Wormwood Training Exercises
From WorkCDN
This is an odd idea that might come across as sick and twisted, and I very readily admit that it may very well be. Keep in mind this is just only a brainstorm, and should only be treated as such:
Contents |
Goal of the Game
The goal of the game is to familiarize the player with the tactics and methods of temptation, to be aware of the tricks and lies and deception that comes our way, by putting the player in the shoes of the tempter for some coached training exercises. Think of it as a sermon-illustration turned game.
Basic Concept
The name of the game is taken from one of the main characters in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. The setting of the game is you are a young demon being trained at how to effectively tempt people.
Conceptual Format
At this point, the basic concept is set as a 4-option multiple-choice game, where the player must choose the appropriate response to the content given. In each stage, young Wormwood (you, the player) is given a situation or moral guideline, and you are tasked with twisting it through a predefined series of steps.
The steps of temptation
These steps were taken from a blog post that I felt delineated the process in such a way as to work for a good game-based sermon illustration. The following steps outline the process used in the Garden of Eden, and they certainly still apply to the temptations that come our way today:
- Be a theologian.
- In this step, the player (tempter) is presented with a situation that the subject (the NPC target of their efforts), and must pick the most appropriate verse from a list to undermine the target's support.
- As a second option, perhaps the verse should already be chosen as part of the scenario, so as to reduce the amount of optional-path writing (though that could help with replayability).
- Turn commands into questions.
- They must then take this verse and rephrase it as a question
- Emphasize prohibition over freedom.
- They must then take the positive thought of the command (it being for our own good) and twist it to a negative thought (ways that it might confine, restrict, or hurt us)
- Doubt God’s sincerity and motives.
- They must then take this negative thought, and back-apply it to God and try to increase enmity between the target and God.
- Deny what God says is true.
- They must then choose a statement that is directly counter to the command that God gave.
Humor/fun elements
Along the way, Uncle Screwtape will provide commentary (both snide and insightful) regarding the tempter (player) and the imaginary human target.
Include a "demon name generator" to automatically generate portmanteaus (in the vein of Screwtape and Wormwood) that generate humorously dark names to personalize the experience. By not allowing the player to type in their own custom name, this could help disassociate the demon from themselves, and so contribute to healthy detachment from such a dark role-play.
We may want to give partial credit for answers that are somewhat effective, but not what we think would be best.
Each person that wanted to write a scenario could make up their own uncle name, and so could build up a unique personality for their "uncle" through a series of scenarios, and some very interesting (and twistedly endearing) characters could be developed.
Sample Gameplay
Uncle Bogroot: Hello young nephew. I hope that your attempts today will be more palatable than the last trainee I had to chew through. Some of his attempts at temptation were so embarrassingly clumsy, and overall just hard to swallow. But I've had my fill of that subject -- let us press on to your training subject for today.
Up comes a shadowed outline for a young man seated on the couch, watching TV
Uncle Bogroot: Meet Target #602 -- he will be your task for today. Like the last one, this one was raised with some familiarity with the Book of Light, but that should just make it a more interesting challenge, won't it? He is currently wondering what he should watch on the television set, and has spotted some racy-sounding selections in the TV Guide sitting beside him. Your goal is to tempt him and encourage him to stumble and indulge in his lust by watching the steamy movie and scanning for the juicy parts.
Scene switches from the cutscene, and you are now presented with your first quiz choice
Uncle Bogroot: As you've been told in your Junior Demon training (but no doubt have forgotten in that sieve-head of yours) is that the first step of temptation is to address and undermine their Biblical support for resisting the temptation. Which verse would you like to undermine today?
- Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
- Proverbs 7:26 For (the harlot) hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
- Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart
- Numbers 3:23 The Gershonite clans were to camp on the west, behind the tabernacle. (Note: This is just a ridiculous entry that would not be pursuable -- it's there just for humor)
In our example, the player chooses Proverbs 7:26. Writing from this point on could be shared by various scenarios
Uncle Bogroot: Interesting choice -- we shall see how well you can twist such a thing. The next step in your Handbook for Tempter Training (TODO: Possibly change such things to have funny acronyms) is to take the verse and twist it and identify a question to pick apart for this verse. Hopefully you had one in mind before choosing this path, but B'el knows we've had enough shortsightedness in our ranks in the past.
- Are you really at risk to be slain from viewing this show? C'mon, that verse is exaggerating.
- Is this really an applicable situation? It's not like you're sleeping with her.
- Is she really a harlot? Sure, the movie might have a few steamy scenes, but it's not like it's x-rated.
- Are you sure you sure this is a Bible? It might be a telephone book for all you know. (Again, a silly option. Yes, it's not very funny. You come up with a more humorous option. :-P )
(TODO: Continue the rest of this sample gameplay)
Hopefully this gives you a rough idea of a way it could work.
Game Benefits
This would give a very sharp and memorable image of what temptation looks like from the enemy's side, and by familiarizing ourselves with his tactics, we can more readily recognize them when they come at us.
Game Dangers
This game could be used to give people a sick and twisted outlet for sadistic manipulation and anti-God mentality by letting them role-play so vividly. It may be too potent, and so if development was pursued, we'd want to be very cautious about such a thing.
Appendix A: Dynamic Name Generation
Sitting in a meeting, I came up with a list of words that could be used to automatically generate names for these tempter demons in the vein of "Wormwood" and "Screwtape". The way that this list would work would be to pick two words at random, join them together, and then capitalize the first letter. From a list of 85 words, this gives 84*84 possible cominations, so just over 7000 unique names.
ache acid back bar bat bite black blood boar bog boil bottle bow brick brig bug burn burst cheat claw dirt dog dung fang fog foot fox goat grease greed grim grip grist hair heel hog hoof horn lack lock moon mud nail oil pad pig pimple plank pluck rash rat root rot rust scab scale scratch seed shoe shrivel skin slime smoke snake snot snout spider stain stench sting stone talon thirst thistle thorn throat tick toe tongue tooth vein venom vine wart wick worm
Idea License
I (Clint Herron), original creator of this document, release it as free to use for anyone's use, private or commercial, so long as they do not claim it was their own. Basically, use common sense, don't plagiarize, but feel free to improve it and/or profit from it.
