Fool’s Journey

NOTE: I tried really hard to avoid the use of Capitalized Words for Special Terms of Thematic Import. Well, except for the Actual Tarot Cards.

*Supershort summary: (SPOILERS!)* One person is the Fool, which is GMlike, and freely tells most of a story about a quest. Players can provide a challenges along the way, which the GM can ignore, or go along with (making that player GMlike for a bit). The Fool can choose most any ending, but the challenges along the way can have some influence on things. The Fool’s player needs to be really good at moderating the players’ inputs while still engaging them and telling an enjoyable story; hopefully, the shared contributions are enough to give that player something to riff off of.
h2. Premise

One player portrays the Fool, a foolish, naive character in a fantastical world. This character is trying to fulfill some kind of quest, and the player will try to make a story about that quest, building primarily off the contributions of the other players. These other players will player her guides, representing new people and new challenges along the way.

ISSUE: How many players?

Setup

First, dig through the Tarot deck to find the actual card for “The Fool”. (If you could each try to find the card first, and use this method to determine who first portrays the Fool.) Place the card in front of the Fool’s player.

Then, the Fool’s player draws two cards from the Tarot Deck, and leaves them on the opposite end of the table. These cards represent the endings, and this Fool’s quest will end involving one or both of them.

Each guide is dealt two cards. These are kept face down until it is that guide’s turn to contribute to the story.

Next, the Fool’s player will establish a the beginning of this Fool’s quest, based on the guides’ suggestions. She should get an idea from each guide in turn (offering her own opinions along the way) until she has found three solid ideas that she wants to incorporate into the story. Those three players start with their cards “face up” (while the other guides’ cards remain face down).

Finally, the Fool’s player should stitch together these elements – the guides’ suggestions, the possible endings, and of course her own ideas – and should introduce the the Fool’s quest. The quest must have these parts:

• A background. (“The Fool was a unsuccessful snake oil salesman from Milan. Literally, he sold snake oil.”)
• Some hardship therein. (“The Fool earnestly believed in his wares, which made him all the worse a salesman.”)
• Reference to the offered suggestions. (A quest at sea, an inheritance, and a snake were the guides’ suggestions. “The Fool took off for the great red ocean to find the great Snake of the Sea, for he knew he could only regain his inheritance if he captured its precious healing oils.”)
• Reference to the two possible endings. (“The Fool set out riding his caravel at full speed, like a Chariot upon the waves, and yet his heart was filled with doubt and fear, for the sea is a place filled with havoc and Death.”)

• An initial scene: the Fool should be in the midst of immediate action towards her goal, and the situation should have obvious opportunities for complications. (“So the Fool’s caravel sailed out quickly, but so quickly he ran right into a swelling sea storm off the Milan coast, with crashing waves that dwarfed his little boat. The Fool sincerely wished he knew how to swim.”)

  TODO: Share some seed ideas.

  Play

  From this point on, the Fool’s player can describe how the Fool moves from scene to scene and thus through her story. Each scene should be set up similarly to the first: with action underway and opportunity for complications. Moreover, each scene should be either about progress (directly working towards one of the endings) or consequences (dealing with the indirect results of a previous scene); you should alternate between scenes about progress and consequences.

  ISSUE: Is alternating the best thing, or will it be too restricting?

  Within each scene, the Fool’s player describes how the Fool is attempting to attain her goal. If the players do not with to interrupt, then the Fool’s player should describe the Fool’s success, and quickly move on to the next scene.

  When the guides don’t wish to interrupt, the scene should be kept brisk and fast moving – you want to move on to a scene they will want to engage in via complications.

  Guides taking turns

  If a Guide’s cards are face up, she is considered “active” – it is her opportunity to contribute to the story. Once her two cards are used up she should redraw two cards – either from the deck or the discard pile – and place them face down. The next cards-down clockwise player is now “active”, and puts her cards face up. There should always be three guides with face-up cards, ready to contribute.

  Complications

  An active guide – with her cards face up – can bring complications into the story, based on one of her tarot cards. Each complication provides a challenge to the Fool, and will end with the Fool either overcoming or escaping the challenge, and separately, whether this experience contributed positively or negatively to the Fool’s Journey.

  Presenting the complication

  To introduce the complication, the guide describes what the Fool encounters, starting with how exactly the Fool comes to notice this event.

  “Faintly on the air, you smell a sweet burning smell – like old wood or clean steel, but mixed with ash and mad laughter. You look in the distance and see the source: a man dressed in black leather, working feverishly over a forge. You can see from the look at his face that there is nothing in the world he cares more about right now than his work.”

  Along with this, the player should place her complicating Tarot card in the middle of the table.

  The Fool’s player has two options: dismiss this complication or engage it.

  To dismiss the complication, the Fool’s player puts the complicating card into the discard pile, and describes how the Fool exits the situation: “But it was no matter, since the Fool could not see how a mad blacksmith could possibly be of assistance; a blacksmith couldn’t help him rebuild his caravel, could he?” If a complication is dismissed, the Fools’ player should try to suggest what else she might be interested in.

  Engaging the complication

  To engage the complication, the Fool’s player places her card next to the complicating card in the middle of the table, passing control to that guide for the scene. The guide should then describe:

• The visual and sensed details of the scene. (“The forge is a strange creation, a huge thing carved from obsidian; obscure runes glow gently on all sides. The smith’s laughter syncs perfectly with the crackling of the flames. Then, he stops what he’s doing and looks up at you.”)
• The nature of the challenge. (“The smith roars at you, ‘You philistine! For you, one sword is as good as another, eh? Well, the same could be said of ugly fools as you! Show me that you can discern the difference between these two blades.’ He presents to you two cutlasses, one cut from resin and the other from oak.”)

