The Triptych
Triptych (trip-tick) n. A picture or carving on three panels able to fold over the centre; a set of three associated works so placed esp. as a centre piece; a set of three writing tablets hinged or tied together; a set of three artistic works; such used as an altar piece; a treatise in three parts.
Each year, Pheno invites three respected designers to present a systemless single session game as part of a triptych. Each game showcases what we consider the best of Pheno roleplaying: characterisation, drama, entertainment, innovation. Each game will be judged separately, but teams competing in all three games will also be eligible for the Triptych Perpetual Trophy.
The Triptych games are all for 5 players.
- Body Corporate — by Andrew Smith
- The Cabinet of Doctor Makundi — by Ryan d'Argeavel
- Floodland — by Michael Hitchens
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Body Corporate
by Andrew Smith
In the evening gloom only three houses show lights amid the dark McMansion hulks of Talbot Ridge Estate. The home loan crisis was not kind to aspirations here.
It's a bad time. The only employer in town is SomaTech. You all work for ST, dreading each week to get that note in your pay packet saying this one is your last — “right-sized” out of your career.
It's the Memorial Day weekend. Your little community gets together for a street cookout and the Indy 500 on the plasma TV. It's good not to worry for an afternoon.
It's a shame this is not that afternoon.
They say a community is made up of its people, and a company its employees, like a body is made up of its organs.
When organs go bad the body dies.
When organs go weird, the body…
A modern horror for five corporate bodies, using Dread.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 4 | Genre 4 | Rules knowledge 1 (Can you play Jenga?) |
| Story/plot 4 | Seriousness 3 | Advisory rating MA+ (adult themes, horror, fruiting bodies) |
The Cabinet of Doctor Makundi
by Ryan d'Argeavel
In these, the first days of a new dawn for our country, it is the people behind me, the people who placed me here to lead us into the future, it is these people to whom I entrust the running of our glorious Democratic Republic. I give you the ministers of my new Cabinet.
We do not support the actions of rebel governments. We will not be pressured into any decision. Our team will investigate all claims of sovereignty from the so-called Democratic Republic of Tego, and only then, with their report will the Security Council of the United Nations make their decision.
A single-session systemless game for 5 ex-pats in the heart of Africa.
From Two Guys without a Team Name
Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 5 | Genre 3 (modern-day Africa) | Rules knowledge 1 |
| Story/plot 4 | Seriousness 4 | Advisory rating MA+ (adult themes, horror, violence) |
Floodland
by Michael Hitchens
Egypt. The Desert. The Nile. Mystery. Sounds great, hey?
Once you spend six months on an archaeological dig, it loses whatever romanticism it may have had. Sand gets in everywhere. The heat goes on and on. And all you see are the people you work with, for months on end.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I like being an archaeologist, it’s just not what most people think. There’s no magic. There’s no unfathomable mysteries of the ancients, only things we don’t know yet.
For three thousand years the Gods and Pharaohs ruled Egypt
Their justice, their magic, kept the land safe
Safe even from the wars between the Gods
The Pharaoh’s curse is just a media beat up, and this is the last unexcavated burial of a Pharaoh anyway. The only way the dead reach out from the grave is by what we learn about them from scientific study.
Cursed be the tomb robber
Cursed be he who opposes the will of the Gods
And doubly and triply cursed be he who is caught in the war of the Gods
The gods are just myths. Hard work, not mystical revelation, is what teaches us Egypt’s secrets. Nothing odd or mysterious here.
Or at least, that’s what I tell myself. Every night, before I go to sleep. And hope the dreams stay away.
For what is faded shall rise again
The pharaohs will walk amongst us
And the evildoer will suffer their just punishment
A one session systemless module for five archaeologists.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 5 | Genre 4 | Rules knowledge 1 |
| Story/plot 5 | Seriousness 4 | Advisory rating PG |
Previous triptychs
2009
Mik Bonsall — Dead Man Walking
Fi McConachie — Silence of the Bush
Nick Argall — Vengeance of the Vampire Lord
2008
David Hollingworth — Crime and Punishment
Andrew Smith — The Fall of the Family
Mike(y) and Liz Argall — The Group
2007
John Hughes — Quest: Mask of Heroes
Jacinta Thomler — Six Soldiers
David James — Those Left Behind
2006
Liz Argall — Being There
Joe McNamara — Killing De Villefort
Ingrid Bean — Rebirthing Eden
2005
Stuart Barrow — The Mask and the Moonlight
Xole Karman — Familiar
Andrew Smith — Something Wonderful
2004
Robbie Matthews — Mayhem Over Manhattan
Peter Rousell — Last Night in Eden
Eric Henry — The Fishbowl
2003
David James — Can you go home again?
Mike Walker — Psi
Ingrid Bean — Silence
2002
Ben Hunter — Project Hydra
Robert Barbetti — Something Wicked
Mark Bruckard — This Way Comes
2001
Larry Larkin — Once upon a time
Ryan d'Argeavel — I knew she was trouble the minute she walked into my office
Jon Naughton — They don't advertise for killers in a newspaper
2000
Michael Hitchens — You are Number 4, I am Number 6
Caitlin May — What is Honour?
Tony Guyot — Citius Altius Fortiu
1999 [The year Pheno ate Cancon]
Richard Canning — Memory Lost
Jo Ellem — Signor Jacemo's Circus of Wonder
Morgan Morningstar — Redemption
1998
Liz Argall — When I Meet My Family
Felix White — Lost Highway
Scott Walton & Daniel Wilks — Spazmo
1997
Andrew Smith — Fatalism
Diana Leithead — The Charity Gig
Antti Roppola — Understanding Ellen West
1996
Richard Percy — Covenant
Mark Barnes — Prometheus Rising
Brent Steves — Graenlendinga Saga
1995
John Hughes — Fallen Angel
Madi — Freaks
Grant Allen & Lindsay Beaton — Portents
1994
Ian Wanless — The Breaking
Robert MacLean — Faded Giant
Chris Slee — Uncle Jurgen's Happy Hour