Avoid being distasteful

Well, there is no thematic reason besides the reason that this is the theme I would like to have. As I said I didn't like to use the image of an Angel of Death since this isn't what I wanted in the first place, so changing it to a fantasy race version of death kind of does the same.

However taking your suggestion as a guide might in fact help me tone it down a bit. I could easily place the theme in another time. If I avoid the present then there would be no danger in putting in events like a train accident, Fukushima or hurricane Catherine. This way I could avoid that I suddenly have a player at the table who lost someone in these horrible catastrophes.
I guess noone today gets offended by a game in which people get killed in the crusades.

Thanks for that inspiration.

You can see this phenomenon in all kinds of media especially in video games. Living in Germany we had really strange developments because of that. One of the most famous ones was Command&Conquer Red Alert in which they actually changed the troopers to robots and when they got killed there was no blood but a black puddle of oil. :D

There is no game yet. I have just the idea of a game with the theme of playing Death. That's why I put this thread in the Theme Design section. I hope to get enough inspiration to someday turn this theme into a game that I am comfortable with.

That also means I am not uncomfortable with the game. I was just thinking that if I use this theme there might be cards or events or spaces on the board that would show a sickly six-year old girl and it is your duty as Death to harvest her soul. Of course I could easily refrain from using such images but that kind of felt like cheating. I don't want to go into a theological discussion, but for the arguments sake let's say that there is indeed an entity Death. This entity needs to be impartial and must do his job without hesitation whether it faces a king or a baby. An entity like that must be heartless and can't feel any remorse to what it's doing.

I though that if I was to make a game about Death then I would need to go down the same path and presumably force players to act just like that if they want to win the game. And that's not okay with me. So to answer your question, JAC (may I call you that?) : I do want to change the theme but I lacked imagination how. That's why I made this thread. To get some inspiration and find a way to do this.

It's actually pretty amazing that Death is one of my favourite characters in the novells and it was always a delight when he showed up. Discworld's Death shows the attributes that I just described: impartial and without hesitation. But for some reason he is still a very likeable character and noone seems to be offended by his actions.

I am unfamiliar with Grimm & Evil. Might look into that one too.

I love this idea. Totally in love with it. Thank you!

Not really. A dark tone would be all right with me. I just need some ways to avoid a distasteful theme that might offend people. Dark is good, even though you just showed me that dark is not the only option. I will definitively think about both ways. But whether the game is dark or light there are still some boundaries and I try to figure out how far I can go and how to avoid some.

That helps a lot. Thank you.

I had to google that now, because I am unfamiliar with the english titles. Kuroshitsuji. I've seen it and like it. It has been some time since I last saw this anime but I remember that one shinigami was runnig around with a chainsaw. I guess that would be a little over the top. But I will watch the show again for more inspiration. Thanks.

Nice thinking. I'll keep that in mind. When I get to the point when I figure out what the game should really be about I may come back to that.
But I guess with that kind of explanation for the players in an introductional text (like say on the back of the game box) it might take some pressure off the players. To realize that it is in fact not you who kills is the first step to enjoy a game about death, I think.

No, I haven't thought about anything yet. Besides the theme. I first want to figure out what kind of Death the players are portraying and then make a game out of it.

But I'd say that I lean towards what you just described. I don't want a simple 'have more souls than your opponents competitive' kind of game. Are you familiar with Splinter Cell: Double Agent or Mass Effects? Video games in which the player is presented with moral dilemmas and has to make a decision and this will influence the story and how the game progresses. Something like that would be nice even though I feel strongly about it that Death should not be an enitity that faces moral dilemmas. He has no choice or better: he doesn't have to decide what to do because the decision has already been made.

I guess that is why I am tiptoeing a little. I am not sure where to take the theme and what to make out of it. I don't want a solely educational purpose too. This should still be a game and not a walkthrough in which players do what they are told to but this seems like a contradiction:

How can you play game in which you have to make choices when you impersonate a being that by nature has no choice?

Turning this discussion into a philosophical study now, aren't I?

Seems like it's time to visit the local comic book store.

That is a great idea.

As Death you have no choice but to collect the souls because if you don't bad things will happen.

This could easily serve as a background for a cooperative game.

Thank you.

I was thinking about these points and I think I found one solution (hopefully the first of many to come).

