The Sorensen big three

1) What is your game about? The game is first and foremost about the conflict between playing your role and looking beyond it to wider responsibilities. The infected wants to avoid the horrors of quarantine. The investigator want to catch his man. But both of them stumble on pieces of a puzzle that they can choose to investigate or ignore.

This game is also about presenting a big thick metaplot without running into the problems which traditionally are associated with metaplot, ie PC deprotagonism.

And on a much lesser note, it's about re creating elements of the fugitive movie with harrison ford, and re creating American paranoid pop culture more generally, like the Manchurian Canidate or Seven Days in May.

2) How does it go about it? There are mechanical systems that push players towards fulfilling their role, and others that reward players for uncovering the plot. The role of the GM is entirely reactive, ie they cannot push the players toward the metaplot or away from it without the use of very specific tools.

3) What does it reward / encourage. It rewards you for moving out of your role but punishes it for you as well.

I'll probably post another one of these after the rough draft is finsihed. Tomorrow: Work on the rough draft, maybe blog about some mechanical aspects of the game.