Over the past few entries, we’ve been zooming in on the setting of the Ghost Punchers storyworld. Today, I’d like to zoom out far enough to see the big picture and ask the big questions: Why are we here? How does Adam Sandler keep making movies? Does the Ghost Punchers storyworld have enough substance to support multiple products?
I can’t help answer the first two questions, but can take a stab at the last one by using the power of fractal world-building.
As you’ll recall, the point of a fractal storyworld is that it allows you to create multiple stories on multiple platforms. We can focus on different aspects of the storyworld to tell different stories which are suitable for different platforms. Let’s see what we can do applying this to Ghost Punchers…
Ghost Punchers RPG – a roleplaying game
Characters: Heroes who can interact with the spirit world
Conflict: Defend the physical world from malevolent ghosts
Setting: In a world like our own, but stranger, funnier, and much more haunted.
This is sort of cheating, since “Ghost Punchers: A Game of Supernatural Investigation and Violence” was the first Ghost Punchers thing I posted on Facebook, and what inspired me to do this series of posts. But still, it’s a perfect setting for an RPG. You could play it like a straight-up dungeon crawl, except instead of hacking their way through orc-filled caves, players punch their way through haunted houses.
Ghost Lords – a trading card game
Characters: Ghostly overlords of the underworld
Conflict: Compete with each other for power and territory
Setting: In the physical and spiritual worlds of New York City.
See what I did there? It’s the same storyworld, but now the focus is on the ghosts rather than those who punch them. We’ve also zoomed in on a specific location, which lets us focus on local landmarks, creatures, and story rituals.
Kat Harper, Ghost Puncher – a novel
Character: Kat Harper, a teenage orphan medium
Conflict: Learns to control her inborn psychic abilities and navigate the weird politics of
Setting: A small town in Montana rife with ghosts and ancient secrets.
I could see this being a YA series as Kat comes of age and into control of her ghost-punching powers. Sort of Harry Potter by way of Harry Dresden.
Things Unseen – an alternate reality game
Characters: Ordinary people who have been unwittingly dosed with an experimental psychotropic drug
Conflict: Are forced to deal with the ghosts that they are suddenly able to see
Setting: Where ever the drug has spread across the country — or even the world.
While I’ve never designed an ARG, I thought it would be cool to do so. The players themselves would be the newly-awakened ghost punchers, playing themselves in the world they already know, but now liberally sprinkled with ghosts they can discover by playing the ARG.
Could we do a movie? A television show? A postcast in the style of a radio show? Yes, yes, and yes. Our little experiment here has shown the storyworld has enough depth to support itself across multiple mediums.
Hmmm… which way to Kickstarter?
