Ghost Bike Club

After watching Paprika last week my brother and I challenged each other to write a game inspired by the movie. Nick came up with Sleeping City. I came up with Ghost Bike Club. Here's a bit from my first rough draft.

Ghost Bike Club

Portland grows. Every year the freeways and streets see more traffic, the trains and buses crowd with more students getting to school and more workers getting to work. Neighbors fight for parking space and the City rips up streets to lay down new tracks for public transportation. As Portland grows, its traffic grows with it. For some the solution lays in more trains and buses, for others more freeways, or a new gas tax.

Some Portlanders believe that every little bit helps, and leave their cars at home in favor of bikes. Sometimes a cyclist becomes a victim of Portland’s growth. Sometimes a cyclist is hit and killed on the way to work or school or on a quick trip downtown. Their ghost cries out in agony and frustration. To honor these cyclists we create ghost bikes.

 A ghost bike starts its existence as a normal bike, often a second hand junker. We spray paint the bike white, and chain it to a sign post or telephone poll where a cyclist died. In Portland this is how we honor the cyclists killed by our traffic. The ghost bikes act as a reminder to all that see them, demanding that we both remember the dead and recognize the serious problems that face our growing city.

 The ghost bikes are a recent tradition, and not everyone knows how to honor their friends and loved ones who die in Portland’s traffic. Sometimes the ghost of an unknown cyclist calls out to be honored, and it is up to the Ghost Bike Club to help.

 We are the Ghost Bike Club

 As members of the Ghost Bike Club we are each sensitive to the calls of dead cyclists. We can hear their ghosts crying out to be put to rest, and it is up to us to honor them. When a ghost calls out to us we will work together to travel into the Ghost World to gather clues to the cyclists identity. We’ll work our way back into the Real World where we can use these clues to find out who the cyclist was and where they died. Once we know this we can create a ghost bike and put the poor cyclist to rest forever.

Our job is dangerous and far from simple. Traveling through the Ghost World takes a certain kind of courage. We’ll have to be strong and fast and work as a team to navigate that strange realm and find the clues we’ll need. Even after we return to the Real World we’ll need to be careful. Once the Ghost World has a taste of us it will chase us into the real world, first trickling like water into the edges of our minds, then pulling us out of our reality with overwhelming and irresistible force.  We won’t be safe till we lay the ghost of the cyclist to rest, but until then we can protect ourselves from the Ghost Worlds cold grip by working together and trusting each other.

Navigating the Ghost World is only half our job. We’ll have to use the clues we recovered in the Ghost World to discover who our cyclist was and where they were killed. The real World is full of its own hidden dangers and snares, and we’ll need to ask tough questions and know where to look to find our answers. Once we uncover our cyclist’s identity we can create a ghost bike and lay them to rest forever.

 What is Ghost Bike Club?

Ghost Bike Club is a storytelling game for 2 or more players. We’ll each make up a member of the Ghost Bike Club that we will play during the game. Our goal is to work together to tell the story of how our characters traveled into the Ghost World and solved mysteries in the Real World to put the ghost of a dead cyclist to rest.

To play we’ll need a copy of this book and a single 6-sided die. This is the same kind of dice you use for craps, Monopoly or Yahtzee. If you can’t find one at your house you should be able to score a pack of 4 at your local supermarket, convenience store or department store. In Portland you can buy dice at any Plaid Pantry. They’re open 24 hours.

We’ll need a comfortable place to play, and a little food wouldn’t hurt either. You can always play at home, but a nice café, a quiet tavern, a book store, park or your favorite Chinese restaurant would all work well. Find some place where you feel comfortable and settle in. A game of Ghost Bike Club can be over quickly or might last few hours.

Making Club Members

We’ll start the game by making up some Club Members. Each one of us will create a Club Member that we’ll play for the rest of the game. This means that we’ll decide everything that our Club Member says and does. Our Club Members can be anybody we want. They can be nothing like us, or they can be thinly disguised versions of ourselves. If we want, we can even play ourselves. Each one of us will need to take a few minutes to decide what kind of person we want our Club Member to be. Here are a few questions that you might find helpful.

How old am I?

Am I a man or a woman?

