User:Annasandri/py.rate.chnic

intro(21.09)

First session with Manetta:

• brainstorming about the different format that a workshop can have;
  
• forming the groups by tracking overlapping interests;

We decided to make a group with ♥Damla♥ and Clax.

chaos.agents.bureau!!grand.opening: preparation

We formed this group because of the common interest in working with fake news and disinformation on the web and social media.

workshop formats

The first idea was to move this universe into the context of a game/treasure hunt in order to explore its working mechanism. We decided to go for this format after sharing some thoughts regarding workshops and the way we approach them: if not provided with a precise goal they sometimes remain a bit vague (and even boring) whereas providing a precise scope and plan a sort of defined achievement at the end can become too demanding for some people.

Firstly we thought about creating a sort on online treasure hunt based on popular social deduction games such as the werewolf (also known as Mafia). We also found out that a version of this game already exists online in IRC chats. Since at the time we were also working with IRC channels and bots we considered the idea of creating a customised environment that could recreate our fictional world. We also thought about expanding this universe by creating web pages that could report news, bios, gossips and more.
Needless to say, the project was rapidly escalating into something that looked much more like a plan for an all year of research than a workshop. Considering the time frame we opted to focus on the creation of the fictional reality and characters and employ already existing game mechanics.

re-adapting a game

After a research into games based on social deduction we found one that one suitable to our purpose: Coup.
The original Cop game is set in fictional environment that ask the player to take the role of a maneuverer in a corrupted and weak city court. In this game the player, whose goal is to find their way into absolute power, is giving two allies from a set of character having each one a special influential power in the court. We came to the conclusion that this structure was suitable to describe our setting as well: a world were the political power is built through the creation of a court of influential allies that would play a significant role especially in the context of social media.
In our adaptation of the game (CHAOS AGENTS BUREAU!!GRAND OPENING) every player had to be a politician striving to destroy their opponents by using their allies to accumulate influence and wealth in order to destroy the other player's opponents and drive them into media irrelevance. We adapted the set of characters and abilities of the traditional game for the purpose of make them work within our context. It resulted in this:

► COUP: Duke: take three tokens from the treasury ---> CHAOS AGENTS: CEO;
► COUP: Assassin: pay three tokens and kill an opponent's ally ---> CHAOS AGENTS: Lobbyist;
► COUP: Captain: steal 2 tokens from another player ---> CHAOS AGENTS: Influencer;
► COUP: Ambassador: exchange allies cards with the allies deck ---> CHAOS AGENTS: Troll;
► COUP: Contessa: block an ally's assassination ---> CHAOS AGENTS: Whistleblower;

After that we worked on adapting the rest of the rules and mechanics: you can read them here. Since every category of cards in made of a set of three we decided to create three fictional characters for each role.
The result of this operation has been reported on which also work as a "world expander" for the game.

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  Ally card

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  General actions

game's format

Considering the possibility of having the workshop IRL we decided to turn it into a physical board game so we designed the deck of cards and tokens in order to be printed. We came out with two versions: one which has been screen printed and another one that has been printed with a traditional printer. The two versions presents differences in the content displayed which is more extensive in the second version.

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  print test

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  Damla cleaning the screen

chaos.agents.bureau!!grand.opening: workshop

The workshop took place the 5th of November from 14.00 to 17.30.

welcoming and workshop presentation

We introduced the setting and explained the rules of the game.

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We made some slides to go through the points.

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the deck of cards

During the explanation of the game the deck of cards and all the elements were already placed on the table.

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We ended up producing two decks of cards:

• a black one which only shows the ability of the card itself;[image 1,4,5,7]
• a violet one which also contains a short description on the character that calls back to the fictional universe described here .[image 2,3]

During the workshop we played with the black version.

playing the game

We split in two groups of six people in order to play the game. It was quite funny so we played two matches and another one with the all group of participants (12 people).

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feedback moment

We took some time to discuss the game with the participants. We received some valuable feedbacks:

• some cards were maybe a bit too powerful compared to others;
• somehow the effort that we put in the creation of the fictional world and characters was a bit obscured in the black deck because it didn't contain the description of the characters that can make the player more involved in the story;
• the possibility to extend the role of the player itself and create a new character role assigned to each player that goes beyond the abilities and personalities of the Allies cards.