2025
Above: Players try Play Design Together in the final playtest.
Play Design Together is an in-progress project. It is a game inspired by the work of Bernie de Koven, and the Game Deck by the Movement Creative. It is designed for parkour students and other play afficionados to learn how to adjust game rules on the fly to suit the abilities of different groups of players and different situations. It consists of a 'deck' of 50-ish tags on strings, each with a different game-changing power. The players use the deck as a game-within-a-game, a layer on top of any other game such as Freeze Tag or Capture the Flag, parkour games, or deKoven's Funny Games. It adds an element of chaos and creativity, and aims for maximum fun.
Image key, from left to right:
Tag prototypes; final tags; playing in an early playtest (photo by Nat Jensen); players examine their tags (photo by Nat Jensen).
The Rules:
Pick a game. Give 2 tags randomly to each player. Tags with "G" in the lower left corner are only applicable to games with guards in them; "O" is for games with objects; and "T" is for tag games. If your game does not have these qualities, remove the indicated tags. Scatter the 5 "undo" tags around the play area. Players leave one of the tags' 'tails' hanging out so that someone could grab and steal that tag.
Establish starting conditions for your game, such as play area, number of people on each team, number of objects, and any other relevant parameters.
The words on the tags are actions you can take to change the game. For short games (5m or less playtime), any player can call "Stop!" and read out one of their tags at any time. If their team agrees, the rule goes into effect and play continues. For longer-play games, players must earn the ability to make a change. There are several ways to do this: Either accomplish an agreed-upon in-game goal (such as tagging a member of an opposing team, or retrieving an object), or steal another player's tag on the opposite team (only applicable for team games).
Each tag is single-use and must be dropped after it is played. Someone else can then pick it up. Undo tags can be picked up and used any time, after which they also are dropped for someone else to pick up.
Alternative expansion: "Thief" and "Detective" tags (best for long play games, 10m plus). Instead of having everyone able to earn a change, there is one designated thief per team (or in a cooperative game, either one or two depending on how many people are playing). The thief earns a change that any one person on their team can use every time they steal a tag from the other team. The detectives are trying to catch the thief from the opposite team in the act. If they do, the thief sits out for 1 min.