Flight Mode: Fly to Fafifi - Active Revision

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This page is a work-in-progress.
Though incomplete, substantial content has been created and it is worth checking out.
This page is currently under active development.

A Set of Games

Flight Mode is the name of a potential set of games that involve play around the theme of the Air Fafifi airline.
Participants in the WikiMoma project are invited to find inspiration from their engagement with the World of WikiMoma and create new games in any genre to add to this Flight Mode set.

The first game: Fly to Fafifi

A collection of Character Folios showing mind maps, abstract mixed media portraits, story booklet with various game pieces such as dice etc
Examples of paraphernalia an output from early game playing/testing sessions


GENRE

The game Fly to Fafifi can be described as a Table-top Role Playing Game (TTRP) that incorporates art-making and story-telling. It can also be a Hybrid Game, for example when played together with a Flight Simulator (either live at the venue, remotely online or as a recorded movie that is played back).
The game is co-operative, not competitive, it unfolds at its own pace.

  • The game is relaxed and loosely structured
  • Inclusivity, flexibility and spontaneity are the main elements of game design
  • It is suitable for any number of players
  • Players can develop & play a character by themselves or team up with a partner or two
  • Players can come in and out of the Game - you don't have to stay if you don't like it
  • The Game Mistress will do their best to include newcomers after the Game has started

THE AIMS OF THE GAME

The main aim of the Fly to Fafifi game, is to have fun developing a Character and engage that Character in a spontaneous adventures as they journey to and around the Island of Fafifi. The more you play the game the more you become immersed in the World of Wikimoma and by doing so you contribute to the evolving stories of that world as well as contributing made art to the Museum of Moving Art.

ABOUT THE GAME BOARD

A game board with a light grey background and lots of circles with images forming pathways

Gameplay and the creative process is centred around a Game Board, which is designed to:

  • resemble a Mind Map
  • feel organic
  • evoke a sense of flow
  • be able to be used for more than one game version

It has two types of pathways leading to and from the Airport:

  • the green dots and coloured picture circles represent ground traffic to and through the airport
  • the circles with plane motifs represents the flight path of the plane.

THE CIRCULARITY OF THE FLIGHT PATH
The big black Airport circle can be covered with a circular card representing a particular airport. When the plane takes-off the Airport Card can be replaced by another card representing the destination airport. In this way the board can be used to represent different journeys and used in a variety of different versions of the Game (for example: "Flight Mode: Onboard Emergency").pieces around the board they learn about the story world and begin creating the Character that will later engage in drama in the story world. The focus of character development is on their inner selves and what makes them tick as unique human beings, we also come to understand why they are undertaking this flight to Fafifi.

THREE GAME LEVELS

The three levels of the Game would usually be played over three separate sessions as each session is expected to take about 2 hrs to play, depending on who and how many are playing.
The Game Mistress will keep things moving along nicely without rushing people - it should be fun for everybody.

LEVEL 1 - is about getting to and through the airport and arriving at the Gate by the time the Plane is ready to board passengers.
As the players moves the character LEVEL 2 - in this level all the Characters are on the plane as it flies to Fafifi - this is represented by a Plane token moving through the airway path on the Game Board.
During the journey ...

LEVEL 3 - in this level all the Characters arrive at the island of Fafifi and begin an adventure there. Players role-play their characters and interact in dramatic stories which are facilitated by the Game Mistress.

Fly Air Fafifi: How to Play the Game

The Game Mistress would have set up the table & briefly summarized the Aims of the Game as shown above:

  1. Decide weather you are going to play by yourself or team up with a partner(s)
  2. Each Player/Team chooses a coloured piece to represent their Character
  3. Place the Character piece on the grouped green dots in the middle of the Board


Wooden character pieces grouped on pathway dots in the center of the Flight Mode game board
Character Piece starting positions on the Gameboard


Introductory Scenario

The Game Mistress reads out the following introduction:

