Ok, time for something a little different. Today we're going indie sci-fi. Shock: Social Science Fiction is a 75 page, softback, bright orange, and 7.5 inches square. It's kind of a roleplaying game, because you play the role of a character in a fictional setting who faces challenges and such, but the format is a bit different.
I have a copy of the original version. I've found it to be chock full of typos, but mostly in the illustrative fiction. There were only a couple of slip-ups in the actual rules, and those should be taken care of in the very soon to be released version 1.1. The instructions also use the "genderless" terms "sie" and "hir" for "he/she" and "his/hers" respectively. This bothered me, not because of any gender bias, but because those just aren't real words. I suppose I could get used to it eventually, but mostly I just read it all as "she" and "her" in my head because it was easier. For what it's worth, it isn't used all that much, but it's there.
Now, the neat thing about Shock: (note the everpresent colon) is that it allows the players to have a big say in the stories they tell with their characters. The players all get together (there's no GM) and decide the general type of story they want to tell. You might decide on a time period of your setting, the scope of the technologies and the overall style. Then you start creating the world. This starts with a little grid-thingy that you fill out. Basically, you choose a modern relevant issue that interests you (terrorism, border security, abortion, corporate greed), be it social or political or whatever, and you put it up against some crazy sci-fi element like mind-control or genetic engineering or alien invasion. Where these meet on the grid, you make a character who is in the thick of those two things.
Next you create the "Praxis Scales". These are the options that the characters have for doing things in the story. There are two pairs. Each one represents a choice. Does your character try to get his way through violence vs. compassion? Buying vs. Stealing? What's really great about this is that it colors the story you're telling. If violence isn't an option on the Praxis Scales, then it's not an option in the story. It might happen, of course, but it won't be about anything important to the story. A story with a Praxis Scale of Humiliation vs Violence is going to feel very different than one with a scale of Seduction vs Deceit, for instance.
Each player creates a Protagonist, "your guy" who you will control. You also creat an Antagonist, somebody who is there to make things harder for the guy to your right. Each character has "features", that describe them and give them dice to roll, "links" that he is connected to and that he can risk to get what he wants, and a "story goal" which is what you as a player want for your character. Your story goal could be "to take over the corporation" or it could be "to die a horrible death at the hands of my lover". Whatever sounds cool. You also have "fulcra". This is a number (from 3 to 8 on a d10) that separates each of the Praxis Scales for you. So if you choose, say, '3', then Humiliation works more often for you (4-10) than Violence does (1-2). Antagonists also have "Credits" that they can spend for extra dice.
Then it's just a matter of taking turns with scenes. Set up your protagonist doing his normal thing, and then the Antagonist gets in there and screws with you. When things come into conflict, each side states what they want and the dice are rolled. You can choose to concentrate on getting what you want, or concentrate on keeping your opponent from getting what he wants or balance them out. The objectives can't be mutually exclusive, though. Both must be able to succeed or fail, regardless of the success or failure of the other. Other players who aren't involved in the fight can add a die to either side by inventing or invoking minutiae. These are little facts about the setting that will hinder one side or the other. Over time, these add up to a little bible of "how things work" in the fictional world. If you've lost, but don't like it, you can narrate how one of your links, one of those things that are important to you helps you in the conflict. You roll again, but if you fail, that link is forever changed. Maybe your "faith in god" becomes "lost faith" or something.
Another neat thing! If your dice happen to land right between success and failure, directly on the fulcrum, things escalate and get worse! And argument turns into a fight! Diplomacy turns to assassination! A hacking job becomes a race against time! That sort of thing.
Once the time is right, or the Antagonist starts running out of Credits, the big "endgame" scene happens where your Protagonist's story goal is on the line. Then, one way or another, the story ends.
You can (if he's not like, dead or something) keep playing the same Protagonist in a new story, or play a new character in the same setting, building it further, or maybe you'll just want to start fresh with new characters and a new setting. Those are all options.
So, as you can see, this is a game about a story. It's not about what your character can or can't do or his abilities or whatever, but about which direction the story goes. The dice mix things up a bit, but not without player input, so that you get to be surprised by the direction your story takes, but without it being completely out of control. It's like the story is hurtling along the road and you've got steering problems. You can kind of get it where you want it to go, but it's not easy and it's not gauranteed. And even if it goes the wrong way, it's sure to go an "interesting" way.
So, Shock: is pretty cool. Unfortunately, it's also kind of hard to understand. I'm really hoping that v 1.1 clears things up for me. The game runs $23 US currently, but I understand that the price is soon to go up. That's worrisome since even $23 seemed a little steep for the page count (only a third of the book is actual rules, much of it is an intriguing play example). Page count isn't everything, though. If the game can deliver what it promises (creative, deep science fiction that touches on issues people care about) then it's probably worth the price.