SETTINGS
What began as an unravelling of John Harper’s Forged in the Dark system, Mal/adaptive is, at its heart, a game that centres the notion that fictional characters don’t have to be disposable. Instead of driving your character like a stolen car, Mal/adaptive encourages you to park them in your garage - working on them on weekends and facilitating their repair and maintenance. Whilst some games may encourage you to push a character until they’re so overburdened you retire them, they die - or worse - Mal/adaptive works in reverse, taking characters from the point they might traditionally be abandoned and telling the stories of their messy, complicated triumphs, their mistakes and their nonlinear progress. The arduous nightmare and the monumental worth of doing The Work.
Mal/adaptive is a multi-genre framework for collaborative metamorphosis of characters and their Maladaptive Beliefs - beliefs that come from a place of survival but no longer serve our characters. By examining their influences and biases we allow the characters to prove to themselves there are healthier ways to interact with their worlds. Whilst the game is a mechanistic metaphor for healing and growth, it is not an attempt to simulate nor advise players on how to follow those paths outside of the game.
Beliefs generate Traits, Traits frame Actions, Actions blossom into Specialities, Specialties show us what you’re great at, whilst you highlight shortcomings with Beats. Beats transmute Beliefs toward Adaptivity, Adaptive Beliefs create Junctures. Junctures reshape The World. And your experience of The World creates your Beliefs. Character concept and mechanics entwine in a symbiotic and satisfying play cycle.
Mal/adaptive: This game isn’t therapy… but it is catharsis.