Carmichael's Castle

Carmichael's Castle is inspired by an experience I had in the fall of this year. My family and I had gone on a ghost walk through a “haunted” village outside of Toronto. It was both eerie and creepy. We tried to contact the dead using various tactics, like conducting a séance and using an Ouija board. There’s a distinct feeling you get when you’re searching for ghosts in a haunted, dark space. Part of you doesn’t believe in it and the other part of you is petrified.

This feeling became my jumping-off point for my single-page TTRPG. Killing a scary ghost? Count me in!  I then stumbled upon the idea of a medieval castle, inspired by the research I was doing in my English class about a Scottish Earl. That’s when I came up with the concept of battling a ghost in a haunted, medieval Scottish castle.

I enjoy Grant Howitt’s playful tone in his games, where players don’t take themselves too seriously. Guided by his work, I aimed for a playful storyteller tone. I want players to experience the same mix of giddiness and fear I felt while ghost hunting.

As I explored my concept further, I aimed to create a game where players had the opportunity to win (for the gameists out there), but also allowed enough flexibility, letting the game experience evolve in different directions beyond exclusively winning-losing (the game is the journey!). Thus, my aim became: kill the ghost or finish his unfinished business—or both—but have fun while you’re at it.

Lastly, the subject matter was an amalgamation of it all. My magpie helped in this aspect and inspired all of the characters and the game in its entirety. It was interesting to see how the subject matter took shape as I kept working on the game’s story and structure.

I’ve been more inspired by role-playing games than I had initially expected upon starting this unit. It makes me reminiscent of the games I used to play with my dad and brothers. In that sense, I made this game to challenge my understanding of what a game could be and to explore the TTRPG as a medium. Using an idea that intrigued me and made me excited, I developed a story I felt would be interesting to play with my loved ones (as a supernatural-loving family), to capture the essence of that gameplaying magic. The question became: what would I want to sit around the table and play with them?

The ghost idea wasn’t a direct pull from my magpie. One thing I’ve realized is how fast I can go through my obsessions and thoughts—having them completely change over three months. When I was making this game I was thinking about ghosts, castles, and countesses whereas in my first magpie entry in September, I was listening to podcasts about 9/11 and eating lots of dark chocolate peanut butter cups. This was a kind of inspiration in itself: the idea that I am a changing human being with changing interests… how cool! 

My magpie also came in handy when I was writing the characters—pulling from attributes, ideas, and things I had noted down in different categories, e.g. obsessions, joys, fun, etc. I could take different parts of my brain and apply them to new and fictional characters. One of my favourite examples is a character who’s spontaneous. In my reflection on fun, I realized that spontaneity was a major factor in making things fun for me. One of my characters became spontaneous and that was the reason why everyone loves him. Including such personal touches made the characters feel close to me, as if little pieces of myself were embedded within them and the game. 

One thing the assignment prompted that is also a magpie element of mine was design! I am fundamentally a graphic designer and would consider it one of my favourite hobbies. It was a fun task to create a one-pager and see my magpie come to life in this visual way! It was challenging to condense 800 words in different sections into one page, but a rewarding one at that! I enjoyed the opportunity to explore how visual elements and layout could relate to my game narratively, and continue contributing to the "vibe" of it all. 

When creating Carmichael's Castle I was thinking of the idea of world-building. Often in creative writing and storytelling, the most integral part of any work is to give the reader (or the player) the opportunity to get sucked into your world. Wanderhome was a really great experience and an example of this because it used fantastical vocabulary to articulate the space in which our characters would explore. Through this, we came up with a mystical world and fun characters that would navigate quests. In this sense, I paid strong attention to the language I was using, for example, ghost, haunting, castle, warding, energy, etc. This leads into the idea of possibility space and how I, as the game writer, can guide the players in the direction using language, but ultimately leave the possibilities up to the player—they can choose the game they want to play. 

Additionally, through this language, I directed attention to the setting as the castle is one of the major narrative points. The first paragraph paints the scene: where you are, why you’re there, why it’s kinda cool and also a little scary. Above this description is a drawn castle, also giving a point of imagery for its players to build off of. 

One of my major takeaways from the TTRPGs I played over the second half of the term was the idea of character. I enjoyed having prompts to come up with my character, allowing me to truly jump into that role and understand what my character would do and what they would feel. Character creation is the largest explanation in my game in word count, however, it was important that I gave enough prompts to my players so they could step into their roles as both individuals and as a friend group—since part of this game is rooted in teamwork (if they choose).

With the game mechanic, I was originally thinking of getting creative. However, I thought there was value in keeping it simple with dice. The dice also seem reminiscent of traditional games, like the ones I would play with my family, and are both universal and accessible, especially since you can go online and virtually “roll” any kind of die you wish to. I was able to explore other parts of my game narratively and used the ideas of numbers to propel options and actions. 

Apart from fun, I hope narratively they walk away from the game with a plot surrounding Sir Carmichael, the experience of the haunting, and the challenges they face as he’s trying to kill them. Grant Howwitt writes these beautiful, short games that leave a lot of the game up to the players themselves. With my game, similarly, I intended to give the players just enough information about how to play and the vibe in which it should follow but left everything up to them. What they do know is that there’s a ghost, they choose why he’s seeking vengeance, their characters and everything that comes after that.

Overall, I hope the players of my game walk away having had fun, whatever their definition is. Although simple, fun is at the pinnacle of game making and I suppose this class.  I hope their game is spooky and fun in all of the best ways!