Ride that bull! (Part 1)
The buckle ain’t worth the blood or the tears
It can’t mend the pain or the wasted years
Broken bones and a shattered heart
The circuit grips, it tears you apart
— “The Buckle Ain’t Worth the Blood,” The Devil Inside
A twenty-year-old entry to Philip J. Reed’s 24-Hour RPG event, Contenders, inspired me today. But before I tell you how, let me say this: we’re friends, right? So you wouldn’t make fun of me, would you? Of course not.
Anyway, I decided to make a role-playing game about bull riding. Looking at how Contenders built a story engine from a highly technical sport made me think that approach could be used successfully with something like bull riding. GM-less? Certainly? Two players? Perfect, though solo should be possible. Simultaneously coop and head-to-head? It’d have to be!
So, I started tinkering with this. I don’t know how long I’ll work on it, or if I’ll even finish the project now that I’ve started it. All I can say is that it ate up a substantial part of my day today, and I’m looking forward to working on it more tomorrow. It has its spurs in me now.
If/when it’s done, I doubt I’ll do anything with it beyond playing it by myself or with friends. As much as I like to think there’s an underserved audience out there, I imagine the overlap between role-players and bull-riding fans is small.