Character March 2025: (Almost) Everyone is Harry

Let's continue this series with a quick entry from the year when I committed myself to writing a game every month. Except this game came before I knew I'd challenge myself like that.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

(Almost) Everyone is Harry

This game features three types of players: the Game Master, the Detective, and the Voices in his head. Your goal is to solve a crime together despite your amnesia. I'm going to assume that I'll be a pair of voices inside of the detective's head, seeing how that will be the role of most players.

The number I'll choose for these two voices to share is 5. Sonder is a hunch you have for other people's lives. It allows you to guess what their job is, whether they have a family, what kinds of songs they like, and so on. It's not based on perceptions, at least not on the kind you'd be aware of. The other voice, much weaker than Sonder, is Attriage, your control over the emotions you feel for others. The original rules didn't say that the two voices have to be related, but I figured I'd try to connect them. It makes sense here - the better you know others, the harder time you'll have not feeling for them.

Ratings

3/5 RPG. Some important details are missing, but it's pretty clear this ain't a board game.

1/5 Soup Stone. Make up the characters. Make up the detective. Make up the crime. Make up the world. Make up the NPCs. A ton of work. You have to make up pretty much everything, save for the premise and the body hanging from a tree (and even that feels rather shallow).

1/5 Would I Play. It could be fun, but I'm not exactly driven to do it.

1/5 Would I Write. This was an experiment on my part. It's an okay premise, but if I were to return to it, it would be independent of franchises and maybe with more mechanics for how the voices could interact with each other, also giving each player maybe just one voice and figuring out another way to balance them. It's an okay start, but I don't feel like developing it more anytime soon.

6/20 Total Rating