“Unsession” proposal: grad-school games

At THATCamp Southeast in March, a session on gaming at one point turned to the idea of creating a game based on grad school. The general tone of the brainstorming was dominated by morbid humor, but no one had the energy or inclination to start creating a game right then and there.

Well, it’s almost three months later, and I’ve followed up on the session by thinking about different possible games, and I will bring sets to playtest two ideas at THATCamp CHNM. This doesn’t really belong in sessions but rather in hallways (or late at night, in bars), so this is proposed as an “unsession” (how’s that for an extension of “unconference”?). One game structure is in the morbid-humor vein of the March discussion at Emory, with relatively short-play dice mechanics. The other is more positive in tone (I hope!), and a multiple-round card game. Both require creativity.

If you want me to make a set just for you, just comment below and tell me what you want to playtest. Two caveats: 1) these are going to be very crude (using index cards and the like); 2) if I make a set just for you, you hereby agree to test the game with at least five other THATCampers over the weekend.

One last note: the games will be CC-BY, and in at least one game the reason for that will be evident within two minutes of the setup.