Written by Elizabeth.
The first prototype rulebook (v0.1) is available to read here —>
This rulebook provides all information that is needed to know about the functionality of all game systems at this stage, but this page will serve to discuss some of the greater consequences of these systems with the larger game in mind.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FDMJuKM3LDSi-oNi3MNnRSRkrksLXsmiK3dEWMoGW_8/edit?usp=sharing
The goal of HEIMARMENE: Closing Night for any player is to be the ‘Director’ when the game ends: only the Director wins, and all other players (the Performers) lose.
The role of the Director will trade hands frequently throughout the game, based off each player’s two secret objectives, listed on their private Muse Card. Players will be working to achieve these objectives, while trying to figure out other players’ Muses and conceal their own.
While grabbing the Director role early in the game rewards you with power and control, it reveals your objective: the fight will ramp up in tension as the game draws closer to its end, as players may make desperate grabs for victory, having held onto their secrets, or use their power as the Director to push other players down in a battle to maintain control, as the gamestate grows more complex.
The game ends, and the current Director wins, when the script ends. This is represented by the Portents: the future. When the Portents run out, the game is over.
While the Director begins in control of passing the perils of the future down onto the Performers, those Performers’ actions affect the contents of the Portents and therefore what the future will look like for everyone.
The Portents are a number of small decks which will gradually be modified by players over the course of the game. They will begin the game mostly known, and end it as wildly different decks depending on the cards added into them by players. This is the twist on deckbuilding that Heimarmene offers: instead of each player building into a personal deck, they build into communal decks that any player can interact with. The Portents are held in an area called the Theatron.
Within the Portents, the atomic elements of this game are Performance Cards, which, through a wide unpredictibility and variety, create vast possibilities for interactions and emergent stories. Each Performance Card has two sections: the Direction and the Feat.
Directions are effects played onto other players, usually by the Director. These effects also usually end up placing the card in another player’s hand, or in publicly-accessible areas, adding those cards to the pool to be used for other players’ deckbuilding.
Feats are effects played onto yourself, often with costs. Feats are rarely accessible to the Director, and often end up placing the card into Portents, where they affect future play of those decks, and further extend the end of the game.
This push-and-pull flow of cards, of power trading hands and a card theoretically staying in play for an extended time, balances player power and allows for cards to gain reputations and increase storytelling potential.
Each card also belongs to one of three suits, either Comedy, Tragedy or Satyr. Cards may often be used for their suit, adding additional wrinkles to what ways to make use of any given card.
Different players having different objectives also means that different cards will offer different players different value, so what cards end up available to your opponents may help them more than you intend them to. This places constant importance on tracking and deduction of opponents’ intentions, what cards they’re playing and looking for, and when they’re going to make their grab for victory.