The Haul Presents: Northweird

Hi everyone! I wanted to take some time today to talk about one of the projects in the Haul, one that I started writing many moons ago and has now come back into the forefront of things. Let's talk about Northweird.

Brief summary

Northweird is a game about teenagers getting tangled up in a complex, strange situation and try their best to get out of it. Sometimes, that means uncovering the mystery behind the situation and revealing the truth. Sometimes, it means escaping from it before it catches up with you. Sometimes, it means killing a god. 

It is a game for 3-5 players, including one Game Master. Their responsibilities are to portray their characters honestly and engage them in the mystery. For most players, this means portraying their one character to the fullest of their capabilities. The Game Master's role is to portray the world around these characters, both in the relatively mundane school sense and the weird world that exists outside it.

Sounds of Northweird

The game's playlist can be found here. If I had to pick one title track, Control by Halsey stands out as the clear frontrunner. 

Narrative and linguistic inspiration

Northweird is my homage to teenage detective stories. The game carries its most direct influences (Life is Strange 1 and 2, as well as Persona 4 and 5) directly on its sleeve, with both game series having impacted my life quite significantly. I wanted to make a game that emulates those styles of play, where a group of friends get together and solve a strange mystery. Bundled with teenage drama and plenty of opportunities to get real, it seemed like something that at least I was missing from most games I've read.

The first game that I looked to for inspiration was Paul Czege's Nicotine Girls, from which the game still carries much of its DNA. The numbers have been scrambled around a bit, but the similarities are there for those who are familiar with the texts. If you're not familiar, I would recommend giving it a read. It's a short game, and it's absolutely fascinating. 

Mechanical inspiration

The game has been re-designed from the ground up a few times over the course of its writing. The most recent iteration comes in large part from a discussion I had with Sidney Icarus and their recent musings. If I were to boil down the core idea of the mechanic here, it's "rolling lots of dice can be fun - let's also make it interesting." In Northweird, when a player takes an action that warrants a roll (when success and failure are both possible and interesting) the player chooses how many dice they roll, ranging from 1 to 10. Each die carries with it some chance at success - as well as some risk of consequences. Furthermore, these are not mutually exclusive: each roll can have any combination of successes and consequences. The player is then given the choice of how to resolve these consequences, following a simple procedure.

Current State

At the time of writing (May 21st, 2020) , Northweird is focused on the mundane side of reality, the teenage drama side of the story. Iteration and implementation of the core mechanic has been a priority. 

On the Horizon
The aforementioned supernatural / strange side is first up on the roadmap; incorporating the weird parts of the fiction that the game establishes into the mechanics.

Second on the list is a chapter on creating a way to set up and manage the Mysteries, the strange situations that drive the central plot of the game. 

One thing that almost always finds its way into my games one way or another is the idea of developing the space you play in, and Northweird will be no different. A process for creating special locations that your characters go to, inhabit, and draw benefits from is likely to happen.