I’m planning on writing a short story set in the world of Canonical Coherence. That’s far from trivial, because the world is so complex and different from ours. First, I need to do some basic world building before the story writing can start in earnest. This thread is about the most popular games that the Simple play in the Canonical Coherence universe. Playing games is one of the most popular activities of the simple in CC. Other popular general activities are learning, teaching, socialising, travelling, experiencing art, creating art, and pursuing various hobbies (in no particular order).
The following games come in different rule sets. Usually, the basic premise is very easy to understand, so that a wide range of persons can enjoy the game. In the world of Canonical Coherence most complex animals are enhanced and spend a lot of their time participating in games, instead of trying to survive in “nature”.
Berserk
This is a hybrid reality game: It plays in a simulated environment that is essentially the same as the regular environment and the players control virtual bodies, which do not experience any pain, in that simulated environment. There are two modes: Combat mode and crafting mode. In combat mode the objective is to incapacitate all members of the enemy team by any means possible. Before each combat the participating teams agree on the rules, mainly what weapons and armour is allowed. All weapons and armour in this game must be crafted from scratch in crafting mode. Or you trade your equipment with pieces of equipment of another player. Berserk players often challenge other players for a quick duel.
Build
Build can be played in base reality, or in a simulation layer. A game master defines an objective for a team, which consists in building a specific structure at a specific location. The choice of technologies and materials available is restricted. All tools and building materials must be made from scratch. In some cases, this actually makes it impossible to create the specified structure, so that a “best approximation” has to be built instead. Some build campaigns can last for many years or even decades.
Capitalism
Having its roots in the game “Monopoly” and economic simulation games, Capitalism is a game in which the players assume the role of Capitalists. Different eras of historical capitalism can be used as setting for this game. The goal of Capitalism is to crush the competition via any strategy conceivable.
Members of the Canonical Coherence use this game to poke fun about the silliness of the historical capitalist system.
Capture the flag
There are numerous versions of this game. Usually there are two teams, each with a flag and pole. The objective is to move the flag of the enemy team to the pole of one’s own team, while preventing the enemy team from doing likewise. Flag and pole of each team can be moved separately, but can’t leave the restricted game area. The game is often played with equipment that is equal for both teams.
Catastrophe
Catastrophe plays in a simulated environment in which a catastrophe threatens the lives of simulated non-player characters. The objective is to save as many lives as possible. Popular catastrophes are tsunamis, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, asteroid impacts, gamma ray bursts, epidemics, zombie apocalypses, or wars.
Changeball
It’s a pretty simple ball game, in which you need to move the ball to the target area of the enemy team, but there is a twist: The ball changes its shape and properties constantly and randomly. It can shrink and grow, become heavier or lighter, heat up or cool down, coat itself in various gels and substances, extend spikes or blades, and so on. This makes handling or moving the ball quite challenging.
Direct
This is a bit of an unusual game, because not all players involve in this game know that it’s going on. A player gets a mission from a game master to direct the attention of a certain target person (or multiple persons) for a specific amount of time to a specific entity (often the player), before the time limit expires. Trolling is allowed, but obvious trolling would make the target suspect that the Direct game is going on, and therefore ignore the troll. Every person can become the target of a Direct game, unless she opts out of the Direct game altogether.
Hunt
This is a permanent game to which persons can subscribe as either hunter or prey. A hunter scores if she succeeds in touching a prey player. Pray players score, if hunter players lose track of them. The use of weapons is usually not allowed.
Maze
The players of this game are placed in a simulated maze from which they need to escape within a certain time limit. Mazes are dynamic and reconfigure themselves all the time, so that’s quite a difficult task. Lethal threats can also be present in mazes. In case of death in game, the player usually cannot rejoin the team.
Paradigm
Paradigm is a strategy game with dynamic rules. It’s often played between two players, but more players can play it at the same time, too. The complexity of Paradigm is extremely high, so that simple require decades to reach a serious level of proficiency at it. The central idea of Paradigm is that of the paradigm shift. There are many ways to trigger a paradigm shift, and when it occurs, the rules of the game change: The units change, and the way they can act. On an abstract level Paradigm is a game between leaders of different groups who fight for dominance across the ages, including all the change that happens between those ages.
Paradigm has become extremely popular during the Prestige Wars, and is still very popular throughout the Canonical Coherence.
Quest
A game master gives the players of this game the objective to find a specific object, or a person. A very detailed description of the object or person is given, but no further hints are available at first. This can be played in base reality or a simulated world.
Survive
Another simulated reality game. The players are cast into a hostile environment and need to survive for a specific amount of time. Initial equipment may or may not be provided. If that’s not hardcore enough, enemy players or NPCs can be added. Those have the objective to make the survivors die.
Territory
Territory is perhaps the most massive persistent hybrid reality game. A team scores for controlling as much territory as possible over time. Control over territory is simply gained by being present in that territory for a certain amount of time. The use of weapons is allowed, but only such weapons that don’t cause significant area damage. As in Berserk, all equipment has to be made from scratch. Territory is a permanent game. It doesn’t stop. Of course single players can retreat from the game to do something else for a while, but the rest of the game goes on regardless. Territory is one of the most intense games, so intense that many players dedicate their whole lives to it. Because this massive degree of involvement in the game can be considered to be too disruptive, Territory is banned in many places.
Transport
In transport the objective consists in transporting an object or a person to a specific location. It’s usually played as a base reality game. The difficulty in transport is that the use of the pre-existing transportation infrastructure is not allowed. Also, the technologies allowed for creating means of transport are restricted.
Von Alpha
Technically, this is a kind of role playing game based in a pretty far out scenario: It plays in a world in which it is technologically possible to create new universes out of nothing using so-called alpha devices. This basically allows the inhabitants of this world to maximize effectively any imaginable resource, be it free energy, space, time, matter, and everything you can make out of those. Everyone can live in a perfect bubble universe. The only limitation is that you need to follow paths between parent and child universes to get to an already existing univere of your choice. No shortcuts allowed.
Combinations of those basic games are possible, too. Of course, there are a lot of other games available, some of them advanced versions of the games available in our present time. But those usually don’t gain widespread and long lasting popularity.
