Shock: Human Contact

Quick footnote to all the indie discussions, since Shock has been mentioned several times:

If anybody would be interested in having their copy of Shock signed by the author, or in picking up a signed copy of Shock: Human Contact for $25, drop me a line.

And needless to say, we’ll have to get in a game at some point…

What’s the game about?

Well, that kinda depends on the group playing it, and may vary from session to session as far as I’ve heard/read about it.

It’s basically Sci-Fi, although I guess it wouldn’t necessarily have to be everytime. The core concept is to communally create a story, an integral part of which process is to come up with one or more “Shocks” in the fictional world, Shocks the story will then revolve around.

Examples for Shocks may be stuff like “what if there were robots so sophisticated that they were all but indistinguishable from real people?” (Bladerunner, anyone?)
or perhaps stuff like “what if humanity developed psionic powers allowing some people to read other people’s thoughts?”

Then characters are created (so called protagonists) for each player, and their antagonists are subsequently created by other players. The game is GM-less, so everyone takes turns setting scenes, playing their protagonists, and playing other people’s antagonists.

There are a few really clever-sounding ideas in the rest of its rules, and I’d really like to try it out at some point. On the other hand, some of the game’s terminology strikes me as needlessly intellectualizing things (words like Minutiae (instead of “Setting Details”), Fulcrum and Praxis abound, and don’t get me started on the use of “genderless” pronouns and articles…)

Tha author also has described it as a kind of custom-built mod for PTA (Primetime Adventures), if that helps :wink:
But the game draws inspiration from various sources such as Dogs in the Vinyard, Polaris, and Trollbabe, to name just a few of the most predominant influences.

EDIT:
sorry, forgot to adress the actual topic here - I sadly do not own a physical copy of Shock, I only got the pdf.
So no signing for me, sorry!

Thanks for the summary, Auburney!

Anyway, just offering. I always like to support creative endeavors by good people.