I had a strange dream.  I joined this RPG group that was a class learning how to play.  The instructor had no idea what he was doing, but insisted he did.  I was in the group as an advisor, but the instructor mostly didn't listen to me.

Anyway, the neat thing in this dream was a tool the teacher had.  He had no idea how to use it and wasted most of the class time using it inappropriately.  Near the end of the dream, I figured out what it was actually for and managed to convince him as to it's purpose.

The tool was like a multi-paneled GM screen with different colored sections full of small punched holes next to questions and statements.  There were also lots of separate colored panels also with questions on them with small punched holes next to them.  Finally, there were little pegs you put into the holes to connect the screen and the various panels to each other.

The idea was that you answered questions and linked those questions together with the pegs.  These answers would link other panels together and the connections would tell you more about the kind of game that everyone wanted to play.  The colors also meant something too.  The end result is that you had the basic premise of a campaign planned out by completing the screen, and it was an idea generator of sorts.

Would this work?  Or is it just some kind of mad dream?

Sounds like it would be easier to just program it on a computer... that sounds like "punch card" technology, and nowadays you don't need a physical object to associate concepts and ideas - you can use the much less limited computing power of a machine to link more things together in better and more interesting ways.

Quote from: Name LipsSounds like it would be easier to just program it on a computer... that sounds like "punch card" technology, and nowadays you don't need a physical object to associate concepts and ideas - you can use the much less limited computing power of a machine to link more things together in better and more interesting ways.

I agree with your assessment, but there's some other stuff which may not immediately be apparrent.

For one thing, putting the different panels together was something of a game in itself.  Instead of just a boring dialogue of "What genre does everyone want to play?" the idea was to encourage active participation in asking questions, definining things, and constructing this jigsaw puzzle-like device.  In a manner like playing a game with miniatures, it's goal in my imagination seemed to be to provide a physical focus and representation for a purely mental process.

As mentioned, the panels were also given color codes (which meant something or other in the dream), and had other related information on them.  The idea was something like: if x means that y is true, then a or b might be true as well, but z is always untrue.  So a completed screen wasn't one set of options, but it was still many options, which could be a springboard to another session of "pegging the screen."

I don't even know if something like this thing would be possible or would even make much sense.  It was just one of those things where I woke up and thought I had just dreamed a pretty interesting idea.

That sounds hella cool.

"RPGbuilding" software. (or paperware)
If you build it, they will come!

I don't have first-hand experience with any of the games I'm about to mention but what you're describing recalls things I've read about Capes, Burning Empires, and Shock: Social Science Fiction.