Experimentation and Innovation

As a rule, Apathy Games has more ambition than resources.  We always will, because we’re made up of a few people who think big.  As our resources grow, so too does our vision.  We’re at a stage, right now, where everything we do is an experiment.  Tyson J. Hayes, and his ongoing challenge, is one of the more visible experiments.  By doing something difficult and unexpected, he’s being forced to think of games, and blogging,  in a new way each day.

Internally, we’re doing the same thing.  We’ve thrown around some rather absurd game concepts (one of them has Canada sinking into the ocean).  We’re experimenting with art styles, layouts, and paper sizes (would a campaign setting book the size of a deck of cards be practical?).  Just about every aspect of gaming is under consideration.

Not that we’re trying to rock the boat, or conduct change for the sake of change (most of our experiments never even make it out of the thought stages), but because if you don’t try something different, you don’t learn anything.

That’s our lesson for this week, and I suggest applying it to your games immediately.

Try new voices.  Unique characters.  Different environments.  Play with background music, or outside.  Use gestures to represent things.  Last week we used MapTool just to try it out.  It was neat, if a bit complicated, and we learned that you lose some of face to face experience, but also gain some ease of play.

Our goal, and our recommendation, is to try at least one new experiment every session.  It doesn’t have to be big, but even the small things can improve your game.  And then share your experiences with us.  Have you tried anything recently that either succeeded or failed?  Let us know in the comments.