• How these tie into the original card. (“You see, this is no mere smith, but the Magi himself: driven by ambition and will to surpass all around him. Can the Fool parley with him without getting burned?”)

  Following this setup, the players take turns sharing narration. The Fool’s player should describe some action the fool attempts, and suggest a possible outcome in the form of a question.

  “The Fool balances the blades in each hand, trying to see if there’s a different in weight. Is one noticeably heavier than the other?”

  The guide should answer by describing the effects of the attempt, including some effects that point out what was wrong with the Fool’s attempt, and also what about the Fool’s attempts have been on the right track.

  “Yes! You have really settle down and focus for a bit, but in so doing you can tell that the oak sword is just slightly heavier than the other, and very purposefully so. However, nick your skin slightly with the resin blade – it was a bit careless to try messing with both at once.”

  In other words, the guide should to incorporate both positive and negative feedback into the outcome, regardless of whether there was actual success or failure. Throughout the scene, the guide is trying to both provide some challenges to push the Fool in a certain direction, while dropping hints about what might be the right way to go.

  This continues until one of the players chooses to end the complication.

  Ending the complication

  At any time, the Fool’s player can give up on the complication, by taking back her card and discarding the complicating card. She should describe how the complication is halted in an abrupt or unresolved way. Giving up on a conflict is a right choice for the Fool’s player if the scene seems not easily resolvable, or if the rhythm of the scene has gone flat; it might be better to invent an interruption, and possibly re-engage the conflict later.

  On the other hand, the guide can choose to end the scene if she thinks a resolving success or failure is most appropriate for the scene. The guide describes the final outcome, and passes the Fool card back to the Fool’s player.

  Then, she gives judges how this complication effected the Fool’s journey. If this challenge taught the Fool something new, then give it to the Fool’s player (who keeps it until the end of the game). Otherwise, place it over one of the Endings, whichever has been made more likely by the Fool’s actions. (The guide may wish to explain why she chose to do this.)

  After the complication is done, the game resumes its earlier rhythm, with the Fool’s player continuing to the next scene and describing the Fool’s next direction.

  Complicating a complication

  While the complication’s guide and the Fool’s player have most of the input during the scene, other guides can contribute if their cards are face up. One could discard a card from their hand, and make a suggestion to the main guide in the form of a question. (After discarding a card of Cups: “What if this Smith’s father and the Fool’s father had some old, unresolved family grudge?”) The use of this suggestion is entirely up the main guide.

  Signals

  Beyond the complications, the players are also encouraged to use certain signals with each other to help along the flow of the story. The goal is to pass cues along to the other players without interrupting the flow of their storytelling.

  Firstly, there are hand signals for when two players are sharing narration (such as, within in a complication). Try placing both hands face up, pointed at your partner, if you would encourage them to expand on some certain point. On the other hand, if you would like them to pass the narration back to you, try folding your hands together (as if to clap). This can suggest that your partner should give you a chance to put in your response.

  Cards can also be “tilted” – rotated slightly askew – to signal during the course of a complication. The Fool’s player should tilt the Fool card to suggest that her character is about ready to give up, or that you think this complication should be nearing its end. The complcation’s guide should tilt her obstacle card to indicate that the obstacle is nearly resolved or at an end. The other guides can tilt their cards as well, suggesting either that they have their own ideas ready, or that play should move on. Players can also untilt or retilt their cards to signal whether their suggestions are still valid.

  Finally, there’s simple signaling built into the narrative. The Fool’s player take note of the guides’ face-up cards, and trying to weave some of those motifs into their own narration in hope of pulling those players into a complication. Also, the Fool’s monologues can be used to hint at what kinds of complications the player would like to see. Similarly, the Guide introduces her complication by using some kind of sensed detail; try to use these details to suggest what the Fool may find of interest within the complication.

  ISSUE: Do these signals really contribute much, and do they work? Playtesting will tell.

  Ending

  Once the Fool’s player things it is ready, she should pick the Ending card she feels most appropriate for ending this quest. There is one guideline for the ending:

  Compare the number of cards associated with the Ending with the number associated with the Fool. If the Fool has fewer cards than the chosen Ending, then the Fool will either not get what they want, or will get it through dumb luck rather than wisdom. Otherwise, the Fool has gotten what they want, but more importantly, have done saw through wisdom and growth.

  Based on this, the Fool’s player should describe briefly how the Fool’s journey ended, and whether she returned to her old life afterwards.

  Interpretation

  TODO: Explain ways to interpret cards in these ways:

• Tarot symbols (if you know)
• Numerology (if you know)
• Elements (Earth, etc.)
• Material (Coins, etc.)

• Whatever images you happen see

  Style

  TODO: Get a folklorist to talk about actual “voice” here. The style I want is one more like verbal retelling of stories, rather than literary fantasy. So here’s something I’d love to hear through this game…

  “And the Emperor, he’s a big man, and a mean man in the way only a truly big man can ever be – twenty feet tall with teeth like a scythe – and the Emperor just sees the Fool knocking on his door, and he asks: ‘You there, Fool! What were you thinking, knocking down my door at this time of night? If I were half as dumb as you, I’d feel sorry for you, but everyone knows I don’t suffer any fools at all, so you’d better get out before I tell the Justice!’ How could the Fool possibly respond to such a harsh demeanor?”

  Alternatives

  TODO: Suggest alternate game worlds, like New Jersey.

  TODO: Figure out a way to play with vanilla playing cards.