As larienna said the character of Death should know when people are going to die. Even more, he should know how they are going to die and even more important how they lived. We already know that if a soul doesn't get collected by Death it will turn to something bad (whether it be ghosts, poltergeists, demons, etc.) and it is Deaths job to prevent this from happening.

Let's say that there is a fundamental difference between souls: The souls of those who lived a good life either don't turn as easily or won't get that bad. On the other hand, the souls of sinful people can turn into something really disgusting and nasty - pure evil. The way how they died is also important since a violent death tends to 'corrupt' the soul more easily.

Death gets the following information:

Two people are about to die. One being an old man who will simply fall asleep and die of old age, the other one a bankrobber who gets shot by the police while he's taken some hostages. There isn't enough time to collect both souls before they turn bad. So Death (aka the player) has to make a choice.

The bankrobber is the most likely choice since it is better to take care of him before he turns into something really bad. But if he does that then the good soul of the lovely grandpa will suffer and he clearly didn't deserve that.

And there we have the moral dilemma: Prevent one soul from going really bad and let an innnocent soul suffer or give the innocent soul what it deserves (peace) but then you have to face something evil.

What this means in game terms I haven't figured out yet. But this could be the approach to get what JustActCasual wrote:

Exploring the necessary but unpleasant implications and experiences of being the Death character.

As I said in my previous post I'd like to find more solutions to 'how can I get the players into a dilemma' and this might just work. As an adition to what I already have.

Again I don't need any details now so let's simply say the souls have to be carried to a gateway of some sort. Now let's repeat above situation in which the player has to decide whether he wants to save grandpa or the bankrobber., but now we include that he also has to carry the souls to a gateway. And let's say that there is some kind of time limit. Now the player not only has to make the choice which soul to save but must also decide how long he wants to hold ont to the souls he already has and prolong their journey through the gate. If he doesn't go now something bad might happen. So which is it, dear player?

Save grandpa or the bankrobber and take a risk for the souls you already have or let them move on and deal with the repercussions that you left the other two alone?

I think that makes a nice addition.

I watched several episodes of Stupid Deaths now and even though it is funny I don't think that it adds anything to my game. Thanks though for the laughs I got out of it. ;)

No, I haven't hought about this. I am pretty much hooked on the idea of it being a cooperative game. I don't think that this would be a good match to what my game should be about. As I said earlier I want to emphasize on the aspect that impersonating Death is hard work and you have to make tough decissions. If I include a battle over souls then I would lose that focus again and I would be back to a competitive game that is all about 'I have more souls than you' and that is something I already excluded earlier in this thread.

Is anyone a fan of the tv-show Supernatural? I watched it once and take a look at it from time to time. But there is one wpisode that influenced me to take this theme and make game out of it. Deanm one of the main characters, must work for Death as one of his underlings and fullfil all of his duties. He meets a sickly girl in a hospital and decides to leave her alone and not kill her. As a result another person gets into an car accident and dies. You could say that the universe said 'Someone has to die. If it is not that girl then I take someone random from the street'. And Dean had to live with that it was because of his decision to spare the girl that another human being died.

Now, I already moved on from the notion that it is Death who decides who lives and dies but I still want to capture that sort of dilemma and a battle for souls doesn't even get close, does it?

That being said, it doesn't mean that such a game would not be any fun. It just that this is not the game I want to create.

I don't know. Should I feel honored because that is actually the first time I ispired another designer to a game or should I be worried that in a future not so far ahead there will be two games presented to publishers that have the theme of impersonating Death and collecting souls? ;)

Let's start here. I had to look up cookie cutter. It means average, doesn't it?

Care to explain, because I don't get it. What is an average player and how are they realted to Abdantas's idea? Would my game attract cookie cutter players? If so why?

Now to the point of including Valkyries and Anubis. In my first post I wrote that I was unsatisfied with the idea of using the images of Angel of Deaths or Shinigami and this still counts. So I won't use any of that. Sorry.

Another reason is that after carefully thinking about it I want to leave religion out of the game as much as possible. You could say that the image of a black robe and scythe is of christian origin. I guess it was created in medieval times as an iconography of the Black Death (pest), but nowadays I would say it is universal. Valkyries and Anubis however are still very specific. Time hasn't chnaged that.
And I don't like the idea of different religions arguing over souls. Even though it's not fighting it is still some kind of battle and we have that in real life and look what it has brought us. So pitting different religions against each other is definitively out of the question.