Schelling’s Meta Game
This is a conversation game of design and schelling points.
It is an extension of The Pool and is intended to be a structured way to design a tabletop roleplaying game with friends as you play the roleplaying game.
How to Play
Play a game of The Pool with the following additional move
The Move
At the end of a session if you want to change the game, state your design goal.
Write
Before the next session anyone may write a modification (adding, removing, and/or modifying rules, roles, and/or principles of play etc.) or a defense of the existing rules, roles and principles etc.
Present
At the beginning of the next session, in a random order, design goals from the previous session are stated and—again—in a random order, each player may present their solution or defense. Questions and discussion should be for clarity and nothing else.
Vote
After everyone has presented each player assembles a voting pool of points equal to the number of presentations. In a random order, put proposed changes up for a vote. Don’t discuss the presentations or how anyone intends to vote. For each proposed change, secretly write "yay" or "nay" and how many points you’ll commit to the vote.
Once everyone is done writing, reveal your votes.
- If a majority of points are committed to yay, the yays win and the change is enacted.
- If a majority or equal number of points are committed to nay, the nays win and the change is not enacted.
Points gained by voting with the winning side cannot be committed to future votes. Just keep track, including fractional points, for the next step.
Convert
After all of the votes are finished, convert full points gained by voting with the winning side to dice in your pool, one to one. Keep track of fractional points you gained and add them to any points gained in future votes.
Play
Once all votes are complete, play the session with any changes that were enacted.