Until then you can’t use it. Or maybe you have to tie the keepsake to the orphans in the flashback. That might be fun. Then it is color scene/big conflict/color/big/color/showdown. So maybe: Phoenix / Apaches / Train robber friends / rockslide / weirdo preacher / Death Brothers (that was the Dreamation game), with stuff slotted in as a GM prefers, with many options. I don’t think the rules can be well presented on cards.
Medical Hospital – procedure timing was wrong, wrong, wrong. Trauma doesn’t work right. You need to be able to earn Pull in roleplaying scenes (by hitting the A-Plot maybe?) but I want to avoid state tracking so badly! If the RP game can stand alone like the arts-and-crafts game can, that is a good thing. Big thanks to Eric, Witt and Laura who “got it” and really chewed the scenery. The game is cluttered with stuff, which I need to think about. Lots of bits swirling around. Viz the RP half of the play space:
My interest in structured freeform is rekindled. I want to write a larp now. I want to play in a larp now, perhaps before writing one. A conversation with John S. and Frank M. really got me thinking about how to port what is good about what I already do to a different medium.
Seven sessions of Fiasco were run – three by me – and it wasn’t enough. I’m so grateful for the warm reception the game has gotten. I’m also happy that I can run it endlessly and not get tired of it. I couldn’t run three games of Grey Ranks that way, or The Roach.
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Posted by Jason on January 19th, 2010 — in Medical Hospital, Playtest
Here are two surgical procedures, a pyloric valve enlargement and a selective vagotomy. The instructions are on individual sheets, and both use the same chart sheet (you’ll need two of MH01). I’d love to have some people try them out and tell me how long they took (in seconds from picking up the scissors to putting them down), and if the instructions were clear enough. You need scissors, sticky notes (which stand in for sutures, to close the cuts you make) and a sharp pencil for poking. Dr. Lattimore can explain it better than I can. Thanks! Give it a try!
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Posted by Jason on January 14th, 2010 — in Design, Medical Hospital
Mark Leyner fans rejoice! I’ve decided to focus my efforts on the abdomen for Medical Hospital. Other cool sets of procedures will come later, but the abdomen is totally disgusting and offers a lot of variety. Here’s the list:
CLASS C
LYSIS OF ADHESIONS
TRADITIONAL OPEN APPENDECTOMY
PERITONEOVENOUS SHUNT
UMBILICAL HERNIORRHAPHY
GASTROSTOMY
INGUINAL HERNIA REPAIR
CLASS B
ANTRECTOMY/VAGOTOMY; OR PEPTIC ULCER GASTRECTOMY/ VAGOTOMY
SPLENECTOMY (PARTIAL OR TOTAL)
ANTERIOR ADRENALECTOMY
PYLOROPLASTY/VAGOTOMY
SMALL BOWEL RESECTION
MECKEL’S DIVERTICULECTOMY
CLASS A
ADENOCARCINOMA GASTRECTOMY
HEPATECTOMY (PARTIAL OR TOTAL)
ORTHOTOPIC HEPATIC TRANSPLANT
BILLROTH 1 GASTRODUODENOSTOMY
So 16 Procedures, most of them in the gut, two with stuff going on in the neck as well. This is a really good way to focus my efforts, and the trauma cases will still be grisly whole body affairs. I’ll add a Class A dealing with the pancreas but I don’t have one yet.
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Posted by Jason on August 17th, 2009 — in Design, Medical Hospital
The procedures are the heart of Medical Hospital, and I want them to be easy to create. Playtest feedback indicated that the super detailed, Gray’s Anatomy style images added a level of confusion but not an equal helping of fun. I had counted on the “fog of war” aspect, but it really is a bit too much.
I’m thinking now that I’ll divide the human body up into 18 sheets, at least initially. Each sheet will show the relevant organs and bone structures and blood vessels for basic play, and future sets can be all orthopedic, all vascular, whatever. If these are sized consistently (the sample is 8″ by 10″ which seems right), individual sheets can also be blown up into four quadrants for detailed work, like mitral valve replacement or whatever. I like this model a lot.
The keys will be to nail the level of detail and get a great, stylish artist to build out these sheets in a simple, colorful, accessible style. More thought required!
The sample above is the lower right abdomen, so that giblet-looking mess is the kidney, a loop of duodenum, and the devilish pancreas. I put a number on each physical feature and sprinkled a few around for “cut from #13 to #45, avoiding the artery” type instructions.
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Posted by Jason on August 18th, 2008 — in Conventions, Medical Hospital
I have a lot to say, but I’m looking at my Medical Hospital playtest notes, so first a shout out to Marc Majcher:
“I’m glad you’ve come here to dilute the pool of bastards”
–Dr. Elena Markova, Indianapolis General Hospital
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