[Jihgfed Pumpkinhead]

     When I was thinking about the compo, I had the interesting idea of centering my new game-to-be in a travelling circus. Three reasons:

• Circuses are cool.
  
• The PC no longer "adventures". He doesn't need to go out and seek new and interesting places, because they come to him, in a manner. So, I don't need to provide him with some contrived motivation to go to, and have all sorts of wacky adventures in, say, Mutant Town, or the Cursed Village, or any other place that isn't a tourist hot-spot. Sure, the same thing could be accomplished by centering my RPG around a travelling salesman, but where's the glamour in that? (Just kidding: I'd love to play an RPG centered around a travelling salesman.)
  
• In a sense, the PC's entire town moves with him when he goes. This definitely helps in developing lasting character arcs involving many different characters. It means I don't have to figure out a way for characters to keep meeting up and exchanging stories. Other games do this by centering the action around a boat or airship or something, which also works fine. This'll be an interesting deviation, though, I think.

     Cairn Hill is still my big project, and I'm using this circus game mostly as a test. I'll be constructing a very, very minimal engine for it, just so that I have a little more experience before sinking all my time into Cairn Hill (I've only made one RPG so far, and it was, well, not a very educational experience). Still, of course, I'll try to make it an entertaining game.
     I haven't thought too much about plot, or anything. I was thinking that, since there's such a rich variety of characters around the PC at all times, in addition of standard RPG experience, he needs to learn directly directly from them. So, if he does something nice for the Magician, he might get the option of exchanging some of his experience for the learning of a trick or two.
     I'd be particularly interested in hearing if anyone has played a game set in a circus before, or that mirrors this one in any other way. Also, does anyone know anything about circuses that might help me? I'm thinking the game might be set in an earlier circus, c. 1875 or so, but everything's really up in the air right now.
     It doesn't have a title yet, as I haven't come up with a plot: for now I'll just call it "Circus Game". I hope to have it completed sometime in May. As I said, it's mostly a preparation for Cairn Hill.
     Needless to say I'm opting out of the compo. It would be fun, but I'd like to get to work on this right away.

[Adam]

my circus-videogame experience comes only from Sam and Max Hit the Road. Not really what your looking for tho.

Id be thinking it would be hard to base a game around carny folk, such dirty people.

But id assume circus folk are a bit sleaner than carny folk
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[Nephilim]