Imagine you are at Cairns,Qld, Australia. It's morning on Sunday 10th Nov, 2024 and you are about to fly to a unique and special place - the Island of Fafifi.
Fafifi is in a rare class of Pacific islands, for it was never colonized by the global North. In fact, by quirk of fate, the Island of Fafifi was simultaneously settled in the 1720s by two converging ethnic groups:
  • Europeans - on a shipload of radicals, revolutionaries, pirates & queer refugees on the MV Molly sailing from Dover
  • Pasifikas - in a flotilla of traditional sailing boats fleeing war on their home island called Bali Hai
Largely, the new settlers decided to co-operate and make love. A creole language quickly evolved along with a politics fueled by the strong cultural traditions of the Pasifikas, the revolutionary sentiments of the Europeans, and a determination to make a better way of life. The resulting population eventually formed a nation state, now known as the Commonwealth of Fafifi. Over three centuries later and after fortuitously avoiding invasion during the second World War, Fafifi has grown into a small but significant country with a population of 96,230 (2020 census). Its thriving economy is based on agriculture, regional transportation (maritime & aviation), education and eco-ethno-tourism.
In the year 2000 the Commonwealth of Fafifi launched their national carrier Air Fafifi and then opened the Museum of Moving Art in 2012. These both play an important role in the economy of Fafifi, providing a conduit of influence and giving Fafifi a notable place on the world stage.


A high view of the estuary, city and airport at Cairns, Qld, Australia
The city of your departure - Cairns, Qld, Australia


Introducing the Mind Map folders

The Game Mistress passes around examples of Mind Map folders (both finished and works-in-progress).

  1. Examine the examples
  2. Players (Teams) will make a Mind Map folder
  3. The Mind Map folders that you create will become part of the game for you and future Players to use, they will also be adapted into Character Cards
  4. They will also become part of the MOMA Composite Artwork - being displayed as a work of art. For example a collection of folders will be displayed in a box.
  5. Hand out blank Folders
  6. The Mind Maps are used for non-linear, random and creative musings about your Character. They can also be a focus on the Character's inner life and broader references that influence who they are.
  7. You are welcome to invite other players to contribute to the Character Mind map. This may well happen in the future if you are not playing when the game resumes. If you do not want others to add to a Mind Map that you have started, please inform the Game Mistress and they will put it aside at the end of the Game Session.

If your Character were an Animal

Animal Spirit oracle cards with book in a wooden box with red velvet lining sitting on a wooden tabletop
If your Character were an animal, what would it be?


The Game Mistress leads the first Mind Map activity.

  1. The first thing to go on the Mind Map is the Character's Animal Spirit
  2. If the Character were an animal, what would it be?
    (You must create a human character in this Game, we're talking about the Character's spiritual nature here.)
  3. Someone shuffles the pack of Animal Spirit cards and passes the deck to each Player (Team) - faced down .
  4. Each Player (Team) randomly chooses a card.
  5. When all the cards have been chosen they may be turned over to reveal the Animal picture
  6. Going in a clock-wise direction around the table, the Game Mistress reads out the descriptions in the Guidebook that corresponds to the cards chosen
  7. Each Player (Team) inscribes images, words, and/or symbols relating to the reading. Inscribe whatever resonates with you
  8. At a bare minimum we must have on the mind map:
       The animal Itself
It's balanced attributes
It's unbalanced attributes
What to bring into balance

The Journey Begins

Now that you have started your Character building, it is time for your Character to start its journey!

  1. Now that you have started your Character building, it is time for your Character to start its journey!
  2. Time to choose where the Character starts it's journey from and place your Character Piece on the corresponding Large Circle in the middle of the Game Board (the large green plane represents flying in from somewhere else):
       Home
Hotel
Some other Location
Flying into Cairns airport from somewhere else

Introducing the Character Booklets & moving around the Board

Cover of a booklet showing title: FLIGHT MODE, subtitle: FLY TO FAFIFI and a graphic of an Air Fafifi jet plane flying over water with hills and sky in background
This is your Character Booklet


The Game Mistress passes around the Character Booklets - one for each Player/Team.

