Tears in Rain.pdf

a game of acceptance and loss

Players take turns playing the role of a single crew

member, slowly sufocaing in their cryosleep

chamber. The crewmember is sill in a medically-

induced coma and can do nothing to recify the

situaion. This game is all about the twilight mo-

ments before death.

The opposite player is an ‘appariion’ - the em-

bodiment of a personal failing or problem the

crewmember let unresolved before leaving Earth.

[Mimic]

Game Chef 2012 Submission

Theme: Last Chance

The goal of the game is for the crewmember to

explore - and perhaps resolve - as many of these

problems [Backward Mode], at least in their own

mind, before their cryosleep chamber completely

fails. It is assumed that the crewmember doesn’t

actually know they’re dying. The appariions are as

real to them as dreams seem to all of us while we

are experiencing them. Ideally the game will feel

like a consensual dream or hallucinaion shared by

the players as they build a icional space to ex-

plore one person’s inner space.

Ingredients: Coyote, Mimic, Lamp, Backward

Mode (Forge thread - htp://indie-rpgs.com/ar-

chive/index.php?topic=26010.0 )

Inspiraion: The game is primarily inspired by

‘sot’ sci-i ilms like Solaris and Moon as well as

Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void and Adrian Lyne’s

Jacob’s Ladder.

Thanks: Ed McWalters, Victor Wyat, Bret Gil-

lan, Dan Maruschak, Nick Wedig, and Tony Mill-

er for advice and encouragement

You will need the following to play Tears in Rain:

• three players

• 27 glass beads or tokens

• two bowls

• a stack of index cards

• 3 candles

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

Atack ships on ire of the shoulder of Orion. I

watched c-beams...gliter in the dark near the

Tannhäuser Gate.

All those moments will be lost in ime, like tears in

rain.

Place all the beads in one bowl. Leave the other

bowl empty. As the game progresses, beads will

be moved from one bowl to the other. Light three

candles [Lamp] at the start of the game. The game

must be played by candlelight.

Time to die.”

- Roy Baty, Blade Runner

As the number of spent beads reaches certain

markers, a candle will be exinguished, lowering

the light-level of the game environment and mark-

ing the passage of ime. When the last bead is

placed in the second bowl, the last candle is exin-

guished. The crewmember is dead and the game

is ended.

Tears in Rain takes place aboard the deep-space

research vessel Coyote . Somewhere along the

ship’s journey, the Coyote drited into an unchart-

ed asteroid ield - resuling in serious damage to

the ship’s power and life-support systems. All ten

of the ship’s cryosleep chambers are compromised

and failing.

Tears in Rain is played in rounds, with each player

in turn taking the role of the dying crewmember

and the player opposite them taking the role of an

appariion.

phrase (the oracles labeled alpha, beta, gamma,

and delta). The trigger and key phrase oracles are

used to direct the narraion. When you choose a

trigger or key for your scene, scratch them of the

list. They can no longer be used. They don’t have

to be taken literally - they can be interpreted in

any manner you wish. As an appariion you may be

confrontaional, forcing the crewmember to deal

directly with their failing, or to simply frame it as

a memory and demonstrate the failing. You may

even set the scene to deal with the failing later,

instead choosing to focus on a more posiive mo-

ment or thought rather than address it directly.

Each appariion has a need which needs to be

fulilled. These needs are staged into Milestones,

and the goal of each scene is to progress through

one of these Milestones to try and resolve the

need. These Milestones are:

• The Need

• The Soluion

• The Fallout

It is important to stress that the scenes you frame

in Tears in Rain do not have to adhere to standard

logic. The crewmember is dying and in a dream-

state and as such their thoughts can be disjointed

and lacking coherence. That’s not to say they have

to be hallucinatory. Dreams can be completely

convenional even when they are complete fabri-

caions. If you wish, you may also frame conven-

ional scenes and establish their truth or false-

hood later in the game...or leave it completely

ambiguous.

At The Need , the crewmember is trying to igure

out what the appariion represents. At The Solu-

ion , the crewmember decides how to fulill the

need. At The Fallout , the crewmember must deal

with the result of their soluion.

The game is played in player turns in which the

crewmember player engages with the appariion

player opposite them. The irst round of player

turns are spent dealing with the irst Milestone

( The Need ), the second round of turns deals with

the second Milestone ( The Soluion ), and the inal

round of turns deas with the third Milestone ( The

Fallout ).

At the end of the scene, the appariion places a

number of beads in the second bowl based on

how efecive they felt the crewmember’s eforts

at confroning the need were - one bead for a posi-

ive efort, two for neutral, and three for negaive.

For every ive beads placed in the second bowl, a

candle is exinguished - at ten, the second candle

goes out, and at iteen the third. When the third

candle is blown out the crewmember dies and the

game ends. If any candles remain lit ater three

rounds of play, the crewmember drits of into a

iful eternal slumber.

Determine who will take the irst turn as the crew-

member, and begin play.

At the start of the turn, the appariion takes three

beads from the staring bowl. The crewmember

and the appariion then play out their scene.

The player opposite the crewmember plays the

‘appariion’. The appariion player sets the scene,

choosing from the list of appariion oracles to es-

tablish who they represent, wriing the choice on

an index card. They do not let anyone see what

is on the index card - the appariion’s purpose is

known only to that player. In addiion to the appa-

riion idenity, they also choose a trigger and key

Ater each turn, play passes to the let.

On subsquent rounds, each player keeps the ap-

pariion idenity they chose in round 1, but they

choose new triggers and key phrases to serve as

direcion for the narraion.

Just before a candle is exinguished, the crew-

member player reads the following narraion:

“the rain stopped”

“you didn’t tell me”

“thanks for helping”

“i took care of it”

“follow me“

“i found it“

CANDLE 1: beeping from the auxiliary life support

as the computer fails and air bleeds out - the cryo

cannister frosts over

CANDLE 2: power coils erupt deep in the bowels

of the ship - the cabin depressurizes as the ship

descends into darkness

β (beta)

“we don’t need this”

“are you sure”

“why did you do that”

“how long”

“you came back”

“i have a secret”

“they’re looking for me“

“throw it out“

“i have news“

“it will have to wait“

CANDLE 3: ragged breath and heartbeat slows -

no more sound - no more light - no more

ORACLES

appariions

the one you loved

the one you wanted to please most

the one you failed

the one you abandoned

the one you hurt

the one you ruined

the one you turned away

the one you killed

γ (gamma)

“i can’t believe...”

“just shut up”

“it won’t start”

“it hurts”

“no, it isn’t”

“i’m ine”

“go fuck yourself“

“i heard“

“i guess this is it“

“why did you do that“

triggers

sunshine

laughter

food

skin

tears

late

falling

kiss

sick

blood

bed

innocent

δ (delta)

“the apples hurt my eyes”

“why is the house there, so iny”

“open it, close it, put it away”

“birds and microwaves”

“clater, ring”

“falling fast and wired up”

“the dolphin said so”

“it’s okay it hurts”

“things are purple someimes”

“syntheic, it’s ine that way“

cold

four

warm

sweet

blue

pushed

storm

quiet

unexpected

hot

backwards

fear

birds

pain

fail

keys

α (alpha)

“they grow up so fast”

“i love you”

“it’s funny”

“why did you forget”

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