|
Exquisite Corpse 2 |
| 2021-11-23 |
Exquisite Corpse 2
I wrote about a technique for sliced random generation in Exquisite Corpse. Here is an example run.
The example is about world building, about creating one or more villages. Let's suppose we have 3 players and their game master.
The game master first asks "What is the name of the village". Each player (and the game master) have a piece of paper and they write on top of it
| Noréaz | Champbois | Minskytonic | Petaouschnok | | | | ^^GM^^ ^^Player 1^^ ^^Player 2^^ ^^Player 3^^
Each writer then wraps the top of their paper, hiding their answer, and then hand the shortened piece of paper to the person on their left. No one thus sees what the others have previously written.
The game master then asks "Where is the village located?". The new answers are written right under the folded part:
| Champbois | Minskytonic | Petaouschnok | Noréaz | | | | | On a small hill | Next to an old mine | In the middle of a | Next to a small | | | forest | river | | | | ^^GM^^ ^^Player 1^^ ^^Player 2^^ ^^Player 3^^
Fold, hand to person on the left, the gamemaster asks "Is and how is the village protected?"
| Minskytonic | Petaouschnok | Noréaz | Champbois | | | | | Next to an old mine | In the middle of a | Next to a small | On a small hill | | forest | river | | | | | | Stone wall | Concealed in a magic | No protection | Wooden fence, one | | plane | | gate, no towers | | | | ^^GM^^ ^^Player 1^^ ^^Player 2^^ ^^Player 3^^
The gamemaster asks "What is the weirdest building?"
| Petaouschnok | Noréaz | Champbois | Minskytonic | | | | | In the middle of a | Next to a small | On a small hill | Next to an old mine | forest | river | | | | | | | Concealed in a magic | No protection | Wooden fence, one | Stone wall | plane | | gate, no towers | | | | | | The haunted farm | The temple | The mill | The blood fountain | north | | | in the middle | | | | ^^GM^^ ^^Player 1^^ ^^Player 2^^ ^^Player 3^^
"Who is the village head?"
| Noréaz | Champbois | Minskytonic | Petaouschnok | | | | | Next to a small | On a small hill | Next to an old mine | In the middle of a | river | | | forest | | | | | No protection | Wooden fence, one | Stone wall | Concealed in a magic | | gate, no towers | | plane | | | | | The temple | The mill | The blood fountain | The haunted farm | | | in the middle | north | | | | | Ogbert the | Zipper the wizard | Lady Jessica | Old Branagh (undead | blacksmith | | | under cover) | | | | ^^GM^^ ^^Player 1^^ ^^Player 2^^ ^^Player 3^^
The gamemaster then collects the four pieces of paper, unfolds them and selects a village he might want to use.
I would choose Petaouschnok, a village in the middle of a forest, concealed in a magic plane, whose most interesting building is the haunted farm in the northern quarter, and whose head is Old Branagh (secretly an undead).
It's a worldbuilding tool. It has its own rhythm that does not fit the game rythm, it's thus intended for a session zero or something like that.
The Exquisite Corpse, as played on its own, has its climax when the papers are unfolded and read in front of everyone. This is denied when using it as a worldbuilding tool. Maybe this can be mitigated by letting the game master reading the "worst" or the "most inapplicable" of the generated items and so let the players have their burst of hilarity.
Some players will probably wait for one of their answer slice to appear in the campaign, just to have the pleasure to claim the authorship. Beware the game master and their eccentricity.
Google Images has hits for exquisite corpse. That could be used for generating monsters. But I'd stick with words, not images, for that as well.
