This post Jenskot’s new game and S-G: settingless systems have me wondering about how much setting to pack into your game?
Initially my design document was set up that Meat was just to be a punchy super-hero one-shot. In considering some of the keys offered for the GC, I started to wonder if “little supers game” was enough to go on or if it had to be “little Golden Age supers game” … “of heroes at war”… “at war with each other” … “and not knowing he’s really your father”.
From the S-G thread above, it’s generally understood that you need some setting to sell your indie game. Is theme enough of a setting? I realize they are separate things but they are close cousins.
At present in Meat the players are going to mutually construct both the Minor and Major settings that will provide the battles with triggers to offer additional scenes. In that type of environment, I’m inclined to think that too much more color begins to crowd and hamper play.
For a few days, I had considered specifically writing Meat explicitly as a dust-bowl era saga or cold war 60s delivery device. There is no reason you can’t do either with the mechanics. Still, it tugs at my heart strings. Do I or don’t I?