“Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein on Insanity
As I’ve been play-testing Souljack, this quote has been ringing in my mind for a while now and I have made some decisions that will impact the development of the game.
I had initially conceptualized Souljack to completely be based on the rules of Blackjack. Every check, from bursting down the door, to trying to successfully flirt with an attractive woman would be represented in a short blackjack game. Easy to learn, yet complex, that’s what blackjack is and that’s what I wanted for Souljack.
But, it seems I can’t have my cake and eat it too.
After sitting with some brilliant graduate students, we constructed a virtual version of blackjack using NetLego, an agent based modeling platform. We adjusted variables, increased number of players and cards, and predicted the outcomes of over ten-thousand games. We have come up with the conclusion that Blackjack is mathematically too complex to be the complete basis of a role playing game. Role playing games need a clear scale of difficulty, making more complex actions mathematically more likely to fail than simple ones. Blackjack does behave in this way, especially when variables of hit cards and modification of values were experimented with. I will not make a game where the simplest check would take more than a couple of seconds, and anything using more than laying four cards down and flipping them over would seriously bog the game down.
What does this mean for Souljack?
Simply put: Together with the other developers at Nevermet Press, I will be building a simpler version of the game. I will pledge to try my best to keep the game mechanics as thematically close to the Faustian secret agent horror theme as possible, and never have the mechanics outshine the potential for truly great role playing. Blackjack will still exist in the game, but only used for certain checks and conditions. (Note: To prevent any future possible confusion, I have removed the game rules from the previous Souljack articles.)
For everyone who has commented or emailed me with interest in play-testing the game: Stay patient! I have each of your contact information and you will have a chance to help shape this excellent game once we have a complete rule system for you to enjoy. In the meantime – Thank you for the support and feeback that you have given me thus far. I’ll be in touch again soon.
– Stephen Carpenter
