Sunday 16 February 2014

Acceptance: A game about winning, losing and why it matters.

Acceptance is a game for four players as they collaboratively tell a story about winning and losing and why it matters.
I wrote it this afternoon.

It is a structured shared narrative game. Tell the story of a character winning an Award and the sacrifices and consequences that lead up to and follow their victory.


One player is the Winner. They have just been announced as the winner of an Award. What award? It is up to the Winner. It could be something small and domestic like a school fundraiser cake bake-off. An international humanitarian award. The announcement of the winner of a billion dollar military industrial contract.
Don't stop at the limits of the real. It could be the negotiated surrender of a mighty alien empire. A kite flying competition using nothing more than one's elemental control of the wind. The winner of the Elf Queen's hand in marriage. You choose.

The Winner then chooses a player to be the Eye, the person who should have won the Award. The Eye tells a tale, recalling a situation that exposes why they should have won the Award.

The Winner then chooses a player to be the Hand, the person who helped them win the Award. The Hand tells a story about how they sabotaged the Eye.

The final player is the Mouth, the character who chose the Winner for the Award. The Mouth tells a story about why they selected the Winner.

As the Eye, Hand and Mouth tell their stories the Winner hands out prizes if they meet the criteria of their roles.

Finally, the Winner shares their acceptance speech. The Eye, Hand and Mouth all have criteria for gifting prizes back to the Winner.

Then the game is done and it is time to select a new Winner and go again.

Download a copy of Acceptance: A game about winning and losing and why it matters HERE.

Let me know what you think.

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