  1. From now on the same pattern of Activities and Character Piece movement repeats itself
  2. At each Big Picture Circle the Game Mistress leads an activity for the Mind Maps or Character booklets - only when every Player (Team) has arrived at that circle
  3. The order of Big/Picture Circles, and the direction of the Characters movement, is thus:


       Home, Hotel, Location or Plane
Airport
Security
Check-in
Cafe
Gate

At the Starting Place

Open the Character Booklet (you don't need to read the scenario on the inside front cover - you've already heard it):

  1. Every Player/Team needs to write in the first pink section "Let's Create a Character"
  2. You can discuss amongst yourselves if you like
  3. Maybe some of you would like to have your Characters related, in which case you need to discuss the nature of that relationship

Getting to the Airport

Now it's time to move your Character Pieces towards the Airport:

  1. Grab a dice and roll it
  2. Move that number of green circles (you can't sit on another Character Piece, you have to hop over them
  3. It doesn't matter if you get to the Airport in one or two moves, but you can't leave the Airport Circle until everyone else has arrived and all the questions in the section have been answered
  4. When everyone has moved forward,Answer Question 1 in your Booklet
  5. Everyone roll the dice again and move (unless you are already at the Airport Cirlce)
  6. When everyone has moved (if they can), everyone answer Question 2
  7. Carry on in this manner until all Characters have reached the Airport and all "Getting to the Airport" questions have been answered.

The Airport Mind Map Activity

There are 4 Mind Map Activities that must be completed by each Player/Team before they arrive at the Gate.

  • The Mind Map Activities are designed to inspire the Players and stimulate their imagination with prompts for ideas, relevances, references and attributes relating to their Character
  • This Mind Map content will be used later in the game to inform the Character's thoughts, moods, motivations and behaviour during role-playing/story enactment

drafted up to here




Nearly at Check-in






There's a Cafe!






I see the Gate






Proceeding towards Check-in

Before we begin this part of our journey through Cairns Airport, the Game Mistress reads out the following story to give more context regarding what is happening on Fafifi at this time of year:

Fafifi's Museum of Moving Art (MOMA) is a major employer on the Island and regularly hosts travelling exhibitions from one of the major Art institutions from around the world - such as The Guggenheim in New York or the Louvre in Paris, even Australia's Museum of Old & New Art (MONA) in Tasmania. Once every two years for two months, the Island hosts the Fafifi Internationali - a spectacular world class arts and culture festival. The Internationali will start tomorrow and Fafifi is almost full to capacity with overseas visitors and expats - these are exciting times.
At the centre of the Festival is the coveted Fafifi International Arts Prize, which for artists not only looks great on their resume, but is worth $100,000 USD. Thousands of emerging artists from around the world pay $1,000 each to enter the competition: 25 are selected as Festival Winners and from them emerges one Arts Prize winner. The most valuable prize for the artists though is the kudos and exposure that participation brings, for the Fafifi Internationali Exhibition' does a two year circuit of 10 major international art galleries and museums (at the end of which most of the works are auctioned off to wealthy art collectors at Christies in London - the proceeds being used to help fund the competition.
The Festival Winners (every artist who gets chosen to exhibit their work) each receive: a silver medal, an all expenses paid 2 week trip to Fafifi for the Internationali festival (airfare, accommodation, etc) and VIP Access to the full program of Festival Events. Selected artists give workshops during the festival. The Art Prize Winner receives a gold medal and $100,000 in cash in addition to the above mentioned benefits. You could almost say that Cannes is to the film industry, the Fafifi Internationali is to the art world. This event exposes visitors to an intimate engagement with this amazing Island with its profoundly inclusive, egalitarian and humane social landscape.

Now it's time to move your Character Pieces towards Security:

  1. Grab a dice and roll it
  2. Move that number of green circles (you can't sit on another Character Piece, you have to hop over them
  3. It doesn't matter if you get to the Airport in one or two moves, but you can't leave the Airport Circle until everyone else has arrived and all the questions in the section have been answered
  4. When every piece has moved forward Answer Question 1 in your Booklet
  5. Everyone roll the dice again and move (unless you are already at Security)
  6. When everyone has moved (if they can), everyone answer Question 2
  7. Carry on in this manner until all Characters have reached the Airport and all "Proceeding to Security" questions have been answered.

Reports of Game Testing