Alcoholism – Decline – Family

Drunk is a game based on the book Systemet (“the system”, the diminutive for the Swedish liquor monopoly) by Bosse Gustavsson. A very thin little book written in second person to explore alcoholism from within.

Drunk follows the decline of a father and husband in the form of flashbacks during an intoxicated suicide. The drunk, you, has decided that the best gift he can give his wife and child is to stay out of their lives forever, and the recipe for this is suicide by bottle.

In Drunk, players switch character. Everyone will play the husband, the wife, the child. Players’ agendas – responsibilities for getting a certain message though in the story told — with migrate through the characters and influence their behaviour. Characters’ agendas are mutated by the players’ agendas leading to interesting shifts in behaviour under different combinations.

A bottle mechanic allow you to control how quickly the game ends, measured in centilitres. The husband will not die until the bottle is empty. And he will die.

The game includes a liquor bottle filled with water, and if the players want to they can add a splash of alcohol-tasting extract or something alcoholic in it for the taste. As a player-group you can select what you want to have in the bottle.

Gang Rape is a short, game master-less jeepform game centred around the idea of using fiat as a means of oppression. The game mechanics were conceived for the purpose of playing gang rape, but are equally useful for playing any kind of oppression, like for example bullying/mobbing.

There are several points to the game. One thing that has been severely bugging me the last couple of years is that (at least in Sweden) it seems nearly impossible today to get convicted for rape or gang rape. To really feel this in the end, if the issue actually arises, which is another point of the game, the game should have been harsh until that point.

Naturally, this game is also a comment on how little protection there is in the American "no touching" rule, and to stir the game design pot if only so little. I'm sure this game isn't the first in its kind.

Don't play this game unless you're in a good place mentally, and really think you are up for it. It is not meant to be fun to play.

The game is about a family just like yours. Except not quite. It is about a family where the mother turns a deaf ear to what's happening, denies the footsteps outside her daughter's room when she is sleeping in front of the TV. The door opening. Closing. Abuse that's been going on for as long as her daughter can remember. Perhaps from the very beginning.

The game is about a mother that somehow sacrifices a child that she loves. About a child screaming for help, starving herself. And about a father that's living an OK life. Really.

And is it really so simple to do the right thing. Even after you turned away once?

Night of Nights is a romantic short story in jeepform about a love that was never meant to be. It is a simple take on a classic tale, with just enough twists and turns not to make it into Pretty Woman. It is about creating the most beautiful tale with the given premises, about role-playing and about character and story immersion, for some definition of immersion. In the Danish short story scenario tradition (that may just be a figment of my imagination), the game is meant to be played in less than 60 minutes, including player preparation. There will be touching.

Du holder fire novellescenarier i hånden. Fire sorte nedslag i det virkelige liv. Du må vælge et fra. De andre tre må du spille. Du må ikke bakke ud, du må ikke stoppe. Du er nødt til at spille dem.

Fire korte noveller. Med forskellig stil, forskellig form, og forskelligt plot. Men som alligevel, et eller andet sted, handler om det samme. Det handler om magt, dine venners magt over dig, spillederens magt over spillerne, din magt over din partner, som elsker dig lidt mere, end du elsker ham eller hende, og spruttens magt over mig, når jeg er i det humør. Og det sker oftere og oftere nu, så snart er der måske en ende på alt det her.

Hvis man bliver ved med at skrue op for volumen på TV, så drukner man til sidst lyden af alt andet. Det er meget praktisk. Verden udenfor forsvinder, og det eneste der er tilbage er Spencer Tracys firkantede ansigt som fylder TV-skærmen. Og det er trygt, fordi man ved at han overlever. Hvad end manusforfatteren har fundet på så vil det alligevel slutte lykkeligt. Sådan er det ikke i det virkelige liv.

Mor kan ikke høre. Trods det at Linda banker på væggen i rummet ved siden af. Mor vil ikke høre.

Fire korte noveller—mulighed for at gå ”all in” hver gang; aldrig at være nødt til at spare på kræfterne.

Du klarer det her. Jeg lover.

Scenariet oversættes til og spilles på dansk. Spillere skal være parat til, at det bliver hårdt arbejde, og at en hvis form for mindfuck kan forekomme.

Samtal handlar om att prata om allt utom det som är viktigt. Att både svaret "tack, bra" och frågan "hur är det?" menas lika litet. Det handlar om livskriser, och om att två samtal som pågår parallellt — ett inuti rollnas huvuden och ett mellan dem.

Enkelt, stilrent, och snyggt.