Miriam is the Hebrew form of Mary. This comes out of the Fleur-de-lis. I taking the medieval religious meaning of “Lily among thorns” from the Song of Solomon and the later application of the symbol to the Virgin Mary. In the Christian myth, the Virgin Mary birthed a deity. In this game, the players are protecting a child named Miriam who has the power to end the undead rule.

Incongruity, because her wild genes don’t conform to the standard genes in the human pool.

Plus it’s cool to say.

Changing Situation Table

1d8	What happens
1	Escalate
2	Reverse Reward
3	Wipes Clean
4	Changes Completely
5	Setback
6	Lost Cause
7	It Worked, but…
8	Complete Escalation

Escalations and Complete Escalations

The GM plays off the current situation, but makes it harder. Example: While the group is trying to hide from security cameras in the local spaceport, the undead release airborne mobile cameras that make hiding much harder. In a complete escalation, they situation becomes even more dangerous. Every character will now have to face an obstacle.

Reverse Reward

The exact opposite of what the player wanted to happen happens, and the GM gives the character a setback.

Wipes Clean

The situation is wiped clean of any obstacles and the GM describes a new situation with a new obstacle.

Changes Completely

What the players thought was the obstacle ended up not being anything, and a new obstacle emerges from the situation.

Setback

The player suffers a setback to his character. The player marks the setback and tells how the setback came about. For some setbacks the GM may inflict a penalty on the character’s rolls. The GM decides which one: dazed, injured, dead, undead, trapped, outed, lost, depressed, mad, wants revenge.

Lost Cause

The situation and obstacle is a lost cause. There is no way around it, so the players will have to think of a different approach.

It worked, but…

What the player wanted to happen, happens, except that the GM can modify it by describing what also went wrong, and the GM gives the player a setback.

Reward Dice

When a player does something that the GM thinks is really cool, she can give out reward dice. Any reward dice given are put into a bowl in the center of the table.

When a player thinks that another player has done something cool, he can give a single die from the bowl to that player.

When reward dice are rolled, and more than one die beats the difficultly goal of the obstacle, the players get a Reward Situation.

Rolling the Dice

When a character tries to overcome an obstacle, his player rolls dice. Start with one six sided die. If any traits, skills, or connections can help, roll its rank in dice. The goal is to roll a single die equal to or higher than the difficultly of the obstacle. The GM sets the difficultly.

Difficultly: 3 is Easy; 4 is Hard; 5 is Challenging; 6 is Severe

Before any dice are rolled, the player says what he wants to happen if he wins, and tells everyone what his character is doing to make that happen. He also decides if he wants to spend reward dice.

If won, the GM tells the players how what they wanted to happen comes true.

If lost, the GM rolls on the Changing Situation Table and describes the outcome.

Helping

A player may help another by saying what he’s doing to help out and spending a reward die.

On the surface, a motley group of living, sworn to protect a wild child from the undead, formulate an escape plan. A highly trained Teutonic Knight of the Church arrived on the Priest to help with the escape. This child could mean the end to the rule of the undead over the living. The evacuation team must bring the child to the hidden church planet, Vatican. They’ll have to follow a path across many planets finding contacts that will lead them forward while avoiding undead soldiers, agents, and sympathizers.

The stakes are high; this could be mean the survival of humanity. The undead are willing to do anything to stop the escape of the wild child, and galactic war seems inevitable. Undead agents are everywhere and they can offer the prize of everlasting life.

How will the Knight and his motley group escape Outer Liberty? Will they find the Vatican before being betrayed or found by the undead? Will their travels take them so far from home that time dilation will rob them of their loved ones?

And what is so important about this child’s bloodline?

Theme:

Intrigue ->Clandestine or illicit intercourse (The Pinnacle Empty Quiver of Love)

Ingredients:

Fleur-de-lis ->Taking the medieval religious meaning of “Lily among thorns” from the Song of Solomon. Virgin Mary and the symbol of purity & chastity. Virginity is good, and the logo itself is like the symbol on Star Trek uniforms.

Seabird -> Color and the name of the starship on which the game takes place.

Star -> Takes place among the stars. Travel to a star for the “Virgin Mary” to give birth to a miracle. Planets name is probably something like Wiseman’s Planet.

Awards:

Brevity Award -> Cause I’m lazy and would like to make something short, cool, and to the point.

Cerberus Award -> For 3 players. Maybe.

Zombielogical Sciences Award -> You must watch out for the space zombies. I could go deep with this (as deep as you can in a 4 page game) and make the majority of the beings zombies waiting for a real human birth instead of having to use pills, energy, etc… to keep the race alive.

Elevator Pitch:

Essentially, this is a game about the stereotypical 1960s sex-deprived crew of the USS Seabird transporting a prized, sexy, hot and ready to give-it-up “Virgin Mary” to Wiseman’s Planet. On the way, they have to avoid space zombies and other hijinks.

The ingredients don’t do anything for me. And the only thing that I thought about immersion came is that immersion is the feel of playing cowboys and Indians until you shoot your friend and he doesn’t die.

So, I guess my game will have no resolutions mechanism to halt play, you won’t by able do anything to any other player and the players have to pretend.

Here’s my entry.

Use the Sea to Put Out the Fire before Midnight and You Ride Horses

Play pretend that you’re riding horses between the sea and a fire with buckets of water to put out a fire that will burn the village down by midnight if it isn’t put out.

Each player goes a round. During a round the other players come up with obstacles that you have to get around. Tell everyone how you do that. They can help you out too as long as you ask them to do something.

The fire is put out by the player with the most awesome story. You’ll know it when you see it.

It fits on a notecard, so it qualifies for the Harper award.