TEEN ISLAND

I'll be starting a game of Teen Island this Monday the 8th at 11pm British Summer Time in #TeenIsland on irc.magicstar.net. I'm pretty content that the core game is complete so want to give it one good last test before I seal it off.

There's no GM and it's a collaborative group game, so the more people we have to chip in the more fun it will be. Think of it as being a cross between a Let's Play, a Board Game and Dwarf Fortress.

But what's the game you say?

I was toying with the idea of creating a game that could be playable solo, taking inspiration from the randomly generated content of Roguelikes. I ended up with the idea of a desert-island survival game where you or your group collaboratively control a randomly generated group of highschoolers that have to balance gathering food and materials to survive with complex social networks and backstabing. Obviously there are also tropical storms, bear attacks and hopefully a raft. I painted the whole thing with a thick coat of highschool stereotypes and had my basic idea down.

So here, nearing its completed form, is Teen-Islanders.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddmbxmt_13cg9mbdv5

The game has gone down well when played with around three people but I really think it's a case of the more the merrier. Life in the island is meant to be unfair and you can fully expect your favourite castaways to be eaten by tigers or fall into a volcano when they're not refusing to cooperate with your plans for survival.

The game actually benefits from sidetracking into silly comments and really reading into the events. You soon learn to hate the fat kids.  Here's an example of what a group of Castaways will look like, each one being the result of a single d6 roll and up to two further rolls based on how they roll.

The Rebels
Lucia and Franklyn (Spunk, Couple)

The Cheerleaders
Michelle (Social, Fussy, The Bitch)
Tara (Social, Fussy)
Amber, Tiffany and Samantha (Social)

The Rest
Heather (Sports)
Christian (The Class Clown, Smarts, Spunk)
Eugene (Glutton)
Aaron (Jerk)
Amie (Sports, Crush on Franklyn)

The brackets contain any Strengths or Weaknesses the character has as well as how any other notable information such as relationships with other Castaways or whether they fit a special role such as Prom King or Class Clown. As you can see Cliques form rapidly on this island depending on character's Strengths.

With the Core game only awaiting final editing before I seal it off as complete I've also begun work on a series of mini-supplments each providing a set of optional variants on the game or modular addons, the series is called Coconut Radio and so far there are three issues awaiting playtesting, which I'd be happy to try out with people that have become more familiar with the basic game. New content includes murder, cannibalism and an evil sentient island, so I'm eager to give them a try. You'll hear about them first here when they're ready for release upon the public.

Interest in Monday's game? Just let me know.