{"id":386,"date":"2014-07-09T00:40:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T00:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/07\/09\/okult-by-wilhelm-person-and-asking-good-questions\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:41:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:41:56","slug":"okult-by-wilhelm-person-and-asking-good-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/07\/okult-by-wilhelm-person-and-asking-good-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Okult by Wilhelm Person and Asking Good Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently on G+ I put out a post saying how I wish I could just get copies of the games I interview people about. A few people sent me stuff, which was super cool! One of the things that got into my grabby hands was Wilhelm Person’s Okult<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’ve been watching Okult from afar for a while. I saw when it came out and was vaguely interested, and got a little more interested when I read a little about it. However, I’m both cheap and busy, so I hadn’t put it on my urgent list yet. Getting it and reading it was a genuine pleasure. I loved the photography in the book and was excited to take a look at the game itself.<\/p>\n

Okult is a horror game and photo book. First off, the game is mega simple. It is a storytelling game of a sort, and has a scale of the intensity of the horror in the game. There are no complicated mechanics. It’s also GMless, which I dig.<\/p>\n

What I like about it is that one, when you get to a point in a scene where you ask a question, someone else gets to answer it, and two, it’s all about asking good questions. Questions about your Hometown, questions about your past, questions about what you can do in the game, questions about the secret of the town. So many questions!<\/p>\n

Epidiah Ravachol said (In a post supporting me, no less!):<\/p>\n

As a whole, game designers are only just starting to wake up to the fact that the single most effective mechanic is a question. That’s going to change soon and over the next few years you’re going to see a lot of hot new games built entirely around the questions players can ask and how they can be answered. When this happens, we’re all going to appreciate just what it takes to craft a well-asked question.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that Okult has a decent handle on this.<\/p>\n

When I think of asking questions, which I do, quite a lot of the time (in case you hadn’t noticed), I think of how I want the responder to feel, how I want them to think, where I want their train of thought to go. I never like closed questions, so I always look for a why, or a what, and press for it. <\/p>\n

I want to write a game about asking questions, but I think I’m just so wrapped up in the questions that I can’t find my way to answers. I like that Okult doesn’t give you the answers – it lets you explore them on your own. And it does so visually! It uses a map, a big map, and you also record facts on the map, answering the questions.<\/p>\n

What’s so great about questions? To me, I love questions. Questions often demand answers, and even when they don’t, they invite thought. They lead to exploration. They guide us through the unknown by giving us a point to start and a reason to answer – the good ones, anyway. Plus, questions lead to interaction. Yes, you can ask yourself questions and answer them alone, but the most enjoyable way to explore questions is to share it with other people. To ask, and receive responses, and then ask more, continuing the discourse.<\/p>\n

Vincent Baker says that games are a conversation.<\/p>\n

What’s a conversation without questions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently on G+ I put out a post saying how I wish I could just get copies of the games I interview people about. A few people sent me stuff, which was super cool! One of the things that got into my grabby hands was Wilhelm Person’s Okult. I’ve been watching Okult from afar for … Continue reading “Okult by Wilhelm Person and Asking Good Questions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[28,10,17,12,18],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-briecs-on-design","tag-game-design","tag-gaming","tag-rpgs","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-6e","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2015\/03\/musings-on-horror-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":0},"title":"Musings on Horror Games","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"March 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm playing Alien: Isolation on PC right now. I'm not very far in, but I've found some stuff I wanted to talk about (which I recorded the audio of while playing but the file corrupted or something).I want to make a horror tabletop RPG at some point. This is something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":244,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2016\/10\/five-or-so-questions-with-alessandro-piroddi-on-touched-by-evil\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":1},"title":"Five or So Questions with Alessandro Piroddi on Touched by Evil","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"October 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I have an interview with Alessandro Piroddi on the new game Touched by Evil! It sounds really interesting and seems like just the right kind of game for Halloween weekend. Check it out on DriveThruRPG here and give the interview below a read!--Tell me a little about Touched by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/11\/five-or-so-questions-on-die-laughing\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":2},"title":"Five or So Questions on Die Laughing","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"November 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all, today I have an interview with Craig Campbell on Die Laughing, which is on Kickstarter right now! I hope you all enjoy reading what Craig has to say about this cinematic horror-comedy game in the responses below!--Tell me a little about Die Laughing. What excites you about it?Die\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Die Laughing logo with a smiley face in spattered red color with x's for eyes and the text \"Die Laughing\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-_XFc_c8NoQA\/W9e2TF-i5sI\/AAAAAAAAAl4\/OkoX2gEF7S4LHhTmysVeauKmmJqg0X_KwCLcBGAs\/s400\/Front%2BCover.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":377,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/08\/five-or-so-questions-with-jao-pedro-on-love-gift-cards\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":3},"title":"Five or So Questions with J\u00e3o Pedro on Love Gift Cards","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"August 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You can check out J\u00e3o's Patreon here: http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/jptrrs\u00a0Tell me a little about your Game Chef winning game, Love Gift Card. What excites you about it?First and foremost, It's been peoples' reaction to it! The game's premise is a little far-fetched, and to me it really was a game design exercise,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":349,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2015\/09\/five-or-so-questions-with-becky-annison-and-josh-fox-on-lovecraftesque\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":4},"title":"Five or So Questions with Becky Annison and Josh Fox on Lovecraftesque","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"September 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I interviewed Becky Annison and Josh Fox about their new game, Lovecraftesque! It's currently on Kickstarter and looks awesome!Tell me a little about Lovecraftesque. What excites you about it?J: Lovecraftesque is a storygame of brooding, cosmic horror. It recreates the rhythm and style of Lovecraft's stories, and gives you the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/12\/12-rpgs-for-the-12th-month-day-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":5},"title":"12 RPGs for the 12th Month – Day 1","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"December 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"(Image includes a list of\u00a0 questions for 12 RPGs for the 12th Month)These questions set up by Paul Mitchener (sourced from a private post) are pretty cool and I'm hoping I can keep up with them over the next few weeks.The first question is:\"You're running an RPG to introduce new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-jobzK83RjHs\/WiGWVo-CiNI\/AAAAAAABiHM\/rtc5pBea-JQ09TyakHhiCu5glZXAqg4WQCLcBGAs\/s640\/12RPG.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}