I'm giving a talk!

 

I'm giving a talk tomorrow at Cinesite in Montreal about "What Game Devs Should Know about Narrative." (You can still buy a ticket! 5 places left.) We're going to play a round of Ludonarrative Resonance. As I've mentioned before, this is a game where you draw cards for Player Character, Situation, Goal and Mechanic, and you have to make up a story that works within those parameters.

Tomorrow's cards are:

Player character

• An apologetic Englishman
• A beginning witch
• A misunderstood monster
• An addicted detective
• An escaped android
• A sulky teenager
• A new vampire
• An orphan girl

Situation

• A building with a secret
• Zombie apocalypse
• A decayed city in a faithless empire
• Paris in the 1920s, sort of
• Alien invasion
• A forgotten town
• Renaissance Florence
• Civil war

Goal

• Escape
• Break the cycle
• Bring your beloved back
• Bring back the Old Gods
• Infiltrate the Organization
• Get home in time
• Reveal the Truth
• Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, etc.

Mechanic

• Deck Builder
• Time Loop
• Romance Sim
• City Builder
• Rhythm
• Shmup
• Metroidvania
• Roguelike
• Soulslike
• Crafting

I did this a while ago with a large group, and one person kinda monopolized the conversation, so this time I'm making teams of four, and each team can pitch their idea.

Additional rules are: 

• you can interpret the words on your card however you like
• if you absolutely hate your combination of cards, you may throw out ONE card and replace it with something better that you made up.

What do you think? What cards am I missing?