- The campaign will take place in San Francisco around 1942/42. Japan has successfully invaded Hawaii, several other Pacific Islands, and the San Francisco bay area. I'm not sure to what extent, but I think that is as far as Japan will have progressed when the campaign starts. There will be a line where the US and Japan will keep fighting for superiority.
- Of course, with SF being under Japanese control, the town will be under martial law. I'm not sure what that means yet, but I think it will allow me to focus on keeping the game locally. That isn't to say that you cannot find your way to a different part of the world, but it won't be easy as taking the next outbound train.
- I'm guessing your character will be an ordinary citizen. I'm not sure if they will have their old job, or if they will be forced to work for the war machine. In either case, you will not be military (unless you're undercover...)
Better gaming through discussion
Monday, July 12, 2010
Pre-Pitch: Occupied Territory
I'm starting to figure out what the campaign will be. I still am researching the concept, but I wanted to get some basic points down for you to comment on. My main concern is having something "unrealistic", even though it is an alternate history story. For example, I know that it would be ridiculous to think that SF may be occupied by Japan, but Oakland will be under US control. Below are my ideas:
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First and foremost you will need to figure out why, logistically, the Japanese chose San Fransisco as their invasion point, what does it offer, or what does it cut off from the USA?
ReplyDeleteI suppose you could dig deeper and ask, why even invade? This seems to be the largest hurdle. Historically Japan never wanted to conquer America, they only wanted crush our navy and to force us to end our trade embargo.
(Read for historical reference)
http://www.worldwariihistory.info/in/Japan.html
Considering this: what motivation would Japan have for an invasion, what would they gain by it. Did they plan to hold territory in continental America? What resource would they gain that couldn't be had elsewhere?
***Please do not tell us at this time what the military strategy for Japan is for your alternate history.***
Instead determine the motivation of the Japanese. Once you know that you will know "what is at stake" in your story, and I think you will begin to form a better picture of where this game will take us.
Knowing the conflict means knowing the climax or goal of the story. If you know what goal is trying to be achieved, then you can plan how to bring about the climax, and how to accomplish the goal or how to sabotage it.
Let's not start another blog entry until everyone has commented and discussed this topic thoroughly. When Bauer is ready to ramp up his Pitch Session you can make a new post with more details.
Lastly, when you are ready, post a map (in the body of the blog text) of SF and the surrounding areas showing the "occupied territory".
Adam, you bring up some good points, but I think most of these concepts need to be general. Knowing the exact military strategy for Japan I feel is irrelevant, simply because I don't think the three of you are going to single-handedly take down the empire (of Japan). At least, that isn't my intent right now. Perhaps having a general idea is good for now, but it is possible that it will not be revealed during the campaign.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, there should be a good reason for Japan to invade, but I think that some of the story telling is going to involve some hand-waving. Granted, I don't want to glaze over areas that seem unrealistic, but we have to remember that this is a fantasy world that sometimes people do things "just because". Is that too unrealistic?
Bauer, I am going to be hard on your for a second here. I am trying to help you so please take it a constructive criticism.
ReplyDeleteNothing in table-top gaming, verbal story-telling, written fiction, or everyday life happens “just because”. The argument goes something like this: If there is no justification for an action, than it shouldn’t and wouldn’t be done. Everything anyone ever does, they do because they have some goal in mind, some end result. Just as you wouldn’t appreciate our characters doing random things throughout the campaign “just because” we aren’t, as players, going to appreciate you orchestrating events that happen “just because.”
This leads me to ask you the most fundamental questions any person can ask the author of their story. Why did you choose this premise? What point are you trying to make with this premise? What is the point of the story?
Obviously you choose this idea because you find something intriguing about the idea of America being under attack on the West Coast during WWII. Now you need to dig a little deeper. What will be the central conflict of the campaign? What as characters will we be struggling to deal with? What is going to happen to our characters that is going to propel us into something that we won’t be able to escape from or stop until it is resolved?
You could tell us a cool story about a country invaded by another and how the populous deals with it in any time, and any place (real or fictional), but you choose San Francisco, and you choose WWII. There must be more to it than “just because.” In relation to our game, it’s going to matter how they did it, why they did it, and with what strength they did it. If those things don’t matter, then you shouldn’t be telling your story set during the invasion, you should be telling the story several years after the fact, once Japan has a firm grasp on America and people have accepted that as the norm. Then perhaps you might be able to glaze over the particulars and make us believe that it all happened.
One last thing that may help, recall the format of our Penny games. The first scene, the first thought, is the climax, and it’s intense. That scene comes first, and it comes without knowing what lead to it. Someone just puts it out there, and once it’s in play it can’t be taken back. The whole game then centers itself around justifying the climax, that first thought. Very little, if anything happens after the climax, because that’s how a good story works. Think of your game in this regard: You have this idea in your mind about some climax, you know the WHERE and you know the WHEN (Occupied America, WWII), but you don’t know the WHO, the WHAT, or the WHY and HOW. Forget the WHY and HOW for just a moment, don’t concern yourself with practicality, think only in terms of excitement and wonder. Figure out the WHO and the WHAT, make it cool, make it wild, make it so fantastic that you yourself wonder WHY it would come to that, and HOW it could have happened. Now, and only now, can you start to conceive the first scene that begins to explain how something as crazy and cool as they climax would become a possibility. With your climax firmly in mind and before you plan too much, begin your research, it’s amazing what you will find when you begin your research with an idea of what you are already looking for!