Where do I live?

What is my job?

Do I have a family?

What is my name?

We don’t need to develop a fully fleshed out human being. Instead, each of us will just try to come up with a few quick ideas, like “college student who lives with parents” or “city councilwoman who bikes to work every day”. Our Club Members are really just a set of simple ideas. We’ll each give our Club Member a name and take turns introducing them to each other. Let’s assume that since all our characters are members of the Ghost Bike Club, they all know each other pretty well.

We’ll also need to choose a Club Duty for our Club Member. In Ghost Bike Club you can choose one of four Club Duties, Mechanic, Psychic, Investigator or Cyclist. The Club Duty you choose speaks volumes about the kind of person your Club Member is. One player must take the duty of the Mechanic and one player must take the duty of the Psychic. Everyone else must play an Investigator or Cyclist, and we can have as many of those as we like. Each of us will have a special duty to perform during the game.

Mechanics are smart and level headed. Out of all the members of the Ghost Bike Club, Mechanics have the tightest grasp on reality and the closest connection to the Real World. Mechanics love the physical artifacts of the real world, and often surround themselves with tools and technology. Mechanics are not necessarily always engineers or repairmen who fix bikes or cars. Rather, Mechanics are individuals who solve problems.

The Mechanic’s dutys is to narrate and describe the results of all the actions that the players take in the Real World.

Psychics are perceptive and cunning. All the members of the Ghost Bike Club can feel the call of the ghosts of dead cyclists, but only with the help of the Psychic can they step into the Ghost World and search for clues. Although some Psychics are full blown goof balls that claim to have crazy mystic powers, most are regular people like you or me who have suffered a near death experience and have a stronger then normal connection to the Ghost World.

The Psychic’s duty is to narrate and describe the results of all the actions that the players take in the Ghost World.

 Investigators are curious and brave. A desire to seek the truth and uncover secrets drives Investigators to ask difficult questions and demand answers. Although often police officers, journalists or bloggers, any person that is willing to risk personal safety to uncover truths can be an Investigator.

The Investigator’s duty is to uncover the truth. Once during each scene the Investigator can re-roll a failed die if the conflict involves uncovering a secret, asking a question or searching for answers.

Cyclists are fast and confident. Of course most members of the Ghost Bike Club ride bikes on a regular basis, but for the cyclist the bike is a way of life. Cyclists are on the streets of Portland every day, weaving in-between cars and cutting past traffic jams. Better then anyone, the cyclist understands the problems Portland is facing.

The Cyclist’s duty is to be fast and strong. Once during each scene the Cyclist can re-roll a failed die if the conflict involves speed, accuracy or endurance.

Two Worlds

As we play the game our characters will travel between two worlds. We’re all familiar with the Real World. This is the world of Portland, where we all live and work. The Real World if full of normal people and normal dangers. While it can be fantastic and surreal in its own way, the Real World is comforting in its familiarity and normalcy.

The Ghost World is deceptive, a strange, desperate mirror of our own Real World. It’s possible to step into the Ghost World briefly and without harm. Near death experiences and personal tragedy can draw normal living people into the Ghost World for short times. You’ve likely visited there before without even noticing, because the Ghost World looks exactly like our own Real World. At least at first. The Ghost World is smart. It hides what it is to lure you in, first presenting to you the familiarity of our own world, then drawing imagery from your own mind to create a rich, sinister fantasy land tailored just for you. The Ghost World wants to trap you, and uses appealing and disorienting imagery to confuse and manipulate you. It’s very easy to become distracted, buying into the surreal reality and forgetting that you are even in the Ghost World. Once you have traveled far enough into its territory the Ghost World will turn on you, using the familiar and fantastic imagery pulled from your own memories and imagination to trap you forever.

The Ghost World is certainly dangerous, but brave and experienced psychics can guide the Ghost Bike Club through with minimal risk. The true danger comes from the inhabitants of this strange world, the spirit creatures and hungry ghosts that don’t want peace and don’t know love. The Ghost Bike Club will have to be especially careful as they search for the ghost of the cyclist who has called out to them for help.

Update: I've posted the second half of this draft here. Comments and feedback are welcome.